I just wanted to direct you towards a friend of mine's blog - aylesbury.blogspot.com - which as I'm not technologically savvy enough to link to, I'm mentioning in the text. The main premise is that he's travelling around England, and maybe beyond, to find other Aylesburys/Aylesburies/Aylesburi whatever. If there is anyone out there that hasn't come by my blog from his, then check it out.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was talking about pelican crossings, I mentioned people that cycle on the pavement in a rather derogatory way. Let me explain: I don't have a problem with people who ride their bikes on the pavement as such, its just people who think that it's their right to and that pedestrians are just people in the way!
Let me give you an example; I live near two quite busy main roads. On my way to school one morning, I was coming to a crossing near the junction where they both meet. As I was about to cross the road, a car sped up so I stepped back onto the pavement and at that moment a cyclist (about 40-50 years old) came round the corner and went straight into the bag on my back. He tried to steady himself but ended up riding into a small wall behind me and fell over the top. I immediately went and helped him up and apologised and he had the cheek to have a go at me and tell me to look where I was going!! Although he could see me the whole time and he was riding on the pavement, which he shouldn't have been and he was going to fast to stop and so could've injure some small child or something, he still had the audacity to blame me! I barely moved half a foot!
So that's my problem with some cyclists.

I thought I'd give you guys a break from me ranting and raving about stuff to offer you a bit of entertainment. You might remember a year or two ago, there was a Honda ad with a "domino effect"/chain reaction with the parts of the car knocking into each other and such until a banner comes down advertising the (whole) car. These sort of things are called Rube Goldberg machines and I found a good collection of them if you fancy having a look. They're all a bunch of Japanese ads for something but I think they're pretty cool.

So, here's something that really annoys me; people who don't stop at pelican crossings. I tend to walk pretty much everywhere and so have to cross a number of roads. In England, it is the law for a driver to stop if there is someone waiting to cross at a pelican crossing, providing it is safe to do so. But cos its one of those laws that its quite easy to get away with, like cycling on footpaths (don't get me started), many drivers don't tend to do it. I've even had people speed up as they come up to the crossing after looking me in the eyes! I know this is pretty much nothing and it's not as if it's something that constantly annoys me, but its just inconsiderate.
I've got a plan though. What I've found is if I put one foot down just on the road, right up against the curb, there's pretty much no chance of getting hit, but they stop. Scares them a bit too. Is that a little evil?

So I know I've been a bit rubbish so far in this whole blog thing so far. To be honest I've had more important things to do than update my blog. Recently we've been trying to sort out a weekend away and me and Paul, the youth leader have been put in charge of a group bonding game, except I've done all the work and I should imagine I will end up doing all the work. This isn't a rant about exploitation (but I could go on), but about how hard it is to actually think up a few non-cheesy exercises as part of the game. The internet is no help and I haven't got a clue.
The main idea is that an alien ship's crashed and the group has to split into groups and find parts of the ship, but the parts need you to do some sort of exercise to get them. I know the main premise is cheesy, but if we aim for that but keep the exercises non-cheesy, it should work.
I'll let you know how that goes.
Another thing is my good mate Joe Hopkins is on a gap year in Brazil at the mo. I know that wouldn't make me busy, but when he comes back, he'll be touring the country with his team going into schools and stuff and I'm coordinating their week's stay in Aylesbury, including accomidation, transport, visits etc. I haven't got a clue!
And finally and I suppose most importantly, I've now got a girlfriend and she takes up a fair amount of my time. I'm not complaining, but that's why I've not updated my blog for ages.

I am a man of very many names. Not in a bored parent kind of way but nicknames. I guess this is a good place to list them all. I guess I should start with the name under which I’m writing this blog.

• Cucumber – This came about in the summer of 2003, during a 4 hour stint of football. During a very tense penalty shoot out, I slotted mine away “as cool as a cucumber”. I think I was just a bit shy, but never mind.
• Red Hot Chilli Richard – Later on that summer, the same people got to know my frustrated side at Soul Survivor, a Christian camp. This was the Hyde to my Cucumber Jekyll.
• Fridge – The oldest one still in circulation, this has no relation to the retired American Football player and is really a more interesting name than the story of how I got it.
• Dick – Fairly self explanatory, my name is Richard, Dick is short for Richard and I got it from my friend when we were 12 and so it was ‘hilarious’.
• Dicky T – Same group but a softer version when the original joke got a bit thin.
• Cappy – Someone once had a dream that I was a sea captain and so I was referred to as this for a couple of weeks.
• Cappy Dick – See above.
• Tricky Dicky – My dad used to call me this when I was quite young and I only remembered it when people started calling me Dicky T.
• Todge – When my friend Bob wanted to abbreviate Dick he thought this was shorter. He’s a bit thick really.
  
  I’ve probably got others to add but we’ll leave it at that for now.

Three irish men walk into a bar... the english man ducked. Bad joke I know but thats just til I get going.