Wednesday walk folk, look away if you're a purist. This isn't a walk of course but a ride, but I think the aim of dear @tattoodjay's #wednesdaywalk iniative has blossomed some what into 'get out and about and show us a bit of your environment', right? Plus, look at this guys face. Look how happy he is. Instead of walking this Wednesday with him, I agreed to cycle, and that's a huge deal!
First of all, it was a bit of a mental health day today for him. Teachers are more overworked than ever and if he didn't take a sneaky day off he would have exploded. Next week is parent teacher interviews after a six on (six teaching period) day and he's on til 9.30 at night. Do they get paid extra for this? No. The state schools have now agreed to that but not all independent schools. Morale is at an all time low, for this and many other reasons, so doing up bikes and going for a ride keeps him at least a little sane.
WE drove to the reservoir, only ten minutes away from us, but cycling there as WELL as the 11 kms around the reservoir was not what I agreed to. He's been working hard on building me the best gravel bike he can out of old bikes he's found off marketplace. AND he found the bike rack from the tip shop for $10 too! He's put suspension and good gears on my bikes so we were hoping it would keep me happy. After the fall I had from my bike last year I've been super reluctant to get out again, but marriage is all compromise and negotiation, right, and I just wanted him to be happy.
It really was a perfect morning for a ride - it can get super windy round the reservoir but today was perfectly still and kinda cool, with the sun just starting to warm things up. In the distance were swans, but my camera didn't really catch them.
I was super impressed with the bike, although the seat isn't suitable for me and basically made me have a numb fanny (not the American fanny, the Australian one) which also gave me pins and needles which was a wierd experience. Don't think about it too much - girls might know what I mean. Save to say Jamie found it amusing as I stomped about trying to unnumb so I could have a pee.
Jamie's really wanting to do a lot more gravel biking, which is basically cycling off road. There's tons of gravel roads around here so it's perfect. The reservoir was good for me to test it out as it was flat - and I really enjoyed it, so I might even go again. I certainly need to cycle a lot as we plan on doing a long ride along the Danube when we go to Europe next year. Anyone live on that route?
One thing there are a LOT of here is kangaroos, and some HUGE ones as well, super muscley. For some reason, my phone started taking blurry photos, so I've included a a shot of this guy from the Wednesday ACTUAL walk we did here a few months ago! There's always one keepign a look out. This guy was GIGANTIC.
Obviously we had a really lovely time. I'm so glad I made him come out and get some fresh air instead of being home catching up on school work. He really needed it.
ON the last leg I found the motherload of rosehips - so we had to remove the spare tyres and my phone and fill the bag at the handlebars with them!
I ended up making a heap of oxymel from the rosehips - basically you soak them in vinegar for six weeks and end up with a Vit C rich probiotic drink. I added some ginger too.
When we got home I suggested we go into the town and have some lunch - a rare treat, but I'd sold some mushroom buckets and thought it would be nice. Now say 'burger and chips' to Jamie and he'll grin from ear to ear. That's what he had - I had a quinoa crust veggie flan thingie with salad and goat cheese.
The funny thing was, he wasn't the only person who took this Wednesday off. I spoke to quite a few others who did too. Maybe it was Wednesday anti Work day?
How was your Wednesday?
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here
