Hung Out To Dry

On the bike today and as I record today’s mileage in my cycling log, I discover one bit of good news. At 1656 miles cycled so far this year, I have already exceeded 2012’s appalling total of 1628 miles. I’ve still some way to go to get up to previous years' totals but there is still four months of the year left to go.

L gets some foreign currency for this weekend’s trip to Budapest. Most vital is the 1000 HUF (Florin) note for the deposit on the timing chip. 1000 HUF is the princely of sum of approximately £2.85. They charge you about £15 for a chip over here, so it's almost worth keeping them to put on ebay.

We need two of these but it was hardly worth going for just £6 worth of currency and L comes back with 16,000 HUFs. She expresses gratitude she’s not Hungarian, imagining how many thousands she could be overdrawn.

Back on the bike, I have a bit of a race home with someone from Beeston CC which is always nice. I got hung out to dry obviously, but you have to give it a go. Now all I’ve got to do is recover in time for tennis.

During which I was enjoying my impending 6-1 6-1 defeat until repeated attempts to lose by such a score line came to nothing as I went from 4-1 down to 5-5 in the second set amidst the gathering gloom. Unfortunately getting a full game in while starting at 7pm is going to get increasing difficult as the nights draw in.

It was only when we changed ends that I realised how my opponent had gifted me the last two games. Near zero light at the far end of the court apart from a bit of dazzle from the lights on the floodlit courts. This resulted in the ball being largely invisible until it reached the back of the court. Suspiciously my opponent hit everything short and completed the win 7-5.

(Thursday 29^th August)