For example – Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT union has a council house and earns £145,000

This is ridiculous! These people should be kicked out or made to pay proper market rents for these properties!

My friend Dave and I started out from Windsor in fairly good weather about 8.30am, got into the centre of Reading in the dry, had a coffee and then the rain started! We knew before we started the trip the weather was not going to be very good, so off we went, heading to the Canal in the pouring rain. It didn’t stop for about 2 hours and eventually I had to call a halt to find somewhere to get a hot drink and warm up my hands which had gone completely white and numb.

Kennet and Avon Canal

After a stop of about half an hour the weather improved and off we went again. Slowly the

sun came out and our spirits improved as we got a bit warmer and started to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. After a stop for lunch at a supermarket we continued on along the canal footpath and into Hungerford where we checked into the Three Swans Hotel which turned out to be a right little gem, in the centre of town, clean, comfortable and friendly.

We had a wonderful evening, the sun was out the sky was blue and the beer went down very easily!

Next morning we were off on the road after a good breakfast – great when someone else cooks, but I must admit that after years of cooking a full English breakfast, I’m not really interested in eating them any more, but today was a necessary thing as we were off to use up loads of calories on the next 7 hours of cycling!

The weather was better than the day before so no complaints even when we got wet in the showers. The wind was a little brutal and tended to be right in our faces which made the trip harder work then it could have been, but the countryside was magnificent as were went out of Berkshire and into the hills of Hampshire.

We went through Pewsey which is home to another run a have done a couple of times, The Terminator, an 11 mile extreme cross country run up and down some amazing hills and through the fields around the area. This section had us away from the canal and we could only guess this was because it was no good for cycles….. but soon enough we were back onto the towpath and charging alone through the mud and puddles again….

We made it into Bath around 5pm and headed for the station, too tired to be bothered looking around much, the ride to the station was enough….. the train home was lovely and easy and although we had to stand for most of it we were just happy to have completed our trip and be in a nice warm and dry train!

Although the web based interface has not been sorted out yet (which will really show the effectiveness of the panels) the basic information is easy to access. When the sun was out the electric metre dial stopped turning! We seem to use about 1KW of power all the time due to all the devices in the house, and the system will (at its peak) deliver 4kw of power, more than enough, but only after I get to see some proper information will I be able to see exactly what the savings will be.

A full update will be posted soon

People Power – it should be this way!

I feel very sorry for the local restaurants because they really are suffering right now. There are very few tourists at this time of year and so they rely on locals and business traffic which in the current economic climate is rather down.

I do think it will improve as the year goes on so overall I’m not worried – roll on summer!

I spent a few days last week desperately trying to put on a good show for the guests when all I wanted to do was fall asleep in bed!

I guess I’ve been lucky in the past that Sonja has been around when I’ve been ill and then I have been able to just die quietly in my bed for a couple of days….I am after all a typical male who does not just get a cold but the full on Man Flu! But last week I had to struggle through, so apologises to all the guests who didn’t see much of me as I ran off as quick as I could, but we all have our bad days…..

Mind you that reminds me of last year I went for a run, fell over (I seem to remember there was a massive whole that opened up under me and swallowed me whole) and I dragged myself off to hospital – had a ankle sprain, not broken but about half way to a break, and was lucky my poor old mum was on hand to help me with the B&B and kids….

Makes me wonder why I’m giving to the charities when they squander money like this – have they not heard of Tourist Class – even Business class would be better……

OK – had my rant – I feel better now!

WE had so many friendly people staying – they were all chatting to each other over breakfast – it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves.

When people are so nice it makes my whole job worth while and I very much enjoyed chatting away.