Well my best intentions were to blog from deepest Dorset on a couple of occasions. We had no internet in the house so that is why there has been silence-possibly a good thing!

We had a good cycle down to Frome St Quintin where we were staying. We had a rendezvous planned at Bath Railway Station for 10.30 ish we were late because we had a coffee stop. In fact food featured large on the ride with our refuel stops; the champagne moment was a wonderful cream tea in an eccentric hotel. Scones and jams were all home-made delicious! The whole ride was 98 miles and surprise, surprise our comrades at the house cooked a splendid meal for the weary travellers. We are thinking of doing a cycling food book, we would enjoy the research!

Once established we visited the sea-side, Dorchester, Maiden Castle and of course Hardy sites. We cycled to all the above apart from the sea-side. Dorset Hills tested our resolve on occasions! The cottage where Hardy was born was a particular favourite, if you haven’t visited it you will find a delightful cottage, garden and a lovely woodland walk (it is National Trust). As our evening treats apart from the wonderful feasts was to watch Far From the Madding Crowd (the old one-we all loved Julie Christie’s eyes) and Under the Greenwood Tree.

So it is now back home in Gloucestershire to prepare for Story Telling next week and a cricket semi-final today for the Gloucestershire Old Men against Cheshire. Fingers crossed!

We saw the RSC broadcast of Othello from Stratford last night. As always it is a powerful play but having a black actor as Iago gave his and Othello’s  relationship another dynamic. We have alternated between watching plays live at Stratford and seeing them broadcast on the big screen and both have the positives.

The cycle ride to Dorset is tomorrow!

Well I was struggling to find more bike songs so thought this title might be appropriate!

The old men are cycling to Dorset on Friday morning for our “Hardy Week”. Our next Book Club book is Far from the Madding Crowd so we thought we would visit some places connected with Hardy. I may blog from deepest Dorset but it may be next weekend otherwise. I was supposed to be playing cricket today for Gloucestershire Old Men in our quarter-final away at Hampshire, hopefully it will be played tomorrow.

I am starting to write again, mainly tweaking a couple of stories at the moment. My story based at the Farm for City Children at Wick Court has a new title at the moment it is “What are you looking at!”

My goodness what a soaking I got yesterday! We went Yeovil yesterday and camped at Sparkford. Buddy Holly’s song was relevant as we stood on an open terrace getting soaked watching the Hatters throw away a two goal lead to a poor side! My heart was very damp-especially combined with Tuesday’s dismal performance!

We had a lovely time today visiting old friend from college Sally in her new house in Bridgewater.

Need to prepare for some Story Telling for the beginning of the September. Trying out a couple of new stories next month.

Getting closer to a title for my story based at Wick Court. A few ideas “What are you looking at?” or “Don’t give me that funny look!” or the one that perhaps it won’t be but I quite like “I ain’t nuts you know!”  I will keep you up to date with your developments.

I had a delightful pedal yesterday. I went up Frocester and then made my way to Nailsworth. One of my favourite climbs is up from Nailsworth to Minchinhampton through the trees.

Football was disappointing on Saturday throwing away a 2 goal lead to draw! I am going again tomorrow night so hopefully we will find our killer instinct.

Just been re-reading my Story based at Wick Court. I am now sending to others to read through for feedback. I am aiming to self publish later this year or just into 2016. Any profits will go to the Farms of City Children (Wick Court is one of their farms). I just need a title for it so I will be asking for ideas in the near future.

I have been clocking up some miles on the bike this week especially tackling some of the hills around us. Getting ready for our Hardy Cycle Tour of Dorset at the end of the month. More about this in a future blog.

Finally what about the football result on Tuesday? A great result beating Bristol City two leagues above us.

Had to be this title after watching our Peter in the London Triathlon on Saturday. Initially amazed to see so many people committed to various Triathlons over the weekend but remembered our exploits as the Dursley Donkeys in the Team Triathlon at Blenheim. Same organisation! Pete was a real star and we were beaming proud parents. It is lovely to be able to share events like this with our children.

I mentioned cricket last week and well what a tremendous start to the Test Match. Still feels unreal, I kept pinching myself to see if I was dreaming! We also won on Thursday so have just about qualified for the knock out stages!

Slowly beginning to make headway on writing my allotment story. Also had some new ideas for telling an old Welsh Folk Tale so I will slowly develop  these themes over the next week or so. Hoping to have a another couple of new stories for adult audiences ready to perform during the next month.

Finally football creeps in, off to the Theatre of Mixed Dreams tomorrow night.

We are back briefly from our travels. I am playing for the Gloucestershire Old Men tomorrow in a must win game against Wales. We played on the first day of the last Test Match as well so fingers crossed both results are the same again!

Bit more about the Exmouth Exodus the bike ride from Bath to Exmouth all through the night. When eventually all our party had assembled we left Bath around 10 p.m. (my party was a youthful one apart from yours truly!) The tunnels just outside of Bath were great and the early part of the ride was on a cycle path. As the evening wore on, traffic, apart from the odd car was non-existent; a lovely feeling so we often were able to ride two or three abreast. I mentioned Cheddar yesterday and I was very tentative on the descent! Inevitably there were some slogs up the Devon Hills! Ride was well organised and after 30 miles we had a food stop courtesy of the local scout group. You realised then that there were quite a few of us at this point! There was another food stop at 60 miles. Watching dawn break over a tranquil Devon boosted our resolve. Finally around 8 a.m. we settled down to a splendid fry up in the café in Exmouth, we certainly needed it! Although we kept munching on route once we sat down to eat you realised how many calories you had used up! Finally we had to pedal back to David’s house in Exeter (120 miles altogether.)  Meanwhile our Peter was taking part in  Ride London so we reckoned all in all the Church boys were cycling for well over 15 hours continuously . Perhaps we all need our heads examined?

Looking forward to the weekend. We are up in Town watching Pete in the London Triathlon and on Saturday night we are going to see War Horse.

Well just trying to think of a title to cover the night ride, did think of Night Rider!

Well we did it! 120 miles of cycling through the night and early morning. A surreal experience especially riding down through Cheddar Gorge around midnight, the shadows on the rocks very disorienting! Will blog some more when we get home. Bottom is slowly recovering! At the moment camping in Devon.

Short blog tonight ahead of tomorrow’s epic! Clare and I went for a ride to Stonehouse for the opticians (cue all those jokes about my cricket). A new and novel experience my pedal fell off exactly half way! I ended up cycling home on one pedal not an experience I’m keen to repeat! Ironically it was my trusty mount “Shadowfax” which I had hoped to ride on the Exmouth Exodus tomorrow. Made me realise the bottom bracket needs some attention so will use “Sir Gawaine”  tomorrow. Glad it happened today and not 1 a.m. in the middle of nowhere!

Another win for us on Thursday this time we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat so we were “Over the Moon, Brian!” Still pinching myself about the cricket from Edgbaston-what an Ashes; error strewn but riveting!