Sunny but the stiff breeze is preventing it being properly warm!

Things are almost back to normal after the Easter disruptions, the schools will be back tomorrow so it'll be safe to go places without them pesky kids everywhere!

Its probably a sign of my age but back when i was of school age teens didn't hang around the shops, toddlers were kept under control and tweens behaved themselves or else. I'm not saying we didn't get up to stuff but growing up in a world free of mobile phones, 3 TV channels and no computers meant we 'did' stuff, made our own entertainment. The last places we wanted to be was anywhere with lots of adults about - of course the fact that we had almost nil disposable income contributed to that too!

So what has Madeline Anafrid been up to since midweek? Well Thursday i took my velocipede east in a loop taking in Calne and Bradford on Avon, the weather was bright and the wind not too strong, it almost felt like summer. A hundred and fifteen kilometres was just right for how i was feeling.

After being just about caught up for my riding target before my trip to GOC, i've fallen quite a way behind, a few longer rides will get me back on track but at the moment my hearts not in it.

Friday i had hoped to at least finish writing the current Gaby chapter but it was not to be, i gave up still @ 1k words short. The knock on effect is that the release of the 4th part of Smell of the Crowd has been delayed until early May, i'll not make any rash promises of exactly when but i hope by the 14th. Yeah, my head was all over the place all day, i did buy some extra stuff for the garden so it wasn't a completely wasted day.

To Saturday then. I had hoped that with Covid on the wain i'd have been in Germany to ride the Spreewald Radmarathon but finances and lingering issues with regard to travelling abroad meant that plan died early in the New Year. Instead of riding 200km around the Spree region, my St Georges Day ride was instead a windy loop out through Tetbury to Stroud where i stopped for a bacon sarnie before a wind assisted return to base. It was only a little over half of the German events distance but it was run off at, a reasonably quick 25kph average - most of the return leg was over 30kph so the total ride time was a mere 4 hours.

I got a bit inspired on my return so, as friends posted their Spreewald exploits on Strava i booked accomodation to go next year. Not as easy as you might think, most of the accomodation in my price range was already booked out a year in advance! If things go to plan, i'll be celebrating my 60th year with several trips abroad - doubling up as research for my writing, the Spreewald trip and a summer tour at the very least but hopefully a couple of non bike shorter trips too. Over the years i've become quite expert at travelling on a tight budget, i'd like to think i'll not be on too tight of a shoestring by then although i'm notoriously poor at saving!

I was on a roll then, my mid summer trip to GOC was next, i've got my first campsite booked just outside Stratford on Avon (different Avon to Bradford!), i'll book more during this week. Campsites i hear you mumble, indeed, i'll be riding at least the bulk of the distance from Bristol over two days before a short stopover in Sheffield then going via my daughters place in Leeds on up to York for the gathering. Its a sort of celebration of cycling with day rides, grass track and cyclo cross racing, sales stalls and mostly, lots of people from across the country renewing friendships and talking crap about bikes and their exploits. With Covid cancelling the last 2 editions, this year is set to be quite a weekend. Afterwards i'll return to Sheffield for a day or two before retracing back to Bristol.

Before that of course i have two bikes to service/rebuild and i need to get my camping gear out and checked - its not been used since 2019!

And so to today, Well the chores are done, dinner is prepared waiting to go in the oven and the next free Gaby chapter is posted here on BC! Yep, Costume Dilemma, part 17 of Fame has its debut with another uniquely Gaby Bond problem to solve!

And so a new week stretches out ahead of us, I'll get more writing done, i have a castle visit pencilled in for later in the week and i'll be tending the garden amongst other things. Exciting eh?

Looking a bit further ahead, pre Covid i was planning on organising (loosely) a get together for the UK authors / fans (not exclusively of course) which of course had to be abandoned. Well i'd like to try again, most likely in September and likely in southern England. It could be a single day centred around a meal or perhaps over a weekend, for that matter it doesn't even have to be a weekend, accomodation is often cheaper mid week. The idea is for people to put faces to names, exchange / discuss ideas, maybe take in a visit to somewhere interesting on a similar basis to the Gabfest events of the past. If you think you might be interested, have suggestions for venues or other comments please comment or PM me here at BC. Just to be clear, this is open to anyone but i'm thinking folks across the pond or around the globe will be less inclined to travel!

Well i think that's everything,
for now then,
Wiedersehn,
Madeline Anafrid