I’ve added a number of excel tutorials to the NHS Excel website and this will become the home for most of my excel related content.

It’s been a busy month at work due to year end and the agreement of balances exercise but its been interesting from an excel point of view. We’ve had to work across a departments and this has thrown up a number of issues, not least of which has been the problem of people using different versions of excel to work on a single workbook. This month I’ve written a tutorial explaining how to force Excel 2007 to work in compatibility mode so that you can create pivot tables that work in earlier versions of excel.

I’ve also written some VBA code to automate log-ins to password protected websites. The idea of this is to use in conjunction with a website query to download data from a central NHS website to a spreadsheet on a regular basis.

It’s been a warm dry spring so far and we’ve made the most of the weather down on the plot, getting suitably hot and bothered.

I’ve posted an update on the earthwoman blog detailing the ongoing struggle I have with the blasted M1 Gardener Rotovator and another showing Lynn’s valiant efforts at constructing a pallet compost bin extension.

There have been a number of choice words on the plot this month but also some tasty food courtesy of the new 64C Parafin Cooker and the abundant purple sprouting broccoli.

This won’t appeal to many folks but just in case you’ve ever been excited by the NHS Code to Grouper spreadsheet and would like to squeeze that and the PbR tariff information spreadsheet onto your iPhone, I’ve written up a review of the NHS Reference or NHSRef iPhone app over on my NHS Excel blog. Give it a go, it might make you very happy.

I had a slight moment of panic when I recieved in the post a set of vintage Campagnolo C Record downtube shifters for the Walvale classic bike restoration. They came in no less than 18 teeny pieces and as they were vintage they didn’t come with an easy to follow assembly instruction manual.

After 15 minutes of the now well recognised mechanical frustration, I determined the correct order of assembly.

For all those that go after me I thought it might be useful to write down how to assemble a Campagnolo frictional gear shifter.

The photo shows the individual components laid out in the order of assembly with each part also oriented as they should be put together.

So, part A sits on the braze-on part of the down tube followed by B and C. D goes in flat side up pushed down of the protruding part of the frame. E is flat side down. Then F, G, H followed finally by the D-clip screw.

Job done, or at least almost done. I haven’t wired it up yet but that will follow in another post.

I’ve read somewhere that these frictional Campagnolo shifters were not the most reliable and have a tendency for losing the friction setting so you have to repeatedly tighten up the D-ring. I’ll report back when it’s all working.

*UPDATE*
I had some amazing assistance on the Retrobike forum and want to link back to the post as it should form a useful reference for those who may also struggle to match together the parts from a disassembled friction shifter.

On the same forum, one of the members uploaded a scanned copy of the original instructions which you can view here: Campagnolo Record Friction.

My new project arrived in a box last night. It’s a thing of beauty but is destined to cause cursing and consternation in the household.

I’m not known for my mechanical skills but I am known for flitting from one project to the next with only a book for guidance.

The book didn’t help me much last night. Mostly because it was upstairs under the bed while my workshop is in the front room. I spent two hours with my fingers trapped under the saddle guide rails trying to attach it to the seat post. I scared the kids with my swearing but finally achieved some success only to discover, as I collapsed into bed, that I’d attached the post in a back to front fashion.

This is going to be a palaver of monstrous proportions.

The bike is an old custom build from Walvale Cycles in Liverpool. It is made from Reynolds 531 tubing, although there are no transfers and it has 3/4 chromed forks and rear triangle. I haven’t found out much about Walvale Cycles, they are mentioned in Classic Lightweights but aren’t famed in the same way as other frame builders such as Holdsworth, Dave Yates or Mercian.

My plan is to source some classic campagnolo components and recreate the dream bike of my youth.

Today’s task was to fathom out how to shift the rust marks from the chrome.

I’ve had impressive results with fine steel wool and oil but I may attempt the aluminium foil and coke trick tomorrow.

By the end of day 2, I have a frame that is beginning to look rather like a bike. I’ve attached every component that required only a few turns of an allen key. I’ve got the stem, handlebar, seatpost, saddle and the brakes attached. I haven’t ventured anywhere near cabling so of course nothing works but I’m already feeling as though I’ve missed my vocation in life. I’m clearly a bike mechanic at heart.

Now I need to return to ebay to find some wheels, I haven’t a clue what I need and what will work with the rest of the components but I need wheels urgently. It won’t be til then that I can confirm that this bike will fit me.

My enforced rest from running was initiated by a trip to a pub.

Me and my good lady gathered around a couple of pints of Wandle, pulled out the Moleskin and jotted down a recovery plan to rid me of plantar fasciitis for good and set me right for my already deferred entry to the VLM.

The Plan allowed for 4 weeks of proper foot rest – icing, gentle stretching. It included core training sessions and a bit of cardio in the form of cycling. I have a feeling it might have mentioned a diet but I can’t remember that bit.

4 weeks came and went and I was still limping so I introduced yoga and ibuprofen.

Some 8 weeks of sitting on well endowed backside has had some effect though, an additional 5lbs of lard have been added somewhere and the feet are somewhat more springy – success and failure in equal measure.

Cue the next phase of The Plan – time for structured re-entry into the running world.

I think The Plan might have specified gentle walk/runs but somewhere between home and the start of the Wandle Trail I made the mistake of programming the Garmin. I felt heroic. I set the interval beeper to 5 mins run with 1 min walk – 20 of them! That is 2 hrs of hardcore running with a teeny bit of walking thrown in.

That 1 minute walk is pure torture no sooner has breathing calmed down sufficiently to swig water than the garmin beeps at you to start up again.

I’d happily have ignored it’s little beeps and followed the beat of my own drum but Lynn was with me and she’s not a quitter. I’m leaving her at home next time. I was shattered at the end.

I got home, slipped into my ice bucket and that was it for the next 36 hours.
Completely crippled again. I was forced to drag my sorry body around the house on my hands and knees and could only handle the upright position with the aid of my long discarded hiking poles.

Square one again.

Originally published on my warriorwomen blog.

I’ve spent a good proportion of the bank holiday reading about food and quite specifically how to eat food.

I started with the seriously irritating Allen Carr and his Easyweigh to Lose Weight. I’ve read this once before and threw it out in disgust but I have to cut Allen a lot of slack as I’m into my tenth year as a non smoker thanks to his EasyWay methods. Still, when it comes to food and nutrition he drives me nuts.

His main premise is that we should look to wild animals for advice on what to eat, after all they don’t get sick or obese. Somehow he manages to jump from wild animals to the instruction to eat a vegetarian diet with fruit and nothing but fruit for breakfast. I can cope with all of that and resist the temptation to argue the point of predation and age-related conditions but when he starts on slugs and snails I’m afraid the book has to go into the charity pile again.

I know about slugs and I’m not too enamored of them. Allen likes to use the example of the slothful slug and snail to illustrate his suggestion that exercise is overrated. You don’t really need to exercise as, after all, have you ever seen an obese snail? That sets me wondering. If I match sluggy slime trails to body length, I reckon our squidgy friends are really quite active critters, especially of a damp evening and if we are going to be critical, I’m not sure I’d consider them the slenderest of creatures either. Quite podgy I’d say.

Next on my list was Savor, a Buddhist guide to mindful eating. This book attempts to fuse nutritional advice with the buddhist concept of mindfulness through the discussion of the four noble truths and a series of exercises or meditations that encourage a focus on the present. Mindfulness is not restricted to eating and Thich Nhat Hanh takes us through mindfulness for eating, exercise and living.

The eating messages I’ve taken home are:

• Eat at the table
• Avoid multitasking – so no TV, work or magazines
• Appreciate your food by use of all the senses
• Chew and take it slowly
• Quality not quantity

There is a particularly useful exercise on appreciating the apple and I’d encourage anyone to spend 10 minutes with a Discovery apple, reacquainting yourself with its joys.

I’m a big fan of food and this time of year is particularly conducive to appreciating food. The plot is so productive that I can’t help but serve up meals that are at least 70% home grown and it is such a delight to look at the plate and remember the soil turning, seed sowing, weeding and watering that led to the harvest.

We’ve snuck a few yellow courgette plants into the flower border at home and I find their unexpected presence on the plate extremely satisfying.

Not content with the first two books on food, I’ve turned now to Michael Pollen for the down to earth advice succinctly wrapped up in the title of this post: Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. Homespun advice that would make your mum and grandmother nod their heads in appreciation.

In Defense of Food, contains Michael Pollens manifesto for eating and attempts to find the commonsense lost in the nutritional world that has become hijacked by commerce and the food industry.

In addition to the above advice you’ll find tips such as:

• Only eat food your great grandmother would recognise as food
• Avoid products with unpronounceable ingredients or more than 5 ingredients

I’ve been overdosing on common sense, so now it’s time to set the table and enjoy the products of our labour.

Originally published on my earthwoman blog.

I’ve been using The Stick ever since I suffered with a painful muscular injury to my hamstrings.

It has a very simple design – a slightly flexible plastic stick around which a set of plastic spindles can independently rotate. It is these spindles that work on your muscles to ease out knots and release tension.

It’s extremely effective and a superb substitute for daily massages for those not lucky enough to have a full time masseuse on hand.

You can use it almost anywhere on the body but I have found it particularly useful for the larger muscle groups such as the calves, quads, hamstrings and buttocks. It can be incredibly painful when you first start using it but you can control the pressure and it’s amazing how quickly the muscles loosen up and stop screaming.

I came across the Posture Pro and Footeez at the The Running School, I was just preparing for a high intensity blast on the treadmill but I was suffering from a niggling cramp in my calf. I was quite concerned that I was going to do myself a mischief so the running instructor had me sitting on the floor with the blue nobbly gadget under my calf. The trick is to roll back and forth using your body weight to apply quite forceful pressure to a defined spot. I found it to have a miraculous effect, clearing the knot within a minute or so. I bought these two the very same day.

I find that The Stick is ideal for routine treatment as a preventative measure while it is worth rolling out the Posture Pro when rapid remedial action is required. The Posture Pro does take a little bit of getting used to and is tricky to use without giving you carpet burns on your buttocks as you roll to and fro.

The Footeez is similar to the Posture Pro, another knobbly hard plastic cyclinder but is specially shaped for foot rolling. I use the two interchangeably to relieve the pain of plantar fasciitis. The podiatrist recommended the use of a golf ball for focused massage of the PF which is a far more economical method but I find it quite irritating. It’s hard to apply sufficient pressure to the heel region without the golf ball shooting out from under your foot and scuttling across the room. I soon get bored of retrieving it.

Originally published on my warriorwomen blog.

The plot and the hedgerows are so productive at the moment. It seems about two months too early but the sloes are already plump and juicy. I’ve just had to polish of the last remaining drop of slow gin from last year so that I can re-use the bottles for this year’s vintage. Extraordinarily tasty and potent stuff!

This year we remembered to take carrier bags for a trip around Mitcham Common and have collected enough apples and blackberries for about 30 pies. The trees were almost breaking under the burden of fruit, it’s a shame more people don’t take advantage of the free crops.

Back on the plot we’ve found ourselves overrun with beetroot and I’m in the unusual position of trying to find creative ways to cook and store it.

The Preserves book from the River Cottage Series has a fabulous recipe for sweet beetroot relish. I made slight adjustments, replacing creamed horseradish for the requested home-grown pickled variety and I also cheated with the tomato puree which I couldn’t be bothered to make from scratch. Here is my cheats version:

Sweet Beetroot Relish

1kg Beetroot – roasted at 180′C
250g Sugar
150ml cider vinegar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
large onion finely chopped
2 tbsp creamed horseradish
4 garlic cloves crushed
1 tbsp tomato puree

Put all the ingredients except for the beetroot into a preserving pan and boil for 5 mins.

Peel and coarsely grate the roasted beetroot. Add this to the mix and cook for another 10 mins.

The juice should be syrupy when ready to transfer to the sterilised jars.

It should last up to a year.

Originally published on my earthwoman blog.

The enforced running respite has resulted in a very slight improvement to my plantar fasciitis pain so I’m motivated to keep up with the recommendations from my podiatrist.

I’ve stuck to the stretches, swapped the running with cycling and been wearing the temporary insoles in my trainers. The only remedial action left to tick off is pool running or aqua jogging.

I hunted around for aqua jogging classes in the local pools but couldn’t find anything at all. I imagined groups of frustrated (ex)runners bounding up and down the lanes.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself next to an empty exercise pool while on a weekend treat at the Sanctuary. The opportunity was too good to lose so I dropped in, grabbed one of the buoyancy tubes as substitute running belt, and attempted the run motion.

I now know why there was a distinct absence of organised pool running groups – this is definitely a solitary experience. You bob around mostly on the spot and may as well tuck yourself away in the corner of the deep end and try not to raise too much concern as you flap away in a frustrated doggy paddle.

I attempted a few different styles with the body either upright or sloped and felt as though I was either cycling or swimming but not running. I discarded the flotation aid to see the affect of adding some realistic arm action. I bobbed around, just millimeters under my nostrils and managed 20 mins without drowning.

It was by no means as exhausting as running, I was exerting myself but I could hold a conversation whereas I can barely gasp out a greeting when I run on land. You do move a little bit so its not entirely on the spot running. I was circling a pillar in the middle of a pool and it probably took me 4 mins a lap. The scenery didn’t get any better but I suppose treadmill runners are used to that sort of drudgery, a waterproof mp3 player would have helped.

It was moderately satisfying and helped delay the stir crazy impulses but by golly its boring.

Originally published on my warriorwomen blog.