So, it was the first kind of cold weekend of the autumn. Poor David had to work, so, in sort of quasi honour of that, but more really because I'm silly, I dragged my carcass out of bed at 6 to take the train north to cycle all day. North because it was supposed to rain all day in the south and because I can't bike on sunny Sunday as it's Robin's birthday and we are going for tea. Fah fah fah fah fah! Anyway, lacking a car, I use the train to take me to didgereedoo and back. It's great, except I have to make a reservation for my bike, which must be done either in person or over the phone. Given that most British rail companies have outsourced their call centres to India and use voice recognition software for the initial sorting, I have discovered that an American accent proves difficult for their computers, though they do still seem to understand I want to speak to someone right fucking now. Anyway, even in person, getting a cycle reservation tends to become a bit of a voyage of discovery for ticket people at the smaller stations. Anyway, so, I took an early morning train to Derby, which is a bit of a meh kind of place. Spent the day then cycling up through the Peak District, which is gorgeous. All amazing and wonderful until the last 8 miles into Sheffield, which was pouring rain and very cold. Still haven't properly warmed up. Hope I don't get sick. Even with that though, I am definitely at my happiest out in the middle of nowhere on my bike. It reminds me that I actually still love this silly little country, even if I don't always love London. Spent lots of time admiring views, only one of them ruined slightly by stepping in fresh dogshit. Also did my absolute favourite thing of finding a random cafe in a tiny town and having lunch and cake. Lunch was a hot pork and apple sandwich. Cake was an iced Madeira cake. It was bliss. I have decided that this is definitely the way to do the majority of my weekend rides. It's easy, I get to see the country and I don't have to spend half of the ride fighting London traffic. Just have to try to get a little more sleep before!
Back to work on Monday. It's taken me many months but I feel like I am finally becoming managerial. Never thought that would ever happen! It's taken me this long to figure out how to play the hierarchy, which I suppose is useful, but still makes me feel unclean. Sigh.
