is the advice i never had

But of course, that's not always a personal choice and almost nine and a half years ago i was, for the third time, made redundant. At that point, book sales were doing well and i was quite productive and so i decided to change careers from bike wrangling to word wrangling. There have been ups and downs but i've just about kept my head above water - that is until the Orange One came into office which has scared my biggest market into hiding and with that, sales have plummeted by over 75%. My income has dropped to match, to the point where getting to the next payday relies increasingly on robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It doesn't help that prices, especially food continue to rise, i'm almost at the point of taking sandwiches on my rides as a £6/7 stop for lunch is becoming untenable. As part of this 'self sufficiency' drive, on Monday i did a bout of baking, ingredients set me back a wodge but some of that will go forward so not so bad. And i made a bunch of stuff, cherry 'pie' with homegrown cherries, an orange loaf cake, and a couple of huge Battenburgs. All of it is edible however the cherry pie ended up more like a pasty, the orange loaf is a bit stodgy and the Battenburgs - well lets go back to todays start!

Maybe baking isn't my forte, so its back to the drawing board so to speak, should i return to some sort of bike wrangling? Part of the reason for not seeking further employment in that avenue was that it had become increasingly not enjoyable but maybe i should reconsider? I will of course continue to write but its looking like any reliance on that for income is sheer folly.

Anyhow, yesterday i set out for a short ride, something a little different. I set off with half a plan, down to the Avon, out to the 'coast' then up past the Severn crossings, stopping at Severn Beach for a bite to eat. Which is what i did, taking in a few stretches of new road.bridleway,path on the way. I then followed the coastal path all the way to the Severn Bridge viewing point before turning inland with the intention of looping back quite directly.

Well, much like Sunday's ride, it didn't exactly work out like that, the loop back extended a bit here, a bit there, more new to me bridleway was traversed, fords, er, forded but eventually i picked up the bike path to finish the ride. I had been thinking @ 60km but it ended with 96km but just 550m of up, an easyish day if unspectacular.

Today, well after the usual chores, i spent an hour or so fettling Foxy after her trip to GOC last month. Bizarrely someone, during the weekend in York seems to have stolen just one of the expensive Ti chainring bolts. It didn't stop me getting back to Leeds but since my return i've been waiting for a replacement set to arrive. They turned up at the weekend and so today it was time to rebuild and replace, putting Foxy back into the pool of running bikes.

Next up is a trip to the shop to get some milk, then i'll crack on with some writing this afternoon before cooking tonights spag bol.

So there we go, the rest of the week will have a couple of rides and hopefully more writing and of course on Sunday i'll be back with another Gaby chapter.

But for now,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid