Territories

I was up early for a ride into town to meet cycling friends for our roughly-monthly, usually pre-work, coffee-and-a-bun get-together.  It started not long after the cafe opened up, maybe more than ten years ago now, and our meet ups have a strange name, somewhat cliquey you might think but merely shorthand for the name of the cafe, which has long since changed anyway.  There were six of us today and we had a good chat.

Since I was in town I decided to have a busman's holiday and went to the office for a quick inspection of our bike facilities, since apparently there was a problem, and no-one else could help, but no-one could find me because I was on holiday of course so I wasn't for hire.  And since I was in town I had a play on the new(ish) cycle paths on Leith Walk, which are this: rubbish..

I cycled down to Leith and messed around for a bit, then went to see the trams at Newhaven.  I found these footprints in the new concrete, a dog marking his presence good and proper!

Then it was over to Stockbridge and the Water of Leith which I followed all the way to about Coltbridge, and then I realised I was actually really hungry, so did a few more miles to my usual office and sat in the restaurant for an hour with a big cup of tea and some fruit.  A day off, and I go to the office…  But I bumped into a colleague I hadn't seen for at least a month, so we had a nice catch up for half an hour.

I later failed to buy nice leggings in Decathlon.  Actually, I failed to buy any leggings at all, because Decathlon's designers have decided that all women are short.  So I harrumphed, rode back into town with a nice tail wind, sat in the Meadows for a little while with another snack, and then stopped by Alpkit to buy more of the wash-in Nikwax, since I used the last dregs doing my winter tights.  The people in Alpkit are always so friendly.  The products are super high quality, too; it's a kind of hip, Waitrose version of Tiso.

Then it was into the wind to visit Mum and Dad and see their fancy new door, but I ran out of energy completely and had to walk the last mile or so.  Once recharged it was also a tough ride home again into yet more wind, but it was a decent day's mileage and the longest I've done on Mirabel so far.