16 March: Getting out more

When DH was asked by a colleague what he intended to do with his retirement, he replied "Get out more".

With this in mind, we have got ourselves folding bikes, so that we can put them into the car and venture further afield for some gentle cycling.

So today was our first car/bike adventure. The bikes pack neatly into DH's car without having to take out more than the parcel shelf and the lid of the well in the boot. A couple of old bath sheets stop any scraping or rattling and protect the inside of the car.

We looked at the County Council's map of cycle routes in the area, and picked out a railway path that we have walked along, but never cycled.

The car park wasn't busy, apart from a couple of men lopping branches off trees and feeding them into a shredder. We got the bikes out, re-assembled them, found I'd got my cables tangled round my handlebars, untangled them, found my front brake wasn't working, re-aligned the cable, checked all connections were secure. Good. Trip to the toilets. Good. Drinks and snacks in the bum-bags. Good. Helmets and gloves on. Good. Off we go!

Rounded the corner from the car park onto the track, only to be faced with a mini-digger, men in hard hats and fluo jackets, and a big barrier labelled "Path Closed". All the way along. A couple of walkers were speaking to the man from the council, who smugly announced that it had been in the local paper for 4 weeks. A notice at the entrance to the car park would have saved us some effort, but at least we've had plenty of practice at folding and unfolding the bikes.

We folded them up again and took them to another railway track, where we enjoyed an hour or so of exercise. This afternoon DH had a little nap - I've been sitting on a soft cushion.

9 March: Slow digestive transit?

Forget those expensive (and probably fattening) yogurts - an hour's exercise works wonders!

DH went and bought some new running shoes yesterday. I called his bluff this morning.

When we got home, the skylark was singing - the first time I've heard it this year.

Tomorrow I may be unable to get downstairs. Ah well, I've always said that if a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.