Actually the last month has been a series of endings. It felt like the end when I packed up my bike in Geneva. A few days later if felt like the end when I rode into Birmingham. Then it felt like the end when I got back to my parents’ place in Dartmouth. Now it really is the end because from tomorrow I’m going to stop behaving like I’m on holiday and start paying some consideration to the future. I’ll no longer be able to luxuriate in my unemployment; instead I’ll have to worry and fret and procrastinate like everybody else.
I seem to be the only person in the history of bike touring who has managed to put on weight whilst cycling 3-6 hours per day, so the first thing on the list is to lose the 5kg I’ve gained. In order to achieve this aim, I’m actually going to ride a lot less, and instead focus on higher intensity/shorter rides, jogging and maybe some gym classes, badminton and ping pong. Having loads of spare time is a double-edged sword in that there is loads of time to exercise, but even more to eat and drink to excess, so I’m going to cut carbs and quit booze for a month too. I can’t remember the last time I went even a week without drinking so that’s going to be a big challenge. Perhaps I will find a hidden resolve and strength of character hitherto obscured by beer. More probably though, I’ll be cripplingly bored and boring and binge on books and box-sets rather than biscuits and Ben and Jerry’s.
I’ll also have to trawl job websites – envisioning potential new lives in Andalusia, Bristol or Milton Keynes – and submit myself to the tedium of actually applying for some positions. I’ve already been shooed-in to a cushy local job delivering linen for a holiday home company (which will allow me to save up some beer money for a monumental piss-up on October 1st). That’s just a few hours per week but I’m also going to address my cultural impoverishment by volunteering at the local arts centre.
So that’s about it. If you’ve followed this blog this far, well done! I have nothing to offer you beyond this half-finished video of stuff I did in France. There’s no audio with this one as I couldn’t really think of a suitable song. Thanks for following…
Dan Went Cycling 