Huddersfield to Istanbul. Day 5.

Wednesday 23 May. Day 5.

Chaumont to Levier 118 miles.

After a good nights sleep, good food and wine again, I was up around 6.30am and just got ready and set off towards the town to see how far the bike shops were (2 of them I was informed by the lady at reception) so, I walked off into town. After about a 15min walk I came across a bike shop, checked out the opening time and it was 10am. Just further on the same road another with opening time of 9am Thats mine ! so I went back to hotel to get some breakfast - not fryup styles in france but jam, cooked meats, plenty of coffee and orange juice and cereals -  not too bad for me that lot :-)

After breakfast I went up to my room to pack all my things up ready for when I return from bike shop so I was ready to set off. So I'm now walking back to bike shop with wheel in my hand. I go into shop and try to explain my problem, he understands and I say can you fix asap ? He nods and get to work on it, at this stage I was going to pay whatever to get it fixed as  needed to get a move on - this late start has put me behind the time I would have set off, probably around 7.30 to 8.00am.

After about 25mins he had fixed and got the wheel as good as new Fantastic you're a star I was saying but I don't think he understood. 10 euros was brilliant news (Not that bad considering he got to work on it straight away even though he was serving another chap when I walked in his shop) Top guy :-)

So , I'm sorted and walking back to hotel swiftly ready to load up and off I go heading in the direction of Besancon.

The roads at first were generally flat once again, as I rolled into Langres (The place I was planning on getting to the previous day - but the broken spoke stopped me in my tracks!)   After this place the roads were getting more rolling - I compared them similar to Devon, or Cornwall types of hills. I cycled on through little villages and towns once again, the weather was a little improvement on previous days - but still no Sun although it was trying to get through. It would have made the hills harder to cycle over if the sun was out I was thinking,  so the shade was quite good for cycling hills.

I did cycle over a nice place with a river running through - La Saone. Later in the afternoon I had reached Besancon after a manic cycle down roads that were like busy motor-ways I turned off into Besancon and headed down towards the river, once down there the views of the hills surrounding were very nice. You could tell that the alps were coming soon... just coming out from this town it was up hill more and more (very hard going) and didn't appear to be leveling out at all !! But after a few hours of cycling up I could see breaks in the clouds and for the first time since Holland I seen blue sky.... Yes !

After plenty of miles ascending it flattened out a little before going up again, and again Phew !!   by this time the sun was setting and my thoughts turned to finding some place to stop for the night, I passed a hotel in Amancey, but cycled on up again and passed the hotel heading towards a place called Levier, but my thought was will that be too far for now?   so I turned around and went back to hotel I had just passed. Pulled up at door way walked in, and shouted hello.. No answer, after a few minutes of waiting a guy came along and I was trying to ask for a room for the night but he didn't understand and called his daughter over and she told him my request, he replied FULL sorry..  Oh well I asked is there anywhere else nearby - his daughter said 7km back down hill, or 34km further up and over hills..... Blimey !!!     I'm not going back down where I came up its just too demoralizing, so I said my farewell and started to carry on up and over the hills,  the light was fading quickly !

I got on my garmin and searched Campsites in the area, it gave me one 7miles further on,  in Levier town, so that was the result I was aiming for (It's a night in my New tent, the tent I had not put up yet!) This should be fun in the dark !

I was cycling in the darkness now, my water bottles had nearly emptied, and I was hungry with little food left in the panniers..ohh dear ! school boy error.  

After about and hour I was freewheeling down a hill towards Levier and "PING" again and the wobble as previous night - Is it a puncture ? I thought,   or is it another bleeding spoke..   I didn't stop to see I just carried on until I got to that campsite I just took it very slowly. Eventually I had arrived at the campsite but nobody was where you cycle in or anything so I just cycled on in through a little wood past some caravans and sneaked into the furthest corner of the small campsite, opened up the panniers and started to try and put up my tent for first time in darkness - Not good ! haha.

I thought I was going to get the tent up without any bother, but as I was struggling in the darkness, a guy and dog were coming over in my direction (did someone see me cycling in earlier?) Hello he said, I replied hello, is it ok to camp here, he said yes are you ok with that.... I said yes thanks, how much to stay ? 10euros which was good for me but no food or more importantly Red wine !! damn..  He walked off back where he came from and I fumbled away and after about 45mins I was in my tent in the dark with very little to eat just half a bottle of Lucozade sport and bit of chocolate and thats my tea for that night, also before I got into the tent I felt around the back wheel spokes and it wasn't 1 spoke it was 2 this time (Just my luck again) I will have to wake early in the morning and try and find another bike shop for repairs again. By the way in my tent I forget a sleeping mat so was sleeping directly on the damp ground - not much sleep for me then tonight :-(

Huddersfield to Istanbul Day 4.

Tuesday 22 May. Day 4.
Vouzier to Chaumont 128 miles.
Woke up this morning and looked out of my hotel window, it was another grey day but.. I was feeling fantastic, not sure if I was still tipsy with last nights Red wine but I was totally refreshed after good food/drink and sleep.

So after booking out of hotel I was off.... panniers packed, water bottles topped up, ipod on (Abba gold) and ready to rock n roll.. :-)

I was using my Garmin now,  but just looking at the map part to see if I could get away without using iphone map app! I was heading in the direction towards St Dizier.  The roads were very flat today and I passed through some very nice villages (typically french buildings). I did my usual stop of for food and drink stocks at a local Lidl, bike tied up next to trolley parks and off I go whizzing around the aisles for Baguettes, choccy biscuits, water and Red bull, after a quick snack outside Lidl I was off again :-)    I was beginning to wonder where the sun had gone, and was hoping that when I get to the Alps the weather will improve - I really  wanted some great photos of the mountains (heres hoping that the weather breaks for the alps!)

After passing through St Dizier was en route to Langres (thats where I could get to today and was well up for some big miles to make up for some shorter milage done on earlier days)

I passed through a place called Wassy and was cruising to Chaumont things were great. It was around 6pm and I had passed through Chaumont,as I approached the town I looked up and seen a train going across a viaduct.   I reckoned that I could be in Langres in a few more hours, when about 2 miles past Chaumont PING!! and a little wobble from my back wheel.....! My first thought Puncture !  but it wasn't that. It was a broken spoke ! (I've never had a broken spoke!)

After looking through my tool kit it was apparent I did not have a tool to remove the cassette from the back wheel Oh no!!  Right... its decision time, do I push/walk the bike to Langres or do I return back to 2 ish miles back to Chaumont ?? I opted to go back :-(  Not ideal I know, but my thought was that I would find a bike shop more easily in a bigger town that a smaller one, so off I went pushing the bike back.

Just yards from arriving in the centre there was a hotel on the left of the main road into Chaumont, I pushed into here and asked if there was a room for the night. The woman on reception said yes, I was in so thats good I have another room tonight and good food and another bottle of Red YES..

I asked if there was a bike shop she said yes about half a mile back into town it will be open at 9am or 10am. Well that will do for me, I was starting to bring my bike into the hotel when the woman asked if I could take it around the side of the hotel - there is a garage basement door at the side of the building,  I started to push it around, although I had to carry the fully laden bike up several steps to reception doors which does knacker the arms a little as this bike weighs a ton.. so off I go to the basement garage door, the woman said she would use the automatic door to let me in. Great..

After some waiting at the garage door about 15 mins, I was getting a bit frustrated and thinking has she forgotten that I'm here at the door, so I went back around to the front and carried the bike up the steps again to ask here to open the door (didn't want to leave the bike around the corner or at base of steps I always think - take your eye of the bike and someone may pinch it) haha.

Just my luck as I went back to see the woman, a coach load had pulled up and were all booking into the hotel !!  Bugger... I tried to get her attention by waving hands "madhead stylee" :-0   she did see me and apologized and went straight away to open door. Result!

After the bike placed was in basement I rushed up to my room to the usual routine, charge phone etc, shower and change. Then it was off for a steak meal together with another bottle of you know what ? :-)  Getting used to this... its great after a good days cycling.

Monday May 21.  Day 3. Brussels to Vouziers  127miles.

Was checking out of the hotel around 6am today and with not eating when I checked in last night I felt weak. I needed some food so I asked if I could pay for a breakfast, as I remembered last night when I checked in the woman said it was 10 euros for breakfast. But she was not there in the morning it was my friend the annoying man, he replied breakfast will be 18euros, I replied that it was 10 euros last night when I checked in but he was not budging on 18 so I told him to go shove it !!  haha.

So after checking out with no breakfast I have to get on my bike and try to find a food shop for some sandwiches and drinks etc..  I'm cycling down into the centre of Brussels (massive place with hundreds of little roads/streets going in all directions) the weather is crap - misty, damp and cold. Big difference to previous day!

I cycle into a small fuel station and it was small with only a few pumps, but it had a little shop on site, so I went to walk in but the doors were closed, the girl inside held up her hands 10 mins until opening.. once inside at opening I'm browsing around but there are no sandwiches, so I have to get some plain baps, and a pack of cheese and make my own when I get back outside. Not ideal but at least its some needed calories to down..

After my cheese sandwiches, I'm off to try and find a road south out of this massive place (Brussels) I should have really avoided the main cities due to poor navigation through them, but that was where I ended up last night so I could not really do anything about it now.

Another thought that was also on my mind was the amount of money that had been raised so far to date, I really thought that it would have been pushed more at work and got lots of people behind it (my thoughts were "Big solo cycle unaided"  should be raising lots more that it had to current date!), so with the weather being poor, the just-giving page not really motoring, adding in the stress of finding my way around this busy city with my iphone map app which by the way had now used up 150MB of data so when I worked that out it was £150 already and I wasn't even in France !  As you can imagine today was a low day, and the thought of just packing it all in was close by in my head :-(

But after taking several wrong turns I did eventually get back on track, and was heading south towards Charleroi. The weather was poor for most of the day, and some thunder was around too.

In the late afternoon the weather was improving but still grey! What I needed was food and a better place to stay tonight and also to try and get my phone back up and running because I had used up my data, anything used now would cost even more and I did not budget for this. The garmin was switched off by now due to saying turn around all the time (Damn thing! but I must try to suss the map part out at least for navigation)

By late afternoon I was in France and had left Belgium my spirits were raised due to the fact  had now cycled through 2 countries. I was looking out for somewhere to stay.… The town Vouziers appeared on the signs and I thought thats the place I will look to stay tonight. It wasn't to hard to find a place to stay, I cycled up to one that looked good, booked in got showered and changed and headed down for some food (At last some decent food and wine Oh yes! Wine and it was equivalent to a full bottle.

My belly was full and I managed to drink a full bottle of red, I was happy and also sorted my data to be reset on my phone. I also had time to try and suss out the garmin even if it was just the map part to get me around. i would try it the following day. My mind was back focused on my adventure and not what was happening elsewhere.

Huddersfield to Istanbul Day 2.

Sunday May 20. Day 2.
Hook of Holland to Brussels 116miles.

It was around 8.30ish and the ferry was slowly sailing towards the docks in Holland. My cabin had 2 single beds and a shower, not too bad really apart from the engine noise throughout the night.   At 9am we had arrived, it was a mad rush under the decks to the basement for everyone to get going (me included).

As soon as I'm on the road out of the ferry I'm thinking now which way do I go ?  I have a Garmin800 but don't know how to use it yet, as I only received it a day or two before departure (Its a long story that one!!)

So I'm making do with the map app on my iphone. I know it is going to cost me BIG time by using it,  but hey this GPS is bleeping all-sorts of noises and sounds and I've not even touched it yet !! but I do keep having a go with it ;-)

I'm out on the road now out of the port.. well I'm on the cycle paths and what great paths they are - smooth, flat and very wide. The weather is better than the previous day its sunny Yeah! and quite warm in fact its around 70 degrees.

I'm zooming along thinking this is fantastic, I'm going to bang in some serious miles here..until I end up in a housing estate still on the cycle path..  I'm thinking Is this the right way ?? I back track towards the main road where I see over the other side of the road the cycle path I needed to be on....

This was going on all the time, so much so I decided to get on the main roads as those cycle paths kept taking me off course.. the local car drivers were not impressed that I was on the roads - plenty of "Beep Beep" and hand gestures to get back on the cycle paths. They do take a bit of getting used to for sure if you are here for the first time, but I was not here for a leisurely cycle around, I had to catch a flight from Istanbul.

I did pass through a tunnel on route to Brussels (Think it was just past Roosendaal- I remember that name well as some people that I know on twitter were posting what are you doing in Rossendale :-))) once in the tunnel it looked like it was for cars but looking back now I think it was just for cyclists - they do really look after cyclists in Holland, but there are lots of waterways so navigating is hard when trying to cover long distances around the rivers/waterways.   Just after midday the temp was rising it was in the 70s for sure and I had a puncture the first of the trip - front wheel, so that would do for me. After that was fixed I was back off again calling in along the way to petrol stations for snacks and water, I was still trying to work out the garmin but as usual it was yelling at me to do a u turn - so i switched it off (Doing my head-in) haha.

As I was approaching Antwerp I took a quick pic little did I realize at the time there was a McDs in the shot. I did not go into it, but just past there the weather started to become grey with bits of drizzle, not nice after glorious sunshine earlier. It was getting heavier the rain as I cycled further towards Brussels, along the way I did call into a McDs for a Big Mac and coffee, and nice it was.   At around 7pm I was entering the outskirts of Brussels and thought I need to stop somewhere now, and seen a hotel billboard.. I headed towards the hotel and went past a large monument and took a couple of photos (Still not sure what it was - let me know if you know what it is ? see below..

I cycled to the front entrance where I got off the bike and entered into reception, like a drowned rat !  I don't think the guy on the desk was impressed - I got the feeling he didn't want me staying there that night, luckily enough there was a nice receptionist who was very nice and booked me in for the night I think she said would I like breakfast for an extra 10euros I declined for now.  Great, I could now get changed and look forward to something to eat. I got my bike after I'd checked in and started to bring the bike inside the hotel (I was taking it up to my room - as per usual!) but no...  the awkward chap appeared again and was mumbling something about not taking my bike to my room, and pointed to a storage type room I open the door to the room and wheeled my bike inside.. there you go I said to the miserable chap..  he yelled No No No !!  Silly me I had lent it against a projection screen Ooops!!  must be worth a fortune that - it went from the floor to the ceiling! After a reposition of the bike he was happy, or I thought so.

After a quick shower and change, and after plugging all phones etc for charging I returned to reception - Do you have any food/menu ?  The guy replied "No Food"  oh well, no tea for me then. So I went back up to the room to check out the map app and updated social networks.

Huddersfield to Istanbul

Saturday, May 19 Day 1.
Huddersfield to Hull 74-miles.

Its departure day and my head was a little hungover from the previous night at a 40th Birthday party — hence plenty of the John Smiths flowing, also was the dancing :-) Met a twitter friend on the night too... Ivan,  nice guy.

The morning weather was a little overcast but spirits were high, and our neighbors came over to our house to see me depart too. The bike weighed a ton ! I wheeled it through the house and out of the front door, the usual bye, and kisses for my wife and daughter... and I'm off up our street a little wobbly to start with due to getting used to the weight of the panniers.

I reached the top of the street and took a right turn out of sight now... the journey has begun. As I reached the man A62 road I had a thought of my previous Gibraltar cycle (Would my trainers hit the pannier bags when I cycle ??) NO they are fine YIPPEE!!  I'm off (Mark Canning would chuckle at that one)

I'm heading off in the direction of Rothwell it was generally flat going and easy for now, with just a few steep bits coming out of Dewsbury which had me huffing and puffing. Just showed how out of shape I was for this trip. The weather was quite dull/grey throughout the morning as I headed through Rothwell, my next place was heading towards Selby. I was sticking to the most direct rout to Hull along the A63. I reached around Howden and stopped off for a tea break at a burger van. Cup of coffee and a cheeseburger please, was nice  and the guy who served my asked "Where you off to"? Istanbul my reply.. he thought I was joking ! (I must go back to have a brew and burger now I'm bak and tell him I did do it) :-)

After a few minutes chatting some more customers came along he told them what I was doing and they were all amazed and wished me a great and safe journey. This first day was quite easy in terms of time, there wasn't really a rush to get to Hull ferry so I was limited to 70 ish miles for the whole day - so steady day for me. I cycled through Gilberdyke (I like that name) and thought I would get the ipod on and listen to some tunes.. first one was pussy ca dolls Jai ho !!  I hear you laughing :-)  but that brought a smile to my face as that song is my daughter favorite at that time. After the next hour listening to tunes it appeared that there were only a few songs on that were playing over and over again ! What's going on here?? I had hundreds on this ipod!inc my recently downloaded Abba Gold !!  (Somehow the majority of songs had been wiped off somehow!)  Not good. my music I need to listen to it haha it keeps me going and entertained.

Luckily enough I took my iphone too and the majority were on that so phew!!

I was getting close to Hull now and had to start to take notice of where the port is to board the ferry. It was the P&O terminal, so was easy to find. I was early so I took a couple of pics at the water side with the bike and the humber bridge in the distance. Before you board on the ferry it was quite a long queue to get checked in.. Whilst waiting in line another cyclist fully bagged up pulled alongside of me and started chatting about where I was off to. I told him where I was planning, he informed me that if I was to go through Bulgaria, etc I would encounter Wild dogs (very nasty ones he said, he showed me a knife he had to deal with the wild dogs.. my thought was Shit !!  never thought of any dogs along the way, so its a good job I could change the way of my route day by day. From that point I was going Italy, Albania :-))

I was on board now, the guy who I was talking to had gone on another ferry so I was back on my own again, I checked out around the ferry (Its Big!) my first thought.. even a cinema on board. After unpacking, shower and changed I was out and about on the deck, in the bar (Best part they had Bitter) after a few beers and some food I returned to my cabin (Which was all to myself) to a nights sleep - although not a great sleep due to the engines next to my cabin :-(

Just thought I needed to update you on what's going on lately regarding the run up to my May 19th Charity Cycle ride to Istanbul.

Well the last couple of months have been very busy at work & at home. Since my last week off on the 20th Feb 2012. There has been nil training and the diet has been Well!

as usual "Not very good" which is standard for me.

The biggest difference between this cycle and the Gib cycle is that Mrs F did not work nights on the run up to the Gib cycle, and in addition every Thursday after work I would pop the the Gym on the way home if I had been working in Manchester area that day. Also I did have a few chances to get out on a odd Sunday (All day sometimes).

This all sounds Bad ! but don't worry I will still be going for it although I'm not in the best shape (It does make my challenge harder for sure).. especially adding another 400miles onto the cycle and going via the Alps with only an extra day to complete..

On the work front its full speed ahead at the moment and as I get home from work Mrs F is setting off for work, and similar in mornings me off to work then Mrs F getting home (passing ships lol)

My father in-law has come up with a solution he knows a guy who can get me a static cycle to train on at nights after work - So after my tea and bath I can leisurely pedal away while watching Benidorm then haha.. (Its a start although a bit late possibly!)

So there you go - Its how it is at present... But It's only around a month and half to departure, I have not pre-booked any places to stop, also no ferries booked... just the return flight from Istanbul when I complete the cycle (See those words - "When I") confident or what ? Fingers crossed I do...

At present I still need to get panniers, upgrade my phone and start to work out what I'm carrying in my panniers. I've not really planned my route as such, thats just going to be done each day depending on how I'm feeling each day.

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Thank you all, and keep following it will be worth it :-)

Bolton Ironman July 31st 2011

My first thought of an Ironman challenge came from one of Matt pritchards tweets. He said he was in training for one, so I messaged him which one he was competing in as there were two in the UK one was Bolton. This was the one he was doing so I thought Yep! I'm in.....

After entering the Ironman my first surprise/shock was how much it costs to enter one ! Over £300..

Well with great intentions I started thinking I will really start to train hard for one of these. Although I have completed some long bike rides, this was going to be something else. The long steady cycles will be replaced with timed swim, cycle and run!

My first obstacle was the Swim... I can't front crawl! So it was off to a triathlon swimming class on a Thursday evening for 45min session at my local swimming pool. This was very funny at the time. There were a couple of fit/healthy looking athletes at the pool waiting for the session to begin and I entered into small talk with them asking if they have been coming long to the session, they both replied that they were training for an upcoming tri event, I replied I'm here cos I've entered an Ironman challenge but can't really do front crawl. They looked in amazement at me saying that they have been doing lots of tri's themselves but wouldn't even think of an Ironman challenge at the mo! Gulp! What have I let myself in for?

After getting in the water the instructor put us all in a lane each, the others were hammering up and down the pool at great speed, and there was me with a float in my hand waddling away not really getting anywhere fast! The instructor was seeing how my legs and feet were performing. I can remember clearly my thought at that session being this can't be right, those fast swimmers wouldn't even attempt an Ironman and there was me -Float in front of me splashing like mad getting nowhere - going for Ironman challenge ha ha.

As the months past I did seem to get in some good run training, I would take the train to Rochdale then get off and run back to pick my daughter up from school, this would happen regularly in the months after entering the competition, I also had a little 13mile Skateboard ride back from Hebden bridge one afternoon before picking my daughter up from school.

All the training that I could do was limited really to an odd Sunday or on my days off whilst my daughter was at school, all the rest of the time was a balance of family time and work time. I did however get some swimming time put in especially in open water to get used to it on the day. These swims were mainly after work for an hour on a Mon or a Thurs (Was trying crawl at these sessions but it still was not working and ended up doing breast-stroke)

Some of the Sundays I had free, I completed some good distances even managed a cycle to Winderere and back (That is still currently my longest ride to date 166miles)

As time went by the competition was looming, and my training had more or less dwindled away! In the final 6 weeks before the event I had completed a day cycle 72 miles, and 2 x 1mile jogs - And that was it! Not very much at all....
As for my diet, well that didn't really change at all. I was still on the wine and beer regularly, also still eating lots of fast food and curries regularly.

When I entered the challenge, I sorted a day off at work before the event as i thought it would involve some sort of placing of the bike and briefing, so good job I did book that day off, I also asked my colleague to swap our days off for the week after Ironman, this would give my the Monday off rather than my usual Wednesday off, so I could recover. 2 weeks before the event I reminded my colleague that I needed the Monday off for that particular week... his reply was I'm on holiday that week ! Jeeeez.... I thought, I'm going to be knackered on that Monday, to make maters worse it was a new store opening at work, which meant that I would have to be in for 6am, also the store was an hour drive from home :-(

On the day before the race I was very chilled (Saturday off work ?? never normally allowed.. too busy..) but hey! I was driving over to Pennington Flash to put my bike in place and to register for the comp.. It was very sunny and really good atmosphere around the place, I was excited and also little nervous about the following day. But today was great, also had to hang around for the race briefing at the Reebok stadium in Bolton around 5.30pm for 1hr.

It was good to hear the briefing of rules etc for the Ironman (But no ipods, iphones etc due to health and safety issues!) I thought damn! How will I update everyone on Twitter and facebook ? I also would miss my music that I normally listen to on my cycles usually..

After the briefing was done it was home to have some food and get to bed ready for the early start the following day. I did eventually get to bed for around 11pm, I set my alarm for 2.30am so that meant could get to Reebok stadium for 4am to get the coach to the swim/bike transition area. I couldn't really sleep the night before, I was panicking that would oversleep and miss the competiton..

The race morning was here and I was feeling pretty good considering not much sleep, my plan was to do breaststroke for the swim, my time target in my head would be 2hrs, anything less would be a bonus!

After the mass swim start I was keeping far to the side of everyone else, so I didn't end up getting smashed to bits at the start. After the first lap I checked my watch it was about 40mins - I was buzzing at this time I was ahead of my expectatation of the swim, after second lap I was coming up to the finish and could see the timing clock at about 1hr 45mins, I was out of the water and running to my bike, the compare shouted out over the loud speakers my name Awesome :-) that gave me a brilliant buzz... At the same time though my calf muscles had really seized up as I was running to the bike (Shit I thought is this the end with this calf problem) but I carried on into transiton, I can remember saying to a fellow race goer, Thats the hard bit done! ha ha.

On the bike now, and my calf muscles were ok so its was going well again, I stuck to my plan of the bike and took it steady. I didn't want to push it too much as I could have been shattered for the run part! I did the bike in 7hr 57mins, I was pleased with that, as was bang on my time that I had set myself (to be starting the run for 4pm) This would leave me 7hrs to complete the marathon. Even now if I run/walk the course I will be an Ironman.. and that was the plan for the next 5rs and 40mins until I crossed the finish line and became and Ironman :-)

After the race I was over the moon, I'd done it! But now my thoughts had switched to finding the coach that took my back to my car, then was the trip back to T2 to pick up bags and bike. After this was complete, I had the drive home, I got back about midnight, then it was to bed and to be up for 4.30am ready to set off for work and the store opening. On the morning the only issue was my calf muscles were a little sore... after this 13hr day at work had passed I did eventually have a good nights sleep on the Monday night. Happy days :-) BOOOOOOM!!