The so-called Mind Of Doris races on…
1. It must be very weird to live on a hill, and look across the Danube plain and see people living in a “different country”. Especially when every so often a bunch of armed thugs sweep through and you suddenly find you too and the farm you have always lived in are now in that country. “Oh that’s interesting, what does it mean to me?” “You will now pay taxes to [insert name of new overlord here].” “Ho hum, another change, go on surprise me do the taxes stay the same?” “No they go up by x%, that is the benefit of having the protection of [insert name of new overlord here].” That’s not something that we island-dwellers often think about.
2. Sometimes we are staying in Conference Hotels and we see people who are obviously work colleagues talking together about tomorrow’s Strategy/Planning/Team Building/Client Presentation Dry Run etc. I now live in a powerpoint-free world! Will I ever be able to go back to my previous life? #nomorepowerpoint Some days I hope that’s true. Some day’s I dread that’s true. The hopeful days are becoming more frequent.
3. I was thinking about our train/bus/train to Prague, getting the tram in Prague back from the medical centre, my boat trip down the Danube as Sid crossed over on the little cycle ferry. Different transport types are very important to Sid and Doris, and we are in danger of the bikes taking too much priority. Memo to self: We need more trolley buses.
4. I have noticed a pattern with overtaking lorries that I will try to explain without the aid of powerpoint. What happens, is that lorries tend to travel in groups, as the fast ones catch up the slower ones. Then the front, slowest, one catches up some cyclists. So because he is a nice slow chap he hangs back at cyclist speed (say 25kph on a straight road) and then overtakes the cyclist giving them a wide berth, and by the time he’s finished overtaking them he’s doing maybe 40kph. The lorry behind him is now doing 40kph and thinks “that moron has given those cyclists a stupid amount of space, I could allow half that and there would still be tons of room” and by the time he’s finished passing us he’s doing 55kph. The one behind etc. So the lorry that you truly fear is not the first one, it’s the last one. And that makes for a very nerve-wracking piece of cycling. In fact we have decided that a bonkers road makes you bonkers, you end up jangling with nerves and TALKING EXTRA LOUD.
5. This trip might, if all goes well, last for 120 days. And that’s very different from a two week holiday or even a four-week endurance rally. We need to be able to renew ourselves and our equipment, and develop a sustainable way of life we can’t just hold our breath till it’s all over. We’ve got to be prepared to repair things and to buy new things when they wear out. It’s a sort of nomadic live-aboard life. It’s not a “holiday” mindset. So today I bought a (small) bottle of conditioner for my hair because hotel shampoo is turning me into Wurzle Gummidge.
6. Ha ha, I was just about to write about our unblemished legs and the absence of chainring oily marks. It used to be a regular part of the daily routine, scrubbing the calves with a lump of soap to remove the chainring mark, and then at some point over the last 10 days or so we have got used to moving in sympathy with the bikes and we don’t get the marks any more. So I started this sentence last night and then today both my bike and Sid’s fell over, I have big grazes down the backs of both my calves and poor old Sid has Actual Blood on his knees. So I will shut up about that.
7. I was musing about the structure of Three Men In A Boat. It is a story about an Epic boat trip up the Thames, but also has interspersed sections where he just thinks about life. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense when you first read it, but now I realise he is echoing how anyone’s mind roams around while doing Epic travels. Prepare for more random thoughts.