The green, green grass of home

...and why is it so green?!...'cos it rains....regularly

Yesterday I rode into Swindon (abt 1 hr) in order to get the hire car. The huge Brit roundabouts were scarey to say the least but I managed to negotiate them all safely...even the "Magic Roundabout"..see the pix to the left (or right) of this screed....However closer into Swindon I sorta found myself riding in a dedicated bus lane, with a rather large double decker trying to scare me by driving VERY close to me..up my backside in fact......well, after all I WAS trespassing. A judicious stop and leap onto the pavement was in order, after which I kept to the bike path..and this from one who doesn't usually do bike bike paths.

Finding the actual car hire place was the next trick, but after asking 3 people, I got myself to the right place, and discovered I was to get a manual Ford Mondeo...hmmm...good, an upgrade, but MANUAL?...I'd not driven one of those for a long time and needless to say managed to celebrate it by stalling almost immediatley..blush, blush.

So, back to Ramsbury...driving round 1 of the roundabouts a few times trying to work out which exit (I had no map), packed the car and drove off to Bedford to stay with my coach for a week......

This cat person is experiencing a surfeit of dogs..1st up in Ramsbury there were 2 black labradors...here there are 2 spaniels and a collie and then when I go back to Ramsbury I'm not only house sitting, I'm also dog sitting..do I have the skills?

Today's training was on the circuit I'll be racing next week, with Auriel giving me sage advice about my achilles heel....hill climbing during TT's.

I thought it was going to rain while we were training..the clouds were black and threatening, but were lucky...it waited til later on in the day. The temp is up..its still very def T shirt and shorts weather, but the sky is low.....