What DO people do...

Feeling low again today so had a quick prayer whip-round.

Got me thinking...what do people who don't believe in God do when I tell them I'm not well? The obvious response from a Christian is "I'll pray for you", and through that God can speak to us and get us to see the situation through his eyes and show us ways to help. But the non-believer has no where to go.

I'm so blessed to have friends who can pray, believing it will make a difference. And it does.

30 miles today!!!

Despite feeling rubbish yesterday, Sal and I took advantage of the good weather and started cycling to Cricklade (18 miles round trip). We were feeling good so carried on to South Cerney and came back via Purton! Sal was pretty knackered by the end of it but other than a bit of pain from rubbing shorts and a warm glow I was pretty OK.

Route is on Google maps here. I couldn't work out how to extend an existing line so I ended up with 6 lines but should give you some idea of the route.

We managed to avoid the nearby low flying aircraft - which I suspect won't be on the aerial footage for ever but it is for now.

One thing that bothered me today. We started out on Sustrans' National Cycle route 45, which is great BUT, in their wonderful efforts to get you off road as much as possible they don't half put you on some narrow and gravelly tracks. You can't get much speed up at all on some of these. Don't get me wrong - the NCN is a GREAT thing but sometimes you have to be a bit creative to get where you want in the way that you want.

Good ride though!

Lots of lovely links and Googlaholism

Phew - what a glut of posts to start with.

I mentioned a few links in my last post and just wanted to make a note about the fact that I'm currently managing my links using Google Bookmarks and Google Toolbar. This works well as it allows me to keep my favourites with Google and get to them from wherever I can login - I get the same favourites/bookmarks on all the three computers I mainly use (work, home desktop and home laptop).

In fact, I'm a bit of a Google addict - documents, bookmarks, mail, maps, notes, RSS feeds - they're all on Google. I'm sure this is a bad thing in the grand scheme of things - having all your eggs in one commercial basket, but their user interfaces are so simple and intuitive, their software is good and works well, it's clean, quick and it all works like a dream.

I should probably hate Google as much as I hate Microsoft but somehow I can't bring myself to. Perhaps that's a blog for another time.

The bookmarks are good though.

BBC Cycling challenge and a useful link

Serendipity! I happened across this on the BBC Website - a cyclist very much like me who's won some "competition". Seems his prize is to train for 10 weeks for a 120 mile ride and keep a video diary of the process.

Here's the link.

There's another cool link to a site called Everyday Cycling that has routes, events and a journal/ride log and some community features. Looks a bit basic but anything that encourages people to get on their bikes regularly is a good thing.

I guess I'll keep tabs on his experiences - if I can find out how to make the BBC website keep me up to date. He sounds a lot like me - commutes a short distance but wants to do something bigger.

I love his comments on lycra shorts - but padded pants are GREAT (hence having them in my blog title - I'll explain it all one day).

Nesting birds

One thing I've been enjoing about being back in Swindon is the garden. In London we had a flat with no outdoor space of our own. Here we have a little patch of lawn, a shed, and lots of plants!

In fact, we probably have more plants than all our neighbours. Which means that all the wildlife congregate on our patch.

Last year I discovered spiders. I've always thought them to be amazing creatures. And now I'm fascinated with birds!

We have a blackbird nesting right below our study window and it's been a real privilege to see them go from having Mr Blackbird dashing around collecting nesting material, to Mrs Blackbird sat protectively on her nest, through seeing the eggs, and then the tiny pink bodies of the newly hatched wriggling around, to the little, thin-feathered and gaping-mouthed ("feed me!!!") chicks. Creation is awesome and I love seeing it at work.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

Here are the little things:

A funny day

It's been a funny day. I woke up feeling great - much more myself - very much an answer to prayer. However, I was just about to leave for the stag day I'm supposed to be at, when I collapsed in a heap and cried. I was wept, on-and-off, and uncontrollably, for about 2 hours. There was no reason for it. I can only put it in the category of "depression".

Theories:
1) a combination of tiredness, stress, fighting off a bug, giving blood on Wednesday night, and hundred other things...I've not slept well for about 3 nights now.
2) my hay fever tablets. I take loratadine, and have been on them on-and-off for a week or two. After Googling them Sally found that they can cause depression. Perhaps taking them after giving blood (and thus having a higher concentration of the stuff in my blood) made me really low.

Anyway. We eventually decided to both stay at home (which I feel very bad about). We've sat around in the garden, read the paper, enjoyed the nesting birds (more later), and written a few letters.

I can now empathise with people who've had depression. It was scary feeling out of control of my emotions. Just crying for no reason at all!

I can only hope that it doesn't come back.

New beginnings

I'm not supposed to be here this evening. I'm supposed to be at a friend's stag do but I'm feeling pretty ill and need to just rest. Sorry Dave.

But I'm taking the chance to kick off this writing.

I've tried Blogs before and given up quite quickly - and probably will this time too. But I've just moved to a new town and I'm discovering lots of new things...or possibly rediscovering old ones.

Actually I've just moved BACK to an "old" town, Swindon, my original home, which I moved from about 10 years ago. It's been a big move, from the centre of London to a small, new town in the west.

I've long been sceptical of Swindon but I'm starting to see what a good move it is.

Things I'm (re)discovering: cycling, gyms, the outdoors, gardens, being involved in a music group at church.

My intention is to record some of my discoveries, trials, and successes. More for my own benefit than that of others. But perhaps someone else will find it useful too?

We'll wait and see. I give it a month.

Starting again and...oops!

So, I've been thinking for a while, for a number of reasons, that I'll start writing again. Mostly to do with new things that I'm discovering. As always, it probably won't last.

I'm feeling a bit rubbish today but was entertained by this error from Google - I'm not sure if you can read it but it simply says "Oops! That wasn't supposed to happen."...