Word Of Mouse

We're off. A sigh of relief. The last few days have been tough. Ali's byzantine tax affairs and ensuing wrangles with the accountancy profession are still going on. Mine have involved receiving long complicated forms in Norwegian, which thankfully I have been able just to send straight back to my own accountants, a process which seems to have reached a close just in time. Nationwide Building Society managed to completely lose track of our joint account application and felt themselves quite at a loss to explain what might possibly have happened. Meanwhile HSBC, in the shape of one of their Hereford customer services representatives, managed to rival them in sheer inefficiency (in a story which would be much too tedious to go into right now). Ali nearly brained herself testing the solidity of her cellar conversion when bounding down the steps with a head full of things to do, straight into the low ceiling. I stubbed my toes painfully in the map shop. To cap it all I was smitten down with a raging cold in the final days, which in a loving spirit of sharing I have now succeeded in passing on to Ali.

We both felt like complete physical wrecks at the end of this week, and have in consequence decided to delay departure by a day. It is now May 14, my birthday, about 2pm. On a positive note, Bramble now stands gleaming in the front room with filled water bottles and a freshly lubricated chain (lubricated with something technological, goopy and and wax-based from Halfords in a startling shade of green). Our stuff has crammed into our panniers, which for the record come to about 65 litres in total together with a waterproof black sausage that will trravel on the back pannier containing our tent, mats and shoes. All being well we should be ensconced in a campsite in the Forest of Dean this evening, en route to Bristol the following day to meet up with Leander, an old friend of Ali's for Monday night. The first day's ride should be easy and quite short: very fortunate as anything more right now would probably finish us off. The weather looks kind for our first day. We both feel that once we're away things will get much better.

I'd better stop now as I need to go and put on some cycling pants....