Pic is of sunnier days, with my mates Joel (far left) and Jason in light blue. Good times, good mates.

Quick update, we have a new President, yay! I am very excited about this and totally support him. Hopefully good things will come. The wife and I spent the day in our jamas with laptops, coffee and the big screen watching the inauguration. It was pretty fantastic, lots of pageantry. Felt sad for Bush, not because he was leaving, but because he never commanded this sort of attention and interest.

Anyway, to more pressing matters. Apparently a behavioural psychologist has concluded that more English, as a percentage, died on the Titanic because, wait for this... we like to bloody queue! Seriously. Our politeness and "after you sir" killed more of us than our dear American, Swedish and Irish cousins on the Titanic because we were too busy keeping up appearances and it would not be British to jump the queue. I would like to say it's all BS, but somehow I really can imagine it and I can totally imagine me doing it too. Well, once I get my Visa and citizenship I shall become loud, rude and belligerent, drop the accent and wear bad clothes. I'm not going down with a sinking ship.

Hit the weights yesterday. Got a pic of Shawn DePrete as my motivation in the basement. You're not going to bet your dollars on me against him, but I need a target and he's it. Last it was win nationals, this year to see if I can get on his back wheel at some point.. that or get C to distract him as she has a little crush on him and his tattoos! 5x10 on the deadlifts, getting closer to my 300lb goal to. I'll get there before April I hope.

Bloody freezing here, I could etch glass with my nips this morning..

Please sign and help stop the morons!

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/BMXCPSC/

Please sign the petition.

Some brainless moron has lumped BMX Racing in with kids toys. This means that all new products entering the country will have to be scrutinized for lead and other chemicals in the paints, in the same way toys do. Reason being kids chew toys and it's dangerous. Now, I've not seen to many kids eat a bike, eat dirt occasionally when you crash, but not chew a frame. Anyway, this is already having serious repercussions on manufacturers, so please sign the petition and put pressure on a waiver being included in the proposal to make bikes exempt.

thanks, Nigel

30 second update

Ok, it's been an age, kind of lost interest a little in blogging. I did say I would at some point, but I've also been super busy at work and with Chrimbo got out of the habit.

So what has changed in my world - not too much to be honest.

Christmas came and went. We had a nice time with the in-laws, no UK trip this yr, not enough money, but we had a nice break nonetheless.

New Year fun and frolics were at Jacey and Amit's and we had a good time. I now want a Wii thing. C is a genius on Rock Guitar or whatever it's called. I have no sense of rhythm or timing so sucked horrendously at it. I can't even tap my fingers in time to a simple beat I make up in my own head, so I have no idea how to play a guitar game.

Raced the Christmas Classic in Lexington, VA. Only raced the Sunday as I had to work. The track was awesome, fast, some big jumps, great rhythm, every thing you want on a track. Chad Powers did a great job. I grabbed second place on the new Cruiser, and on flats too. Maybe I could have won, but getting over from gate 8 was tough, I got the snap and hole shot, but could only get half a bike in front of Ezell who did enough to push me up the berm and I had to fight me way through the pack a little to get on him, just ran out of track.

Good news is I picked up a new sponsor. I am riding for HBR now, and they pay my race fees and kit, which is great, all helps. I have to give a huge thanks to Jamie at Groove Merchants though for hooking me up with everything all yr. I am still running Jamie's stuff and support him 100%, he's a great guy to ride for and totally understands me accepting a ride with HBR. Kids get your parts from www.groovemerchants.net
HBR have offered me an SE, but I think I'd rather walk, so I am sticking with the S&M and Clayborn which so far have both served me well. Speaking of the S&M I've just put on a set of DXR's feels very good, def stiffer for sure. Looks a little different, cromo frame and big beefy ali cranks, but I like it.

Saturday just gone, Joel Clark and I hit up Hampton for the day. It was 60f, so nice to be able to get out and ride, gave the bike a good thrashing until the wind took me out in the rhythm and that was kind of the end of my day. Hopefully Joel and I are hitting up the Georgia National in a few weeks. Looking forward to that, as the track looks good. First race in 35x too. I think it's going to be super tough for sure with Thompson, Meaker, Cross, Deprete, Gomez. In fact it might even be tougher than 26-34x. Just got to be smooth, that's my only hope, cos I ain't going to pull any of those guys from the gate that's for sure.

I am back on the weights again. Had some real trouble with squats, my knee was swelling up and making it unbearable, so I have dropped them for now and am doing dead lifts instead. Not heavy weight, just more sets. I'd like to hit 300lb though and I think I can do it, so that's my target before the warm weather arrives and I switch back to daily sprints.

Job is going well, tough, but we are hanging in there. I am always slightly on edge about my role, as often a Proposal Manager is a luxury to small companies, but we are starting to make some headway and I hope the last few months efforts reveal some fruit for us.

Car is in for a service today. CV boots needed replacing. I didn't know my car wore boots, but there you go. I still want a pick up truck though. Should a miraculous windfall endow me with many coins, I shall be off to the garage to buy a pick-up truck.

We went to the DC motorcycle show on Sunday, starting to get an itch for a bike. Save money and miles on the Envoy, which is rapidly approaching 100,000 miles, and cheaper to run and buy than a new car too. So the Envoy can have a semi retirement and become the bmx wagon, well it is anyway. I'd like the new Yamaha FZ6r street bike, but something second hand will do just fine. And, if it's something I can rebuild and work on all the better.

I'll get some pics up shortly. Rich, we should be around this weekend if you want to call. Sorry we keep missing you and thanks for the card too. I do in fact have matching socks...