Better Out Than In

Lammermuir Hills from the B6355 Gifford to Whiteadder, East Lothian. I had the day to myself, and I could feel myself slipping into pottering about and fiddling with various computers. But, I had been supposed to ride this evening in the full moon with Mark, cancelled by me due to children duty, and I wanted to get out anyway. I haven't been up the Lammermuirs by road for a while so off I set. I had 3 hours til the Big Phone Call which I reckoned was plenty for the 30 miles.

I was pretty pleased that I rode right to the top, I hit 42mph on the way back down, and I judged the time exactly. Well, there was some luck involved ;)

Seeing as I stopped and took pictures, the wind was howling a south-westerly gale, the road from Gifford goes straight up the hill at an advertised 17% gradient (much steeper on the few corners) and I'm out of shape... I had to charge home to make it in time.

As a result, I was dripping sweat on the floor when I got the news that I have avoided redundancy and still have a job. And... relax. A bit.

EDIT: And, as I said on Facebook: "I'm one of the lucky ones and God knows I could use some luck after the last year. But my heart goes out to those who have been made compulsorily redundant today. Sincere best wishes to you & yours."