Surprised myself (TT column 16.12.13)

I am not usually one to gloat but then I am also not often one to finish tasks with such ample time to spare. It is such an exception that I feel I must share this recent accomplishment; I have finished my Christmas shopping. I expect I’ve now jinxed myself and missed out a vitally important present as well as annoying anyone who still has much of their shopping left to do. I always crave the festive period although it takes me an unusually long time to become fully absorbed into the Christmas spirit, I can’t put my finger on what has influenced this change unless it has been the copious amounts of mulled wine I seemed to have consumed recently or the regular cycle rides through tastefully decorated villages, whichever the culprit I am embracing it.

This time of year is apparently not so welcoming to cyclists. The daylight hours are short, the temperatures cooler (and not to forget the slippery roads that I recently discovered, the painful way) but there is also plenty of debris on the lanes. I suffered the consequences with a puncture last week, fortunately for my father I was not within rescuing distance from home on this occasion. Even though I am in theory adequately prepared with the correct equipment it is still hit and miss, so I owe a lot of gratitude to the kind gentleman who stopped to help me with my repair, chivalry is not dead. After a recent government survey the news that cycling is an increasingly popular sport does not surprise me. There is still a long way to go with encouraging more women to participate but the advantage of the men to women ratio does come in handy when technical problems occur.