Good Weekend

[lnr]

Saturday was full, but fun. We got through 3 B5 episodes in the afternoon, leaving only the last two of season 3, probably for the first weekend in June at this rate. And then we headed off to the cinema. As others have said Troy wasn't exactly strictly true to the Iliad that inspired it. It was however a fairly good film in its own right, and I was rather pleased with some of the characterisations - Paris in particular I thought was rather fun. Other things bugged me a little, like Patroclus being quite so young and untried, rather than a pretty good warrior in his own right. And I'm amazed they entirely missed out Cassandra - it really was a film which could have done with a bit more strong female presence, and who better? Overall I did enjoy it lots though, and would recommend it. Afterwards Richard and I fitted in a rather pleasant meal at the hotpot (their £12.50 per head set meal is rather nice actually) before heading to Sally's birthday party at ChezBofh. Gail made some rather excellent (if lethal) long-island iced tea. We had drinking games over the scoring of the Eurovision song contest. Watched MBM doing poi in the beautiful cool late evening air outside, and generally had a nice time.

Sunday morning was thankfully only a little hungover, though I realised later that I really ought to have had more than coffee for breakfast. Tesco arrived early enough with a case of white wine that we could arrive at Becky's at 11. By 12:50, and with much faffing of sunscreen and oil and map-reading before we set off, we'd made a nice brisk pace and arrived almost an hour early for lunch at the Anchor Inn in Sutton Gault. With a menu that made me drool and made poor Becky realise how ill she was feeling. Though she was looking rather better after an hour's rest and a bowl of soup. The rest of us had larger main courses, and some of us had rather excellent puddings too. The Coffee Anglais with my Chocolate Marquise was the loveliest thing imaginable. Like a really good espresso mixed with lots of cream. We came a slightly longer route home and I was definitely flagging by the end of it. 34ish miles in total, and a great day out. Though the bit on the rather bumpy and slightly muddy bit of bridlepath did nearly completely do me in, I just don't seem to have the knack of it, for Ben's bike is even less suitable for that sort of terrain than mine and he had no trouble. Today I have a very sore bum and a sunburnt arm to show for it. Serves me right for not taking as much care with the sunscreen on my lower arms than I did on the rest of me.

Today I've been tired, but got to the Docs in the afternoon. Another 4 weeks sick leave, and I have an appt with Occ Health towards the end of that, where I intend to talk about how to go about easing myself back into work. Also agreed to try on 40mg of Citalopram for a while, rather than 60. Can always go back if I find I'm struggling. And Tesco just rang and offered me free delivery on the other case of wine I ordered which was out of stock on Sunday but has now suddenly appeared. Should be arriving on Weds and they'll ring and give me a time when they know. Cool.

Comments

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

Must find more good food pubs 15-20 miles away from Cambridge, since that seems to be a good distance for a Sunday bike ride. I might ask a coworker whether there's somewhere nice in Newmarket.

Hm... I also quite fancy working up to cycling to Norwich and getting the train back. Looks quite straightforward from Multimap, except for a slight detour to avoid Thetford Chase. It's about twice as far as we went on Sunday though, which would be a bit of a trek at the moment. Maybe in a few weeks.

[lnr]

Sounds good. When I went to Newmarket I headed out on Newmarket Rd til I hit the big roundabout with the A14, and then took the old Newmarket Rd which pretty much parallels the A14 for the rest of the way there. And back via Exning, Burwell, Swaffham Prior and Stow then back in along Newmarket Rd again. The homeward part of the route was a lot quieter than the way there was, but both were pretty pleasant. Around 30 miles round trip. We could probably find a better route if there is somewhere nice to eat out that way.

http://img.multimap.com/cs/bgb//X22/Y10/X2200Y1040S200W700H400.gif seems a reasonable map, though multimap has suddenly gone slow on me.

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

I own a 1:200,000 map of East Anglia (which includes neither Oxford nor London), and a 1:50,000 OS map which covers Cambridge, out to Newmarket and slightly beyond.

What I don't own is a conventient way of carrying them such that I can read them while cycling, but I hope that Ben Hayward's will have such a thing by Saturday.

I'd definitely go through the villages if cycling sociably, it's nice to be able to chat rather than just following single-file.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I have a Zefal map case which is a bit fiddly. The better boxy handlebar bags (eg Ortlieb) include map cases.

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I looked at a handlebar bag, I might end up going for that option, depending on what the map case they get in looks like.

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Troy wasn't exactly strictly true to the Iliad that inspired it.

I thought the Iliad was conceived by a guy whose birthplace we don't know, handed down generation after generation verbally, and finally written down hundreds of years later. No doubt there were people who then read the written version and exclaimed, "That's not how our storyteller tells it."

[lnr]

Oh I'm sure it's changed lots over the years. But a) the written version has kind of stuck for quite a long while now and b) changing a siege from 10 years to approximately 17 days is really quite a *big* change.