12.08.2025 53km + 12 Minutes.

 ~o~

 Tuesday 12th 58F/14.4C[7.20]  Overcast. A cloudy but dry day reaching 22C/71F. Very light wind. Ideal for a ride.    

 Up at 6.30 after a typical night. 

 8-8.30 4F/17.8C. Sunshine. My usual walk. It was comfortably, T-shirt warm. Lots of traffic. Most of it on semi-comatose autopilot! I had to take to the verge several times. When drivers did not see me despite the road being perfectly straight. The Reolink Elixir of Youth hasn't worn off yet. I am still a sprightly septuagenarian.

14.00 Back from a 53km ride to visit my English friend. I called in on a village bakery to buy some Danish pastries. To enjoy with our coffee. Somebody was shopping for 35 cakes. Presumably for a birthday celebration at work. Anybody with half a brain would have sent in a list and picked it up later. But no, half a dozen mugs had to stand and watch while this chump choose each cake individually. There was only a single member of staff serving. Though we could all hear voices from the back room. It took over 12 minutes before I was finally served. The cakes were dry again. They have lost at least one customer.

 It was pleasantly warm and sunny most of the time. So my friend and I sat and chatted outside. There was a light sprinkle of rain. So we retreated to the orangery.  Though the shower was short lived. There was a similar sprinkle as I started my ride back home but it soon stopped. 

 There was almost no wind on my way there. I was averaging 30-35kph. Rather less on my way home. 25-30kph. Mostly in Sport Mode. With burst of Turbo mode on the climbs to maintain my speed. I had to swap batteries to the spare on the way home.

 A red kite lifted off from hunting on a roadside field as I approached. At first it turned away but then changed its mind. Swooping low over my passage along the quiet lane.

 I had a chat on the phone with my sister. Who is coming to visit me at the weekend. She will be staying for a week. Which is why I am trying to bring some tidiness to the present chaos upstairs.  

 Dinner was an organic pork chop, mushrooms and chips.     

 

  ~o~