After my knee stabbingly awful run on Tuesday I rested up on Wednesday, I stayed in doors all day, caught up on emails and prepared this weekend’s vaccine rotas. Heavy rain had been forecast but it was just a bit windy with a few showers. I spoke to Uncle Les (88) later and he had been out for a bike ride! Yesterday apart from a trip to Waitrose with Sue, I spent another day resting the knee. That was a wet day so I wasn’t too bothered being at home.
So today, with a reasonable forecast, off I cycled to meet friend MikeD at Brenchley. After a few hundred yards the showers began but the strong wind blew them through quite quickly. A mile or so on my gears were playing up so I only had limited power into a huge headwind. Mike had a go at adjusting the gears but only with minimal success. I have now booked the bike in for a full service, so from now on it will be my lightweight carbon to use, so no more bad weather please! I did manage 43 miles today, Mike and I went to Lamberhurst, then over the border into East Sussex and another favourite coffee at Lambs in Bell View Green. Apart from the gears, it was another testing (2841ft of elevation) but fun day out on the bike. No knee trouble but not surprised as I do not put any weight on it when cycling. Mike’s charity bike ride fund for April has now exceeded £1,000 plus gift aid. Remarkably, he is feeling so guilty he now aiming for 300 miles! Not bad for an 86 year old!
On my way home near Yalding I took a small lane called Small Profits. Unfortunately, the fly tippers had been busy, so clearly it’s large profits for these pathetic individuals, most depressing. Also one of our old cafe stops, where we used to do Time Trials nearby, has hit the news this week. The remains of a young lady were discovered in the woodland there. High on the news, particularly as the alleged murderer that they have in custody is a serving police officer. When the TV news shows the gates to the area and the huge police presence, it sends a shiver knowing that we have cycled through there many times.
As for the main news this week concerning Royals and ex-Royals I have no comment!
After all my hard work phoning volunteers for this Saturday and Sunday, I got a message cancelling the Sunday clinic so i rang them all again! So just tomorrow, 8.00am start. The wind did blow our club gazebo down and wrecked it. Still it was flimsy so we will get a stronger one. Dr Hanrath kindly offered to pay for it, but I am sure we will gracefully decline.