Family Sunday.

As befits all family Sunday's I haven't had time to fart! I've just quite literally sat down for the first time today.

Yesterday was spent getting my bikes ready for the week ahead. I always enjoy that.

I got my MTB back from the bike shop after I pinged a spoke on the back wheel on my last MTB ride. I also had it upgraded a tad with the addition of a hydraulic disc brake on the front wheel.

As you can see it looks the business!

Cool levers.

Even cooler disc and caliper.

I then removed the old V brake bosses with a little bit of elbow grease and a Junior Hacksaw. A couple of minutes with a file, emery paper and Gloss Black enamel paint soon had an invisible modification.

The afternoon was at the swing park, it was also an opportunity to collect a load of watercress that grows in the stream next to the park.

                     Fay and Dan on the swing.

The evening was spent at the Dodford Inn where we had a meal to celebrate my daughter Fay's and my Mum in Law's birthday. I got on the outside of too many real ales so I deserved my thick head!

I was up early this morning as well, along with Fay, as I promised to take her shooting. I have permission to shoot over 120 acres of land near the village of Feckenham . It's my bosses land and I can come and go as I please. There is plenty of stuff to shoot for the pot, Rabbits, Pigeon, Pheasant, Deer but occasionally you draw a blank and see nothing.

Like this morning.

Never mind, but it was a good opportunity to teach her some weapon safety and markmanship principles. I suppose that's an advantage of having a Dad who was a small arms instructor in the army!

Learning about safe weapon handling is fantastic tool to teach discipline and the importance of correct procedures.

We set up a range and went through the safety drills and then covered some marksmanship principles.

I was very pleased to see she seems to have inherited the Chapman shooting gene. My Granddad was a sniper in the First World War, my Dad was also a marksman in the RAF and I was on my Regimental shooting team in Army competitions along with my brother. For a first attempt (granted it was with a scope) she achieved a brilliant grouping!

5 rounds all within the space of a 50p piece from about 75 yards! Not bad girl! But spot the flyer that went high and left, classic breathing fault...

Some local residents came over to see what we were up to!

I have some big plans for my Ridgeback commuter that I'm going to investigate tomorrow. If it's do-able I'll be telling you all about it! Actually I'll tell you all about it if it ain't!