It's been a pretty alright week this week I guess. Had two Pro Kermesses but it decided to bucket down with rain on both the days for some reason. The first Kermesse was on Thursday but on the Wednesday, Taylor and I went for a light ride and finished our ride at the cafe. We were sipping away our coffee in the sun next to the canal and it was a bloody nice day. Then the next day the weather decided to throw a curve ball at us. At the race it showered then stopped then rained then stopped then showered. It was a pretty tough race with a long 700m climb every lap (700m is a long climb in Belgium). The break got away in the first couple laps and none of our team was in the break so we decided to sit on the front and drive the bunch to try and catch the break. We weren't too successful and we got pulled out of the race because the break got too far ahead and we were definitely not gonna catch them. I wasn't complaining because it was pretty dodgy riding on the soaking wet roads. There were a couple crashes but I managed to keep out of trouble.
On the Friday we went back to the same cafe after our ride cause it was another awesome day. Sat out in the nice hot sun again, tried to work on our arm tan. Then the next day we had another Pro Kermesse and yup, it was pissing with rain. It was completely pouring with rain this time. It was a real scary race with lots of tight corners. There were only about 80 odd starters which is tiny for a Pro Kermesse cause there are normally well over 160 starters at a Pro Kermesse. My back wheel was sliding all over the place and I could often feel my front wheel slide a bit which is really bad. There were a couple crashes around the corners but I managed to avoid them. I think I might of laid a fresh one in my chamois a couple times after going around some of those corners a bit too fast. I slowly found my way at the back because so many people had dropped and pulled out. I didn't notice that I was at the back for a little while. I was getting a bit nervous around the corners and so were a number of other riders. The rider in front of me dropped the wheel in front of him around one of the corners so we lost contact with the bunch in the cross wind section. We didn't get back on. It was pretty scary race with barely anyone finishing. A lot of good riders pulled out before the finish so it goes to show how hard the race was. But I managed to survive both rainy day races without a graze on me.
All is going pretty good I guess. Watched the All Blacks defeat the Aussies again which was pretty awesome. Haven't watch any rugby in a while.
Went up to a big party in the town that I live in and they had set up a big main stage and the AC/DC tribute band called IC/TC played for a couple hours. They dressed up exactly like AC/DC and were dancing around like them. It was something different to do and it was quite cool to join in with the locals.
Yea, I left my blog a bit late so I'm kinda rushing it. But yea, nothing too exciting has happened this week. Just same old same old I guess.

Thanks for reading

Nick

A Really Really Quick Update

So it's just another quiet week here in Belg. This is probably gonna be a quick blog cause nothing really happened this week. Just been at home by myself cause Taylor was off racing. Pretty disappointed that I didn't get to do the tour because I've the bad race I had last week. It was a selection race so it was a bad time to get major cramp in my hamstring. Hopefully I don't cramp up that bad again cause that was the most painful cramp ever. Up and onwards I guess. I'm really looking forward to home. Starting to miss home quite a bit now so I'm just counting the days. There's no more Top Competition races now so we are just doing the Pro Kermesses. I'm going to a music festival with my mate, Tom, on the 7th so I'm really looking forward to that, counting down the days to that!
Taylor is heading home on the 28th so I'll be old Nigel no mates for a little while. I'll probably head over to the other house in Zottegem for a little while so I don't completely lose my mind. But yea that's pretty much it. Been a pretty boring lonely week. Got a bit lost when I rode my bike into France the other day but I managed to get back into the right country with all the weird people. When mum and dad were over here, mum and I were having a good laugh people because what the wear. Especially on the weekend, the Belgy's love to dress up and go into the city center and have a beer or wine at a cafe. We were sitting at a cafe in Kortrijk just people watching and mum and I were cracking up at the amount of guys that wear their fancy dress shoes, nice ironed pants with their crisp new collard shirt tucked in and a jumper on their shoulders. The thing that made us laugh the most is the jumpers they wear on their shoulders cause in the movies and stuff, the people that wear jumpers on their shoulders and the arms tied together around their neck are normally rich knobs that play tennis all day in their big backyards behind their mansions. So many people wear their jumpers like that even if it's 30 degrees.
But yea that's pretty much it. Just have another Pro Kermesse on Saturday so hopefully everything goes good there. Just looking forward to home now.
I forgot to put up a picture of the BnE pie I made when mum and dad were here. Mum told me to put it up so here you go mum.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Mum helped wrote the 'yum' 'pie' and did the 'choice' the fern just appeared somehow

One of the kermesses I did

Nice Holiday With The Parents

The last couple weeks have been a pretty nice, cruisey week. On the 31st July I flew over to London to meet up with mum and dad and spend a couple of days looking around London with them. Hoped on the Tube and headed in town and man was it hectic. Being completely squished in the tube with heaps of other people and the streets were just mental with people and cars and sirens. So many ambulances! We got on the double-decker tour bus and cruised around the London sites. Got to see all the classic things like Big Ben, London Bridge etc. So much walking too! Not used to walking so much, I sit on my ass for a living so my feet and legs were killing me. Also had a look around Winston Churchill's Bunker which was really fascinating. The next day, London turned on the weather for us and it was a clear-ish blue sky day (Bit of smog, not like NZ blue sky) and really hot. We went over to Buckingham Palace to say yo to the Queen and had a walk around some park. We couldn't stay for too long cause we had to catch the Euro Star over to Brussels at 2 so it we couldn't have more of a look around London. Had another pint with the whanau in a English pub, so I can tick that off my list, before we headed on the train. I really liked London, I wouldn't mind going over there for 6 months or so and working in a pub and travelling around Europe or something for a bit of fun.
Picked up the rental car from Brussels train station and we drove back home sweet home. The next couple of days I showed mum and dad around Belgium and we went to Brugge and Ghent for a look around. Dad and I had a few classic Belgium beers and we sat in some nice cafes next to the canals. It was nice to have a couple beers and be able to relax with the parents.
Then we made the big journey over to France for a couple days. Spent the first night in a small town just out of Caen in some creepy looking BnB. It was a huge old house next to a church with a big graveyard. Ghosts! The next day we headed out to the coast and visited Normandy beach. We stopped at Juno beach first where the Canadians landed on DDay. It's quite weird, 69 years ago that sand on that beach was covered in blood and bullets but now it's covered in locals and tourists sunbathing and playing. Like dad said, they had DDay so the locals and tourists can sunbathe on that beach. It just felt really weird cause it really did just look like another beach. We then had a quick look around the Juno Beach Museum which was pretty interesting. The museum also shows the brief history of Canada which was really interesting to see and also what the Canadians did during the war. I think dad was pretty happy to be able to see all this. Next we headed over to Omaha beach. The place was packed with people. When went over to the section where all the headstones are, it was pretty overwhelming. I got a really weird feeling in my stomach. Just seeing the amount of white crosses there was just unreal. You couldn't even see the ones at the back! It was pretty sad to see that many white crosses in one place. Then you look down at the beach from the top of the cliff and then you just think that the white crosses behind you were looking up at where we were standing, 69 years ago. It was again a very odd feeling seeing people enjoying the beach and playing in the sand and water. Again, they did it so we can enjoy the beach but it's still just really weird cause people now were so happy and enjoying themselves in an area that was once the last place you probably wanted to be. We headed down the hill and on to the beach and looked up the big hill where the Americans would have looked and fought up. It looks a lot nicer than when it did 69 years ago. Dad and I had a little explore around and found some big canon concrete bunker things (Don't really know what they're called) and a German Pill Box. Seeing the big bullet holes in the concrete or big chunks taken out of the concrete. It was all pretty overwhelming. We made our last stop at Pont du Hoc where the Americans had to shoot grappling hooks at the top of a big cliff and climb the ropes up to the top where they met the Germans. Before the Americans landed on the beach, the Air Force bombed the hell out of the top and left giant craters in the ground that are still here today. They managed to get a few direct hits on the concrete canon bunkers too with big chunks of concrete lying around everywhere and giant holes in the concrete bunkers. It was pretty cool being able to see all that and it was a pretty humbling experience too, I really enjoyed. Stayed another night in Caen and then the next day we headed to Mont Saint Michel which is a tiny city on a tiny Island. It's also where the Tour de France finished their first Time Trial. It looked pretty cool from a distance but as we got closer you could see it was jam packed with people. There were so many people who kept stopping and taking photos and holding up traffic so I just told mum and dad to be a Belgy cyclist and just stick your elbows out and tell everyone to get out of the way! It wasn't as crowded when we got up to the church but man was it high. You just stick your head over the ledge and there's a 50 meter drop right there. Dad was too much of a wuss to get anywhere near the ledge but it had pretty good view. Too bad it was low tide cause it was all just mud flats. We didn't spend too much time there cause we were all pretty knackered  so we just went and chilled in the town where our hotel was. It was nice just to chill out a bit and hang out with whanau. That's pretty much it. Won't say too much more cause the blog is pretty long as it is. Mum and dad headed off this afternoon so I will see them in 7 weeks again. Looking forward to it. It was real nice to be able to have some time off the bike, have an explore around a new country and be able to see my parents. It was a good few weeks but now it's back to business. Need to win some races to get some more money cause I'm broke as. So yea, I'll chuck up some photos from our adventure.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Dad and I having a pint in London

Omaha Memorial

Down on Omaha beach looking up to the top of the hill

Mont Saint Michel

The main walkway was packed as

The view from pretty much the top