HOW busy!!!???

Greets all :-)

Just a REALLY quick post today in case you fear I've been taken by some strange Scottish ritual a la the Wicker Man!

I am, in fact, live and well after a chaotic week. The Hub seems to be building towards high season already and the sheer number of people visiting is clearly growing, as is our workload! It's great fun though and as well as working hard, we have a good laugh. The staff are all great people and I'm getting used to some of the regulars, as are they to me.

We start 7 day opening from next week (we close Mon & Tues in winter), so things will get a bit more hectic as we try to fit into a 7 day rota rather than 5 - starting with 7 days straight for yours truly :-/

Anyway, no photo's today i'm afraid.I did take my camera to work to start taking pics of the staff/people I'm meeting but just didn't have time today. A group of us are off out for a ride on Monday so I'll get some pics then and put them up on Mon / Tue.

Apologies to all those who've tried to phone / txt. I will get back to you, but my day at the moment consists of cycling 5 miles to work, being flat out on my feet for 9 hours, then cycling home so before I get time to do anything i'm asleep!

Thanks for checking back and keep the emails / txt's coming (even if i am slow to reply!)

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

;-)

Commuting Hell !!

Hi again :-)

First off, just a quick thanks to everyone who's responded to the site and either emailed or txt. The response has been great - I even spoke to someone I've not seen for over 2 years (hey Lee ;-)) - and all the responses have given me quite a lift.

Aaaaaanyway, the few days since my last post have been spent recovering on my days off, followed by getting to know more in's & out's of my new job PLUS taking delivery of and building my new bike - YAY!! :-)

Now I know you're itching to see it so....
















Ain't she a beauty? Yeah, whatever, I hear you cry. Looks like any other bike you say? Believe me, if I told you the retail price of this thing you'd have to sit down. Luckily, I get something of a disount at work ;-)

Wasting no time, I'm now commuting to work on this baby and have been shown a route to work from my house that's pretty spectacular and knowing how much you'd like to share my experience, I've taken a few pics of the journey...




















Looking back towards Innerleithen (where I live).





















Midway there.





















Another excuse to take a bike pic :-)

The Woods Through the Trees!!

The final stretch.

So there you go. Beats getting the bus eh? :-) That said, having not had the use of a bike for almost 2 weeks, it was hard going at first and on the way home tonight it was bloody freezing! It's only about 5 miles each way though so it'll be good training for when the folks at work drag me out on the trails to see what i'm made of! Riding with 2 World Champion mountain bikers is kinda daunting, so best get my bike legs back in good time.

Other than that, I'm learning lots each day and loving the job. Got to drive the Hub van today and spent the day on my own building new bikes at our storage unit. Was great to be given the responsibility / trust, but it was freezing cold and a bit lonely which isn't ideal at the moment. The social side of things up here is still currently pretty non-existent and evenings are still fairly lonely affairs.Sure that will change in good time though.

Righto, that's all i have for now. Pretty hectic day and I'm now knackered. Keep chacking back and PLEASE feel free to email / txt me - I need the contact to stay sane!

Cheers,

Dean

;-)

End of week 1

Well, it's been 7 days now since I landed in the Scottish Borders to start my new life as a bike mechanic.

The week has been emotionally and physically draining, but as each day passes I'm settling a little more. Leaving home last Monday was by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do and the 4.5 hour drive up was a sad & lonely one.
The job is great though (working on bikes all day AND getting paid for it - what more could I want!), the people very friendly and the setting stunning.

To be honest, I'm still struggling to take in the beauty of the surroundings because it all seems so surreal at the moment. Travelling to work through valleys & mountains as opposed to the suburban sprawl of Birmingham is something I'm still in awe of. Hopefully, once I start cycling to work (had to leave my bike in Brum, but put that right by ordering a new one on my 2nd day at work!) i'll appreciate just how lucky I am.

Outside of work, things get a bit lonely and I struggled with the isolation in the first few days. This isn't helped by the fact we have no TV signal at all, although Nic is currently arranging for Sky to be installed once we get planning permission for the dish.

My digs are fantastic! Check out these pics:















Kitchen (DUH!)















Living Room

Yep - think I did alright here :-) Housemate, Nic is sound - we share the cooking / washing up duties and he likes Xbox so no worries there! Just need to finish unpacking, get a bed and sort some furniture out and i'll be sorted.

Not had the time (or inclination) to check out the local pubs / nightlife yet, but I'm sure i'll get round to it when I'm a bit more settled. Tend to spend my spare time watching movies & on the Xbox so decided to do something a bit more constructive - hence this blog :-)

Sunday saw the heaviest snowfall i've seen since I was about 14. The place looked more like Canada and although it was bloody freezing cold, it was quite a good laugh. Despite the 5 inches of snow, there were STILL loons turning up to ride the trails on their bikes, although business was pretty much nil so we closed early and got an extra half day off - YAY :-)

I got Nic to take a pic of me outside the shop yesterday :



















Sunday 12th March 2006 - 13:00


I also took a shot of Peebles, the closest town :



















Peebles in the Snow - Sunday March 12th 2006


So there it is then - the first week of my new life. Overall, it's been surreal. Still seems strange to have so many aspects of your life change in one go and I think it will take a while yet for me to get my head round it all. That said, I'm doing the job I love in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and I'm determined to make a go of it.
Thanks to my family for the constant support they've given me this week and I hope to see you all up here soon :-)

To Emily -I miss you more than I can tell you here and however hard things have been over the past few weeks, your phone calls and words of comfort have kept me going. I still love you dearly.

With that, I'm off to do something with my 2 days off. I will endevour to update this blog at least twice a week, so stay tuned and as they say up here "F***ing Hell, it's freezing!"

;-)