Surfacing.

If there's a good thing about being ill  - and in my case, it's probably being forced to take the rest time I've needed for six months or so - it's the moment when quietly and often imperceptibly, the big dial on the Wellometer (TM) swings over from 'Fecked and Incapable of training', through 'Feeling slightly better, maybe..' into the bit marked 'Vaguely normal again'.

I'm not saying it's worth it just for that, but sometimes you appreciate stuff a whole lot more for not having had it.

Which is a round about way of saying that I feel almost human again and it's bloody ace.

Memory Cards

I found a loose memory card from the first part of 2009. The one that was in a test camera I successfully killed, I think. Good name. Places and things I can recall and a mindset that I can't. It still just feels sad, even from a distance. Nice snowy scenery though. Bring back the snow, I miss it.

One good thing though, goes to eleven. One fast kitty with bright and shiny optimism disguised as a cassette.

That was odd...

Just back from a mildly brutal Double Cross ride over to Holmfirth and back over a ridiculously windy Holme Moss - headwinds, mild dehydration, cross tyres and the tail-end of a nasty hacking cough aren't a good combination.

Anyway, around 18 months ago, doing the same ride on the crossed-up Road Rat, I stopped for a chat with a lass on a mountain bike about road bikes and cross bikes. She'd just moved over to Holmfirth from somewhere, I think, Leeds way. We sort of chatted and headed off in different directions.

Fast forward to today and, part way down a steepish, back-lane descent, stood by the side of the road, is a blonde lass with a brand new Dawes roadie/tourer thing. And it turns out to be the same woman. On her new road bike. Which was nice, but also slightly spooky.

And to make things weirder, she'd thought about buying a Surly Crosscheck from Rich and Shona and Keep Pedalling where my Double Cross came from.

Very odd. I guess I'll see her again in a couple of years time...