While the Sun Shines

Another fine weather weekend, and what a way to kick it off with a rooftop BBQ!!
Charlotte is currently house-sitting for her boss in Fulham, so Shar, Rachel, the lovely Eleena and myself joined Charlotte to finish off the week with a bbq on the roof. A very pleasant and relaxed evening and night, which led to a very relaxed Saturday...

Sunday kicked off with a good long ride north of London that took me past Essendon again, but this time I went all the way up to Hertford. A few different lanes and roads this time as I explored more of this area. All good until I successfully managed to get myself lost. As you’re laughing, it was easily done thanks to there being Coopers Lane and Coopers Lane Rd... No harm done as it was a long and quiet road with plenty of fields, forest and some very old houses along the way until I found the sign you can see in this picture. Click it to see the full size pic and its name - can we do nothing original in Australia??
Anyway, despite showing me an extra steep hill, my detour actually shortened my intended ride by about 5-10kms to just over 70kms for the morning.
On the subject of riding, I did the Reigate Sunday Sportive last weekend (7th), which is where the picture at the top of this post comes from, as well as the picture on the left - it was taken at around the 50km mark after a particularly nasty hill, which is why I’m looking rather knackered.
Reigate itself is an hour’s train-ride south of London, and very picturesque as you travel through “rural” England. All up that day I did just over 115kms thanks to having to ride to and from home and the overland train station at Victoria.
Why all this riding? Well, other than actually enjoying it, I got roped into doing the London to Brighton ride, which is next weekend. Similar to the London to Cambridge ride I did last year, except there’s an extra mile in distance (55 as opposed to 54) and it’s for the British Heart Foundation instead of Breakthrough BreastCancer.
A good way to meet other riders as well as see the English countryside. Oh, and Brighton for that matter...

But back to last weekend.
The afternoon was then spent down near The Oval, yep, the very one that the Twenty20 cricket is currently being played at. Marty, Karyn and myself joined Suki and several others for Troy’s ‘Goodbye to London’ afternoon in a very good beer garden. Again, sunshine, drinks, a great bbq and good people... what more could you want for a lazy Sunday arvo?

While I’m at it, you’ll notice the new ‘widget’ on the right of the page here. Originally, I found the Bear Sanctuary trek in Romania, which is a seven day trek through the mountains of Romania that culminates at the WSPA Bear Sanctuary. This is where most of the bears that they save end up.
To go, all you need to do is raise the required amount of money. I later discovered that I would need to raise £2,300 by September, and somehow I feel it might be a bit harder to convince people to donate so you can go on an adventure... I’ve instead chosen to do a half marathon in September where I only need to raise £300 for entry on the WSPA team. I’d like to make £500, but that’s just me. That and I like the idea of training during summer instead of winter!! Click on one of the button’s and take a look, or just click here: www.justgiving.com/aussierunner