Bike Week

I don't know about where you are but here in Somerset, as the school year winds down in preparation for the long summer holidays most schools go off timetable for a few days and offer the children other activities.

I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the inclusiveness of some of these activities but I'm not going to bang on about that too much other than to say that even if I had a spare £300 pounds lying around I'm not sure I think a 3 day trip (2 of which would be partly traveling to and from London)  can be justified particularly when I know that SD's school bring in a similar trip at a hundred quid less!

Anyway, activity week at Miss Macs school is next week which is the last week of term whereas SD's school has theirs this week.

SD is running bike week, something he does each year and something which is at the low end of the scale price wise. It's also something that he takes very seriously and puts a lot of work into in his spare time ensuring that the kids get great value for money.

SD is very keen on health and fitness, somewhat at odds with my penchant for lazing around eating cake but, as I may have mentioned once or twice, I AM the best girlfriend in the world ;-) so I've been dragging my sorry (very bruised) ass out on the bike to keep him company and offer him support as he builds up his stamina for the week ahead.

Yesterday we loaded up the bikes and headed for Exmouth. The original plan had been to cycle to Budleigh Salterton but with temperatures set to hit 27 degrees we decided the shorter hop to Topsham was more achievable.

Exmouth is beautiful, set in an estuary with a brand new, purpose built  cycle path running parallel to the railway and the water. Lengths of tarmac are intercepted with long wooden causeways stretching over the marshland.  It's fast, its fun and its so beautiful.

We negotiated the 6 mile path in about 40 minutes, not bad going given the heat and stopped at a farm shop for the best icecreams (mine ginger, SD's rum and raisin) before heading back to Exmouth. As we cycled through a village, one of the small parts of the track that isn't off road, we passed a pub with a band playing in the late afternoon sun, music streaming across the water and a bar-b-que wafting delicious scents across our path.  We paused for a while completely caught up in the music and the moment and I felt total contentment.

There was nowhere id rather have been, nothing I'd rather have been doing and no one I'd rather have been doing it with.

How,often can you truly say that?

If you're lucky like me then possibly quite frequently but I think that part of the true contentment comes from never taking that happiness for granted.

I can't say if someone who hasn't experienced the depths of despair and deep unhappiness could fully appreciate it because I'm not that person but I do know that my experiences mean that I savour these moments and live them to the full.

I don't have everything, not everything in my life is perfect or easy or straightforward. There are things I would change if I could and things that I work to improve but, other than at odd moments, they don't define me or my life and I let them go so they don't taint these perfect moments.

It's all getting a little poetical isn't it  ;-)

Would it help if I told you my bum is black and blue after yesterday?

Would it help if I told you that SD came home one day last week and told me that one of the kids asked him if bike week meant he needed to have a bike - 'its BIKE week' SD told me incredulously, 'BIKE WEEK!!!' What the bloody hell does he THINK we will be doing - playing the fucking flute??' He wandered off muttering ' bike week, bike week, B I K E  W E E K - isn't the clue in the title ...'

It's,glorious weather here again today, Gus and I went for a run along the canal early this morning before it got to hot for him and I brought him back along the river so he could have a swim. For a dog who runs away and hides at the mere mention of the word bath that dog sure LOVES the water!

There's no real focus for this post, I'm not going anywhere with it, no moral, no story, no funnies. Just I guess a realization that its so easy to take happiness for granted or to lose sight of it all together. 

Sometime you just have to stop and smell that damned rose and not worry that it might have a bee lurking in its petals.