My first bike ride of the year and since the terrible flu. It’s 8 weeks since that started and I’m only now feeling about back to normal but massively unfit.
Another lovely day so just to get into the swing of it, a very short ride for about 40 minutes or so covering about 8km. There is a stone circle marked on the map near us and we’ve been talking about it checking it out for a while. You can see it from a distance from Ringstone reservoir but to get to it you take a longer track round. However it’s in a cultivated field which had just been sown so it wasn’t possible to go up to it and although the circle is a noticeable shape, it seems what stones are there are very small or flat.
Very glad I managed to get the motivation to go out. It was bitterly cold today so I wore a t shirt, a merino baselayer, a micro fleece and an insulated jacket. On my feet I tested out cycling shoes with neoprene overshoes, these worked very well to keep my feet warm but took forever to get on and made me so hot I had to take my jacket and helmet off during the procedure. On my hands I wore my new Christmas present from Chris cycling gloves which feel hot when you put them on indoors and which did the job brilliantly. At last warm hands on the bike!
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
Just a short nearly 6 mile walk around the hills above Hollingworth Lake with Babs. Lovely day for it. We wandered about on paths that Babs knew and it was nice not to have to navigate. We went under the motorway and did some of the route Chris and I have done on bikes. I was feeling very tired and out of condition so it was good to be out in the air and shoot the breeze with Babs.
I arrived in Oxford in the early afternoon with Angela’s excellent directions. She and Paul live in Jericho which is close to the centre of the city. Although I went to Oxford quite often as a child, I haven’t been since my brother’s graduation which was quite a long time ago, he is now 60.
After some delicious leek and potato soup, we headed off out for a whizzy tour of the city, taking in Christ Church Cathedral Choir School where Mum taught until 1951 when she married Dad. I had made a donation some time ago for Mum’s name to be put on the hearts on the railings at the front of the school and wanted to see these. They had promised a small ceremony for the people who did this but the headmaster had been taken very ill and it had never happened. The hearts were on the railings but no names visible from the street. Angela encouraged me to persevere so we went in through the car entrance and persuaded a parent to let us into the building and he delivered us to a teacher. This chap listened to my tale and then took us to the other side of the railings where the names have been put on the railings themselves on the inside which makes more sense and they won’t be vandalised there. Mr. Bagnall then kindly showed us around the school which was great as I’d never been there before.
Commemorating my Mum in a place where she was very happyChrist Church Cathedral Choir School
Then we wandered around a bit passing several of the colleges and ending up in the Old Bank hotel in the Quod bar where Angela had a mojito and I had a bottle of Old Hooky. Back to Walton Crescent and then out again to the Lebanese resto at the bottom of the road. A glass of wine came and then an interesting plate of salad – carrot sticks, olives, strange pink pickled cabbage, one large tomato (whole) and one Little Gem (also whole)! And no dressing! Then a substantial wait until we decided to chivvy them along only to find that something terrible had happened to Angela’s fish. I explained the need to hurry and Angela opted to have the same as me, our food then arrived very quickly. We had lentils and rice with fried onion and spices. It was tasty but could have done with something else to lift it! A little dry cake arrived as a complimentary item in an effort to redeem themselves. We had sweet black coffee and then toddled off to Christ Church.
A lovely concert in aid of Christ Church Cathedral School Education Trust. Vaughan Williams and Faure. I liked the music and liked being where Mum and Dad were married nearly 62 years ago.
I saw Gordon and Richard who are Old Boys (I am an honorary Old Boy) which was great, lovely to see them. Gordon had organised the concert. Richard I’ve known since I was a child.
We continued to the Rickety Press pub in Jericho where I had a Laphroaig. They also did Caol Ila but I didn’t spot that until too late. Followed by seeing how Paul’s concert in St. Barnabas (St. John Passion) had gone. St. Barnabas is interesting and has half completed art work, very dramatic and unusual church.
Today we took Boris the bearded Collie for a walk in the park and then Angela took me for a tour of Boar’s Hill. We managed to go past Foxcombe Orchard without me realising as I couldn’t remember the orchard part of the name. This was a house built by my Radice grandparents which is now worth a very silly amount of money. Sadly my paternal grandmother was a nasty bit of work and none of the cash they got upon selling it came to my Dad, This was his punishment for marrying my mother (you should see the letters Dad’s mother wrote to him upon his engagement – pure venom). Dad’s father in complete contrast was a lovely gentle man, with a delightful Italian accent.
Then we drove through Wootton where my Radice grandparents are buried, straight through Abingdon and onto Clifton Hampden. My Guillaume grandparents are connected with CH but I can’t remember how and one of my cousins is finding out about this so will edit this post when I know. We went in the church which sits on a small prominence, just as well because a lot of the village is/was badly flooded. The church was a bit of a tardis and very dark inside and the lights didn’t work but I liked the gloom.
Clifton Hampden church
Finally back via Cuddesdon where my Dad trained to become a priest and then back to Oxford. It was great to be driven about, a real treat for me and very interesting to see the landscape and places that meant so much to my parents. Many thanks to Angela and Paul for everything.
This is the clock that the boys of the school gave to my Mum when she left to get married:
Mum’s clock
Boris!
Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.
Saturday 12th January 2013
Chris and I did a quick up and down Stoodley Pike. For me this was a warm up for the following day. I coughed all the way up to the pike and it was bitterly cold in the wind. But lovely to be out and walking again after what felt like a long gap. The last real exercise I had was at the end of November on the bitterly cold bike ride from Todmorden to Mytholmroyd in the Valley of Lights. Then I was floored by the evil flu from hell and only went back to work on 7th January. Lovely to actually feel well despite the cough.
Chris and furry ear
The mighty prong of Stoodley Pike!
Mincing! I did exactly same pose when I was 19, the one and only time I’ve skied.
Sunday 13th January 2013
I met Cath at Hebden Bridge railway station and we drove up to Widdop. The road past Maureen and John’s house is shut off so we had to go through Heptonstall but this was lovely for a change. The road to Widdop was very frosty.
We set off and basically did a 6 mile circuit that took in Reap’s Cross which is missing its crossbar, then Raistrick, up to the old scout hut, over to the big reservoir, around it and back along the permissive path by the side of it and back to the car, the last bit along the road.
Cath wanted to see a nice bridge that she remembered from when she’d done the Pennine Way and it was still there. We had an early lunch at Reap’s Cross (re-erected in 2002 by the people who live in the hills) and a second lunch much later on.
Fab day with lots of good conversation.
Cath’s bridge
The FBs
Cath sporting new Rab jacket and new mountain cap at Reap’s Cross
Brass monkeys. So cold I feared for my toes.
The idea of the Valley of Lights, as well as being fun and a nice thing to do before Christmas, is to give support to all the local businesses affected by the terrible amounts of flooding in the summer.
I parked in Mytholmroyd at Russell Dean or Pearl and Dean in my head and then managed to miss the train because I thought it went at 5.35 but actually it was 5.25.
Still the 6.05 turned up on time despite alerts to the contrary and 10 mins later I was in Todmorden. Chris arrived as I came out of the station having had a free ride and we pedalled off to the high school gym where we registered, picked up snacks and drinks and more lights for our bikes which were being dished out by David Dodwell, lovely to see him again, he was a marshall.
This was all a bit rushed and then we went to Bramsche Square to assemble all lit up.
About 100 of us set off with a car and Mountain Rescue in front setting the (very slow) pace.
We stopped at the big lay by for a couple of mins and then went on to the JCB park where we had a long wait. Our feet and hands were alternately freezing. I had a wee behind a JCB and the steam rose up! No time for one before!
It was well below freezing as cars we passed were iced up.
Finally got going to roll down into Hebden. We were cheered all the way by the crowds which was very sweet especially as we didn’t really do much. It brought a smile to my face instead of the cold face of pain! We made as much noise as possible with our bells and whooped too.
Stopped for 5 mins then off to the Dusty Miller in Mytholmroyd. We had some beer and snacks. I could have done with hot soup but the DM not yet ready for business so not an option. Chris chatted to MR friend who was with her teenage son who Chris had delivered.
Then we got the bikes in and on the car reasonably efficiently and I went home via Walsden. After unloading at my end I had hot chocolate with rum in it and went to bed with a hot water bottle.
