About us Bike Bus Reservations Gallery Resources About Us | Company and Crew | Bikeman's Blog 29th September 2007 2007 seems to have flown by on one of our busiest seasons to date. August found me guiding a group a German canoeists down the River Dordogne, and despite the language barrier (I don't speak German) we got back to Creysse happy and whole. Kate held the fort while I was away, eased her little Renault Kangoo into 5th gear, and restructured the booking system. Women! (smile) There were a few new things that worked well this season. Our new home was pure luxury compared to my old caravan which by the way was transformed into a bike trailer for the Kangoo to heave between campsites. Kate's new toy this year was a new fangled telephone/PDA/browser thing which she programmed with all our reservations helping us to deliver on the right day AND time. 15th May 2007 We are well into the beginning of the beginning and the bikes are rolling around the villages rounding up stray hills. Our first french mountain biking group (photo) set the standard for the season completing a 45km circuit around the Céou Valley, guided by yours truly in an epic attempt to remember the route from our club ride the day before. I'm going to keep my feet firmly on the pedals this season, and notch some kms up .. I need to get fit again ! 10th February 2007 This year seems to be going very quickly and I still have much to do. I have begun another job parallel to the Groundman job. I just couldn't resist it. I teach french to Primary School children around Lincolnshire and it is certainly a challenge for the old brain cells. It is interesting also to see how technology has changed in the classroom. We used to have chalk on a blackboard. Today it's all about SmartBoards that are interactive and can relay screenshots directly from your computer. Apparently you definitely shouldn't write on it with the dry-wipe pens as I found out last week amid cries and shouts from the class. Oops. One thing you can do is to create web-style pages and use the interactive board to animate the lessons. The kids love it. So here is another creative outlet for my HTML programming skills. This may mean that I stop tweaking this website now. Naaaaaaaaah .. I'm taking next week off to finish rennovating our town house so that we can put it on the market. Watch this space for photos of work in progress. The house currenly has no water, gas, heating, bathroom or kitchen. So clearly lots to do still. 1st November 2006 I have found a splendid new job in Lincolnshire and am thinking about staying here forever ... Only joking. I do like it though. The title Estate Groundsman doesn't quite capture the entire scope of the job since the work is as varied as felling trees to plucking ducks, both of which may come in handy in the Dordogne at a later stage. The job finishes on the 30 april and so MultiTravel will reopen its doors on May Day and I'm going to need all the help I can get to start up in time. 9th September 2006 September rolls quietly on, giving me time to move into our new house and in doing so I have discovered the old collection of music cassette tapes. How quaint in these times of CDs and MP3 players. So I made the effort to plug the hefty walkman into the speakers, slot the tape in, and take a trip down memory lane to the sounds of the 80s and 90s. This creates the perfect frame of mind for shifting endless boxes but not so effective for being ruthless when chucking stuff out. Kate is back in England for a brief spell teaching music again, but she'll be back in a week for our 3 month marriage celebration. 1st September 2006 Season 2006 seemed to be drawing to a close early this year, with a slight lull in rentals at the end of August. Fortunately the Ceps (Boletus mushroomus) are early too, and are delicious with a lush aubergine risotto. You have to have a good eye to spot these elusive ceps, and you have to know which forest to look in. Its these sorts of techniques that don't get passed on willy-nilly from those who know, for fear of too much rummaging competition in the forest. I've been here 5 years, and despite having subconsciously absorbed various details susceptible to locating Old Boletus, can I find them ? ... can I 'eck ! Instead, this sunny day was spent delivering wife to the airport, and emptying my caravan into the new mobile home, a whole 20 yards away. The Bike Bus Base is shaping up. Though not officially a base as such considering my 'ambulant' (mobile) status, it is certainly the 'Hub #1' and this will be emblazened on the sign posts next year. I ordered the signs in May this year and they are 5 months late. I was hoping they would be in place for this year, but alas, it will have to wait for next year now.