Enjoying holidays.

Today was pleasant and eventful. In between cycling from last nights' dark place and Didsbury, Manchester, ( http://maps.blackberry.com/?lat=53.41086&lon=-2.22793&z=4&label=Where+I+Am
) I fitted in some shepherding, tyre changing and navigation by the sun. Let me explain....

Last night was not nice - it was a seedy truckers motel with seedy and uninteresting local characters. The sort of folk who tell the same story to the same people from the same seats on the same evening....every bloody evening. This sent me to bed early - a good thing as I was on my way by 7:40am.

After a short while, I looked up from the road to herald a flock of sheep heading in my direction. Behind them was a red faced farmer on a 4wd with a rather nice looking Indian lady sat beside him: not what I would describe if you asked me to characterise Cheshire! Obviously things are changing for the better here ! The farmer shook his hairy fist at me (at least I think it was his fist), and shouted a command to me. I retreated to just beyond the farm gate growled a convincing "cum-bye" and they were in the yard. Another skill for the CV!

What else happened ? Ah yes, tyre change in Crewe - old rear tyre worn out. The shop owner assured me that it was the oldest bike shop premises in the country - 1913 it started as a bike shop and has been one since then under different guises. One thing I am suspicious about is that after entering this time warp, my GPS lost its maps. I was stunned and from then had to zigzag across the country to arrive at my destination. This meant having to use the major routes that I had planned avoiding so the route was less interesting than previously. I am now on my second attempt to recover my maps having failed due to permissioning issues in Sandbach Public Library: my target this time is the hotel receptionist who has a tasty looking computer on her desktop....let's see if I'm successful.

Not heard from Carolina and kids for a couple of days so if you're reading then I still exist and would be happy to hear from you!