Well that's a question I seem to be asking myself a lot lately.

If you have the answer to that one for me I'd be more than pleased!

The second half of the week has had an upward bias but countered by a major down. The down first I guess, get it out of the way. My plans for heading back to Yorkshire with a solid base of operations took a major blow, the plan I've been working towards for some weeks was dismissed by the required other party, no reason given but firmly and with finality. So I'm pretty much back to where I started.

The plan was to build a 'micro house' of some sort, the lynch pin being a suitable site to put it on. So that's where I am now, the job made more difficult by being a couple a hundred miles from where I hope to end up. Currently I'm looking at more temporary alternatives that would at least get me geographically in the ball park. Watch this space I guess.

So what else - the bike I guess. Well the deed has been done, the bike landed at the 'heavy engineering' end of bike mechanics on Friday (thanks for taking me down Bev), depending on the amount of grunt required, its looking like it'll be done in about a fortnight. By the time I've got it reassembled, (fit the replacement part, refit the stuff I've had to remove, possibly having to do some 'spraying' etc, etc) realistically that's the end of the month to be back up and running.

Next up then are Maddy's travels. After the mostly dry ride on Wednesday, Thursday's weather was forecast to be similar so unusually, I had a consecutive day ride, this time hitting out almost due east, initially to Chippenham. Although the forecast was bright and dry, I'd got as far as Calne before the low cloud I'd picked up crossing the Cotswolds showed any signs of breaking up.

Undeterred I pushed on for a destination I've been thinking about for a while, Royal Wootton Bassett. (until quite recently it was just Wootton Bassett, if you want to know how it got the Royal added have a look at Wikipedia.) There was no real plan to stop when I got there and as no purveyor of lunch leapt out at me on the way through, I kept going, turning to the west and Malmesbury. I did at least have a couple of food options lined up there, the Chinese chippy getting the business as the sun had finally broken through and dining al fresco was a reasonable option.

Although the wind, what there was, was in my face, I kept up a good pace back across the Cotswolds and was soon dropping back towards base. 115km at 24kph, dammit, you'd think I was training to compete!

And so to Saturday, with Storm Ciara approaching, to give myself the best bite of the weather I decided north was the way to go. I set off with the winter sun on my back and a rising tailwind which swept me quickly to Wotton under Edge and the start of the day's uphill efforts. Up onto the Cotswolds then down into Stroud to start the long climb up to Painswick Beacon, then a swoop down into Gloucester. Bypassing the city centre I started the return trip into the wind, grateful to find a burger van just a couple of miles further on.

Suitably re-energised with tea, cow and pig, I started the twiddly route back through Berkeley Vale, better than the main road as it offered some break from the still rising winds ahead of Ciara. It did contribute some extra kilometres, twenty more than Thursday all told with just 0.3kmh reduction in the average speed. With close to 2k km on two wheels and almost 150km on two feet, this year is certainly looking good for my bodily fitness, even if mentally I'm still with the cuckoos!

Of course, with Ciara arrived and moving through I decided to go for a longish walk which turned into 15km - well I was looking for a particular skirt and wanted to get a look at a new PC too. It was certainly a bit breezy but the rain mostly came in short squalls. That is until I got back, we watched from inside as a downpour of truly biblical proportions hammered the locale - glad I was inside that's all i'll say!

And so to writings. Well I've got a few words down this week, not brilliant but its a start. On the other hand I do feel more positive about writing so that has to be good.

Today though, I offer you Iron Madchen, part 30 of Gaby - Express. The 'Night at the opera', 'Day at the races' theme continues with a bit of a sing a long at the gig, followed by a tale of woe the following morning. So dust off the ole vocal chords and grab the tissues and enjoy todays chapter.

So that's all for today, more mid week
Guten abend
Madeline

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