Snowdrops and Dis-appointments

Blogging three weeks in a row! Standard format, family then cycling. This week has been the usual ups and downs, some frustrations and of course a lot of outdoor activity!

It's been a soggy old week but the dogs couldn't care less. Today was the best walk of the week in alternating sunny and foggy conditions.

Lee's chest infection is clearing up which is lucky because it's no thanks to nonsensical NHS systems. Earlier in the week she still felt rough at the end of her 2nd course of antibiotics. So Lee played the "can I get a GP appointment," game and then they decided to send her to a different health centre to see a chest specialist. There she was told they couldn't prescribe further antibiotics and steroids until she'd had a chest x-ray. In order to do this she was advised to go back to her GP...by that time all GP appointments were gone! What an utterly bonkers system. There are so many things that are great with the NHS but this is an area where it's all wrong. Lee hasn't had a GP appointment and consequently no chest x-ray...thankfully things appear to be improving despite this! Niamh also had a similar experience of being shunted around an overwhelmed system. I truly hope the next government can undo the 14 years of austerity that contributed to this silly mess. It would be easy to descend into a political rant at this point so I'm just going stop right here!

Sam was also home for the weekend. He usually stays in his room on the xbox but this weekend he's sat with us in the evening and we've had some great chats. He's so committed to his history degree and is forming some very interesting views on the world. We are very proud parents!

On Tuesday I joined the Good Bean Ride at the RFW clubhouse. Unfortunately I was having a bit of an issue with my front tyre going flat. So I ended going home where I topped up the sealant and changed the valve core. This did the trick...

So I just headed back out on a reverse route until I met the group coming back the other way. Then it was a splendid ride with a tailwind back home again. 

For most of the week it's been indoor rides due to the weather. We even cancelled our Thursday MTB ride due to persistent rain, if we lived a bit further north it would have been snow! For my indoor rides I use rollers and GCN training videos. You can have a more sophisticated set up with smart trainers and apps like zwift but this works for me!

Today I needed a few miles to finish my goals for the week. I set out on a tried and tested route to get those done. Because I like round numbers I had to add an extra 5km loop to get to 50km!

There are signs of Spring everywhere. My ride this afternoon was brightened up by snowdrops! The daffodils are also showing but no flowers yet.

I was still having those political thoughts as I rolled through Naesby where the decisive battle of the English Civil War took place. I wondered how popular Oliver Cromwell would be these days...I mean even Suella Braverman wouldn't ban Christmas...would she? I also thought about those chats with Sam. One of which is why do we call the Civil War the Civil War when we had centuries of civil wars before that...also there's nothing particularly civil about pikes and muskets!!!

With walking and cycling I've chalked off another 112 miles for the #nhs1000miles challenge. Not as good as last week but I'm happy with that in this tricky weather.

Well that's about it for this week.

Happy Pedalling