Bagel Parade

My goodness, what an international readership I have. This month I have clocked pageviews from the following, in order of most views:

United Kingdom
United States
Germany
Czech Republic
Ethiopia
South Africa
Switzerland
South Korea Today, to the disgust of N, my alarm went off at 0500. Rather than just a water parade to make sure I was hydrated for impending exercise I also ate a pre peanut buttered bagel that was sat on my bedside table. Bagel devoured I then went back to sleep till 0540. After that I cycled through the dark frosty morning to the swimming pool. I swam till 0800 then jumped back onto the bike to enjoy a beautiful ride into the office. On the way through Old Windsor I was overtaking the slow traffic. I'm not keen on going on the inside of traffic. As I reached the end of Old Windsor and headed up towards the long walk crossing cars kept seeing me coming and gave me room to overtake. This was rather fun and I really pushed myself. I then realised that the traffic was speeding up as the incline gently increased. It burnt the legs somewhat as I sped up to keep up with the cars in front and I had to ignomoniously drift back over to the left to try to maintain some form as those cars that I had zipped past returned the favour. Not such a beautiful ride home. Sleety, wet and cold. Puddles swamped accross roads, car headlights dazzled off them, concealing all pot holes and not making for good grip. I owe a lot to my bike which took a lot in her stride and often was left to fend for herself as my glasses steamed up or hit a particularly viscious squall momentarily blinding me. I left lots of room and dominated the road, most cars were OK with that but I was pushed past by several people eager to get home 1 minute faster. By the time I got to the dual carriage way near Thorpe Park my legs were in a pumping rythm  but with no street lights, frequency of puddles and speed of traffic I decided to ride on the pavement. Ride to arrive. Well over an hour to get back from Windsor was a bit of a drag.