I can't think of a title this time!

I've been quiet of late. 3 main reasons: work's been a little fraught, preoccupation with Christmas & birthday presents and more illness and lack of wellbeing. I can't complain about work, most of the time it's pretty easy going there. So by rights it has to be tough now and again!! Birthday and Christmas presents - need I say more, except my long suffering missus had to wait several (for me, traumatic) weeks to get either. The photo is of some Denby pottery rabbits and Byngos which we collect. She liked these in an antiques fair and they are now hers!

Somewhat more sinister has been my illness. Essentially a cold and then a bacterial chest infection. However,when I began coughing up blood I got alarmed. It was nothing, it seems I'd just burst a blood vessel, I just didn't like it!! More than this though, Bro and I (stupidly) headed for the hills and some MTB action in the middle of one of the coldest snaps in quite a long time. We aimed for Hopton Wood hoping to find way-marked trails and a ridable navigation free route. Needless to say, it didn't quite work out that way. It was cold, real cold, and I was right under the weather. A couple of times my balance and control went a bit funny. First of all resulting in an hilarious off, which should have, but didn't, lose me my teeth!! At the time I thought I'd slipped on ice, looking back I see it was something else. Then I reached a downhill where I simply couldn't control the bike, I couldn't understand why and blamed it on ice again. We called it a (short) day and went back to our Mum & Dad's, where I promptly flaked out whilst washing the bike!! It was a bit like a fit but I stayed conscious.

So now I'm at the good end of a course of antibiotics and am awaiting the results of some tests. Hopefully it was a passing phase, due to the illness, never to be repeated. In the meantime SWMBO has banned the bike!! :(

Can't leave this without a word about Hopton Wood. It's in Shropshire and it's primarily a downhillers' venue. There are some family routes on forestry tracks and some red graded singletrack, but it's main thrust is black graded singletrack with focus on the downhiller. If I was going there again I'd pick up a map first (from a bike shop somewhere in Ludlow). Being lost will spoil a visit to this trail centre. I'll be back but better prepared!