for summer!
Whether that's a good or bad thing may well depend on your point of view, certainly it means accommodation prices go up, petty crime increases as teens are left to fend for themselves, even a trip to IKEA is fraught by flocks of parents trailing pre teens. Forget going to shopping malls or town centres, flocks of teens will roam around those places, intimidating the old, filling the stores but without the means to buy anything except of course fast food, littering as they go.
Yep, the school holidays aren't looked forward to by everyone, 6 weeks of wishing September would hurry up and arrive. Oh i know its not the same everywhere around the globe and i know, much like daylight saving, its historically to allow enforced, legal child labour in farming communities but maybe its time to rethink the whole set up? My GS is lucky, both his parents work from home and he has friends close by for 'play dates' but i can guarantee he'll be bored silly after a fortnight!
Anyhoo, at least the weather is currently pleasant enough, not the burning heat of the last couple of weeks but hovering @ 20c, warm enough for t's and shorts! Monday i took myself for a bit of a walk, just shy of 7km but its difficult to get to somewhere more exciting without multiple buses and time spent on them - which of course costs money. Back in Sheffield i had direct access to the Peak district and north east Derbyshire, all from the front door or at worst a single bus journey but not so here in Brizzle, its like they want to contain the population within the city. So mostly my walks are quite repetitive and urban, my countryside fix being reliant on my bike rides.
After the walk i turned on the PC and got in more words for the new story which are of course now up on Patreon. Here's a question, should i release it to a wider audience in parts or wait until it is complete?
Tuesday, whilst not quite a fixture, is often at the moment, a variation of a loop down to Clevedon where i will usually get my burger fix and this week was no different. The route can be varied of course, the shortest, direct route is @ 25km, without going daft, the long out/return can add @ 75km - most of my rides are in the 70 to 100km region and yesterday was typical, a shorter ride out then a loop apres burger which punched the distance up to almost 88km with most of the day's 560m of ascent to help burn off the calories.
Last year i missed weeks of riding and often when i did get out they were quite short for me it wasn't a great year to say the least. This year i had thought to get back to pre 2024 levels but its just not happened - oh i've had some great days in new places but my average ride is @ 20km / an hour shorter and i just don't have the enthusiasm to go the extra bit. Its not a physical thing or a time thing, i just don't seem to be excited by the riding at the moment.
Today, well there will be a walk, there should be some writing, there may be some baking (i have a lot of fruit waiting to be processed into food stuffs). As an aside, my cucumbers are coming along apace, it looks like we'll be inundated in the next couple of weeks!
I have a vague idea for a longer ride at the weekend and possibly a bit of a walk on Friday, tomorrow will likely be a shortish ride again, 50 km ish.
That's it for today,
So for now,
Tak,
Madeline Anafrid
