Wheeee-eeee! Pop!

Yes its Bonfire Night here in the UK, the day we Brits celebrate the (rare) failure of a Yorkshireman! What did he and his chums fail at? Well blowing up Parliament, real 17th century terrorists. And how do we celebrate? We burn an effigy of Mr Fawkes atop a bonfire and fill the air with fireworks - when i was a kid, indeed until the millenium this was the only time we let off fireworks in the UK and it was far more important in UK culture than last weeks Hallowe'en. As i write this the sky is lit with explosions, people are eating dodgy hotdogs and otherwise having a good time on what is one of the few non religous events on the UK cultural calendar.

But lets get some Maddy news out. The weather has been mucking up my schedule again which meant Thursday i ended up writing but not finishing the next Balancing Trick chapter which is now of course up on Patreon, I don't suppose we should complain too much about the weather, it is November after all and rain on bonfire night is traditional!

It looked better on Friday so i set off to get some lunch near Trowbridge, the sky was grey but sunshine was forecast and it was still okay in shorts. Which was fortuitous as 30km in i found a puddle blocking my way, a puddle some 100m long and, as i soon discovered, up to half a metre deep! Wet feet of course but the rest of me stayed dry so sort of a win.

After lunching on a small cooked breakfast i set off to loop back via the Cotswolds, after a few spots of rain it cleared to bright sunshine even if the roads were quite wet. When i say wet thats in capital letters, when i reached Lacock both roads were closed due to the Avon breaking its banks, luckily i didn't need to try rifing the flood as the second option has a raised walkway which kept me above the swiftly flowing flood waters. The weather changed again, the rest of the ride was one minute sunny, the next persisting down, i was a little damp when i completed the 100km ride.

Saturday was quite busy, once the laundry was sorted it was time to fix Foxy, the parts having arrived on Thursday. By the time i'd rebuilt the chainset and got it all back together it was lunchtime. Next up i finished the chapter from Thursday then had a bit of a clear up before taking a walk and getting my tea.

The forecast for today was quite favourable so i set off for a fairly easy loop northwards. I wasn't sure if there was a Hill bunfest this month but it was worth a look and i had a fall back stop if not. I was a bit later than previously getting there, yes it was on but the locusts from south Wales had beaten us to the best tidbits! Still, cake and tea, what's not to like. A few spots of wet as i departed the stop but then it was dry and even sunny as i followed the coast then the Avon back to Brizz where i ended the ride with just over 100km recorded.

And so here we are, a tardy post with a new Gaby chapter, Tenerife, for your enjoyment.

I'll be back midweek with more news but for now, thank you for reading.

Madeline Anafrid