New York

Well, time has flown again and I still have not made another post in less than a week.

Since I last posted, I have made some progress in planning my travel to the USA. I have my ESTA authorisation to travel now. A relatively painless online process. Clearly my name is not on the USA no fly list. Who said "Not yet"?

I have decided to fly out to the USA on Sunday 2nd May on the 2025 Virgin flight out of Heathrow to arrive in Newark at 2310 ESB time. This means that on the Sunday, I will be travelling to Heathrow directly from the QPR v Newcastle game when hopefully we will be lifting the league championship trophy. A busy day!

I've just booked my flights as I've been typing this. Selected my seats and ordered my on board meals. Just car parking to arrange now. I'm driving to Heathrow on Sunday morning- leaving luggage at left luggage and parking the car, then going to football. After game, I will come back, collect luggage, drop it off at check in and hit the bar again. Just got to sort out the car parking now!

Am still hoping that another trip before then may come off. It was dead in the water on Monday, but God moves in mysterious ways and it may be back on. Finger's crossed.

Right, cycling news- I've actually managed a couple of longer rides in last week. On Wednesday a few of us from work went for a drink and a curry in Brick lane. The others were suited and booted, with me in lycra. Yes, I cycled to pub and home from Brick Lane. I was determined not to miss out on cycling.

On Thursday, I cycled to / from work as usual and then after that, I cycled 2/3rd of way back to work to attend a cycling club committee meeting.So managed 40 miles on the day.

The weekend brought me travelling round - Home - Crawley on Friday night and back on Saturday morning for the cycling club and the Orient game on Saturday afternoon. Then back to Crawley until Monday morning.

Monday brought me cycling from Crawley to Westminster and back again, a total of 60 miles for the day. It was my longest ride since last summer. A long day, but I loved it. Can't wait to repeat it again. I eventually drove home from Crawley late on Monday night- tired, but very happy. I think I will be cycling to/ from Crawley again on a work day. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend.

I've had a few more donations in today towards my sponsorship target. Thanks to all those who have donated.

I've also ordered and paid for my cycling kit for the ride. All riders have to wear the Police Unity Tour kit

Work wise, the last 48 hours have been interesting as we published our report on CPS London and it has hit the major press and lots of local press as well as the BBC. The reports are written in "civil service speak" but despite this are still very critical of CPS London- and rightly so. The reports are available online at www.hmcpsi.co.uk if you are interested. I have to confess the reports are rather uninteresting reading. The executive summaries are just about readable.