Thursday 8th October
Today we travel up to Kings’ Cross and have a look around the station at St Pancras, which is such a fabulous building.
Then we make our way to Finsbury Park and follow a disused railway to Highgate.
In Highgate we walk through Highgate village which is incredibly quaint and then down to Highgate Cemetry only to discover that we can’t go in the west side, whilst buried on the east side are Douglas Adams , Karl Marx and many others.
From the cemetery we walk through to Hampstead Heath. In the Heath there are 3 swimming pools: one for men, one for women and one mixed. There’s actually a guy swimming in the men’s pool – it’s literally like swimming in a dirty duck pond. Bizarrely he walks around the pier then enters the water then swims around the pier (about 20 strokes) then climbs out, walk across pier again, then swims around pier again. Very bizarre. Kate tells us later that it’s some form of male posturing – must work because Daz spends 20minutes taking photos!!!
In the heath we walk up Parliament Hill for a view over the city.
From here we head back into town stop off in Carnaby Street and then head to Leicester Square to meet Kate. We go out for a fabulous Mexican dinner then take Kate to Madison’s at New change – it’s a roof top bar with views over London and across into St Paul’s.
Amazing views. But the bouncers won’t let us in the bar – their disgust for our crocs is palpable. From here we head to Brixton to show Kate the place we ate a couple of nights ago. A great last day and even better Kate doesn’t have to go into work tomorrow.
Friday 9th October
Today we’re leaving London. It’s been absolutely great staying with Kate and getting a chance to enjoy London, where we always have so much fun. Thanks Kate. So today we’re off to Winchester for my pre op appointment – nothing exciting to report although I have to have another blood test to check how my anaemia is – I’ve been on iron tablets for about 3 weeks and mostly I’m much better than the asthmatic geriatric I used to sound like. Update on post op behaviour – 48hours to recover from general anaesthetic and a week off work and no lifting or driving. So I’ve possibly lost the sweepstake of a leaving date of 20th October. From Winchester we head to Lee on Solent to see Jane. She’s busy working at the sailing club so we just make ourselves at home.
Saturday 10th October
First stop today is at Pauline’s (Jane’s mum). She’s selling her house and moving to a flat in Lee on Solent and she’s having a coffee morning to say goodbye to all her neighbours. She’s moving on Monday 19th October so it’s not long now. She’s lived in this house for 51 years, brought up Jane and Karen here and spent many happy times with Terry, who sadly died last year. So she’ll be leaving the house with so many memories but she’s moving to a lovely flat which will be easier for her to manage. From here we head to Durley to take Jane on a geocaching country walk.
Sunday 11th October
We go off to see Jane and Ange’s allotment and once we’ve picked some veg and dug up some potatotoes we head to the 10th Hole at Southsea, Portsmouth to play 9 holes.
It’s absolutely ages since I’ve played golf and we discover Jane had a misspent youth – well youth of her boys where they often played pitch and put. We all have a good game.
After we have a spot of lunch; the range of cakes on display is stunning but unfortunately our coffee and walnut cake is a little disappointing. On the way home we stop off to admire the views from Portsdown Hill.
It’s great spending time with Jane and catching up on her news. Since we last saw her she’s been to Boston to see Peter and Sarah marry and then she spent 3 days in New York with Pauline, Ange and Duncan and by all accounts, the Pope, who was in every tourist location that they wanted to visit. But they had a great time and the pictures of the wedding are absolutely fantastic. Peter and Sarah make a lovely couple.
Monday 12th October
We cycle to the allotment and dig up all the potatoes and tidy up several other beds.
Then we head into Lee for haircuts. In the late afternoon we walk to the Osborne View and enjoy gazing over the Solent as the sun sets. Beautiful.
Tuesday 13th October
Today we head back to Marlborough. Jane gets us up at 0630hrs – it’s a very long time since we’ve been up this early. She drops us off at Southampton Parkway.
We catch the train to Reading and then it all goes ‘tits up’. There’s problems with the Bedwyn trains (engineering works on the line between Reading and Newbury) has caused train cancellations. There are some coaches laid on but not enough to deal with the problem. Eventually we get a delayed train and when we arrive in Bedwyn we’ve missed the bus by 10mins. The next bus is over an hour away and Daz insists on hitching and 5 minutes before the bus is due he gets us a lift. Hurrah!!!
Wednesday 14th October
Big day today. We pack all our kit and load up our bike. This takes a while and Daz only planned a semi laden bike trip but this really is one of our few chances to get some practice in.
We’re just going to cycle to Bedwyn – this is where we plan to get the train when we set off. It’s only 8 miles so should be fairly straightforward. It’s not. We start out and the bike is so heavy and we’re weaving all over the road. We turn out of the lane onto the A4 – quite a considerable uphill and already we’re nearly at a standstill and cars are haring past us. I’m pretty terrified because we keep weaving across the road. We stop and start walking and get to the top of the hill. Are we ready for this? Perhaps not but we’ve got to give this a go. From the top of the hill we start cycling again and gradually we get back into the swing of things. After all we have cycled with this much weight before but we were so much fitter than we are now. I think Daz is shocked by how hard he finds it. We make it to Bedwyn and it’s only taken 45 minutes not the hour we estimated. We stop off at the post office for a snack and drink and chat to another cyclist. Then we head off to see the windmill but we can’t find it and give up and head back into the village. Now we head for home and actually we are already so much better. Unfortunately we take a wrong turn and find ourselves in Burbage . From here we end up on the A346 back into Marlborough and it’s a horrendously busy road through Savernake wood with a killer of a hill. It’s pretty nerve wracking with all the traffic but we make it home safely and we’ve improved hugely in this one trip – and we pretty much know what we’re taking. An awesome result – 34km done.
Saturday 17th October
Yesterday I had my operation.
We drove to Hampshire Royal County Hospital, Winchester for 12am. Was shown to by bed in the ward and waited to speak to my consultant and my anaesthetist. I was number 2 on the operation list and lady number one went off around 1340. Around 3pm they took me away for my anaesthetic and I felt a bit anxious as they prepared me but then there was nothing until I came round and they took me back to the ward. Daz was waiting and we sat and read and I had tea and toast – fantastic when I hadn’t eaten since 0730hrs and I’d only had one cup of tea!! I had the usual observations taken etc and then we left at 1820. I felt fine. No pain and just a feeling of huge relief. We headed back to Marlborough for dinner. Lovely.
Tuesday 20th October
After a really quiet weekend we went for a lovely walk yesterday from Greater Bedwyn to Wilton Windmill and then back along the Avon and Kennet canal.
We watched a canal barge struggling with one of the locks where the seal between the gates was so poor it didn’t seem they’d ever be able to get into the lock.
Today we did another test ride. 30km to Avebury Rings and back. It took 2 hours cycling time and it was so much better than last week. 30km is about half the distance we plan to do daily until we get bike fit again. But after today’s ride we’re feeling much more confident that the world cycling adventure is doable – so fingers crossed.
We have been incredibly strict on our packing and we’ve had to throw out even more – most of the stuff we carried around Scandinavia and Iceland for 8 months. More stuff for the tip!
And tomorrow we’re putting more into our storage locker.
In the evening we visited Roxy and Mark in Middle Wallop, 2 old friends from Hereford. We went out for a lovely Thai meal in The Greyhound at Broughton but we were so stuffed. It was lovely to meet them and hear their news.
Wednesday 21st October
So this is our last day before the big trip. And our plan – to put more stuff into storage, post our last UK blog and take Vikki and Gav out for a thank you meal.
Our storage locker is now pretty full!
Tomorrow the world cycling tour begins. We’re cycling to Winchester and then Friday we need to get to Portsmouth to catch the Santander ferry at 1730hrs. So how do we feel – I think terrified probably covers it for me but I’m sure once we get going the nerves will settle and perhaps I will become the touring cyclist Daz pretends we already are. It feels as if it’s been a long time coming – we’ve been back in the UK since 1st September so for everyone who’s been kind enough to put a roof over our heads (Larry and Debbie, Carl and Trish, Jac and Trax and Kate) for this extended period – thank you so much. We’re incredibly lucky to have so many friends and family that helped us out over this period and we really couldn’t have done it without you. And especially to Gav and Vik who not only gave us a place to stay but also a car to use. And to all my operation well wishers – thank you so much for your kind thoughts. I feel great – the relief is enormous and the symptoms are no longer in existence (well not at the moment anyway).