jaymiemart.com: Coaching the buffday boy!

So with Winter comes cold days, short nights and a reluctance to ride, dare I say it!! Stepping out and getting pinkies and toes cold is not my favourite past time and could be easily traded for a rather large caramel machiato a healthy chunk of millionaires shortbread (from the Hub of course?!) and many an hour chewing the fat!

Well, the good thing about the autumn/winter change over is my birthday! I have never looked forward to it as much as I did this year....because this year I was simply spoiled rotten! My lovely boyfriend literally whisked me off my feet! We went to London, stayed in the Hilton in Trafalgar Square, suited and booted (dresses for the ladies) we drank cocktails in the rooftop Garden with my Bro and Sister-in-law and then hot footed it to the play house to watch Flamenco Flamenca! It was a nothing short of fabulous!! Hungover, yet throughily chilled out, on Sunday we culture vultured it up and went to St Pauls Cathedral and then to a Rothko exhibition at the Tate Modern.

When you get to a certain age, it's hard to make birthdays special, so I guess you have to do it for each other! Boy did I have a hard benchmark to reach!! The thinking cap came on and so did the light!Last week after a whistle stop few meetings in the US, B drove up to meet me in the Lakes. The first stop was dinner in a lush wee country pub with roaring log fire! We had a cup-o-scruff with my rentals then voyaged back up to the lowlands of Scotland. After an excited opening of the presents, and swift, refreshing 5km morning run we ventured out on our sexy Session88's to meet no other than Mr Chrispin Bowbag Ball, DIRT SCHOOL extraordinaire!! It was B's first outing on his new bike...the lightest DH bike in the world and the actual one featured in this months DIRT top 100, so that alone was pretty exciting!!

I arranged a skills day for us all with Chris and boy was it a good one! We rode just off my doorstep on the DH trails in Innerleithen for most of the sunny part of the day! It was great, Chris really pin pointed some of our weaknesses and switched out brains on.

The following day, I had to be in London for an interview, so I called my bro and arranged a tour of BBC Radio 1! It was a cool place, totally reminded me of my student days, real hectic and loads of organised clutter!! We saw Edith Bowman on air, Zane Lowe just hanging out, Aled kicking back in a meeting and Scott Mills preparing for his show. We hung out in the Live Lounge for a bit which was definitely the coolest part....just to know that that was a studio where so many famous artists have layed down a snip of there music there was almost spooky.

So all in all, winter ain't a bad time, a time to chill out, climb (which is coming back onto the agenda as of next Saturday), running, XC day and night riding, DH, road, lil bit of hockey, cakes, early nights with the candles on and BATHS!!! I just wish the white stuff would fall!!