#BBBR13 Day 5 - Calais to Chatham

Today was a day when i had to ride the first few miles as there were no lifts to the ferry port!  Taking it easy with my team 404 buddy Keith we made it past the old Chunnel digger and completed the published 4 miles in 7.4 miles to the port.

 

 

Once on board a good breakfast, followed by some larks on the deck.  I was beginning to feel a bit better.

On arrival at Dover we had the most magnificent sent off from the port staff and police and friends and family who had turned up.  We set our wheels determindly uphill and set out for the Battle Of Britain memorial at Capel Le Ferne.  Keith was a godsend, helping me pant my way through the incline.  What I did not know, was that this would be the final effort that would finish me off.

But best of all was what came next... A magnificent display from a Spitfire in D-Day landing colours.

We left for lanes rural through Kent.  Stopping here for a fine Kentish Ale...

A few miles later, though...  Despite being on flat level ground, I found that i could not turn over the pedals, even in 2nd gear (out of 20).  My ride was done for that day.


At the Naval memoriarl in Chatham some hours later I found these names on the plaques.  Given my connection with Bletchley Park, I thought I should note them:

 

Afterwards was the end of ride dinner.  By now I could not speak, and not breathe very well.  It was only the following week that i was diagnosed with a loss of about half my lung capacity and function and was advised I probably should have been in hospital.

#BBBR13 Day 4 - Le Touquet to Calais

I was too unwell after no sleep due to coughing to ride today.  Ashamed I slunk into a corner and took a few photos when I could.

Etaples cemetery:

 

The cemetery at the lunch stop.

#BBBR13 Day 3 - Amiens to Le Touquet

Day 3 and the lung infection was a unnoticed gathering storm within.  Although unaware of the problem, I was becoming more aware of the symptoms - as I was finding the cycling was getting tougher.  I left Amiens early to get as much of a start as I could but was starting to struggle - coughing more frequently and more deeply.  However in comparison with what some were dealing with, it was a minor issue - so nothing much needed to be said or just - except just get on with (Velominati Rule 5 - MTFU!) it so I was off again and heading north.

Not that many miles into the journey I crashed when, at the precise moment I looked down at my bike computer, the cyclist in front of me stopped!  I missed his bike, but ran over his left foot and took off and crashed to the deck.  Some minor damage to the balls of my thumbs, and my neck. 

Losing time dealing with the wounds that would not stop leaking red stuff, I arrived completely exhausted at Agincourt the lunch stop.  I was uninterested in looking around, just relieved to arrive and get some food down me.  I was checked out for damage and ruled fit to ride (nowt was going to stop me - or so I thought).

Onwards and northwards.

Although we were running late we passed an official cafe stop, just by a lovely river and in broken French i explained where we were from and where we heading.  The cafe grand creme was delightful and helped me on. But...

A few miles from the end of the day, approaching the last water stop about a mile away I found myself doing the wrong thing at a major junction and just for a moment had no sense of left or right, no sense of where I should be on the road and found myself (literally - I could not and cannot remember the manoeuvre) heading down the wrong side of the road to a narrow gap between an oncoming car and a parked car.

I stopped, looked around and saw the support crew watching me.

It was time to stop for the day.

It's rather old hat but... upgrading XP to Vista

For reasons I won’t go into J I’ve an old machine that needs to be upgraded from XP* through Vista and then 7. 

 

So, on upgrading with an old Vista image, the compatibility checker informs you that Windows PowerShell must be removed first, however if you look at Add/Remove programs in Control panel (even with Updates ticked) you won’t find it.  That’s because it was rolled up into some upgrades.  If you do find it, then you are lucky – just uninstall.

 

However, if not, this is what you need to do:

1. Run Regedit (after appropriate backups) and find HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Powershell and delete it.
2. Locate the folder c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell and either delete it or move elsewhere

Now proceed with your vista upgrade

 

What a golden oldie this is turning out to be J

 

 

*if you don’t know why that is necessary then

a) you really should! and

b) take a look here http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1173/en-gb 8th April 2014 is an important date