Disaster!

So seven of us go to Oxalis on Friday for a lunchtime tea/coffee stop. But when ordering coffee, we are informed that the cafetieres are now for one person only, and yet they are the same price. In fact, you now get less than half the coffee as before. The waitress said that she didn't make the rules, but...this is an outrage!

It's gone from being one of the cheapest places in Bath to have coffee to the most expensive by far. If the coffee wasn't so good, I'd boycott it altogether. As it was, I didn't order a cake. And I told them why. It's a false economy to hike the price by more than 100%.

Tea is still shareable between two for the same price, and it's good tea there. Still, I'll have to cut down my visits by more than half.

Fortunately I've found two more places that do half decent stuff. The Epicurean Deli and the Hub Cafe in the alley opposite the Guildhall. They're between £1.40 and 1.50 per coffee, compared to £2.75-2.95 at Oxalis.

I also ventured into McDonald's to try their brew, which is £1.19. I only did this because I was assured by an ex-barista that they have got their machine settings right world over, and they use good beans. This, I'm afraid, is bollocks. It wasn't even Starbucks quality.

On a more positive note, the weather is actually noice:

Drier than Sydney :-)

After an easy week this week, brought on by the two silly-hard rides last weekend, I felt quite good on the club run today. We wound it up at the end and it was nice to open the throttle a bit.

A month to the first TT, which is to be the Chippenham hilly 24. But there are still roadworks on the course, which I did before the club run, so I hope it can be moved. The course that we did the 3-up on last year would be a good substitute.

Sunday I got out with Will and a few other members of the Comedy Super Team for four hours. We went up to Corsham to pick up one guy, then down through Trowbridge, Frome and Wells, coming back a different way to Aquae Sulis.

The real comedy came just after Trowbridge when Simon suggested we get off the main road and take the lanes. It was fine until we hit a section which obviously didn't have much drainage and was covered in black ice and sheet ice.

Simon: "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..."

Five seconds later, both Stan and Pete slid off, followed by Simon behind me. Only Will and I stayed upright! No-one was hurt, although Stan was covered in manure. We walked through the rest of that section.

Funnily enough, later on in the ride it was warm enough to ride with no gloves. Looks good for most of this week too.