Counting sheep!

Carvings of what look like sheep on Woodmansterne Green.

Hooray! Andy and Jon talk politics. Hooray!

Jon and Andy 'talking politics' on the Green while I nipped off to buy some teabags.

3rd January – yes, Woodmansterne Green again!

A frozen leaf on Woodmansterne Green.

It was warmer at 6am this morning than it was two hours later. When I went out to retrieve my mobile phone from the car there was no frost on the windscreen of my car, but by just gone 0730hrs, the windscreen was completely iced up.

Outside there was still a full moon in a grey sky, everything seemed covered in ice and soon my feet were freezing cold. Andy overslept and Jon had a bet to make: he reckons that the distance from Woodmansterne Green to Boxhill is no more than five miles longer than Woodmansterne to Redhill. A fiver rests on this one. I bet that Boxhill is well over five miles longer than Redhill, based on the knowledge that travelling to Redhill and back from my house in South Croydon is a 28-mile round trip and I normally get home at a reasonable hour. Conversely, Boxhill (as this blog testifies) takes the whole morning and hovers between 35 and 40 miles in round trip terms.

Thought for the day: Why does the UK establishment reward failure? And why was Bruce Forsyth missed off the New Year Honours list? Let's start with rewarding failure. Arguably one of the biggest failures of late was the police shooting dead an innocent Brazilian on the tube at Stockwell. Who was in charge of the operation? Why, the aptly named Cressida Dick! And who was awarded the Queen's Medal? You got it! Cressida DICK!!!!

As for Brucie, well, he's what, 81? He might not be around next year so why wasn't he honoured?

2nd January 2010 – positively balmy!

Here's my bike resting against a pub sign adjacent to the Tatsfield bus stop. It might look sunny, but it was bloody freezing cold.

The phrase 'brass monkey' springs to mind, although that word 'springs' is totally out of place. It was freezing cold on both 2nd and 3rd of January and our first cycles of the new year.

On the 2nd, Andy and I cycled to the Tatsfield bus stop. Going downhill was agonising for face and ears and I wished for my balaclava, which I couldn't find in the house. Our feet froze too. Thank the Lord for gloves!

At the bus stop, Andy referred to the weather as 'positively balmy' as the sun rose its head from behind a nearby hedgerow, but then again he might have been talking about our general state of mental health. Who in their right mind would venture out in weather this cold?

There was a full moon in a grey sky and frozen muddy puddles that cracked underneath our tyres like creme brulées but when we reached the bus stop all was fine with the world and we sat there discussing the greatness of the Christmas Top Gear special in Bolivia. Shame they fixed so many things: like the Toyota Land Cruiser rolling off and crashing at the end, making the Land Rover, 'the most unreliable car in the world', the most reliable car in the world. Hmmmm...and let's not forget there were cameramen out in the forest with them, prompting the question, 'how did they get around?' Still, all that aside, it was easily the best programme on the box over Christmas along with James May's attempt at running a 00 gauge railway from, where, Barnstaple to Bideford if I can remember correctly.

On the way home I stopped off at Warlingham Green's Village Café for a mug of tea and two slices of toast and then, on reaching home, a hot bath. Perfect!