End As You Mean To Go On

This Is The End. So, let's have some fun... We played in Lauderdale Park before an indulgent meal in The Volunteer- easy there and hard back on the bikes in the howling gale. We all seem content with this weather-beaten, car-free lifestyle and so I think we'll continue this way for the foreseeable future.

That almost certainly means more bikes and a load more outdoor clothes. I've always had the view that easy achievement means under-valuing the goal. Also, that driving skims the surface and avoids engagement with the environment. I don't miss that.

There are places I can't get to without driving there, but in the coming year I want to explore new places in new ways and engage with the environments I find there. Minus the expense of a motorcar, I have a Brompton folder custom-specified and on order, and an On-One Fatty "proper" beach bike under discussion. The Brompton will come with me on the train to wherever I can go, disguised as a little bag, and the Fatty will take me along the coast and into the hills when other vehicles couldn't. That also gives me 2 beach bikes, so the older boys can accompany me or (even better) go out together.

So, here we are at the end of 2012. Content and looking forward to deepening this engagement with our little world in 2013.