An antidote to the "other" news stories

From today's Reading Chronicle:

A retired cook who made the Queen's wedding cake has just celebrated his 91st birthday and still
shows no signs of slowing down.

Sid Janes from Tilehurst, concocted the royal wedding cake in 1952 when he was working for biscuit
kings Huntley and Palmers in Reading and he retired form there in 1977 after 50 years' service.

He first met Miriam at Huntley and Palmers in 1916, they got together again in 1920 and were married
in 1934. She died last year.

Sid also spent six years in uniform during the Second World War in the army as a gunner in the Royal
Artillery based with an anti-aircraft unit in Iceland and later as a corporal cook in the Army
Catering Corps.

And these days son Keith and daughter in law Lynn say they struggle to keep track of him because he
is always out on his bike or in town to meet up with his former work mates.

Sid, who lived in Katesgrove for 64 years, said: "I have never owned a car. I nearly bought one
once, but my wife said she wouldn't get in it so I didn't bother. I am thankful I can still get
about. There's a lot of people who can't. People use their cars just to go 100 yards to the shops
and end up driving around the whole town just to get home again."

--------

David Roberts

 

In news:[email protected], DR <[email protected]> typed:

> And these days son Keith and daughter in law Lynn say they struggle to keep track of him because
> he is always out on his bike or in town to meet up with his former work mates.
>
> Sid, who lived in Katesgrove for 64 years, said: "I have never owned a car. I nearly bought one
> once, but my wife said she wouldn't get in it so I didn't bother. I am thankful I can still get
> about. There's a lot of people who can't. People use their cars just to go 100 yards to the shops
> and end up driving around the whole town just to get home again."

Fair play to the old boy! I hope if I live to be that old I will still be on my bike like him.

I guess it is *because* he rode his bike all those years and didn't drive that he is still fit
enough to be on his feet at that age....

Alex

 

"Mr [email protected] \(2.3 zulu-alpha\) [comms room new build]" <[email protected]> wrote
> Fair play to the old boy! I hope if I live to be that old I will still be on my bike like him.
>
> I guess it is *because* he rode his bike all those years and didn't drive that he is still fit
> enough to be on his feet at that age....

I think there's alot in that. At just over 8 months preggers I'm still riding a bike (a Brompton
which is quite upright) to work and to get around, getting in 40-50 miles a week. I still overtake
quite a few cyclists. I have no back problems at all, and no real problems with water retention. In
fact that only problem I have is with tingling hands. (Oh, and of course the unrelated fact that the
baby is stubbornly staying in heads-up position, which makes for a much more difficult, risky birth,
enough so that unless they manage to turn the baby around I may well opt for a C-section...)

But I wonder if my continued good health and fitness comes from continuing riding. I hope I will
stick with it when I get older, so I can stay healthy into old age.

-Myra

 

Myra VanInwegen wrote:

> I think there's alot in that. At just over 8 months preggers I'm still riding a bike (a Brompton
> which is quite upright) to work and to get around, getting in 40-50 miles a week. I still overtake
> quite a few cyclists. I have no back problems at all, and no real problems with water retention.
> In fact that only problem I have is with tingling hands. (Oh, and of course the unrelated fact
> that the baby is stubbornly staying in heads-up position, which makes for a much more difficult,
> risky birth, enough so that unless they manage to turn the baby around I may well opt for a
> C-section...)

Maybe baby is already itching to be a cyclist, and who would ride a cycle upside down?

> But I wonder if my continued good health and fitness comes from continuing riding. I hope I will
> stick with it when I get older, so I can stay healthy into old age.

Ditto. Some of the...ahem...older lifelong cyclists I have had the pleasure to meet have been
amazingly fit and healthy.

Colin

 

Myra VanInwegen wrote:

> the unrelated fact that the baby is stubbornly staying in heads-up position, which makes for a
> much more difficult, risky birth, enough so that unless they manage to turn the baby around I may
> well opt for a C-section...)

I came out arse-first (no caesars for my Mum!) - and I've been an awkward one ever since

--
Guy
===
I wonder if you wouldn't mind piecing out our imperfections with your thoughts; and while you're
about it perhaps you could think when we talk of bicycles, that you see them printing their proud
wheels i' the receiving earth; thanks awfully.

http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.shtml#103 http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.shtml#104

 

"Colin Blackburn" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Maybe baby is already itching to be a cyclist, and who would ride a cycle upside down?

What? On the Dark Side??

> Ditto. Some of the...ahem...older lifelong cyclists I have had the pleasure to meet have been
> amazingly fit and healthy.

Here's hoping

 

In article <[email protected]>, Myra VanInwegen
<[email protected]> writes
>"Mr [email protected] \(2.3 zulu-alpha\) [comms room new build]" <[email protected]> wrote
>> Fair play to the old boy! I hope if I live to be that old I will still be on my bike like him.
>>
>> I guess it is *because* he rode his bike all those years and didn't drive that he is still fit
>> enough to be on his feet at that age....
>
>I think there's alot in that. At just over 8 months preggers I'm still riding a bike (a Brompton
>which is quite upright) to work and to get around, getting in 40-50 miles a week. I still overtake
>quite a few cyclists. I have no back problems at all, and no real problems with water retention. In
>fact that only problem I have is with tingling hands. (Oh, and of course the unrelated fact that
>the baby is stubbornly staying in heads-up position, which makes for a much more difficult, risky
>birth, enough so that unless they manage to turn the baby around I may well opt for a C-section...)
>
>But I wonder if my continued good health and fitness comes from continuing riding. I hope I will
>stick with it when I get older, so I can stay healthy into old age.
>
There was an old chap around these parts (old as in was a flyer during WWI, not II), who died not
long ago having stayed in excellent shape. Most people put that down to the fact that he was cycling
every day in his 80s and 90s -- not very far, but every day. Mind you, I think the fact that he
never married might have contributed to a stress-free existence.
--
The Big Baguette

 

"Tony W" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> "Colin Blackburn" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > Maybe baby is already itching to be a cyclist, and who would ride a cycle upside down?
>
> What? On the Dark Side??

No, on the inside.

--
Dave...