Got back home on Monday afternoon after a fortnight away.
Spent a good many hours glued to the computer downloading all the stuff I’d missed including about 300MB of music from Gmail and few weeks worth of 3hive. Lovely.
Upgraded a Mac my Dad had dropped off to sort out when I was away. Had a chunk of geek glee networking them via a variety of cables and wi-fi. Decided I want another computer for my bedroom. Also decided I don’t need another computer for my bedroom.
Watched Starsky and Hutch, the modern version, which was surprisingly not awful.
Intended to get up at a reasonable time today but slept in.
Felt a cold coming on.
Went to Halfords to buy a bike using some birthday money. Spent over an hour standing in Halfords while they very slowly fitted mudguards to it. Was unable to go elsewhere as Halfords is in the middle of nowhere and I don’t have a bus pass yet because I’m buying a bike. Develop a general hatred for Radio 1 DJ Wes. Wonder if I would be quicker carrying the stuff home and doing it myself. Conclude I wouldn’t but at least I wouldn’t be standing examining the different types of peddles available.
Cycle home. First bike ride of any distance involving hills in over a year. Felt like it. Good, though, to be covering distances that are beyond walking without having to take the bloody bus.
Tried fitting my old bike rack to discover the bolt is too small to hold both it and the rear mudguard, so the rear mudguard came off. Life is like that sometimes. Also discovered the gears weren’t fitted properly so adjusted them so they were. Wonder what they spent so long fiddling with while I was reading a Haynes manual cover to cover.
Cold got worse. Filled a couple of hankies. Relented and took a pill. At least I can see through my brain now, if not my eyes.
Determined not to get down on the fact that I’ve somewhat failed to do stuff I wanted to do this last couple of days. Start slowly…
Halfords can be a bit like that sometimes. I bought a mountain bike from them about a year ago (hard tail, nice bike actually – still paying for it too!). Like you I rode it home, thought it felt a bit squishy, and the gears were grinding too. Got it home and checked the tire presures – way too low! I was unfortunate in that the resident bike nut wasn’t the one who preped my bike for me. He was pretty good for after sales service and advice though.
And in any case, what idiot decided ten or so years ago that mudguards were an optional extra? This is England. It rains. There is mud. We need to be guarded.
Probably the same idiot who realised you could charge twenty quid for them…