FNRttK 2015 - Saturday May 2nd

[StuAff]

Welcome to the club! I'm a member three times over. Here's a scan of my brain (I like to post this, as it proves I have one).

David Cameron spotted near tram line. "Where have you been?" asks Samantha. "Making sure I get every vote that's coming to me," he says mysteriously.

Glad to hear you've had no further problems, and delighted you'll be joining us on my London to Hastings ride. Surely you remember signing up for that, right? No? Well, I won't hold you to it, considering the accident and all...

Hey, my memory's not that bad, I haven't signed up for that one.



Yet.

 

[swarm_catcher]

MyPhotos are ready, ride report to follow.

 

[StuAff]

Pain and suffering update: Achy bits still achy. Not quite as achy as yesterday though. No further symptoms of anything untoward. Stress levels currently not good [for reasons I will not disclose here] but that will pass. I'm not going to be going into work, I'm certainly capable of doing my job as normal but the aforementioned stress levels would not be helped by a commute in those winds, regardless of method of transport. Caution wins the day.

 

[Tim Hall]

I'm not going to be going into work,

Is the right answer.

 

[StuAff]

Is the right answer.

If it wasn't blowing a gale I might, might have risked it. But no way am I riding a bike (of either kind) in that weather, and the train doesn't appeal at the best of times, which these aren't. And in multiple senses my head isn't the way it should be.

 

[mmmmartin]

A brief update from the recce party, now in Zaandam just outside Amsterdam.
Sorry to hear of The Crash, @StuAff and gws. Glad to hear you are now firing on all cylinders, almost.
It was the normal fantastic ride, my third, and I'll be signing up for next year as well.
It was great to have David along, and his (and Karen's) hospitality was once again above and beyond the call of duty.
And at last I'm delighted to say that @StuAff and I did actually see kangaroos, they weren't hallucinations!
(The recce is going very well and there will be a series of updates in coming days, elsewhere. Today was very windy, obvs.)

(@Gordon P agrees with all of the above.)

 

[BalkanExpress]

MyPhotos are ready, ride report to follow.

Nice pictures, and two good reasons for doing the ride next year...the third reason is, obviously, to keep Stu out of the f'ing tram tracks

 

[StuAff]

Nice pictures, and two good reasons for doing the ride next year...the third reason is, obviously, to keep Stu out of the f'ing tram tracks

Tram tracks. The new catseyes.....

 

[swarm_catcher]

Tram tracks. The new catseyes.....

In my mind I called them Susie-Sues, now I call them Susie-Stues. You have a great spirit StuAff, what resilience.

From my blog in progress ...:

The route just needs a little tweaking with the approach into Ostende. It might add a mile or two, but I think we could make an early south-west loop and then along the seafront to go back to Caruso. This way, we'd get to cycle along the sea, avoid the ongoing, confusing road works and we'd also make a wide birth to the tramlines, regardless of which bridge is open. To be recce'd.

My other suggestion is to leave Brussels at 11PM. That would give more chance of waffles and rijstaart in Brussels and we can have a longer stop in Bruges. Sonya found a cafe open which we didn't know of before. It's a long ride at 140km, so a decent stop in Bruges will give us renewed energy for the last stretch into Ostende.

 

[StuAff]

You have a great spirit StuAff, what resilience.

Or to put it another way, sheer bloodymindedness

 

[StuAff]

Will be back at work today- sought reassurance from a couple of the CC medical professional contingent that I should be OK to return and got it. Four days on, no further symptoms whatsoever and everything healing up nicely. If I was going to have problems as a result of Sunday morning they'd have shown up by now.

 

[StuAff]

Work day/night completed without issues. A four day week would have been perfectly OK, I really didn't want a two day one...

 

[StuAff]

2nd day back. Limbs still attached, cardiovascular system still operating, brain no worse than usual.