Dissociated bilge

To follow up from yesterday's missive...

According to the mile stone on the A4 on the way out of Bath, London is 102 miles (165 km in the new money). According to my Garmin Edge GPS, it's 203 km (124 miles in the old money). I worked out that I did an extra 10 km by taking the scenic route near Hungerford, then another 5 km by getting slightly lost on my way into London, and probably 10 km from central London to Lucy and Pete's place. But it doesn't quite add up. These things can annoy one.

All I can say is that it's a bloody long way and it was lucky that I had a second muesli bar in Hounslow.

Today I took the lazy option and caught the train to Reading. That chops off 60-70 km and about 2.5 hours riding time because you can avoid getting out of London. Luckily, I had a block headwind the whole way home, accompanied by a few showers and a total lack of light in the last hour (I have good lights). Otherwise there is the danger of going soft over winter.

Caz goes home

As previously mentioned, the purpose of the trip was to farewell Carolyn, the elder of the Forbes girls. She's going to do a Masters in Muzak at Melbourne Uni. Good on her.

The sushi bar in Piccadilly was shut, which was most annoying. Fortunately, Carolyn had the foresight to book a room in The Salisbury in Covent Garden. It was a handy location, as her opera star sister Mandy could pop in after singing in our old friend Ludwig Van's dreaded Ninth Symphony.

I reminded Mandy that (20 years ago!) I used to babysit her while waiting for piano lessons. One time, I locked her out the back for being naughty. She reminded me in turn that she kicked a hole in the door to try to get back in. She was only eight, and very naughty. She has turned out well.

Another blast from the past was meeting Sally Piper, the daughter of Colin Piper, who was a very good friend of Colin Forbes. She must have been no more than 10 when I last saw her. It's amazing closing that sort of a gap across the other side of the world. Unbeloivable, in fact.

A good night was definitely had, possibly by all, although Lucy seemed disinclined to move very far on Sunday morning. A 125 km bike ride does the trick.

Shark vs. seal

For fans of BBC wildlife docos, check out this clip from Planet Earth (you need Real Player). If this doesn't work, go to www.bbc.co.uk and look at "Programmes", then pick "Great white predator". You still need Real Player.

This is the most breathtaking piece of footage I've seen for a very long time. It took four weeks of tooling around in shark infested waters in South Africa to get. I cannot beloive it, Neville.

Strewth, we have our company forum tomorrow. It starts at 4pm, but there are free drinks at the Slug and Lettuce afterwards. Somewhat fortuitously, it is around the corner from our flat. Oh dear.