but not quite what i was expecting!

I had, last autumn, expected to be in Germany right now to ride the Spreewald Radmarathon but circumstances beyond my control put the kybosh on that and so instead, tomorrow i travel to GOC to see my invalid father and more importantly spend some quality time with my daughter and grandson. (and get my feet looked at!) I depart at the crack of noon and return a week from today, as previously mentioned, this will affect my ability to upload the next Gaby chapter but i will try to put up a blog.

So what's been going on this week? The weather, thanks to Storm Kathleen, has been quite cool and very windy, yesterdays ride was cut to just 40km on health grounds! Monday was given to doing more work on the bike rebuild, essentially this was sorting out the brakes, installing new cables etc - it took a bit of time but i've got to a point of accepatable stopping. Which leaves the transmission as the next bit to tackle, the last few parts to finish the job are expected to arrive tomorrow so with a following wind (not storm force) it should be at the rideable stage next weekend. The final bit of the puzzle is the finishing kit, bar tape, mudguards, racks etc, i have new tyres/tubes but i may leave those for now as the kit fitted is okay.

Which leaves today. I've mentioned my model building previously, well that's been my focus today, the weather wasn't up to outdoor pursuits and with parts still missing for the bike it gave me the opportunity for a build i've had planned for best part of 10 years. My main project is a walled town based loosely on those to be found across Germany / Austria / Switzerland, lots of timberwork construction, towers and narrow streets, think somewhere like Rothenburg/Tauber. Todays build was my take on a quirky feature not often surviving, a windmill integrated into the walls, two kits, my 'Dremel' lookalike and a bit of imagination. I guess it was @ five hours from start to finish but i'm quite chuffed with the result.

In case you were wondering, scale is 1:87 / HO, thats 4mm/ft, the mill is 24cm from base to the top of the cap so a scale 60ft/18.2m tall! One of the town gates is @ 30cm tall, the 'finished' town will not be small! The pictures tell you that of course, the actual 'town' hasn't got much further than a few buildings, the makings aren't cheap and tbh i've not yet finalised the town plan which may well include the huge model of Castle Frankenstein that's waiting to be built (that alone cost €600 when i had more money!).

So that's it, next job is packing for the trip North, hopefully i'll be travelling quite light for a change.

Byeeee!
Madeline Anafrid