Initially Jerry and Callum O’B didn’t want to go out, but in the end we went to Pizza Hut at Plymouth and booked a table at 8.10 for 8.30. We played doubles Air Hockey in Tenpin which everyone found to be great fun, then we took our table for pizza.

Everyone loved the meal of course, including Jerry and CoB. Jerry had ice cream factory, Zac had nachos and the two Callums shared a medium pizza. Ash and Michael tried the new individual cookie doughs, but they seemed small and expensive compared to the older sharing ones.

Our family of new riders arrived early at 10.05 on a lovely sunny morning around. John didn’t like the idea of off-road much at this point, so we did Colston Road and continued up to Charlie’s Cross. Will was very chatty with everyone and thought this was a much better way of going to Totnes than along the main road. All the new riders did well and seemed to very much enjoy the ride.

We rode down the hill to Staverton Bridge, then followed the riverside path to the railway crossing and took the path shortcut to the park. I don’t think anyone really believed Michael’s story of piranha fish inhabiting the swap, but it did ensure everyone rode carefully along the boardwalk.

We spent a very happy time in the park playing with the Frisbees. It was gratifying that our regular youngsters were so welcoming to the new riders.

John thought it best to return by the easiest route, so we took the lane through the woods to Abham. All went well until we came down the hill past Caddaford. John went ahead with his two lads but just past the bottom George found some mud on the side of the road and came off and then Will rode into him. Fortunately George got away with minor grazes, but he wasn’t feeling up to cycling so John walked him home. Will was fine however and came back with us to Crofters for the games social. On the way back Callum O’B managed to get a puncture in Old Totnes Road and unbelievably rang his Dad to get collected even though he could have walked it in ten minutes.

The youngsters spent a good deal of time on the trampoline, then finished with some Call of Duty 4 on the PCs which Will enjoyed a lot. Everyone left at 3pm.

Everyone liked the idea of watching the movie Real Steel so we started the movie at 7.25 and paused it halfway through for a short interval. It was a really good movie and everyone enjoyed it a lot, making numerous comments throughout. We concluded the evening with a few games where Ash and Michael played Modern Warfare 2 with Will and George.

John and Will arrived early at 10am, but when Jerry, Callum F and Callum O'B arrived at 10.15 CoB had a puncture. He had remembered to fix the puncture he got last week but had got Callum F to fix it for him. Callum had changed the tube, but it still had a puncture. A shower arrived anyway so everyone went in to play computer games while Michael fixed the puncture. It turned out Callum F had forgotten to check for thorns: he had left a huge thorn in the tyre which had punctured the new tube in two places.

We finally got away at 10.55 just as another shower came along, but this was the last and it was sunny and dry as we headed along the Buckfast road from Dart Bridge. We followed the route originally planned, to Michelcombe for a photo and then on up the hill to Holne for a café stop. Will did really well, and both he and John wanted to book for the Easter tour which was very encouraging.

When CoB had finished his delicious carrot and coriander soup we returned home via Hembury, giving the track a miss today in view of the recent rain. Will was going out for a family meal today but he desperately wanted to come up for games, so his father agreed he could come up for twenty minutes or so. We got back at 1.15 and he managed to play half an hour of Lord of the Rings before John collected him at 1.45. The rest left at 3.35.

We went to Tenpin at Plymouth for bowling this evening, encouraged by Jerry’s gift of three bowling vouchers (from cereal packets) that allowed three juniors to go in free. We all played on one lane so it took an hour to finish our game. Young George charmed his way into everyone’s affections and got lots of encouragement from birthday boy Ash.

Some members of the Freeman household came to watch as they were in the area. When we had finished, the youngsters notices that the local Britain’s Got Talent celebrity Michael Collins was outside giving autographs, so we had to wait until Jerry and Zac had finished chatting with him before we could finally get away. The delays meant we had to skip Tesco tonight and head straight home, but there was still time for everyone to come in for a slice of Ash’s chocolate birthday cake – including John when he came to collect the boys.

The Rogers family had never really done much off-road riding so they were a little apprehensive as we rode along the old Ashburton road and out along the back lane to Belford Mill. We took the woodland track back towards Ashburton which is all gently downhill and George really enjoyed it. John and Will remained unsure of the benefits however.

We called in at Ashburton Park on the way back and, at John’s suggestion, stopped to play Frisbee for a while. The park was quite busy today and Michael didn’t really like the audience we attracted, but the youngsters enjoyed the time.

We returned home along the old Ashburton road for 1pm and then spent a couple of hours playing on Modern Warfare 2 and the trampoline, which made the youngsters very happy. They all left at 3.10.

The youngsters wanted computer games, so that is what we did, starting with some Modern Warfare 2. Next Michael played Lord of the Rings with George and Will against two medium enemies, but not before Will had vented his frustration at playing against computer opponents: he wanted to battle against real people and beat them! Meanwhile Ash and Jerry played Halo.

We started the evening with a showing of the Easter 2009 tour video, useful for those thinking of booking for our upcoming Easter Tour. A shorter edit of the video would have been more useful, but we made the most of what we had. We then had two rounds of a music quiz, one on movie themes and the second on rock music, and finished up with games of Halo and Lord of the Rings.

Callum O’B was clearly pleased to be back with us again as we rode out to Ashburton and then set about climbing Ausewell Hill. Michael had to race on to the top with Ash so he could fix yet another rear wheel puncture near the valve caused by sharp rim tape.

It was around 12.00 when we were ready to set off again. Michael offered the shorter alternative destination of Spitchwick but Jack and Callum really wanted to go to Bonehill, which was encouraging. George, who had done really well for his age on the main climb, found the final climb a bit tiring so we left John to bring him along slowly and went on ahead to Bonehill. Here we spent an enjoyable quarter of an hour playing on the rocks and watching Ash do somersaults over a rock.

Ash and Jack wanted to ride the track to Natsworthy but we needed to meet up with John and George so we rode straight down the steep hill to Widecombe. Reunited again we settled into the café for snacks, enjoying a mixture of soups, chips (CoB of course), cream teas (Will and George), cakes and milkshakes. We finally left around 1.45 with Michael estimating an hour and a half to get home.

George did very well on the route home after his refreshments. We rode via Leusdon where Ash called in to see his school friend Patrick Canon but found that he was out and so left him a note. We continued along Spitchwick Common and then returned home via Hembury, but as CoB was getting slower on the way home it was 4.05 when we finally arrived.