No cycling for Matt...and not much sleep either!

Saturday was out of the question as I had things to do, places to go; but Sunday, well, it was all game-on; Andy had sent a text saying 7am or 7.30am, I replied saying the former and it was all set. A ride to Westerham was on the cards and, well, it never happened. Not for me at any rate. Andy got out and I haven't heard from Phil, but I'm assuming he did too – it was just me who left the bike in the garage.

Beats a speed camera. Photo: Andy Smith.

Excuses? Well, yeah, there is an excuse. I couldn't sleep. I went to bed and lay there. I couldn't even work out the area of the ceiling by counting the ceiling tiles, because there aren't any, except in the downstairs bathroom. So, eventually, I think it was gone 3am, but to be honest, it could have been any time, I got up, texted Andy and Phil and then loitered around. The fridge seemed to be making a lot of noise, but it was the dead of night. I remember it being something like 4am when I eventually climbed back into bed and fell asleep, waking just before 9am.

Missing a ride is not pleasant. I feel restless and fretful and start making unrealistic promises to myself, like I'll cycle to the Green every morning before work and that way make up for the lost miles and this makes me feel even worse. The weekend just isn't right unless I've been for a ride.

Still, there's no point crying over spilt milk and there's always next week. I've just got to ensure I get a good night's sleep. I couldn't pin down any reason for my lack of sleep other than, perhaps, having things on my mind, but yeah, it happens and I hope it won't happen next week.

Andy sent me an email. He'd been down to Westerham – see pix accompanying this post.

Westerham Green, Sunday 1st September 2013. Photo: Andy Smith.

No sleep, thick fog and the Tatsfield Bus Stop...

The war memorial on Warlingham Green.

I keep waking up around 3am in the morning and then have a devil of a job getting back to sleep. On Saturday morning I was getting a little impatient - and decided to get up. It was around 4am. I stayed up, reading but had that nagging feeling that I should have been in bed. To be honest, I was fretting about a poor interview and had been, metaphorically, punching walls for most of Friday. It was one of those typical scenarios where you find yourself saying the first thing that comes into your head - and then realising how rubbish you were after leaving the interview. Anyway, water under the bridge. Move on. But, for some reason, I couldn't move on. The reason being that I'm good at what I do, but, through my own actions, I under-sell myself and lose out in the process. But, as I say, move on.

Andy's bike on the green.

So basically I'm loitering around the house early in the morning, wishing I could just go back to bed, but realising that going back would be pointless - and disastrous for cycling. So I stayed up, drank about three mugs of tea, had a couple slices of bread and marmalade and sat there reading. I couldn't be bothered to switch on the news channel because I knew it would be doom and gloom about the Eurozone countries or our own economic situation. The worst thing about the Eurozone is this: you just know they're going to fuck it up - the Germans, the French etc - as nobody seems to be able to take a decision. What will happen? Well, Greece's situation will definitely worsen, Italy will take us to the brink (if not over it) and the others (Ireland, Portugal, Belgium etc) will somehow get their acts together. That's my prediction, but either way, it all looks bad for Europe and I'm so glad we're not part of the Eurozone.

So, with that backdrop - and thick fog outside - I had another cup of tea and then prepared for the ride. I was tired. There was no way I was going far: the Tatsfield Bus Stop was going to be my limit, but I nearly didn't go at all. On reaching the garage, I had a flat front tyre, a very slow puncture, so after pumping it, I left for the Green and met Andy a little later than usual. As he waited around, he took these excellent shots, the ones accompanying this post.

We did cycle to the bus stop and met our old friend from a couple of weeks back. We don't know his name yet, but he's bought another bike, a Dawes Vantage, because he wants to keep the Galaxy in the warm during the cold and wet weather.

The three of us yabbered quite a lot and finally headed back around 0930hrs, reaching home at just gone ten. The ride had done me good - woken me up to be honest - and prepared me for the day ahead, which was pretty much average.