Wintery Weather

I must admit that at the end of last week I wasn’t very well. A combination of being worn out and a nasty bug in circulation took me out for two days and most of a third was spent slowly recovering. At least the weather was fairly stunning and there was no rain on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, although all Saturday night and Sunday there was a storm and torrential downpours. Guess which day I went riding.

On Saturday night my beautiful girlfriend suggested that we go skating. It is with authority that I can say that ice skating rocks. The centre of Manchester, the infamous Piccadilly Gardens, has been transformed into a winter sports arena (okay they’ve built a temporary artificial ice rink). Whilst queuing it was interesting to see a substantial list of prohibited things. No skating under the infleunce of drink or drugs. No skating in chains of more then two people. Clearly as there was no mention of using mobiles whilst skating, there were people txting and buggering about with camera phones whilst trying not to fall over and take people out with flailing limbs. Not that some people needed much of an excuse to do a Cristiano Ronaldo. In the space of 60 minutes on ice four people were stretchered, wheeled or carried off the ice…

Then on Sunday it was up at 6am. Shortly afterwards I drove to pick Tyrrell up only to get there and upon loading his bike into the car to realise that I’d forgotten my lid. After which we had to drive home to pick it up before getting beck on route and heading up to Ambleside in the Lake District. It was my first proper ride in the Lakes and it was with some of my friends from the Alps over the summer, including the infamous Shoebomber. It was Epic, with riding pretty much from dawn to dusk and it was fantastic to check out the trails with some people who really know the area. It became clear that riding with the hood of a snowboarding jacket up was a definite advantage for avoiding the curse of drips of cold water down the back of the neck. It was more important to keep warm and to be honest I didn’t care if I looked like a tit.

Finishing off with the descent down Loughrigg Terrace was a great end to the day. Even wading through Rydal Water turned out to be a distinctly warmer experience (despite the waste deep water) than we’d been expecting. The trip home saw us all stop off at the Hawkshead Brewery, which has recently relocated to Staverly, for a fine beer. It’s a handy place to go because it’s on the way home and the beer is great!