Sorry folks I have a visitor and we were out walking this evening, so it's too late to write this evening. I'll try and do one tomorrow.

I'm giving a bit of advance notice that my course begins on October 1st (I'm going away for a week the next day, my timing is always impeccable) and it looks as if I have to supply a written assignment about every three weeks, so I may not be able to write Bike as frequently as you've been used to seeing it.

The story of Tracey Norman who modelled for Clairol hair dye in 1976.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/21/tracey-norma...

Probably won't post tonight, watching the cycling in the Olympics - C'mon Cav!!

After six years and two months, I've got my registration for a WML-CL10a user status. (For those not in the know a licence to survey Hazel Dormice in England). In other words I'm now licensed to handle dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius) in my own right, not under someone else's licence. I'm so pleased I can't describe it.

From the Grauniad quite a well written or reported item.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/28/transgender-...

I had a splendid week with my two outstanding hosts, who fed and spoiled me. I saw some of the Alps, the historic city of Berne, two stages of the TdF, countless wild flowers and insects (some of which bit), some mammals - admittedly - in captivity, some new species of birds and a nightmare journey home from Basel airport. P dropped me off about 3.00pm for a flight at 5.30. We eventually took off after 7.15pm nearly two hours late and made good time flying back only to have to wait over an hour in the plane because they were short of ground crews at Gatwick. I finally got home at 12.10am.

...Sergeant Pepper told the band... whoops, and who said modern culture isn't pervasive?

Article from The Guardian (where else) about the struggle some parents face and the triumph of others with transgender children.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/12/rise-in-tran...

From same edition a video by trans actors about being 'themselves'.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2016/jul/12/trans-...

Um - sorry, I was out at an AGM for a mammal group I belong to and apart from getting elected on to another committee, I sort of got talking with our mammal records officer and got back a bit late to write Bike.

I was out dormousing this morning and we had six, I got to handle two and it was somebody else' turn to drop one of them instead of me. So here's a photo of one of the ones we had today (dormouse, I mean).

I'll try and do one tomorrow.

Each episode I write is breaking new ground as no one has written this amount over such a period before, at least in this genre and on this site. I have the support of Erin to continue posting this interminable saga, the transgender equivalent of watching paint dry, as long as I wish to continue. I suppose it has become something of a feature of the site alongside the reasonable literacy of its authors compared to some other sites.

Wales, that mythical country west of England have just beaten Belgium 3 -1 in the European Championships to pass through to the semi finals. As they weren't expected to qualify, I'm rather pleased for them. Will they go all the way? I don't know as I think Germany and Italy are still there, but it would be a real fairy tale ending if they did. Cymru am byth, as we say.

Sorry folks, been trying to do a short story for this weekend's Gabycon. I haven't written anything Gaby for the past year so it was a longer process than usual and I didn't have time to do any writing for Bike, episodes of which may be a bit sparse over the next few days as I help to entertain the Gaby fans who turn up here in darkest Dorset. The good news - the weather appears to be improving; the bad - my cycling isn't.

Fishermen traditionally have stories of minnows the size of blue whales that got away with no evidence to prove or disprove the stories. Today, while helping with a survey to find some dormeece for a Mammal Society course, two managed to escape from a box I was checking. The first one shot out the hole in the back of the box and up the tree it was on before dropping onto the ground - behaviour, neither of us surveyors had seen before. It then climbed up a piece of stick where it posed blinking, for us to photograph it.

An extract from a new book, not quite sure what I thought about her father from the portrait painted, but then people who survived the Second World War in eastern Europe dealt with some terrible experiences which were bound to have an impact on their lives. From its narrative the author doesn't pull any punches about her relationship with the complex and at times dark natured man who, eventually became a woman. Interesting.

and my head feels like a metal bucket stuffed full of cotton wool - in short, I feel like poo warmed up and only then because I had to put the heating on I felt so cold. I didn't sleep very well last night for the stupid tickly cough which kept waking me up, so an early night with a good book and an even better cat, is called for. Florence Whizzingale will be pressed into service.

I hope I shall feel a bit better tomorrow and I can add extra episodes of the story that Waif hates so much or is it just the author?