Not a pun about the bike riding kit the other girls are wearing but, in fact, proper green birds flying around in Richmond Park. I’ve mentioned them before but this time they sat still long enough. Sorry the picture’s not better, I still panicked a bit. Are they cockatoos d’you reckon?

Saw these very orderly young looking deer when I was bike riding. They’re so pretty with their light coloured fur. Sadly as I’d come into the Park I saw a sign explaining there would be ‘deer culling’ over the coming months. Makes me sad but presume somewhere someone knows what they’re doing…

update
Hovering between 1 and 2 degrees this morning and a thick frost sitting on EVerything so oh-wise-one here went for a bike ride…
Well, I’d just got my little mitts on a road bike (thank you, thank you, thank you) and I’d just got my mitts back on it post-service so I was keen to give it a spin. Ah, I thought, how cold can it be… I won’t bang on; talking about the weather is dull. I’ll just say it was freezing, and that when I stopped …

Second proper mountain bike ride. There was mud, snot, frost, snot, frost, mud and some pedalling :)

My first proper episode on MTB.

Lots of jiggery, scrambly, muddy action through bushes & forest and up & down hills, hills, hills, hills!

Don’t tell the other bikes, but this is a lot of fun isn’t it…

Bikes are fun. So I went to get my cbt licence with Twickenham bike school, which is secretly in Sunbury-on-Thames.
I trained manual so now I can ride anything up to 125cc manual for the next two years, oh, but I have to have ‘Ls’. Learning the gears was alright, I struggled most with steering which was pretty funny. The instructor was wicked, made everything comfortable, easy and interesting. At the end of the day we rode out on the road (aaaaah) and I got up to …

I’m very grateful to this week’s Indian summer because it’s put lots of people in good moods. I’m also grateful because it meant that when I picked up my new bike I could go straight out for a spin, yay.
Birdie Bikes supplied me with my new wheels – nice team they’ve got in there, really friendly, helpful & enthusiastic. They’re in Hampton so the route was a fairly easy choice once I’d decided to can the rest of my plans for the day… I won’t pretend to …

Six perfect days at Lake Annecy with my little giselle.
Doing all our favourite things but attempting them at a gentle, relaxed pace.
Breathing the amazing air, drinking (pore-ously and pot-ably) the delicious water, baking in the gorgeous sunshine and then, unfortunately getting soaked in full on mountain rainfalls.
Et après…
Two days in Paris with lovely Kate, doing, er, not a lot but loving every second.

update
The UK Ironman triathlon will take place 31 July in Bolton, Lancashire. Around 1,500 athletes will be participating and places allow qualification for the awesome Hawaii 2011 Ironman. I’m writing about this because my best friend Catherine will be competing, but under really special circumstances.
Team True Spirit
Catherine is a rehab instructor at Headley Court, a Defence Medical Rehabilitation Unit. She works her rehab magic (and she does have magic fingers) on individuals who have suffered extreme injuries through military (navy, airforce and army) service.
This year there are …

Seven days on the glorious island of Bali. An immediately calming but strengthening environment.

This time I saw more of the beaches and ventured inland to Ubud – a cruise-y, spiritual town.

Fun times were had on surf board, bike, yoga mat and dance floor. And there was plenty of fuel from the nation’s superb Bintang and anything-with-peanut-sauce dishes :)

I hope I make it back again some day…