A post on the Easter weekend that I hadn't published...

Easter weekend 2026: Good Friday? Why is it so called? Well, it's good to be off on a Friday and that's a fact and it's even better when there's a bank holiday Monday after the weekend. So, if you're like me, certainly at the moment, you slob about doing nothing; and I'll admit, I've done nothing all morning despite the fact that I promised myself a walk. It's now, what, almost 1300hrs and I've been swanning about, not even that, I've been slobbing and I've just eaten a turkey roll with mustard. Very tasty. Sitting around, chilling, chatting, doing bugger all but with that constant fret that perhaps I should have done something, gone for that walk, taken the bike out, I don't know, in fact, now I come to think about it, I have a puncture that needs fixing and I need to get out there and fix it. But no, I didn't bother and when you consider it's a front wheel puncture (no way as difficult as a rear wheel puncture, then you'll wonder why the hell I didn't just get out there and do it. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer.

On Saturday morning I felt that I needed to get out there and fix the puncture. My original plan was to get out there early, around 0700hrs, but I had a late night and I woke up late and, well, I didn't do it until later in the morning. Andy had reminded me on Friday that we'd talked about meeting in Oxted, at 0830hrs and that he only had a window of half an hour before he had to go somewhere. I figured it wasn't going to work and at around midnight I texted him to say I'd probably go later in the day. Sadly, I didn't (in true slob fashion) but I was out there doing the puncture around 0900 and had I fixed it in time I might have gone out for a ride to Oxted. In fact, I wanted to ride to Oxted, I needed to be sitting in a coffee shop reading for half an hour ahead of a ride up Titsey Hill and that feeling of achievement I always get when I reach the top. But no, and there were things to do. A fortnight ago I pulled out a dead tree from the top of the garden. On Saturday morning it was still there and the thought of going out there and sawing it all into small logs was, to say the least, daunting. But guess what? I did go out there and I did chop it all into logs and now there are little piles of wood waiting to leave the premises. 

But how about discussing that puncture? Rather annoyingly it took a long time. The tyre immediately sprung off the wheel and the inner tube was tucked inside. I pulled it out, forced the valve through and off the wheel and then set about finding the puncture. It was fairly easy and I didn't need a bowl of water or anything of that sort. I fixed the problem and then set about getting the tyre back on the wheel, which seemed like an impossible task as it appeared to be far bigger than the wheel. Eventually I did it and then I set about what I hoped would be an easy task: putting the front wheel back on the bike. It normally is a piece of cake but for some reason it wasn't going to be easy; the problem was securing the wheel to the bike. As I turned the nuts and the quick-release lever I found that, when secure, the wheel itself would not spin freely. The quick-release lever acted as a kind of brake and the wheel would only be free-wheeling if it was barely securing the wheel to the bike. I messed around for a little while and then called Cycle King. I rode with the wheel barely attached to the frame, a feather flick of the quick release lever would have detached the wheel from the bike. When I reached the shop, the guy fixed it within seconds, it was all to do with the brake pads, I don't know, I was just glad it was fixed. I then spent a huge amount of time chatting to the guy about bikes and it was great. Cycle King has an extremely wide range of bikes from low-end Ammaco and Salcano bicycles through to GTs and Raleighs and other brands. For the sort of riding I do, any of the bikes in the store would do, be it with block brakes or hydraulics. I took a look at 'adventure' bikes, they have many other names and are basically dropped bar bicycles with nobbly tyres. I've never been comfortable with dropped bar bikes and I doubt I'll ever have one, but it's good to look at these machines. Salcano, incidentally, while known for their 'entry level' bikes, also go right to the top-of-the-scale. I was shown a decent mountain bike and yes, I would buy one, it was certainly a million times better than the bikes I own. There was also a new brand, HARO, that I hadn't seen before and that was very nice, a mountain bike, top of the range, not electric but still over £3,000.

I could have stayed there all day chatting about bikes, but I had to get back so I rode home on my fixed bike. 

It was too late to ride to Oxted so I decided to get my exercise in the garden, sawing wood. It took all day and it was hard work, but I did it and, as I said earlier, there are neat piles of wood and logs in the garden awaiting transport to the local dump.

And now it's Easter Sunday and no, I'm not riding today either. Why? Big event up town and I can't wait, but the last thing I want is to be stuck in the sticks with a puncture and unable to get back in time. I'll be going tomorrow, most likely to Westerham. 

I'll sign off.

A change in the weather, so we head for the churchyard...

The worrying thing is the speed of time. It's flying by. I was talking to Bon about when mum went into the hospital for her hip op, back in February - January 31st to be precise - and it seems like only yesterday, but it's not, it was ages ago, the beginning of the year. And now, seemingly days later, she's out of hospital and, it would be fair to say, has made a complete recovery.

Suddenly, the warmer weather has arrived, along with the blossom trees being in full bloom and Andy wearing shorts again on the ride. Even last week the weather was the complete opposite to what it was on Good Friday (yesterday). Last week it was minus one degree when I left the house. Yesterday, it was 23 degrees, sunny, summery, tee-shirt weather.

Andy and I met at the green and decided to head for the churchyard, a summer location if ever there was one. It's not the sort of place you'd visit if there was a chance of rain, put it that way. It's exposed, there's no shelter, so it's a summer location that always brings back pleasant memories. It's a place to chill out under blue skies where silence rules the roost and the smell of freshly-cut grass is never far away. Occasionally, from beyond the trees, you might hear the shouts of Lycra monkeys, but, by and large, you're on your own, concealed from view.

We sat there 'doing the usual' - drinking tea and munching biscuits, although I've given up the biscuits and made do with tea (decaff). The topic of conversation was the short-sightedness of managers, the arrogance of the businessman and the amounts of money bad managers are losing their bosses through all the usual shenanigans: short-changing their staff, shafting them, being petty and micro-managing. It goes on everywhere and it's all down to poor recruitment decisions from above.

The Tatsfield Churchyard...

I found myself reminiscing about a past job in which I spent an inordinate amount of time travelling the UK in search of the perfect pub meal (and often finding it). What a great job. Sitting on a train with a book, en route to some distant location where I had nothing else to do but pull up a chair and enjoy the cuisine of some of the UK's finest pub chefs - and then repeating the process the following day and the day after until it was time to go home.

It was soon time to hit the road, so we made our way out of the churchyard, down the steps and on to the road to begin the ride home. It's an uphill climb towards Botley Hill and, as always, I found myself in the wrong gear. Following last week's two punctures (see previous post) I almost considered taking the long way home or joining Andy and riding along The Ridge, the latter being the better option as Slines Oak Road is not as steep as Hesiers Hill, but time was of the essence so I decided to risk the 269. It wasn't too bad. I didn't want to use the off-road path for fear of a repeat of last week's disastrous morning, so I stuck to the road.

I reached home around 1020hrs and discovered that my lawnmower had given up and died. Smoke was visible, the blade wasn't turning, it was time to visit the mower store.

"It's either the capacitator or the motor," said a man in a red tee-shirt from behind the counter. He knew a lot about mowers. "If it's the capacitator it'll cost £30 to repair; if it's the motor you might as well buy a new mower," he added.

Something tells me I'll be buying a new mower later in the week. But the good news was that I didn't have to mow the lawn, although, in all honesty, it didn't really need it as I'd given it the first cut of summer last week. I think the good weather prompted me to get out in the garden and do something so why not mow the lawn again, get it in shape for the months ahead. But no, it was not to be and in a way I was relieved.

The trouble with early hot weather is you know it's not going to last and that, sooner or later, there will be rain, but hopefully not over the next few days. They're predicting another sunny one today (Saturday 20 April). It's currently 8 degrees outside, according to my iphone, which is predicting a high of 24 degrees. The plan is to meet Bon on Woodmansterne Green and possibly ride over to mum's for tea and cake. Let's see what the day has in store.