Work has generally been quite busy recently.  Which is a good thing.  More work means more money.  However, there is more to life than work, and there are a whole load more things I need to squeeze into my week than just work.  I’d like to share just a few of this week’s additional bits and bobs with you.  It gives me something to do after all.

This afternoon I took the opportunity to put work on hold briefly while I went outside and mowed the lawn.  It has needed doing for a while now, and I’ve been putting it off, but today I figured I ought to take advantage of the sunshine and get out there while I can.  Looking at the forecast, the weekend isn’t going to be too promising.  The lawn actually needs treating at some point, as one half of it looks to be more moss than grass.  We’ve got some moss-killer, it’s just a case of spraying it on and letting it do its job.  I didn’t get round to that today, but I did cut the grass and do the edges, so the garden is looking nice now.  I also noticed that the peas in our vegetable patch are beginning to grow too!  We’ve got carrots and parsnips in there too, but I only planted them last week so it’s no surprise they’re not topside yet.

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Saturday was busy.  At least, a lot seemed to happen.  In the morning I went bike-shopping (see my previous post about why I needed a new bike), and came home having only been to one shop.  £105 bought me a nice mountain bike with 21 gears and front suspension, and included a new saddle (the one the bike came with was a tiddly little one, which wouldn’t have been any good at all, so I upgraded to a slightly nicer one).  The most scary part was in fact not buying the bike, but getting it home again on the back of my Mini!  Still, I know what I’m doing with that bike rack, so it was on good and tight and bike didn’t move an inch, even over the bumps in the road.  It’s just rather worrying when you see the bike sticking out either side of the car by a substantial distance!

When I got home I took the bike for a ride, something I’ve not done in years.  My leg muscles complained almost instantly, but thankfully I managed to ignore them long enough to get a good long ride out of them.  At first I just cycled round the block, getting used to the bike and working up some confidence.  Then I started exploring some random roads in Wivenhoe that I hadn’t been down before, found a few footpaths I never knew existed, and generally enjoyed being back on a bike again.  Then I ended up taking the bike off-road for a bit, and found some fields that I didn’t know were there.  It was hard going, and I found a fair bit of mud, but I guess if nothing else it was good for the bike to know what it was in for!  After about half an hour of cycling I came back home again, thoroughly worn out but satisfied that I had had some exercise and shown the bike who was boss.

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