September is coming and so is the bad weather. Let's face it, winter approaches and with it Christmas. I'm a summer person, I like the hot weather and the very thought of dark mornings depresses me. Sometimes, like this morning, when I make my way downstairs to make breakfast I refuse to switch on the light if it's too dark in the kitchen, to do so would be an admission of defeat, an acceptance of the end of summer and the awful realisation that cold weather and rain and wind and everything I hate about the United Kingdom is on the way.
So-called 'lockdown' is leaving the building too. I'm heading back to the office on 7 September as part of Bubble One. Bubble Two is the other half of the office, so there's people I won't see for many months, possibly not until the Christmas Party (which always takes place in January and might not take place at all this time round, thanks to the virus).
Yes, lockdown is coming to a close and the signs are there for all to see. My fictional restaurant, Handel's, has shut up shop. I'm no longer in charge of the kitchen as I have been these past six months. The novelty of making evening meals has started to wane and I'd even go as far as to say I don't have the energy anymore. In days past I would return from a 20-mile ride and get on with making the dinner. There would be a lit candle on the table, knives and forks laid out and many a culinary delight on offer, but of late, the very idea of coming off the ride and getting cracking in the kitchen is not as appealing as it has been. Perhaps it's the end of the summer that's caused me to feel this way. We've had a lot of rain, which is always a bit depressing, and rain means no cycling. In fact, as I write this I can tell you that it's raining out there now, on Saturday morning. This time last week I was preparing myself for a ride to Dunton Green and some tea and cake at Bojangles. Now, I'm sitting at the dining room table, resigned to not riding anywhere until (hopefully) tomorrow, which looks like it's going to be the only sunny day we get this August bank holiday weekend. This week I've cycled something like 36 miles. Last week it was 103 miles.
Lockdown for me was characterised by eating, cooking, watching box sets and staying up too late. That, in a nutshell was the way it was. Oh, and cycling, of course. I've cycled more over the last six months than I've done in the last 10 plus years. Everything has been aided and abetted by good weather. The highlight of my lockdown week has always been the weekly shop at Waitrose when invariably I'd over spend, but it didn't matter because I wasn't spending a fortune on trains or lunches at work. We've managed to save a bit too. In the early days, back in late March, it was like being on holiday, sitting in the living room, late at night, mug of camomile tea in hand, watching Ozark or the X Files, staying up until around 2330hrs, sometimes later.
Most of my cycling, as you'll know if you've read all my Lockdown posts (all 40 of them so far) has been in the late afternoon/early evening. I've worked out new routes, which is all good, but there's also been an element of cycling becoming a necessity rather than a leisure activity, it's a necessity because of a need to maintain fitness levels. In the past there was a social element to riding the bike as Andy and I would meet at the Green and head off to the Tatsfield Bus Stop to chat about this and that while drinking tea. Now it's all about how many miles I get under my belt. I have Strava on the iphone measuring the mileage and it's all about 'getting it done' rather than enjoying the moment, except at the weekends. The Saturday morning ride has taken me back to the lakes or to Redhill or Dunton Green where I've relaxed with a cup of tea or, like last week, with a cup of tea and some cake from Bojangles, a great cafe. Andy and I didn't meet for a long time. Instead we rode alone, keeping in step with the Government's social distancing rules. But then we started to meet again, at the Churchyard and that's become a regular thing to do on a Sunday morning. It used to be an 11 o'clock meeting, but this tended to take up the whole day so now we're meeting at 0800hrs, getting back to the old routine. I'll be heading off to the churchyard tomorrow around 0700hrs, it represents the start of my cycling week and if the weather holds it'll be good.
What is there to look forward to? Well, there's the prospect of Donald Trump getting a second term. People say he's going to struggle, but I reckon he'll win because Biden just isn't the ticket in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Trump to win, I want him to be trounced, but Sod's Law dictates that he must win, to add to everybody's misery. Another four years of Trump. Awful. What else? Oh, Brexit. Well, it's kind of obvious that we're going to get a no-deal Brexit isn't it? It's what the Tories have wanted and they've engineered it to happen and it will, in the same way that they've engineered the whole 'herd immunity' thing. Alright, they had to scare us into staying at home back in March to save lives and protect the NHS (because they hadn't adequately funded it), but as soon as the economy has shown signs of faltering, bugger the safety aspect, suddenly it's fine to get on trains and go back to the office. They want the kids back in school too, it's all designed to spread the virus again and hey, we won't have to wait too long before the second wave shuts us all down for Christmas.
It's funny how everything has become so samey. The days plod on, nobody really sees anybody else, we're all kind of confined to the house unless we're out shopping or taking a drive in the car somewhere. I know we're not confined to the house in reality, in the true sense of the word, but the house has become the main base, the hub, from where we venture out, normally just to the shops. That's why the bicycle is a such a good thing to have because it does offer that added sense of freedom. When we first locked down and people were quite literally confined to barracks, I was out on the bike riding around 100 miles per week. That was true freedom, being out there on the bike on deserted roads, stopping to chill in a field or on a village green with a mug of tea, just sitting there, sun beating down, there's nothing better.
It's 0842 and the rain has stopped, but it's grey and cloudy out there. I've texted Bon. "Cycle? Or is it likely to rain? Might get away with it." He's writing back to me, hold on... "Off to Middleton-on-Sea at 10 so can't. Tomorrow?" And now he's writing some more, hold on again... a movie. 'Tap to download'. It's of Bon swimming in the sea at Felpham. We might try and get a ride on Monday as it's a bank holiday here in the UK and we've all got a long weekend.
Apart from last Sunday's ride to the Churchyard, I went out on Wednesday on a Chump Bastard Womble (it's one of my rides, 20 miles). The photograph accompanying this post is from that ride, which was a non-stop ride that took me down to the Churchyard, through Tatsfield Village and then home. I should have gone out Thursday, but I couldn't motivate myself, which was a shame. Anyway, let's hope for better weather.
So-called 'lockdown' is leaving the building too. I'm heading back to the office on 7 September as part of Bubble One. Bubble Two is the other half of the office, so there's people I won't see for many months, possibly not until the Christmas Party (which always takes place in January and might not take place at all this time round, thanks to the virus).
Yes, lockdown is coming to a close and the signs are there for all to see. My fictional restaurant, Handel's, has shut up shop. I'm no longer in charge of the kitchen as I have been these past six months. The novelty of making evening meals has started to wane and I'd even go as far as to say I don't have the energy anymore. In days past I would return from a 20-mile ride and get on with making the dinner. There would be a lit candle on the table, knives and forks laid out and many a culinary delight on offer, but of late, the very idea of coming off the ride and getting cracking in the kitchen is not as appealing as it has been. Perhaps it's the end of the summer that's caused me to feel this way. We've had a lot of rain, which is always a bit depressing, and rain means no cycling. In fact, as I write this I can tell you that it's raining out there now, on Saturday morning. This time last week I was preparing myself for a ride to Dunton Green and some tea and cake at Bojangles. Now, I'm sitting at the dining room table, resigned to not riding anywhere until (hopefully) tomorrow, which looks like it's going to be the only sunny day we get this August bank holiday weekend. This week I've cycled something like 36 miles. Last week it was 103 miles.
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| The Rockhopper 10 miles out and close to the churchyard on the outward ride |
Most of my cycling, as you'll know if you've read all my Lockdown posts (all 40 of them so far) has been in the late afternoon/early evening. I've worked out new routes, which is all good, but there's also been an element of cycling becoming a necessity rather than a leisure activity, it's a necessity because of a need to maintain fitness levels. In the past there was a social element to riding the bike as Andy and I would meet at the Green and head off to the Tatsfield Bus Stop to chat about this and that while drinking tea. Now it's all about how many miles I get under my belt. I have Strava on the iphone measuring the mileage and it's all about 'getting it done' rather than enjoying the moment, except at the weekends. The Saturday morning ride has taken me back to the lakes or to Redhill or Dunton Green where I've relaxed with a cup of tea or, like last week, with a cup of tea and some cake from Bojangles, a great cafe. Andy and I didn't meet for a long time. Instead we rode alone, keeping in step with the Government's social distancing rules. But then we started to meet again, at the Churchyard and that's become a regular thing to do on a Sunday morning. It used to be an 11 o'clock meeting, but this tended to take up the whole day so now we're meeting at 0800hrs, getting back to the old routine. I'll be heading off to the churchyard tomorrow around 0700hrs, it represents the start of my cycling week and if the weather holds it'll be good.
What is there to look forward to? Well, there's the prospect of Donald Trump getting a second term. People say he's going to struggle, but I reckon he'll win because Biden just isn't the ticket in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Trump to win, I want him to be trounced, but Sod's Law dictates that he must win, to add to everybody's misery. Another four years of Trump. Awful. What else? Oh, Brexit. Well, it's kind of obvious that we're going to get a no-deal Brexit isn't it? It's what the Tories have wanted and they've engineered it to happen and it will, in the same way that they've engineered the whole 'herd immunity' thing. Alright, they had to scare us into staying at home back in March to save lives and protect the NHS (because they hadn't adequately funded it), but as soon as the economy has shown signs of faltering, bugger the safety aspect, suddenly it's fine to get on trains and go back to the office. They want the kids back in school too, it's all designed to spread the virus again and hey, we won't have to wait too long before the second wave shuts us all down for Christmas.
It's funny how everything has become so samey. The days plod on, nobody really sees anybody else, we're all kind of confined to the house unless we're out shopping or taking a drive in the car somewhere. I know we're not confined to the house in reality, in the true sense of the word, but the house has become the main base, the hub, from where we venture out, normally just to the shops. That's why the bicycle is a such a good thing to have because it does offer that added sense of freedom. When we first locked down and people were quite literally confined to barracks, I was out on the bike riding around 100 miles per week. That was true freedom, being out there on the bike on deserted roads, stopping to chill in a field or on a village green with a mug of tea, just sitting there, sun beating down, there's nothing better.
It's 0842 and the rain has stopped, but it's grey and cloudy out there. I've texted Bon. "Cycle? Or is it likely to rain? Might get away with it." He's writing back to me, hold on... "Off to Middleton-on-Sea at 10 so can't. Tomorrow?" And now he's writing some more, hold on again... a movie. 'Tap to download'. It's of Bon swimming in the sea at Felpham. We might try and get a ride on Monday as it's a bank holiday here in the UK and we've all got a long weekend.
Apart from last Sunday's ride to the Churchyard, I went out on Wednesday on a Chump Bastard Womble (it's one of my rides, 20 miles). The photograph accompanying this post is from that ride, which was a non-stop ride that took me down to the Churchyard, through Tatsfield Village and then home. I should have gone out Thursday, but I couldn't motivate myself, which was a shame. Anyway, let's hope for better weather.
Don’t beat yourself up about distance, as you know it’s more about getting out there. Now we can have more tea and banter.
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