Sympathies...

.. to the Bradley family. On Friday last week, along with my brother Dave, I attended the funeral of a family friend. I'd known who Michelle Bradley was I was 5, although at the time she was better known as Michelle Wiseman. She was the big sister of Linda Wiseman who was in my class. Michelle married John Bradley who had been in the same year at the same middle school and both been taught maths by my Mum, though they weren't to meet until much later. John used to sing in the church choir with my Dad and the family's became much closer from 1997.
Michelle's life was claimed by Cancer a year after being diagnosed with the illness. She will be missed and most dearly by Emma (14), Luke (12) and John.
At the wake I chanced upon another old school chum - Michelle Casey - though I'm sure her surname has changed in the 23 years since we last spoke. I ascertained that she had a couple of boys the oldest being 17. She politely asked me, what I'm doing now and what I've been up to since school. I'm afraid I didn't give her a very comprehensive answer. Just how can you summarise 23 years of your life into the answer of a single question?

Bike Encounters

One of the appeals of cycling is the interesting events that can occur when you embark on an adventure outside of your front door. For me today that was an encounter with a herd of Fresian cows as I chanced upon whilst on a detour home from work.
They were crossing a country lane from field to farm yard, I was wending my way between Long Stratton and Morningthrope. They seemed quite un-perplexed by the Tesco delivery van coming the other way that they were holiday up. Myself, however seemed to be of far more noteriety and I received quite a bit of attention. My meer presence seemed to hold up their procession as I paused to view and consider this strange ape in coloured lycra upon a light weight contraption. One seemed to consider me a threat and almost drenched me with saliver as tossed her head in my direction. Another seemed to be pondering the edibility of my handlebars as she licked my brake leavers, but generally they were just curious and wanted to take a moment to take in the unusal, novel addition to their presumably daily routine.
As for me - I too thought it was an interesting and varied interlude. The thought that went through my mind though at the next t-junction was "it might have been an idea to wipe your brake lever before setting off".