or hot water!
Lets just say that it was not the best timing for a boiler service, especially when the plumber leaves you with neither heat nor hot water for 36 hours! It's sorted now but last night we had several degrees of frost, it was perishing cold, i ended up going out for a walk this morning to get warm!
So, apart from that, what's been going down here at Bell Towers? Well Monday, as previously mentioned, we took a trip down to Dorset, it was a mostly fair day but a bit on the cool side. A change of scenery, some different company, a nice meal - what's not to like?
And so to Tuesday. I had a plan for a ride, out to Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, i had a route worked out and whilst cool, the morning greeted me dry and sunny. It's essentially just a little north of due East from here and my route deviated very little from arrow straight pretty much all the way. I had planned on getting a cuppa when i arrived but my preferred stop was closed so i ended up just eating my scran, sat in the sunshine. The outward leg was 59km, the return with its additional little kinks was certain to take me well over 120km and so it was.
The issue was that what little wind followed me on the outward leg had become a nagging headwind for much of the return which also included more up than the down i had on the outward leg. But the weather held, it remained quite cool, Defcon 3 gloves stayed on all day and even with winter boots, my feet were getting chilled and no prospect of a warming shower on my return either, bleh! Well the scores on the doors came in at 1070m of up spread over 128km of riding, at almost 23kph (how come i go faster on longer rides?) one of my longest rides of the year,
Today was quite busy, starting with a 6km walk, then i made dinner, a nice Shepherds Pie (no shepherds were harmed in its production but maybe a sheeps did succomb). Whilst that was cooking i got on with some writing, the results of which are now available over on my Patreon. It brings us to the point where the next part work goes to Kindle so look out for news on that front shortly.
What is happening the rest of the week, indeed month? Well tomorrow should be a reasonable, relaxing ride, Friday back to the writing before another ride on Saturday - well thats the plan anyway.
Next week i shall be away in Germany, getting my Weihnachtsmarkt fix, featuring Dusseldorf, Koln and Bonn - maybe i'll see Gaby on my travels! There will still be a Sunday post as i depart early Monday morning but there won't be a Wednesday post, i return to the UK on Friday. It's an organised trip this year, so probably fewer markets and hopefully without the drama of last year!
That's it for today, new Gaby chapter on Sunday,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid
