Talk, walk and cycle

Oops, no posts from Majorca because I couldn't work out how to post pictures from the iPad. Technology! I struggle with digital, really prefer mechanical.  The long lean guys in the bike shop at Bruce's Pro Cycle Hire in Porto Pollensa enthused about electronic gear shifters.  I'm naturally suspicious - what happens if the button doesn't click?  But I suppose if that attitude had prevailed amongst the general population, we'd still be using typewriters, and I wouldn't be here now.

Anyway, I promise to do a post soon about our Majorca adventures after it stopped raining.

In the meantime, Liz and I have been in the thick of organising conferences.  Tuesday was the first Choose Freedom conference held at the lovely Isla Gladstone conservatory in Stanley Park in Liverpool. As well as presenting our stats and achievements, participants got to experience a walk, bike ride, cycle maintenance advice or a travel surgery. Some took advantage of all three.

As it's walk to work week this week, people who walked or cycled were rewarded with a bacon or egg butty, and we gave out free pedometers and information on how to achieve the 10,000 steps health target in daily life.  There's still time to walk to work this week - Living Streets has more info.

We had a very moving presentation from an army veteran who entered civvy street last August with nowhere to go and no way of making a living.  Through the help of bnenc.org/he made contact with  Choose Freedom and trained as a cycle instructor.   With the support of the Poppy Factory he is now employed as a cycle instructor with BikeRight!

Today Liz is at the annual conference of The Association of Bikeability Schemes in Birmingham, attended by all the local authorities and organisations that deliver child cycle training. As the long-awaited quality assurance scheme for Bikeability is now in operation - a kind of Ofsted for cycle training - there's a strong sense that things are coming together, and that children up and down the country will be receiving the same quality of training.

Also, on Tuesday my latest article on family cycling was published in totalwomenscycling.com  It's well worth regular visits to this website - lots of chatty information.

Lastly, we're off again with a group from Team Glow to tackle part of the Lon Las cycle trail tomorrow for 3 days.  We're not too sure about the prospect of the Welsh hills and climate after Majorcan mountains and sunshine, but I'm sure there will be stories to tell after the event.  Our leader casually let slip that Saturday's ride is 90 miles. Fortunately there's also a railway line as a back-up.  Something tells me that's going to feature in our weekend's itinerary.