Another weekend

Friday, we cycled. Or at least attempted to cycle up a bloody big hill. And I mean a big hill. The sort of hill that, if it wasn't hidden by trees and meanders in the road up it, would be screaming "don't even attempt this" before we started. But we got up it. Not necessarily on top of the bikes all the way, but we did get up it with a modicum of dignity. We were both tired, both had had a long week, so we shortened the ride down and tried again the day after. Up the bloody big hill again, and on through some very pretty hillside lanes (yes, even Surrey has pretty bits, and boy were they crowded with blokes in lycra) to a lovely pub lunch at the Scarlett Arms in Walliswood, then on across the heaths and home. Not always a happy ride, but certainly a lovely one.
And on Sunday I ran. My first 10k for erm possibly years, and one performed entirely on a treadmill in the gym (as one of the 1000000 runners in the Human Race). It hurt, it really hurt, but I came in at 1hr 10mins in the end: not bad for an unfit old type. The Human Race gave me a distance counter for my runs, with a neat little dongle that downloads all my pavement-pounding onto an online log. It's an advert for Nike, but quite a useful one for the simple fee of staggering around for an hour (my previous running bribes have included beer, cider, t-shirts and medals). The only problem is the pledge section: I couldn't enter a running goal on the site without putting in a corresponding pledge for what I would do if I failed to meet that goal. So, if you see someone running a 10k after christmas and dressed as a giant rubber duck, it may just be me (but only if I can't run and log a 10k of less than 55 minutes).

On the food front, the Simons continue. No new ones this time, but I can now cook both the roast chicken (having memorised the oven temperatures: 240 and 190) and sauce bernaise recipes from memory. This is a good thing: if I can remember enough recipes, then I can compile a menu from what's available in the shops (without taking the book) rather than what's written on my shopping list. Which given there are beasties like guinea fowl in the freezer, has got to be a very good thing indeed.