vfrooom

"The view was all in lines, up and down..."

It was rather fine driving down the A21 between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells yesterday - very picture postcard with snow-coated fields and trees either side and the sunlight just right to cause that whiter-than-white glow.

It's not so good in the garden however. The large, unpruned (due to cowardice on my part) bush, which partially obscures the bird feeder, has collapsed due to the weight of snow and ice. I'm not sure whether I want it to recover. I'm determined to fill the garden with strongly scented lillies this year to the extent that people will find it difficult to breathe in... almost. We'll see. I might dilute the effect with more sunflowers. If the bush has to be excised, then at least there'll be more sunlight and less shade.

I've not been on the motorbike since Tuesday evening. I'm beginning to suffer. I worked from home on Wednesday anyway and on Thursday morning was so bombarded by negativity about it being "slippy on the roads" from the neighbours, even the bloody postman, when they saw me in bike kit. I think my careful confidence ran back inside and hid behind the sofa, leaving me with a "oh fuck this, I'm working from home again" attitude. I've handled worse - riding along the M25 in -10C though that at least was after days of total dryness, sliding down a sheet of ice on the slip road from the A329M onto the M4, remaining upright and the carrying on as though nothing had happened. As I said, bloody postman. I would even have gotten home in time to see the first of the snow.

Friday was on my own terms. I worked from home again. I could have biked to Reading without a problem but almost certainly could not have entered Green Park as it's a private estate and if January was anything to go by, ungritted, icy and a little bit hard on the nerves.

Saturday morning and oh joy, it's nearly Christmas and the washing machine, long scheduled for replacement, forces the issue and leaks all over the place. The new one arrives on Wednesday. I can think of better presents to myself. Oh hang on, I can't - "new fridge freezer" popped into my mind.

Today I am mostly having a really good tidy up and trying not to think about my neglected motorbike. I found a file (paper one) of all my old school reports from Form 1-1 in 1977, my mother's front door key and a large pause for thought, all of the service receipts and MOT certificates for the previous bike and another not-so-large pause for thought.

Bugger.