or something

Can i catch a break? I must have really upset Odin or one of the others, as if i've not got enough going on the back half of the week has taken things up another notch or two, dunno about 11, more like 13! Where to start?

Well i suppose the beginning is never the worst starting point so we'll go back to Thursday. The forecast was for dry and keen to get in a decent ride, i headed east to make my way to my regular stop just outside Chippenham. It was a pleasant enough ride, a slight tailwind was nice and i made my food stop ahead of my usual pace by about 10%. Sausage & chips, my usual at Yilmaz. i guess the first sign of something wrong was my inability to eat all the chips. It was a bit brighter for the return then as i entered Bath on the A4 there was an almighty bang as i hit a hole that i hadn't seen, hidden as it is by an atrocious surface.

To be honest i was expecting a sudden deflation but no, the tube survived and i carried on. The legs felt okay but on the long climb from Bath back to base along the bike path, i didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. I put Foxy away, showered and went to bed, this was about 18.30, i never go to bed before midnight!

I awoke Friday late, with the symptoms i had it was some form of flu, my day was a washout, i finally forced some food down at tea time before another earlier than usual night. I had been planning a long ride on Saturday, it was forecast warm and sunny, ideal and in similar circumstances in the past i would've gone out but with things the way they are and my holiday trip in just a fortnights time, i took the more sensible route. I did feel a bit better, i managed a walk around the park but most of the day i spent either sat in or working in the garden.

And so to today, I felt good enough for a shorter ride, yeah i know my short is a lot of peoples long adventure, okay, short for me. The big impact seemed to have put the head bearings out of adjustment a bit so i attended to that and set off on a glorious morning for an easy couple of hours. So still not 100% but a decent 85%, another couple of days should sort me out. But Foxy seemed to have issues, wheel issues and inspection when i got back after 50km of tootling revealed a fairly serious dint in the front rim and a very out of true rear, no wonder i'd been having braking issues.

Yes i know i should have checked on Thursday but my excuse is that i was very out of sorts and bike maintenance wasn't on my radar, Tomorrow then will be getting the truing stand out for Foxy and maybe removing the broken crank from the Mares - i might get so far as taking a look at sorting out the leccy Focus too. As my father would say, such is life.

Which brings me to the elephant. It's been a quiet week on the parent front, no news is good news or so its said, but i'm just waiting for the shoe to drop. The plan has been to go up for a couple of days before the trip but before i was afflicted i was already hovering over going earlier possibly even this week. I don't want to risk passing on whatever i've had so my revised plan is to go after next weekend, spend a week in Steel City before the trip, at least i'll have something other than floor to sleep on!.

I expect to be here again midweek, but for now,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid