Balls and biking

I've had an awesome weekend. After procrastinating the packing down to the last minute, I packed in about 30 mins flat for the weekend, including taking the time to have a total dress crisis. Purple dress or red one, red dress or purple one???? Arrggh!!!! So clearly, I ended up packing the white one instead. This is B and I looking rather pleased with ourselves after *ahem* several glasses of wine.





And a rather random shot of our dinner table at the ball.





Jon (my next door neighbour), B and I looking like we've had a few glasses of wine.

Jon indulging in some Bridget-baiting, whilst she gets a quick lift from Tim (her boyfriend). The object in Jon's hand is B's shoes - he was going after her legendarily ticklish feet.

Classy - the apres-ball drinking continues straight from the wine bottle on the walk to the hosts' house.

A new day, a few hangovers, and a spot of mountain-biking at Llandegla - this is my instrument of torture / weapon of choice:

Me looking exceptionall smug to have reached the top of the climb / beginning of the descent. Can you tell that I'm just the tiniest bit /excited that we're going down, down, down into the woods, somewhere where I'm pointing??

Me, having fun swooping along on the downhill section:

A totally random shot, somewhere near where we finished. I think we'd stopped to compare mud collections - B's was better as my bike is sporting it's winter mud-guards. Will take them off soon as the weather improves.

Tim went off to do the Black run, whilst B and I were lazy on the Blue. He practically inhaled that cake when he caught up with us at the finish. Next time, I'm definitely doing the Red run - the Blue was fun, but not challenging enough.

All in all, a brilliantly fun weekend. Followed by a long trip home in the car. Bridget spent most of the trip home perusing a guide to singletrack venues in the UK and offering up suggestions for future trips, whilst Tim drove, and I dozed in the back. Looking forward to whatever's next. I'm trying to work out if I've got time to have a bash at the red run at the Forest of Dean on my afternoon off on Friday before I head into the Cotswolds to meet some friends for dinner - a slightly daunting prospect in one way as I'd be doing it on my own, but on the other hand I could go at my own speed, and a Friday afternoon should be quiet as most folks would still be in work. Otherwise I think I'll take my bike with me on Sat and explore the possibilities of the Wyre Forest on Sunday after this weekend's wedding.

The perils of living in the countryside

For a start, you never know when the dustbin lorry that you're following along the lane is going to randomly knock down a tree that will then fall right across the road in front of you, completely blocking the lane.

Yep - that's what happened to me on my way to work this morning! The lorry clipped the branches (nothing unusal on lanes with overhanging trees), and I thought "oooh, I'm going to drive through a shower of blossom - how pretty!". Obviously the blossom was weighing the branches down a lot lower than usual though, because as the lorry moved forward the whole tree started to move and the trunk cracked clean through.

Luckily, A) I stopped in time that I didn't end up under the tree, and B) the binmen saw what had happened in their rear-view mirror and very kindly came back and moved the tree out the way to clear the road.

Just another normal journey to work, huh?

Windsurfing rocked last night, by the way. It was very windy with strong gusts, and we were wobbly, not having been out on the boards for 6 months, but it was great fun tearing up and down the lake on the edge of control and falling in a lot. I came in after an hour as I was shattered. Had just enough time to drive home, grab some tea and head up to the pub to meet friends, and then slept like an absolute baby last night.

Bridget's boyfriend Tim also very kindly picked up my bike on the way back from the pub, as he's going to take to Wales with his and B's for the weekend, so we can hit the trails at Llandegla on Sat after the ball - ace!!