dmorg.org

Thursday, August 04, 2022 Our original plan had been to find our way, with our bikes, to Basel. Then to ride to Budapest. But getting the bikes to Basel was complicated, with Eurostar still not carrying them due to Covid (!) and friends ahead of us, already on the ride to Budapest, mentioned that the route was not as interesting as hoped, less so than in France (the part of the route we had done pre-Covid) and that 36C was no fun to ride in even with prevailing headwinds. So Bev and I changed our plans, to stay closer to the North Sea coast and, hopefully, more tolerable temperatures. We had spent a week holed up in a hotel in Greenwich, isolating as suggested (but not required!) until we were no longer Covid-infectious. We booked a cabin on the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland and could have waited out a few more days in our shabbily expensive hotel before getting a ride to Harwich but, still somewhat restricted by post-Covid energy-doldrums, decided instead to ride slowly to...

We came to Norfolk to stay for a few days at a very nice hotel in a few acres of wood and grassland. A little more up-market than our usual accommodations but 90th birthday celebrations don't come around that often. Norfolk is in the heart of Brexit country. The hotel restaurant is full of senior citizens, some of whom look typical Gammons, a remarkably apt, if somewhat derogatory description. Red-faced and angry looking. Probably anti-vax too. Entitled, for sure. I came down with a cold but tested negative for Covid so Bev and I went for a walk yesterday. Very pleasant but a little bit more than I was up to considering my cold and my general fitness. Through woodland and fields to the coast, then along the coast for a while before completing the loop home; an 11 and a half km circuit. I was dragging my feet by the end. Today my Covid test was positive. Damn ! This will complicate matters somewhat. We're leaving the hotel tomorrow...

We've been in the UK for ten days now, having escaped Calgary ahead of the heat warnings: 30C. But there, in Calgary, we have a cool basement to retreat to. And we then arrived in Britain in time for a more serious heat event: it's 38C outside now, all-time records falling left, right and centre. And no basement handy. The guest suite adjacent to Mum's flat has room to swing a small cat but no drafts all. The bed sheet I sleep on (or try to) is streaked with salt marks. Like the outline of a corpse on the floor of a crime show. I'm currently taking advantage of the air-conditioning in the nearby Costa Coffee. The walk down here was reminiscent on an afternoon wander through a bazaar in Delhi. Except that Delhi is even hotter now than it was the last time I visited five years ago. The planet really is  burning up. Today is my brother Chris' birthday so we are going out for pizza. Yes. It is hopefully not as crazy as it sounds; there is a nice micro-brewery pub (Salt,...

Arrived at Heathrow a couple of days ago. Ferried home by Chris who managed to pack the three of us with the two bikes, one large suitcase, a large duffel bag, and two marginal carryons into his small, new hybrid.  But it's very hot here and the guest suite at Mum's flat is more than toasty. Sleeping, or attempting to, without covers or clothes on the clammy sheets. I don't know how Mum manages.  Not having seen her since before COVID started, the ageing is noticeable. And last night, she had a fall in the flat before going to bed. I thought she was just up late today after a typically poor night's sleep but she was in pain from the fall. We got a taxi to Lewisham Hospital and began the waiting game. Waiting to be triaged, waiting on Urgent Care, waiting for a cat scan, waiting for results. And now, after 12 hours, waiting for transport home. Which could be 10 minutes or three hours, so I was told. A couple of hours ago.  The wait time increased to 4 hours a...

Why this blog on Blogger? It's an experiment in blogging from my phone to see whether I can leave my laptop at home on my next bike tour. Which is coming up shortly!  In a bid to rescue my existing  dmorg.org  blog from where it has been languishing on the monolithic and unwieldy WordPress platform, I've been coding a blog from scratch, using the brilliant SvelteKit JavaScript compiler-cum-framework. But it is a work in progress and I'm not confident that I will be able to edit the posts from my phone: hence this little excursion into the Blogger-sphere. If nothing else, this may serve as a location to store my memories while they are still fresh, for later transfer to a newly revitalised  dmorg.org .

Not being blessed with the best of weather on this trip, we waited out a day of rain in Llanelli before continuing westward. There seems to be a pattern of wet day, dry day. And we’re not sufficiently hurried (motivated?) to ride through the wet ones. St Ishmael’s Parish Church, on the approach to Ferryside, has parts that date from the 13th century. There is a splendid roof, and a sundial that is claimed to have been added in 1725. Despite the grey days, the sun shone intermittently, making the light bright and the greens intense. It’s not all due to Lightroom! The prevailing winds are westerly and the abundant wind turbines explained our regular headwinds. We arrived at the Harbourlights Guesthouse, in Saundersfoot, just a few minutes too late to prevent getting soaked when the heavens opened. By the time we showered, changed and were out for dinner, the weather had cleared again. We enjoyed curry night at The Royal Oak, with the excellent (and seemingly appropriate) Jaipur India Pal...