Sport Maker Jenny's Blog

June 2012

I can’t believe that June has been the wettest since records began (its beginning to feel like since time began…). Anyway, since my cycling partner is new to the sport and I don’t want to frighten her off by making her cycle in the rain we haven’t been out in June. I’m hoping that July will be sunnier.

We did get out on our bikes in May. My friend hasn’t been on a bike much since she was a small child so she was really nervous about cycling on the roads. We met in Houghton Village on a sunny Sunday afternoon (remember those?). After a practise cycle around the housing estate to get used to the bikes we set off carefully towards the Near Boot.

At the Near Boot we turned right onto Tarraby Lane and really started to enjoy ourselves. Tarraby Lane is perfect for cycling – its quiet and narrow. One of the things I really enjoy about cycling is that you can really appreciate the surrounding countryside. By the time we got to end of the lane my friend was feeling more confident and appreciating her surroundings too.

I’m planning a ride through Rickerby Park and to Crosby Village for our next outing which will hopefully be soon – weather permitting!

February 2012

I attended the Sport Makers workshop on Monday 7th November at Richard Rose Academy in Carlisle. It was organised by Becky Underwood from the County Council and I was joined by over 40 other Sport Makers from the area. The workshop was a “set piece” that was shown to all the other Sport Makers around the county and I have to be honest was brilliant!

I’m not usually one for joining in group games with people that I don’t know but by the end of the night we were all standing in a circle holding hands and trying to move a plastic hope from person to person without letting go – fabulous! As someone said, you don’t often get the chance to play games like that as an adult.

On to the more serious side of Sport Makers the workshop got everyone fired up. It was interesting to see some many different people there – people from Youth Zone, University Students who were wanting to volunteer to help with their degrees, people wanting to set up football tournaments and people like me who wants to get friends and family out on a bike ride.

We all received bags and t-shirts at the end of the night (am already using the bag for the gym) and were given information on how to use the website to log Sport Making hours.

There’s so much to do and I’m kind of hoping the 10 hours is a minimum about you can do rather than a maximum!