Up to a sometime sunny Wednesday.
Some shopping in Chester, then on to J&S Accessories, for a fix to my rear tire issue.
Stu&Vini gave a warm welcome, as always.
Tej (the good son) was busy on his master’s dissertation.
After unpacking we had lunch in their really nice back yard.
Then Stu took me on a train, to a CAMRA award winning pub. It was shut for renovations. hahaha. Still, it was a sunny day!
We repaired to another pub for real beer, barmaid education, and craic.
Back for supper, of real curry 🙂
And thoughts of how nice the weather is up north, whilst rain and wind were lashing the south.
Thursday saw me up, TaiChi, and TLC for the bike. My solution to the rear-wheel valve works 🙂 I can now inflate the tire with my bicycle pump, despite the stripped thread.
Glass of fresh squeezed orange juice then on the road.
Luckily TomTom led me astray on the M62, so I pulled off to fill-up and check my bearings. Why lucky? Next two services only had diesel. Not sure I would have made the third.
Ran south, though ran is optimistic. M6 and M5 were under construction for most of the way.
Met a couple of bikers. One heading to the Bulldog rally, if his battery lasted. The other heading home. Both were cursing that well known parking lot, the M25.
The rest of the ride was relatively easy.
I picked up a Chinese supper. And waited for Barry, who was fulfilling one of his husband duties, taking Toni out for supper. What a good husband!
Barry arrived home and we chatted over tea.
I then researched and booked my ferry.
DFDS web-site is a sad indictment of the sorry state of computing. The site is so clever it will not work properly on my BlackBerry nor my laptop!
Luckily AFerry.com works AOK.
Friday I packed my kettle, bid farewell to Barry (we’ll meet again in December), and ran into Southsea.
Did some shopping.
Met up with Robert, who is home alone. Eilene and Lee are up in Chester, in the choir. Robert has to fend for himself. He looked remarkably well fed and healthy.
We had tea and chocolate on the beach-front.
Another farewell.
Off to Dover.
Was a four hour ride. Three of those on the white line. Traffic. Lots of it. Well it was the afternoon rush hour. I stayed off the motorways. This would have meant riding the M25 (see above).
The last hour was nice. Warm weather and empty, leafy lanes.
Rode to my B&B as darkness descended.
Nick and Richard both gave me updates on the Arsenal vs Leicester game. Was looking good in the first half.
Walked over to the cider house. Caught the rest of the game live. Disappointing. Defence is useless. Did not hold the line. Did not pick up players. No idea why Leicester keep buying forwards. They need defenders.
Had another cider, a chat with a young team-lead in the world of JavaScript and walked home to bed.
Awoke Saturday to TaiChi then checked my ticket. Ooooops. Had been thinking I had another two hours. Dashed to the port, and onto the boat. JIT.
Breakfast as the white cliffs of Dover, and England disappeared.