19.03.2024 Security detail for hospital visit.

 ~o~

 Tuesday 19th 37F/3C. Smudgy overcast moving quickly from the south. Up at 6.40 after lying awake for ages. [Again!]

 I have to be at the city hospital after lunch for a heart scan. It is 30km/20 miles by my usual, rural, cycle route. No cycle paths are provided on the direct, main road. With speeding being extremely commonplace and the heavy traffic always busy. There are even sections where cycling is forbidden. Welcome to cycling friendly Denmark!

 I shall allow myself an extra half hour to avoid overdoing it. Or, worse, being late. Having been stung by a crooked parking company in the past. I dare not drive there in the old car. The Morris is still sulking at the specialist Morris workshop.

 The hospital is a huge site with multiple buildings but no map was provided. Just an address. So I am using Google Earth and Street View to locate the entrance I need. No problem and there is a cycle rack near the entrance. I always anchor the bike to a rack or street furniture. To avoid it being lifted bodily into a van or pickup. I shall take both ABUS Granite U-locks. To avoid 2-legged city rats getting a free fix at my expense.

 The next problem is carrying the twin Ortlieb panniers with the spare battery. While I can padlock the panniers to the rear rack The carrying handles could be cut. Or the bags simply opened. So I will have to drag the whole lot down to the cellar heart clinic with me. The spare battery weighs 3.6kg or 7lbs. It's lucky I am only 76! Until next month. When I can become an even sillier, old fart. 😎

8.15 There is no excuse not to go for a walk. My back was killing me when I finally got up.

 8.45 I only walked far enough to be rid of my lower back pain. There was a cold, blustery SE wind already. Expecting to gust up to 11m/s later. Fortunately that will be perpendicular [90°] to my direction of travel. Though the slightly higher speed of my e-bike makes every journey feel like a headwind!  

 The temperature will peak below 5C/41F today at 14.00. With light rain possible on my return journey. Experience strongly suggests I wear warm clothes, cap and gloves. Long thermal underwear. A jumper under the rain jacket over a racing jersey. To keep sweat at bay. Never wear a cotton T-shirt!   

 The Nyon control unit is nicely compact but difficult to operate with thick gloves in winter. I have added the text labeling to the image for clarity of function.

 I'll wear a GripGrab "Aviator" medieval cap under my ABUS helmet. This covers the ears and reduces wind noise in my hearing aids. It is also nicely warm despite the constant headwind. I have been wearing these caps for years on the trike in much colder conditions than today.  

 9.20 40F/4.4C. Cold, grey overcast.  59F/15C in the room. Probably worth wearing the GripGrab split mitts from the very start. Fingered gloves are just too marginal at these temperatures and wind chill factor on an e-bike. There is no loss of dexterity thanks to the split between the fingers. 

  A major irritation is the Nyon Map screen [of seven.] Which has a dire warning notice in text blocking out the screen. Telling the user not to adjust the controls while underway. Which, in reality, means the rider must stop, to remove their glove, to press the on-screen OK button. By which time they will almost certainly have crashed into something! Or somebody will have driven into them from behind! While the poor rider was busy reading the tiny text on the touch screen without their reading glasses! Surely a case of Bosch being hoist by their own petard!

 The sideways scrolling, Nyon touch screen doesn't operate with my thinner gloved fingers. But does with the thick ones! Aha! It's the thickly applied rubber grip strips. The bare cloth has no effect at all. Nor do the spotted grip marks on the split mitts! Grr?

 The more heavily padded [and much colder] GripGrab winter gloves offer poor dexterity in comparison with the mitts. Particularly on the complex handlebar control of the Bosch motor. Do Bosch e-bike designers never ride in winter? No-of course not! They each get a private parking spot for their Porsches. Probably resistance heated to keep their parking space free of snow.

  11.30 44F/6.7C. The forecast is below 4C. A little brighter. E-bike ready. I am showered and dressed. I have an hour before I should leave. Lunch will be extremely early. Or I will be riding on a full stomach. I could make it now and eat it very slowly. I can't go on a three hour ride without a meal.

 12.30 Off I go.

 17.00 And back again. It took me 1.5 hours to get there. I was just riding steadily each way. No rush. Exactly 30km each way. About 37 miles round trip. Average of 22kph while moving. Though I spent 20 minutes just tootling slowly around the hospital grounds exploring  and to kill time and relax. 

 I found this egg shaped building in the grounds. The "framework" is only an illusion. The silvery bars are actually clear. Each curved sheet is misted up inside. Except where they overlap. Presumably made from clear polycarbonate. A real work of art! It is furnished as a rest room.

 I was being ultrasound inspected for a whole hour. Slight weakness in one place in the heart. Enlarged aorta. Told off for not taking high blood pressure tablets when I should have been. Will be on heart tablets and have a nitroglycerine spray for emergencies. 

 A very pleasant young pair. They spoke English to me and nattered about the progress of the test in Danish. I could understand most of what they said in Danish. I have to go back for a CT scan next. With a dye injected to help locate any resistance due to narrowing or clots. 

 18.00 I have lit the stove. It was only 58F/14C in the room. I didn't do any shopping! Toast again? Cheese or beans? Too late for a nap. I haven't been sleeping properly so I had better go without.

 Dinner was beans on toast.

~o~