Hospitals....

Already the Paris trip seems a dim and distant memory - one of the good things about writing stuff on this blog is that I get the chance to read it too - sometimes I think - 'did we really do that?'

I went out on the bike for a couple of rides last weekend - I got a soaking on one trip and developed a brake problem on the back wheel - since then I've struggled to rectify the problem - I've lost patience and, frankly, I don't have the time. I've booked the bike into hospital for a week or two - I'm going on holiday - well it's not a holiday in the strictest sense - it won't be peaceful, restful, restorative - it involves children, four of them, a couple below ten years of age - I'll need a holiday to recover from the holiday... so the best thing is to send the bike to the doctors while I'm away - and I know just the Man - Adrian Timmis. He who is one of the few Englishmen to have competed in and completed The Tour de France. And so it will be. I'll take my old bike to the quiet lanes of North Devon and get out when I can - meantime, my bike will be in pristine condition whence I return. Easy really.

Whilst on the subject of getting repairs done, doctors, hospitals etc, I need to inform you that my long time collaborator Mr Gazza Gee has been under the knife in recent weeks. He's been suffering with a dodgy knee for sometime now - on occasion it swells up like a melon, other times it doesn't bother him - it's been worse when just walking around; biking doesn't seem to escalate the problem - but sometimes you'd see Gaz limping around and think, he'll have to get that sorted. And he has. In he was whisked last week on a sunny Thursday morning, general anaesthetic, surgeon into his knee, a bit of a scrape out and he was home by mid afternoon - I've seen the photo's, all the grisly details - too scary to post on this site but he seems to be making good progress - no riding for a while - but that's to be expected.

So, give us a week ... my bike should be better, Gary's knee will be pristine and we'll be riding an Audax to herald the end of Summer - all is good.