Husky Galore

We had a turnout of over 30 for the bike club's annual pre-Christmas Cider Run to Middle Farm, near Lewes. I had volunteered to tail-end what turned out to be a challenging ride: one bike refused to start, which delayed my setting off (the owner later discovered he'd put diesel in it by mistake); someone fell off (shocked, bike a mess, but OK); and someone else ran out of petrol and had to use the container he had hoped to fill with cider for fuel instead.

What with all this, some of the riders marking junctions had to wait more than half an hour for me to roll up, but they all stayed faithfully in position, and we reached our destination without further incident. Someone bought me a coffee so I wouldn't have to go to the back of the considerable queue in the café, and afterwards I filled my reusable plastic cider flagon (having joined the cool kids' club last year) with ginger cider, my eventual pick from the hundreds of options available. By then it was time to hit the road again, for a much speedier and less fraught ride back.

On Sunday I washed half of West Sussex off my bike, as well as changing the headlight bulb, which had blown at some point on my return journey.