Boxing day ride...

Riding on Boxing Day has been a tradition ever since this blog was established back in 2009. We've missed a few here and there, but it's always on our radar; sometimes we ride on the 27th December, or possibly later, and yes, sometimes we don't go at all, but it's always there, always discussed and invariably we aim to do it. Yesterday was Boxing Day and while we might have visited Sheree's Tearooms in Tatsfield Village, the place is always closed the day after Christmas so we have to find somewhere else. Back in the day it would have been an open air location, like Woodmansterne Green or the Tatsfield Bus Stop or churchyard, but since the pandemic we've been hiding out in coffee shops and there's no going back. That said, last week (last Saturday) I rode to Oxted and the Nero was packed so I had to sit outside. Fortunately, the weather was fine otherwise I would have decamped to Starbucks or Costa.

Inside Esquire's, Boxing Day 2025, waiting for Andy...

We decided to ride to Westerham and visit Esquire's Coffee, a franchised operation across the road from the Costa and, I must say, a million times better. First, it isn't a chain operation, but second it's just better. I can get fed up with Costa, the tea seems to get cold quickly, you don't get more than one cup of tea from the pot and, well, a change is as good as a rest. I like it when the tea pot arrives with another pot of hot water to add to the teapot and make another cup or two, but these days it's not offered. I might start bringing a small flask and adding my own, wonder what they'd say to that?

The weather was fine, warmer than yesterday and, of course, dry, which means ideal cycling weather. The plan was to meet at 1000hrs so I left the house around 0900hrs, probably something like 0915hrs, and hoofed it. Surprisingly, I did it in under one hour, my record for this was set many years ago (52 minutes) but yesterday I managed 55 minutes or thereabouts. I padlocked the bike to some railings across the road, outside the barbers, and then checked my texts. Andy was running late (Garmin and hill issues) so I ordered a tea and sat there on a leather sofa (it probably wasn't real leather) and enjoyed a cup of tea, not in a paper, cup as is often the case in Costa, although, as I've probably said before, if you order a large tea in a takeaway cup you get more than if you insist on a pot (or it seems that way) and the tea stays warmer for longer in the insulated cup.

When Andy arrived he bought me another tea and we sat there chilling and talking about what we did the day before (Christmas day). For both of us, it was a family affair and most enjoyable. The television hasn't been brilliant (it seems to be getting worse!) but there are good things if you look for them and steer clear of quiz shows and British celebrities. Mark Gatiss ghost stories are fantastic and can be found on the BBC iplayer if you missed them, there's quite a few of them. I watched a couple. I watched the tail end of The Great Escape (a festive classic!) and a couple of Nick Park animations (both Wallace & Gromit) and there was something good on Netflix, Retreat, starring Cillian Murphy, which kept us occupied. I'll admit that I find more entertainment these days on YouTube especially from the likes of Nomad Sam, Kyle Pidduck, Outdoor Boy, Simon Wilson, Tobe Explores, Homeless Kiwi in London and others (depending upon your own preferences), but YouTube stuff is over in the blink of an eye, there's nothing to 'get into' unless you watch a succession of short videos in one sitting, but these days it's difficult finding anything worth watching apart from the news and that can be tiresome, it often leaves me with more questions than answers, like why are we doing away with trial by jury? Why do we need digital (or any) ID cards? Why is the Royal Family and the rich above the law? Why can't we do more for the homeless, like housing them in four-star hotels?  What exactly is Trump up to in Nigeria? Why can't Putin get the hell out of Ukraine?

It's 27 December, the day after Boxing Day and the dilution of Christmas is well underway, or perhaps it's just started. Soon it will be the day after the day after Christmas Day and thoughts will turn to New Year's Eve (in my opinion, the most depressing day of the entire year). I say it often but both Christmas and New Year are a huge anti-climax. People shop around in the weeks leading up to 'the big day' as if their lives depended on it, shops are packed with people buying in food supplies as if the Government is planning to cut off our heating and power and leave us all with night lights and fires made in the middle of the living room using broken-up furniture; and then, the big day arrives, we have lunch round somebody's house (or our own) and then we're back home and it's all over until next year. New Year is the same but in a different way, there's that awful countdown programme on television, there's the fireworks and what have you, but then you wake up in the morning, on January 1st, only to realise that nothing has changed and everything is how you left it. Back to work, guys, as DJ Audits on YouTube might say.