MAN OF LESIURE

I have now finished work. Tecnically I don't finish until the end of March but I am taking what annual leave I have left and so went to work for the last time on Friday. Clearing my desk and pigeon hole felt strange and to be honest I didn't actually do a great deal of actual work. There was the usual gathering to say goodbye after the One O'clock news and I was presented with possibly the most hideous card I have ever seen. My head photoshopped on to the body of a thinner more muscular body dressed in nothing more than a bright green lycra mankini. The only redeeming factor was that everyone had been touchingly generous - giving Bridget and I 100 Euros as my leaving present. I have promised we will spend it on a nice hotel when are at most in need of some comfort and time away from a tent. I then had a very nice lunch with everyone and about three too many beers - Eddie the Engineers fault really. Then I said my goodbyes and came home to get the house ready for the party. Although I am only going for a year and still have my job to go back to it still felt weird and strangely final. I am writing this on Monday afternoon and again it feels wrong not to be at work. I am sure I will get used to it.

The party itself was hugely enjoyable. Far more people came than expected and seemed to have a good time. Some of us lasted through to three thirty in the morning and I foolishly started drinking Vodka Tonics and then shots of cinnamon flavoured snaps. I paid for it the next day and was reminded why I drink so little and so infrequently. Hangovers just aren't worth it and nor are the embarassing stories. Feminax came to the rescue and in terms of top ten worst hangovers it fortunately remained low down the table.

So now the day of departure really is just around the corner. Until I left work it felt like I was only playing at cycling around the world. I could easily have been pretending. Now it feels very real. We are nearly there with the preparations and just have odds and sodds to deal with. Some people are suggesting they may cycle some of the way with us to Oxford - possibly as far as Southam. If the weather is like today I doubt we'll have much company. It's very cold and very windy. There is a big question lingering at the moment. We are desparate to cycle from home but what do we do if the weather on Wednesday morning is awful. At what point do we swallow our pride and pop down to the station and hop on a train for Oxford? We're meeting Mum and Dad at the campsite so would still have to cycle there to stay the night. Part of me thinks it would be stupid to insist on cycling especially if meant one of us caught a cold. But we can't afford to take trains evry time the weather is slightly inclement and shouldn't we set the right precedent from the start? My answer? My answer is to pray for good enough weather and to delay any decision until 0800 on Wed 8th April.

ALL THINGS MECHANICAL

I've just completed a four day bike maintenance course at cyclewales.net and for anyone considering it I would say it was more than worth it. The workshop is at Talysarn in Snowdonia and the course is designed so that your bike is road worthy at the end of each day. and as the days works finishes early it means you can get out on your bike into the beautiful mountains that surround you. It is amazing. I started the course terrified of my bike and unwilling to try to mend anything more serious than a puncture or broken chain. By the end of the four days - tools willing - I felt confident enough to strip my bike down and put it back together. We covered all the bearings from the steering tube, to the bottom bracket, to the wheel hubs. We took the gear mechs off, took them apart and cleaned them where appropriate and put them back on, learning how to set them up properly. It was the same with the brakes. We learned how to replace a spoke and true a wheel, how to maintain the hubs and much much more. As long as I remember everything ok I now feel comfortable keeping the bikes in good working order while we are away.

Dewi, who led the course, was excellent and (for me at least) paced the course extremely well. Our course was adapted to suit the needs of the cycling tourer. Stephen Lord, the author of Adventure Cycle Touring Handbook was on it as well and taking the course with him was a big bonus. I just hope he didn't mind facing a barrage of questions throughout the week. Ken also has a Thorn, the out of our price range Exp. He's due to leave on a four year adventure in September. There were two Phil's, one who did a bit of everything, road, touring and mountain biking, the other who' funnily enough was from Stratford way and knows Bob Brolly. Then there was Colin (God I hope I am getting all these names right and not mixing them up - apologies guys if I have!) who had bought a Surly from the US and was building it ready to cycle back home to Ireland at the end of the week. I spent four days as happy as a pig in muck and enjoyed cycling to and from the workshop in glorious spring sunshine. On a number of occasions I had a "oh my God this is what the next year is all about" kind of head rush as I watched the sun set over the Irish Sea or went bombing down one of the nearby hills. It has settled my nerves a great deal - not only about looking after the bikes but also about our decision to take off for a year.