It's that time of year again when Bournemouth celebrates my wife's birthday by putting on the Air Festival. It's very thoughtful of them to do this, but I do feel for other local people who don't get such a fuss made when it's their birthday.

I always look forward to this week and watching the preparations along the seafront as I cycle to work in the mornings. In previous years I have been amazed by the huge number fast food vans that set up between the piers and I also remember catching up with a tank that was rumbling it's way towards Bournemouth!

A couple of things have caught my eye this year as the preparations begin:

Firstly there are the huge number of new or repainted double yellow lines and junction markings. Parking for the Air Festival is always a nightmare and even attempting to drive around the area over the weekend is such a difficult proposition that we plan on not using cars at all from about Thursday onwards!

Cycling is definitely the best form of transport if you need to get around this weekend. The roads around the seafront become so clogged up with cars that a bicycle seems to be the only vehicle that can move around freely.

The second thing I've noticed this year is how much effort is being taken to spruce up the seafront and its surroundings in preparation for the weekend. There have been huge gangs of workers out sweeping, tidying, repairing and generally trying to make everything nice.

Why is so much effort being made now and why isn't it the norm? For those of us that are local and pay our council tax why can't we expect this type of work to be carried out 52 weeks per year?

It irks me somewhat that I'm used to seeing the seafront piled up with rubbish and sand and it taking some time to get this cleared up, but the council seems quite happy to use some of my council tax to get everything nice and shiny for this weekend!

So as you are all going to get on your bikes this weekend and leave the cars at home you might find this website useful: www.transportdirect.info. This has a new Cycle Journey Planner that allows you to select the quietest, quickest or most recreational route.

As well as directions, the planner will give you the distance in miles and the journey time based on a speed of 12mph. You can also select to avoid unlit roads, walking your bike or time based restrictions. A gradient profile will give you information about the hills on your route.

I'm going to try and keep track of what happens each day along the seafront in the mornings and the overcliffs in the evenings during the course of this week to see if there is anything interesting to report on next week.

This is the first year in a while that I'm at work on the Friday of the Air Festival so I am curious to see how that is going to affect my journey to and from work.

Enjoy the show, get planning your cycle routes and I'll be back next week!

Based on information supplied by David Brown.