My wife's blackbury said...........overcast!

My friend said that he was on stand by on Sat. so could not ride, but should be out on Sunday, and anyway the weather was going to be bad on Sat. On Friday night my wife's blackbury said that Sat. was going to be cloudy and overcast did not say anything about rain.

So on sat. at a little after nine I set off for Hythe on my bike in light drizzle saying to myself that a bit of rain never used to stop the club runs with John Clarey and that, and I particularly wanted to see the autumn colours in the Kent countryside before it was too late. By the time I was through Canterbury and around Bridge area I might as well have waded through a river, I could squeeze my hand inside my gloves and it would rinse the water out nicely.

I thought shall I turn round and go home? and what was the point of that if you were on a march to reach Pevensey Bay to face the Normans, you can't turn round cos its raining, so I pressed on. I remembered the film I had seen yesterday with Judy Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy called 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Exotic_Marigold_Hotel . It was part of the Folkstone Book Festival and after the film the author of the original book Deborah Moggach gave a chat with questions from the audience and that! To cut to the chase it is about outsourcing old people from the UK to a  hotel in India for their retirement as it is cheaper. The portrayal of the characters as they face the challenges adapting to massive change at a senior stage in life is triffic. And I was contemplating throwing the towel in because I was getting wet, 'you pansey'.....as I was talking to myself like this 3 guys smashed past me going out of Barham. After my pep talk to myself I had to chase them down and hang on, which made my legs ache. Approaching Elham I was sagging bad and every little rise they pulled away a few lengths, then as it levels out over the top I would just be able to claw back on again. This was getting harder to sustain and then suddenly they turned left ......I got away with it I did not blow,.... some old fat bloke with a rack on his bike chewing the stem. I was on impulse power for several miles in recovery.

I was too cold, too wet to get my phone out and take any picture on this ride, just too much of a pain. But the colour of the leaves was amazing, as the yellowy oranges did not have to compete with bright blue skys or sunlight, they just contrasted with dark wet shadows of the trees the sky was grey and the power of the yellow was so strong......gold anemic in comparison. I went past a school I did a job in years ago as I knew it was in the area near Saltwood. I had hoped to look at Saltwood Castle when I set off on my ride, but I could not see it, or signs to it and I was so wet and numb I didn't feel like looking too hard, ie stopping asking someone and turning around.....to uncomfortable  ready for a tea in the cafe next door to the Light Railway Station. 2 people in the cafe.

The guy in the cafe poured me a tea from a big pot, then got a strainer, put it over a second mug and poured the first mug into the second!........I said can you tell me my fortune from dregs at the bottom of the first cup? He laughed, sadly he was unable to, he said 'those skills are lost and tea is more like dust these days as it infuses quicker than leaves......and tea bags you got no hope. We chatted he came over to the UK in 1957 from Italy and has run the cafe since 1962 (the year I was born). I even found a radiator to put my hat and gloves on. I also had the largest slice of Swiss roll I think I have ever seen in a cafe....not as big as one you might cut for yourself when no one is looking! Even though he strained it, I still had tea dust dregs at the bottom of my mug and I thought I would read my own fortune.....I turned the mug round a few times and all that came to me was that the shape looked a little like some small figures in the lower border of the Bayeux Tapestry. I looked harder trying to see what they might be doing.....it looks like someone is falling.......falling.....what off their bike? I've got to ride back yet.... with this prophesy. My hat and gloves were still soaking wet, but slightly warm which gave a little comfort. Putting wet cold clothes on, not so good.

The ride out of Hythe....never easy and when I reached the top somewhere called Farthing Common I saw 3 phesants running across a field, two french hens and a partridge in a pear tree. There was not much wind, but what there was was behind me, and I was moving along nicely along that really straight B0268 road which must be Roman. Then suddenly I saw an animal laying dead on the grass just under the hedgerow. I was riding along thinking that was the biggest dead animal I have ever seen. As I went past I only saw it out of the corner of my eye and could not identify it......definatley bigger than a badger........couldn't have been dog could it? A pony, a horse surely no, and I had to turn around and go back and see. There was a smell and it had been there a while, bloated with stuff oozing out of various holes, but definatly a deer.

I carried on squeezing water from my gloves, I think every yard of this ride it has been raining but I'm on the big ring now pressing hard moving fast. Knackered I started drifting off again, I started wondering to myself, if I do get the artist in residence position at the power station what would I do? Power Station Didcot A is being closed down and they want to mark this in some way! What better way than to ask an artist to make a lasting statement with social comment on athe thorney issue of power generation......I'm thinking of people I might like to work with me on this project, particularly a story teller I have in mind. Then I remember the budget was fairly low and having to pay other people wages from it as well, was that really the best way to approach it....but I cant help the ideas I have, and what I would like to do for it. So as usuall if I was offered the job I would just have to suck it up. Maybe I wont be too miffed if I don't get it.

What are you working on at the moment? Great to able to say, 'I am artist in residence at DidcotA (one of the the dirty30'.)

So Canterbury and a bit of freestyle traffic dodge at Windcheep...I duck out a bit and take it up through the Uni grounds where the hill is less severe, as I have had enough by now, as St. Stephens ain't funny. Nice park though, nice place to work. And I haven't fallen off yet either and only a few miles home.

No one's in when I get back, I could have done with a bit of help peeling my stuff off. I'm hopping around the kitchen on one leg trying to get wet tights off, with a dog licking the snot and grime off my face.

My feet have got granny fingers and my wife's blackbury said overcast.