Over the hills, not far away

No cycling today, but we discovered a lovely walk from Bellingham through ancient woodland to this waterfall at Hareshaw Linn. We were a bit late - this walk seems to have been popular since Victorian times. Details here.

This was originally intended to be a side trip on the back of our other plans, but they went a bit pear-shaped, and our walk turned out to be one of the highlights of the day.

The other highlight was the magnificent road out to Bellingham, passing through the National Park. The weather was perfect, the views were magnificent, and the roads were lovely and quiet.

We saw a few cyclists on the way, climbing the hills, and swooping down the descents. For me the car was doing the hard work today, and I could only envy those on two wheels. The roads over these hills must provide marvellous cycling.

At this stage I know that I couldn't manage them comfortably myself, but I already aspire to be in good enough condition to tackle them. What I realised today was that the proper goal is to be in good enough condition to enjoy them, not just to tackle them. It remains to be seen whether that's possible, but I live in hope.

RTFM

When we acquire a new gadget we always keep instructions, and carefully file them away in any number of different places. The places I put them make perfect sense at the time, but not much afterwards. On top of that, when we get rid of a gadget we never think to dispose of the obsolete instructions. One day the house will be full of instructions for things we no longer own, and we will have to move out.

You can't read the f'ing manual unless you can find it, and because I'm not properly organised it's become near impossible to find instructions when I need them. Usually I need them when the clocks go forward or back; or when a battery needs replacing. So when the battery needed replacing on the cycle computer I did what I always do. I had a half-hearted look in several different places to try and find the original instructions. I found all sorts of other interesting stuff, but not what I needed. So I gave up and fiddled around for a while trying to work it out by myself. Just before I got frustrated and destructive, I went and downloaded a copy of the instructions from the web site. Not for the first time, we next had a protracted debate about the best place to buy lithium button cell batteries, until my wife had to go into town. She kindly brought back the ones I needed.

Fitting the battery only took a matter of a minute or two. It took much longer to re-set the clock and enter the right tyre size. I'm sure I must have written down the right setting for the tyres last time, and I filed it with the instructions (how pointless that was). This time I didn't bother. Now the old battery is waiting with all the other stuff that needs to be taken to the recycling place.

It's only changing a battery for goodness sake. How can such a trivial task end up being so complicated?

Grand old Duke of York

Squeezed between getting ourselves organised, doing the tasks that have to be done, greeting visitors, meeting neighbours, and otherwise enjoying ourselves, I have managed a short outing on the bike this morning. I only had a limited amount of time, so it seemed best to face up to the contours of the land, and head straight out to explore possible routes over our nearest decent hill. I reckon that once I'm a bit more comfortable with climbing that, several interesting longer routes will open up to me.

I did manage to climb it, but I was a long way off being comfortable. The first part wasn't too steep, and I was able to acknowledge the morning dog walkers without looking like a complete numpty. But further on as the road got steeper I was beginning to puff and pant a bit. Luckily, by then there was nobody else around, so I didn't feel I was at risk of embarrassing myself. Then the road levelled out a bit more and I realised that I had earned some lovely views. From higher ground I could also begin to see the line of some of the more  ambitious rides that I am planning.

Today wasn't a good day for me to undertake any of those though. There are too many things on the To-Do list. So I turned back to loop home, and carefully negotiated an even steeper route back down the hill.

A ride like that is never going to add much to the mileage in my spreadsheet. However, it was good to get out. When I was up I was up. The views were worth the climb, and I've got a better idea of potential future rides.

And now I am down, am I down? A few hours after I got home my legs are still feeling the effects. I might not have got as much done today as I planned, but I can definitely feel that it did me good to take some time out.

Normal service to be resumed shortly

We have now moved into our tenth home, far from the Thames Valley, near the Northumberland coast.

Choosing where to live has always been a big decision,  and usually involves some compromises, but this time we haven't been as constrained by work and family commitments as we have in the past. With more options, and without others forcing some of the decisions, we have had to make up our own minds about what is important to us. Obviously the promise of some decent cycling featured somewhere in the list, but there were a lot of other things to consider too. So we've taken our time coming to a decision, and over time we have built up some high expectations.

So far, a week after we moved, things seem to be working out. We are gradually getting stuff sorted. My bike was the first thing to come off the removal van, but on balance it didn't seem the best idea to ride off immediately. In any case, it has taken longer to discover the related stuff. All the important things are unpacked now, though, and today we reached the point where I felt I could take off for a couple of hours to go exploring.

I rode out towards the coast, taking a 15 mile loop, mostly along quiet country roads. It was glorious, with almost perfect weather, and lovely views. Away from town, I came across very little traffic.

I thought I had picked a fairly flat route for my first outing, but it was still more hilly than I'm used to. However, every important decision involves some compromises. I will just need to work on my hill climbing (which is probably not a bad thing). When I stopped for a break, another cyclist pulled up to share the bench, and we had a chat about the best local routes. I already had some ideas, but now I have some more to try.

This is going to be fun.

Cycle to enhance your career prospects

There's an interview with Ed Williams, the Chief Executive of Right Move in the business section of the Times today.

For those who haven't moved house recently, Right Move is a web site that consolidates information from Estate Agents on property for sale or rent. According to the article it is a highly successful business, and one of Britain's most popular web sites.

Ed Williams ascribes the success of his site to three principles: keeping things simple, making sure the information it provides is up to date, and hiring the right people.  To quote the article, he has a penchant for people who do sports such as cycling and rowing, where there is no downtime, rather than football or cricket.

"We look for people who stick at something, who just keep doggedly at it".

I am never going to know whether cycling would have had a positive impact on (what some laughingly describe as) my career, because I got interested too late. When cycling does come up in conversation with work colleagues we tend to talk about the destinations, and the challenges we set ourselves. I suppose that sits well with the idea of doggedly determined cycling. I tend to skip over the sheer pleasure of just pootling around by myself, enjoying the sense of freedom. Emphasising my slow pace, and anti-social approach might reveal more than I really want to, about my lack of enthusiasm for corporate culture.

More 1/2 inch map

Thanks to my brother I now have an original Bartholomew's half-inch map of Northumberland, dating (I think) from 1957.

From that date, it doesn't show the Alnwick bypass, which was built in 1968, and it does show the Alnwick branch line, which closed in 1968. Before it closed this line operated some of the last steam-hauled passenger services under British Rail. The map also shows the Alnwick to Coldstream line, which was never very commercially successful. It would have been closed by 1957, but presumably the track was still in place.

Earlier Bartholomew's maps had covered Northumberland in two sheets. This one covers virtually the whole of Northumberland, from Berwick to the Tyne, but misses a little around Allendale in the south, and around Haltwhistle in the West.

Insurance

The quote we got for house and contents insurance is remarkably thorough. It seems to cover pretty much everything we need, including loss or damage of a bicycle worth up to £5,000. They will even pay for professional counselling under certain circumstances.

But there are some tight conditions on what they cover following a violent domestic dispute.

So I'm not going to be spending £5,000 on a new bike any time soon.