Grumpy Old Men On Bikes

While living the high life in Premier Classe I did two silly things: 1/ having had so little sleep I was in bed by 7 and set the alarm for 7 next morning. Yummy, I thought, a 12 hour eyelid inspection. I went out like a light and slept like the dead (where would we be without metaphors? Probably still using those silly old-fashioned metathrees I suppose). I was woken by a noise from outside and checked my watch....8:15. Bloody useless alarm I thought and quickly got dressed and threw my kit back in my bags. As I opened the door to head out I paused.....something just didn't see right. A more careful check of my watch confirmed a growing suspicion....it was 8:15 in the EVENING. I went back to bed. 2/ if you are a touring cyclist there is one thing you dread above all others and I did it this morning. That's right fellow bike riders, I cleaned my teeth with arse cream. It definitely isn't what 8 out 10 dentists would recommend but my bleeding gums are now hea...

A little boy at the next table (I am in the Buffalo Grill) was given a balloon at the end of his meal. Using ALL my french (a subset of which may have been correct and a subset of that may have been relevant) I protested that I too should have a balloon. I will now go back to my podule and work out how to attach it to my bike. S PS the little boy also got a kiss from the waitress when he left....I'm off to google translate! ------------------

Ha ha - you thought the blogging was all over for a while! I'm on a research ride from London to Paris and a tad bored so thought I'd share the boredom. This started out as a ride for Rob and I (Bike Adventures' most senior management) plus John (our resident French speaker and annoyingly good cyclist for an old codger.....though clearly NOT management material as you will shortly see) Rob dropped out before the start (terminal man flu) so John and I set out from the London Eye yesterday morning. Naturally I checked with John that he had a passport with him! It was a miserable day. It rained and rained and when we arrived in Brighton we were both soaked through and shivering like crazy. To give you some idea just how cold I was - we left the pub we first tried because the coffee machine wasn't working. Yup, Steve was too cold for beer!!! We eventually warmed up and got to the Newhaven ferry terminal where we changed into dry clothes and got ready for the short (ish)...