A mixed bag this morning for the 200th ride in..
Out early into the pea-souper fog as I needed to get a punctured tyre looked at on the car - fitted new for the MOT last month and now a £100 write-off thanks to encountering some massive nail or similar at the weekend.. Couldn't have happened to one of the tatty ones on the front, could it?
Having dropped the wheel off and made a half-asleep twat of myself both in front of the bloke at the tyre place / then some other road users by stalling across the road while trying to leave (thanks to the snatchy, probably oily clutch and my desire not to spin the wheels like a ned) I parked up and got out on the bike in reasonable time.
By the time I'd hit the tow path the fog had all but gone and my mood was lifted enormously by a big smile from the surprise-super-hot redhead coming the opposite way - today
on a bicycle no less 
Onward past lots of happy, friendly people for a single pull-up / neg and a bit of a back-popping dangle on the monkey bars. Down towards the city and after weeks of dashed good intentions I finally managed to leave a festive sandwich for the sleeping homeless bloke under the bridge; purchased last night for that very reason. Stupid anxious brain hopes he doesn't take offence at the fact it was reduced as some kind of reflection of my opinion of his personal worth..
While returning to the bike I was hopefully approached by the family of five swans that live on the canal; only a few original grey feathers remaining now on this year's brood. I see them a lot and they seem used to pestering people for food (I know they get fed by a few folks lucky enough to live in the big, obscenely expensive Victorian terraces that back onto the canal further out). Maybe next year I'll try to get some appropriate scraps together for them.. although usually by the time any vegetable matter in our house is written off it's already turned to soup..
Town was nicely quiet, sausages were had along with an onion bhaji - which no doubt my digestive system will not thank me for later. Smiles from the perpetually happy ladies in the flower shop as I passed, then up the tow path for an uneventful last leg before arriving at work just on time.
Despite it being 18 months (nearly to the day) since I started commuting partially on the bike I remain very grateful for such a nice route in; and cautiously thankful for the uncharacteristically mild and dry weather making it so much more pleasant than it could be
