Things I have been up to

This is the first thing I see when I wake up.

My cat waking me up in the morning. The photo is blurry and taken from a weird angle that makes her look huge; she is standing on my chest.

I've been volunteering at a heritage railway as a track walker. That job is exactly what it sounds like. Every two weeks I walk a mile-and-a-half length of track and look for defects. It's nice to be outside and also it means I get the good views.

A Class 43 locomotive (the HST kind), a sleek 70s locomotive, painted in grey.

A view down some rural railway tracks, with embankments either side, on a blue-skied day.

The Fiesta went wrong for the first time in my ownership, which isn't so bad given that it's a £600 car which I've had for five years. The end of one of the gear cables disintegrated, leaving me unable to engage any gear. It was fixed by the AA man with a piece of coolant hose and a clip from some other component of some other Ford.

My silver 2004 Fiesta, pulled over in a dirt layby on a quiet rural road.

I bought another much-sadder-looking 1990s Ridgeback for £29 (this time a 601GS)...

A sad-looking Ridgeback 601GS from the early 1990s, with a faded orange frame, components that don't fit quite right, broken cables and flat tyres.

...and transformed it into something beautiful for use on tarmac.

The same Ridgeback 601GS frame, still faded, but with lots of new components, a 1x10 drivetrain, and cyan Rock Shox forks.

The other 1990s Ridgeback has been out every weekend. It's an awesome bike.

My blue-with-colourful-components Ridgeback in a pine forest, looking at a sharp downhill.

The same bike among some purple-flowered bushes.

I met Elise Freshwater-Blizzard.

I made a stand-off bracket. It took me 45 minutes.

A stand-off bracket made of some bits of galvanised steel welded together.

This bracket was for a sign. My brother is moving into a new place. He needed a house number sign because the existing one was football-themed, and he asked me for ideas. And I'm like, well what kind of SIGN has NUMBERS ON IT and then

A house number sign for the number 25, in the style of Network SouthEast's platform number signs.

(Note: might not make sense to anyone that didn't live in the south east of England between 1986 and 1994.)

My brother liked the coat hanger rail I made previously, and wanted one for his new place too, so I made another, smaller one for him.

A piece of dimpled steel acting as a backing plate for three coat hooks.

I saw this truck at a show. I was alarmed to find out that it is considered a vintage truck these days. To me it just looks like a Truck, which means I'm getting old.

A Volvo F10 in silver. It is a large truck from the early 1990s.

Also my cat is still the most adorable and hilarious cat of all time. Look how cute and fluffy she is.

My cat sleeping next to my keyboard, with a paw extended all the way over to the arrow keys.

Published on 2026-06-10 and filed under