Weekly Allowance

My legs don’t want to get on the bike this morning but I just tell them to get on with it. I’m sure they’ll be grateful afterwards.

L confesses she would actually do the London Duathlon if I did but at £53 not only is that above her weekly allowance, it’s above mine. Instead I propose the Humber Bridge Duathlon which is on the same day and a mere £35. She seems interested because part of it, the first run, actually goes over the bridge and amongst other terms and conditions is the requirement that she can do it on her shopper bike. Hmmm, but then I realised, one of us is swimming Windermere the day before... so we’ll put that one on ice until 2010. L seems relieved that she can leave her bike in mothballs. I'll just have to find something else to tempt her with.

I arrange to meet L after work by the park gates, which would be a very romantic meeting place if it wasn’t for the canine company. This means I have to change my bike route to approach the park from a different angle, so it’s L’s fault that I have to drag my weary legs over the hills and through Ilkeston. Well at least I get to try out the new cycle path through Wollaton.

It’s an ‘on the road’ one which scores heavily with me, it’s also tremendously and unnecessarily wide. Not that I’m bothered much about that but the council may get a flood of complaints from people about the new bus lane. The other thing is the markings keep stopping and restarting, often just because there’s a central reservation, which implies I suppose that cars are allowed to crush you at those points but not elsewhere. Odd.

I rendezvous with L and we give the boys a good ball session which means L shouldn’t have any trouble with them whilst I’m over at the Bingham Beer Festival tonight. I'm staying over, so the dogs won't have to fight over bed space. I can see I won't be missed.

Bingham Beer Festival isn’t terribly large, only eight beers and none of them dark. We do initially get excited to see four barrels marked at over 6% until we realise that they’re ciders. Oh well, best make the best of it.