Clarity

I am so glad of the fact that, even when I'm as tense and stressed as I am now, and quite ill with a nasty summer cold, the smallest of things can bring me the most amusement and comfort.

Ian sent me the following LNRK this afternoon. What LNRK means is a secret - unless you can work it out! :-))

..... everything was asleep.



When it comes to large and small carnivores I can understand that their mission in life seems to be to spend as much time asleep in the sun as possible, but Somali Wild Asses??



Even the meerkat on sentry duty looked like an emptied meerkat skin on the top rock of their enclosure.

about seaside towns midweek if you don't live there and aren't used to them when they're quiet. The penultimate week of my last job (more on that later) was spent on annual leave, and Ian and I decided to take a midweek trip to Littlehampton, which is rapidly becoming my favourite place by the sea.

It was extremely windy and somehow we did manage to spend an entire day wandering and watching and hearing the sounds of a windy harbour. I find the noise of ropes slapping against masts most eerie and evocative. There were very few people about, even on such a beautiful sunny day, which added to our sense of dislocation.

We saw the tide come right in, and it came in very high, driven again by the wind I guess. It was a strange, peaceful day.

Ironically, on the day I accepted Early Release from CSC (their phrase for voluntary redundancy) I had the luck of being one of about forty people chosen to be at a special briefing with Team CSC. They are all such incredibly nice guys! There was an hour or so interview with them where the names of the Tour Team were announced and they took lots of questions from the CSC staff at the briefing. They were very frank and amusing.


It's not just about the bike, honest!!


More interesting with someone on it! ;-)








From left to right, Jens Voigt, Bobby Julich, Stuart O'Grady and Ivan Basso.

It was a real privilege to have the chance to meet four such great athletes on almost the eve of the Tour.

I got home at about 17:20 this evening, and scuttled to my front door grumbling and bitching to myself about the truly maniacal driving of those pratts who couldn't be bothered to make sure they'd organised to be home in time for their darling "footie". Still, I got in safely and greeted my cat who was very pleased to see me.

I made a cup of tea and a Nutella sandwich (yes, I know I shouldn't, but I was incensed at the bad driving out there tonight) and settled down to read the latest edition of The Chronicles. I got to the end of the latest instalment and, as if by magic, the TV which was turned off in the corner gives a little stutter, I lose my wireless connection, and the house suddenly seems very quiet.

Yes, it's a power cut! At 18:10 on the evening of the England vs Trinidad & Tobago match! I could not have timed it better if I'd been wielding the wire-cutters and oxy-cet torch myself. I got an unholy fit of the giggles. I listened with relish to the howls outside.

They got round it though - people were sitting in cars listening and getting their brats to shout out the score to anyone who might be listening. Once the match had finished, The Beloved tried to call me to warn me that there was a fair bit of dangerous driving going on in Guildford and that he was going to worry if I was out on the bike. He kept getting cut off as the network signal dropped off repeatedly - more footie-idiots phoning their equally boring relatives with the final result that they would have already known, perhaps?

Then the power came back on. At about 18:45. Sheer poetry.

Yesterday evening was just perfect for an hour or so's pootle around the lanes once I'd let my supper go down. It was cool but not cold, the sky was interesting without threatening rain, and there was a breeze without it really being significant enough to be called a headwind.

I took my hi-viz yellow wind/waterproof which makes me very visible from a long way away and when I wear it open and flapping behind me it prompts car drivers to give me more room than they would to a sleeker cyclist profile! I took my lights too, as it was tending towards the gloaming, and way back when, in the days when I used to do a near-miss report, dusk always seemed to be the worst time for SMIDSYs*.

So I'm drifing along the lanes enjoying the late sunshine, fragrant air and very, very quiet transmission when I see something worrisome up ahead. Even when on the bike, I keep a close eye out for "mini-beasts" on the verges and in the bushes in case they decide to make a dash for it. I've saved many creatures' lives mainly by spotting them quite a way ahead and slowing down for them rather than by ill-advised braking or swerving. I particularly would not like to run something over whilst on the bike.

It was quickly quite evident that there was a small casualty ahead who was still moving. I groaned to myself - I hate having to decide what to do in these situations and I have seen some nasty things. I prefer roadkill when they're very, very dead.

To remove nasty descriptions which I don't really want to recall, whatever action I took would not have led to a pleasant end. I chose to hope that the next car that came along finished the job quickly, quite a likely thing to happen given the poor beast's position on the road.

It was either that or allow the creature to expire, probably very slowly, in the verge. I hope I made the right decision. Instinctively, the rabbit wanted to get off the road. I wonder if I should have moved it. Quick or slow?

I continued on my ride feeling sad about it, but not feeling the need to go back and see what had happened. This is one of my usual loops though, so I will probably return soon, possibly even tonight.

Does anyone else out there regularly encounter creatures that are highly unlikely to survive their injuries? What do you do?



* - Sorry Mate I Didn't See You

I've noticed that my posts are becoming infrequent again. It's not that there's not a lot of things on my mind, there are, believe me, a lot of issues on my mind.

But. I'm reminded of the poor people who write unguardedly on their blogs concerning their employers and their opinions of their employers, and sometimes even the dodgy activities of their employers. I'm perfectly happy with the idea that maintaining anonymity on the internet is next to impossible, so I don't even bother to try. It's much nicer not having to constantly self-censor, and watch what you link where, and try to maintain different personae. I just can't be bothered with all that. So all I have to do is to make sure that I keep in touch with myself and make sure a persona isn't encouraged to come through anywhere that isn't consistent with the whole. Seeing as I'm so changeable depending on my moods and the weather and the moon phase etc etc etc that's never been a problem.

But so much of what is going on at the moment is linked directly to work, and who I work for, and more importantly who I want to work for and why, that I'm struggling to have any space in my brain for much else. I can't write openly about it either, as what's happening is commercially very sensitive, and I wouldn't want to be one of the people taken to task for blogging about their employer - wouldn't do much for my personal marketability. That kind of notoriety won't pay my bills!!

I'm cycling still of course, more than ever now, and it's keeping me balanced, but I've not been taking my camera out and that's daft. I keep forgetting it. Maybe I need to immerse in what I'm doing for a while, and put less emphasis on recording? Perhaps. The urge to take my camera is coming back now, so that time must be nearly over.

Very soon my employment issue will resolve - I'm taking a brave plunge. I hope it works out well. In the meantime, I'll take this writers' block as a warning shot across my bows.