The night before… I thought that picking out clothes for the shoot would be the easy bit. I thought wrong! Heels or flats, leggings or jeans, t-shirts or jumpers? So with the clock ticking and still undecided, I packed it all.

The day of the shoot… Waking up in the morning, I was still wondering if I’d packed the ‘right sort of clothes’. Too late now I thought to myself, as I was already running late for work, but somehow found time to throw some more clothes into my already over packed overnight bag.

Arriving at work, the first thing was to check with Sarah and Zavanah to see what they had brought with them. While doing this Grant casually walks by looking slightly more groomed than normal I must say. It wasn’t until later, when he went back for a touch up, I realised he was wearing eyeliner, yes eyeliner.

The time came for me and Zav to get all made up, hair done, make up done, just left with what to wear… In this time, I needed to pop back down to the floor, feeling a little embarrassed all dressed up I tried to make it swift. To boost my confidence a bit more I was greeted with Minty’s kind comment of ‘Do you look like a hooker?’

All ready to go, we made our way outside. Grant was just finishing his shoot and looked like he was loving it! The eyeliner had stayed on well and his smile was as cheesey as ever.

My turn… I walked over to the custom bike and perched awkwardly up against it. The first few shoots I was looking like a rabbit in car headlights but after a minute or so soon started enjoying it. Zav’s was up next. Whilst watching I could feel a slight ache in my jaw from all the ‘try not to make it look but it really is’ fake smiling. Zav looked like she was enjoying herself too and being a bit of a natural in front of the camera looked a lot more comfortable than me. That was until a false nail fell off, don’t panic the photographer said, we can photo shop that in. So, one nail down, we carried on and he snapped away.

With the first part of the shoot over, we made our way back inside for ‘look no. 2’.  Joining us was a Mr Millward, needless to say he didn’t hang around for any make up. Leathers on and he was out.

All ready for the next shoot, we made our way outside again. In the spotlight was James looking like a pro in his biker gear. It appears he opted for the ‘mean’ look. I heard the photographer blurting things like “more happy” at him many a time. By this time the sun was going in, and in true British weather style, the wind picked up too. But like professionals we carried on.

Next up was Pete. Looking lovely in leathers, posing with his bike and sporting a huge smile he was like the perfect model. I’m sure he’d done this before. While Pete was grinning away, the big man himself strolled in. Not feeling too excited about having his own photos done, he happily took the mick out of the other lads.

Zav and me where back up, this time with Millwards bike. Seeing his face while we climbed on his pride and joy, while trying not to knock it over or scratch it with our shoes was, in a word, priceless.

Kev. Firstly find a jacket that fits. It appears Kev had been taking tips from James and decided that the ‘cheese look’ wasn’t for him either. The photographer had a bit of an awkward one here, making sure Kev didn’t appear taller than the building and dealing with his comments. “You look more like a gardener than photographer mate” didn’t go down too well. After Kevs solo shots, I joined him in what looks like a father daughter type picture. I think the word uncomfortable would pretty much describe how we both felt.

After a busy morning we headed in for lunch. Sandwiches, crisps, mini pizzas and orange juice, just what we all needed.

I was now finished for the day, but the afternoon pretty much went the same way. Zav and Chelsea did some fluxbabes shots and I think everyone was pretty happy with the end results.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day, everyone was in good spirits and the rain kept away.

On the 2^nd of May 2010, 12 representatives from Bikesure all ran 10km in the Great East Anglian run for local charity Tapping House Hospice.

The runners and riders for this event were, Kyle “Minty” Benefer (me), Jon “Turbo GT” Mellish, Lee “Booboo” Boughen, Pete “Zilla” Sanctuary, Jon “Ladies Man” Howlett, Peter “Blockhead” Millward, Philippa “Model” Rowing, Robert “Texas Ranger” Walker, Jason “Never ran in my life” Masters, Robert “Skinny Twin” Botting, Thomas “TJ” Warner, and Matthew “Long Legs” Sopp.

In not so perfect preparation for this event, myself and a few other members did absolutely no training whatsoever. In fact the night before the run a few of us and a couple of loyal supporters gathered round my gaff for Fifa, a few beers, and a Chinese. Here is some picture proof…

So as we all woke up on the Sunday morning, with a small hangover and a full belly, we all decided to meet in our local McDonalds for breakfast. Only joking, that would be ridiculous. We decided that we would all start the race in the same area, and keep together as a team. This lasted all of about 20 metres past the start line, where a few of us, not naming names, Blockhead, started walking and we got split up.

Speaking for myself I was very pleased with my initial effort. I got through the first 3km without stopping to walk. Bearing in mind I weigh nearly 16 stone I don’t think my knees could take much more of a pounding. At least that’s what I keep telling people. So as the hordes of serious runners came flying past me, my fellow lazy swine, Jon Howlett, tapped me on the shoulder just as I was about to start running again, and pleaded with me to wait for him. So begrudgingly I did, because I’m nice like that.

So after our easy stroll for 5 minutes, I looked back and saw a geriatric gentleman dressed up as a tomato. At which point I turned to Jon and said “I ain’t get beaten by no tomato, fool”. We quickly started off on another run, and 30 seconds later we hit the wall again, only to find the old boy tomato go straight past us without a bead of sweat on his face, and a cheeky little wave as if to say, see you at the finish line boys.

Not even half way, Jon says to me “My feet hurt. I think these trainers are giving me blisters”. I look down to see parts of his shoes hanging off. Probably not the best footwear if you’re running 10km. So I ask him “Did you find them in a skip on the way up here?” Only to find out that he borrowed the shoes from his Step-Dad, who only uses them for his gardening. Seeing as Jon is such a “Ladies Man” and far too “Trendy” (these are his words by the way) he doesn’t own a pair of running shoes, and therefore had to improvise. Maybe his fashionable plimsolls would have been a better choice.

As we’re doing our best to get round the course, we have our loyal supporters Bunts and Dyer standing around with their tins of Strongy, geeing us up at various different stages of course. This for me, had no positive input at all. I started to wonder, why am I putting myself through so much punishment, why am I not standing with Bunts and Dyer with a Strongy in my hand. Then I remember that Soppy is to blame for arranging this whole fiasco.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and when I get some energy back, I will have my vengeance.

Anyway back to the race. Jon is now running around in just his socks. He hasn’t yet thrown his shoes in the bin where he found them, as he fears he may have a backlash from his Step-Dad for losing his favourite gardening shoes.

I’m going to miss out the middle section of the race as there was really nothing interesting happening. Unless you like to watch, unfit, lazy, fat people struggle a lot. The end of the race couldn’t come round soon enough, and I knew I had a big finish in me. We was in the final 150 metres and by this point I couldn’t be bothered to wait for Jon in his socks any more. Such a whiner.

Anyway, so I started picking up the pace and I was passing all the stragglers and some of the spectators started to cheer me on to the finish. I felt like a million dollars I was nearly there. Finally I had done it. Finished the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and collapsed flat on my face. Probably shouldn’t have sprinted that last 100 metres. Doesn’t matter anyway, I don’t have to do that ever again.

I completed it, in my eyes, in a very respectable 1 hour and 8 minutes, with no previous training and a few beers the night before. I walked straight past Linford Christie and went to find my fellow Bikesurians to bask in our glory.

This is us after we finished…

And this is how we celebrate…

On a serious note. I think we all enjoyed doing the race, and we all felt a lot better about ourselves and it made us even closer as friends and a team. Most importantly we raised a lot of money (over £600 and counting) for a very worthy cause.

Now before you all go off on one as to why a guy who works for the dam best bike insurance company in the world has posted a section on cars……..allow me to explain!

As you may well know or may not care, I have been attending numerous motorcycle shows around the UK as part of Bikesure. These have proven to be a success and the feedback has been incredibly positive.

Following on from this the lovely team in marketing then asked me if I would be willing to attend the French Car show at Rockingham. This is an annual show that Adrian Flux are proud to sponsor and as the title suggests, its for owners of French cars. Now you may be thinking that the show was full of “chavs”, loud music, fast driving and beer…..and you would probably be right…….but there was something else…….something I think any hot blooded male would appreciate and one of the main reasons I said yes to the show……………

FLUX BABES

Not only are these the girls we take to a number of our shows, including the BMF in Peterborough ( see below ) but they actually work for the company in every day jobs, so as you can imagine getting up for work everyday can be a real pain!!

In between me mopping up every ones drawl and picking up their jaws, I was part of a team offering quotes out to the public. I did unfortunately find myself forgetting where I was and asking questions like ” so its a quote on your Peugeot 206, do you have any motorcycle no claims bonus? ” Needless to say I looked a bit of a d**k.

But enough of me talking, I know what you really want to see so I will entertain the masses:

Proof that I was actually doing some work at the show

And finally……check out my pink t-shirt/hat combo……awesome I know!

Grant

If you want to see some real babes, you can check out the new Flux Babes, as voted for by the public.

And if you want to see how some of our rates compare with other companies, you can check out our bike insurance comparison page.

11:00 am By now the office is in full flow as the calls come thick and fast. Equally as important at this time is the tea rota! I have been banned from this because apparently my teas resemble dyke water and taste like it to!

14:00 By this time we are in full swing as everyone comes back refreshed from their lunch. Except of course for minty who is still shoveling his food (and everyone else’s) down that hole he calls a mouth.

19:00 The day slowly grinds to a halt as the important business of which pub to go to after work takes over.

So there you have it, a minor insight into a usual day in the bikesure office.

Token shot of Tom our renewals man of the hour:

Feel free to give us a ring for a quote or just a general chat, just make sure you don’t get hammond, that bloke talks for ages!

Grant

0800 089 2000