Coniston

This easter, (or should it be last easter?) I decided upon gracing the glamorous coniston water with my presence for a camping trip. I thought 'wouldn't it be nice to get away from it all for a day?' The first problem became apparent as the second week of holiday turned around: no tent. So I, rather stupidly, decided to cycle there for a day of rest, relaxation, swimming and orienteering.

I got all my stuff ready to go, bag packed, bike checked, before I realised the tyre mending kit was too decript to be worth taking, so I had to wait for an hour whilst dad got me a new one from town.

When I finally set off, the hill was steeper than I remembered. In fact, all the hills were, not helped by the heavy bag on my back, and I alternated between boiling hot and frezing as I went up and down the hills. When I got there, I went to sleep on a rock, much to the amusement of rowers, before heading (at a gentle pace) towards Coniston villiage. Where I bought lunch and tea, at extortionate prices, and tried to find an ATM or a shop that gave cashback. Neither of these existed.

I cycled onwards, stopping frequently for 'lets lie on the beach and swim' sessions, before arriving at the O place. 1 1/2 hours early. So I waited. And slept. Before running (well it was more of a saunter through the woods) for an hour. I had a deadline of sunset: 8.06pm, and it being 6.45 when I'd finished orienteering, I had a mad dash back home. I was exhausted, my legs felt as though someone was sitting on them, and my back ached, the bag upon it getting heavier and heavier. By the time I reached greenodd I was ready to collapse, but there was more hills to come, so I grimly held on. Up the hill. Down the hill, up the hill and up some more. I felt sick and exhausted, but I was closer to home with ever breath. That one thought kept me from giving up there and then. Home.

I finally got in, couldnt breathe properly and collapsed onto the sofa, before crawling to bed, where I slept the next 13 hours.

Thats something I wont do again in a hurry.

Cycling

Over the past few days (OK, just 3) I have becaome slightly enamoured of cycling. This is my bid to not be lazy now that it's the easter holiday, and also because I like to be fairly self reliant, I thought I could combine two things. Kill two birds with one stone. Not that I would want to kill any birds except to eat, or that I know how to use a slingshot, or even if I did want to eat a bird, that I'd want to eat two of them.

But, the point is, I have an extremely sore backside after 3 days of tormenting it by cycling over the moors. The roads up there arent in the best of conditions, but I think it's the dirt track, the excruciatingly rough dirt track, that was the worst bit. And having not really done any cycling since last summer...

Yesterday I cycled about 16 miles. Well, I dont know the distance, but it seemed about 100 times longer than it is. The problem being that it was basically all uphill. Which was great on the way back, but made my legs sore ache on the way there, the wind not helping matters by blowing straight into my face.

So for the rest of this week, my aim is to do a bit of cycling every day, and so to make it seem pointful, I have to have a task for every day. For example, today I went to post a membership renewal which was dreadfully overdue (3 or 4 months), and I am thinking about writing a letter to send to Germany tomorrow for my friend. Thinking, mind. I am one of these terrible people who cannot for the life of me stay in touch with anyone, even if I have good intentions. I generally avoid all forms of technological contact - phones, mobile phones, email and messenger(the most likely ones to find me at being email because its less involved with people).

Anway, tea calls, so I shall stop babbling on randomly at this page, pouring out my heart and soul to the web (not).