Autumn has arrived

with a vengeance, no sooner had September started than the weather turned 'autumnal'!

Most UK schools have restarted this week so i guess the timing is impeccable.

But apart from clearing the under 18's from the shops, that doesn't affect me even if the weather does. Monday, well to be honest i barely recall the day other than having to sort out the little spat between Paypal and my bank, annoying, time consuming but sorted now.

Tuesday was a bit more exciting - just. A short, 55km ride down to Aquae Sulis was mostly dry but for the first time since Easter i had on a long sleeve top. I met Aunty Bev for bacon & tea, we were back at the stable shortly after two.

With a visitor from GOC coming at the weekend i then turned my attention to points of interest to visit, i ended up taking out membership with the Scots version of the National Trust - weird i know but its cheaper than the English set up but you can still use it at all the sites nationwide! I'm not really one for visiting country houses & gardens but the Trusts are custodians of so much more and membership gives me access to a load of food stops that would otherwise be unavailable, as well as free car parking for my bike, lol. Anyhoo, at under £6 per month and with most properties being at least £10 to go in, i'll be quids in quite quickly, along with my Heritage membership there isn't much in the way of upstanding monuments that i won't have 'free' access to in the UK and islands.

The downer is that my Garmin has died. Its not essential but it is quite handy, after seven and a half years of almost daily use, first the power button fell apart, which was annoying but not terminal but now the charge port has failed so whilst it still happily functions, i can't rejuice it. So that's that, the phone will have to double up until at least the New Year, £300 for a replacement is well beyond my current disposable income.

And so to today. Laundry, paying for my December trip to Germany (yay!), a trip to the supermarket then several hours of peeling, chopping and stirring to produce @ 2.5kg of chutney, cucumber, apple & pear. I booked the Germany trip back in January, i've been saving all year! It's essentially a long weekend to the popular Rheinland Weihnachtmarkt's. Now i just need to put together some spending money.

At this point i'll give you all a heads up, after the weekend i'll be going up to GOC to see friends & family for @ 2 weeks, i don't know what interweb access i'll have access to so Sunday's post may be the last proper one until the end of the month. This will effectively be my main holiday for the year, sofa surfing by night and bike rides by day, the budget doesn't run to anything more than that. TBH i haven't even worked out how i'm getting back to Brizz afterwards, i'm sure i'll work out something.

I will be here on Sunday with a new Gaby chapter, but for now,
Wiedersehn,
Madeline Anafrid