is better than late, right?

As the weather is a bit iffy this morning and the washing is in the drier, I thought I'd do todays post before I get sidetracked by Ikea, the supermarket or finding my bikini (its here somewhere, I'm sure of it!)

So, to catch up, well Monday ended up being a day of just doing some chores and catching my head back up!

Which means all of this week's excitement happened yesterday, well excitement is maybe a bit strong but I went for a ride, the last of June. I had a plan so despite a showery start I headed north east, through the lanes towards Cirencester, there was a bit of a breeze on my right shoulder but by mid distance I was out of the showery stuff and I made good time to my lunch stop at the Roman amphitheatre. To be honest, there isn't much to see, any stonework having long since been quarried by the locals but the earthen mounds and lumps give a fair impression of what was once an important centre of entertainment for the town.

My original plan had been to ride up to Cheltenham before returning down the Severn Vale but given the iffy weather I decided on a shorter, south easterly route that would hopefully be less wind affected. So I headed vaguely towards Oxford before turning south through the upper Thames gravel extraction, over the, at this point, bubbling brook that is the Thames and back into the more rolling south east Cotswolds. Once through Malmesbury I once again took the quit lanes, at one point getting turned about so that I was heading back from where I'd just been - dur.

There was more damp as I once again crossed the Cotswold edge then its a largely downhill ride back into Brizzle. A bit over 145km, 1000m of climb and damp! I didn't quite make 1500km for the month but for the year I've done 8500km (5280 miles for the colonials) so I'm well past half way to my years target.

Of course, given the mileage, the poor old bike needs some looking after so before I set off yesterday I changed the brake blocks, simple job, ten minutes tops. Well that was the job done except I somehow dislodged the tension spring on the brake and spent thirty minutes trying to refit it! Life is never as simple as you hope.

Next up, writing. Once again you get two for the price of one, Gaby chapters that is, Oxford from book 2 and Bottle of Cheer from book 21. Two very different but quite nice chapters to keep you entertained.

I think that's everything, don't forget that the first part of book 26 is up on Kindle - i'll be cracking on and hope to have more finished before the month ends!

Tschussie

Madeline Anafrid