magic is back in action

I am back from Italy, I am back from Ireland, I am back from my PC interview and I am back at work.

My interview yesterday went pretty well. I feel confident that I should get it but am realistic to the fact that I didn't last time! The interviewers were all nice and I wasn't quite as scared this time round.

Ireland was also good. I managed to catch up with a few chums while I was there and overall, the craic was good!

Italy was nice and warm, but I was there for too short a time to -

a) get a great suntan
b) fly my kite
c) catch any fish
d) learn any Italian

Timmy "Continent Trotter" Magic

tour de londres

Since I became CycloCop and got my own bike, I have been cycling more.
Having done my huge amount of miles in a fortnight a few weeks ago I think it would be worth doing a Tour de Londres - if anyone fancies it, get in touch and we can see the sights on our bikes!

Timmy "Pedal Power Hungry" Magic

facebook - the world's greatest waste of time

I have discovered the worst waste of time ever - Facebook

Even as I wrote this post, I had to stop twice to check it. Hours literally disappear at the behest of this website.
At the same time, however, it is wonderful! I have got in contact with friends in California and Panama. I have rekindled relationships (albeit virtual) with former school chums and former workplaces. I have internet friends who I haven't seen in years and real life friends who started out as random meetings and internet friends!

If you haven't hopped on board the good ship Facebook, it is worth it!
But wave goodbye to the shore of reality and social life...

Timmy "Facebook Fanatic" Magic

magic - navigating honourary usher

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the marriage of two of my dear friends, Andy and Liz in Gloucester. This is the same Gloucester that for a bit of last week was underwater!

Davo, Stuart, Marjory and myself jollied off from Denmark Hill towards the wedding and arrived (after a slight detour to Asda in search of the new Harry Potter book) at the church. We met up with a few other Rinkers who had sojourned to the Shire and unloaded Dave's drum kit.

Upon setting up the kit, we discovered that the legendary Mr Cotch had forgotten his snare drum stand. We made some frantic calls to Gloucester and Cheltenham and found a stand. The ushers were busy ushing, so it fell upon Alex (as driver) and Magic (as navigator) to go to Cheltenham SA to pick it up.

Google Maps assures me that it is 7.6 miles or 19 minutes from door to door each way. Alex and I left the hall at 14.52 and were about 3 mins late for the wedding!

As mentioned previously, Gloucester was somewhat flooded. Tewkesbury, the reception location was "an island". As most of the wedding guests had forgotten their scuba gear, the location was changed to a lovely hotel in Cheltenham.

A fun old evening was had eating together, but owing to the need to be up early we didn't stay for the dancing.

Then the bad bit came. As we passed J14 of the M4, we saw a notice saying that the road was closed twixt J13 and J12. Hence we were stuck. We sang songs and choruses and whiled away the hours. So by 2.30am we were home and in bed!

Timmy "Last Minute Hero" Magic

where there's a chav there's the salvation army

I know I haven't blogged for a while and some readers have been posting about this and this is not in the slightest bit sensible but...



I found this on the BBC News website! It makes me so proud to be part of our Army

Timmy "Harold and Vicky - but no Madge" Magic

cyclocop and cyclomagic

Last week I cyclocopped just over 90 miles.
The week before that I cyclocopped 150 miles.

That's 240 miles in 2 weeks!

I did no cycling over the weekend but did 6 miles to work, 10 miles at work and 6 miles home today!

Timmy "Cycle tour anyone?" Magic

george canning's steak

I have just eaten steak and chips at the George Canning, my local pub. It was nice!

When talking about steak to someone recently, I asked how they liked it. Allegedly it is best if you wipe its bum and cut off its horns!

Mine wasn't quite like that but it was nearly alive in the middle

Timmy "The steaks are high" Magic

smoke free blogging

So this is it! England is smoke-free! As l write this l am sat in the pub across from the college enjoying my food without the free cancer. Two gents on the table behind me are annoyed at having to go outside to smoke and their mates are talking about them while they are away

It's jolly funny!

Timmy "Smoking Bard" Magic

magic tackles armed man

Today I helped my friend Karen move house. It was uneventful aside from a few moments of great hilarity that were funny to us but wouldn't be to anyone else.

That was until we decided to go to the Old Kent Road to drop some furniture off at the BHF shop. As we were driving along, Karen spotted a man collapsed on the floor outside a shop. Karen, in her caring, nursing manner, asked if we should stop to help. So we did.

A girl had called an ambulance but was a bit nervous so I helped the ambulance operator understand what had happened. As the man woke up from his drunken unconsciousness, I spotted something in the waistband of his trousers. It was a big knife. So I asked him what it was and he said it was a "shooter". It clearly wasn't so I gave him fair chance to get rid of it while Karen was checking up on him.

He then decided to stand up and take the knife from his waistband.
So I did what one would expect. No, I didn't run away.

I used a Home Office approved restraint technique and threw him against a shop window. After several good hard shoves and some assistance from a very helpful builder he dropped the knife and we got the paramedic to get a police officer to come along!

All in a day off I suppose

Timmy "Sharp spotting" Magic

cyclocop in action

Further to my post a few weeks ago about being CycloCop, here is a picture of me in my CycloCop uniform!



Timmy "6 consecutive CycloCop days" Magic