A couple of nice images...

Christmas lights, Whitgift Centre, Croydon

Early evening from my office in Redhill, Surrey

Two rides, two days – to Tatsfield Bus Stop and Tatsfield Village

Once again, I expected cold weather in the form of frosted cars and frozen grass. We'd certainly had some during the week and, for weather nuts, the whole of the Eastern coast of the UK experienced a huge tidal surge, causing coastal houses to fall into the sea and plenty of flooding. You might be forgiven for thinking we were bound, at least, to get a soaking, but on both days it was fairly warm and bright and very clear. We could see the Shard and Canary Wharf all very clearly from a good 20 miles or so away.

Our bikes in the lanes off the B269. Pic by Andy Smith.

On Saturday we headed out to the bus stop and on Sunday we headed for the village. We'd talked about the Churchyard, but figured the benches there would be wet (with dew) so we switched back to our original plan – the village.

Once again, like the week before last, we went the 'slow way' and endured the mildish pain of Beddlestead Lane, trying to 'sectionalise' it in our heads to make it seem shorter, but it didn't work. Today, for example, the place where we stopped to take the photos accompanying this post, was virtually at the end of Beddlestead Lane. We thought it was further back, but it was only yards from Clarks Lane, where we turned left and then left again into Tatsfield village.

Andy brought along a couple of rock cakes, which looked great, but I resisted in order to lose some weight, making do with a cereal bar.

Tatsfield, unlike Warlingham, hasn't gotten round to erecting its Christmas tree yet, which is a bit disappointing.

Nearing the end of Beddlestead Lane. Pic by Andy Smith.

On both days we made our usual farewells halfway along the 269 and reached our respective homes around 10am.

Andy won't be going next Saturday so I'll need all the will power I can muster to get out of bed and hit the road...unless Phil's there to provide the motivation. Phil's missed the last couple of weekends, but he'll be riding again soon I hope.

In the news

• Nelson Mandela died last week (on 5th December) aged 95.
• It looks as if MPs will be getting an 11% pay rise.
• The two men charged with the murder of Lee Rigby are on trail and are pleading not guilty.
• A huge tidal surge along the eastern coast of England has wreaked havoc. There's been severe flooding and many people were evacuated from their homes, some of which were swept into the sea.