There would be plenty of evening left
\nIf it were not for this heavy cloud
\nGoing down the big hill
\nStarting to get faster
\nBrakes work
\nNever done this before
\nOh my god!
\nThankfully there are no cars about!
\nMy face is itchy but I’m not taking my hands off the handlebars.
\nThat was fast!<\/p>\n
More sixties buff brick estates
\nSomewhat reminiscent of Moondogs and the North
\nSaturday teatimes
\nA football pitch<\/p>\n
A cul-de-sac
\nLet’s go up the cul-de-sac
\nIt looks like Rita, Sue and Bob too
\nAnonymous sixties and seventies stuff
\nA lengthy cul-de-sac
\nThere are people that come this way, off the train
\nPerhaps they are in these houses
\nEating their tea or cutting their fingernails
\nWho knows?
\nI don’t have any evidence for that<\/p>\n
So we are getting through the summer
\nLong-gone the date of midsummer
\nIt’s not the end of summer
\nBut it is…you know…the nights are drawing in<\/p>\n
A brand-new housing estate on the left
\nAll still being built
\nSo much so that the road is fenced off halfway<\/p>\n
You can see this estate from the train
\nA sign that you are getting close to here
\nAs the time arrives it’s time to switch off your phone
\nWorth packing your things together and getting out of your seat
\nSome of the train staff announce it too early
\nYou can tell the people who don’t do the journey very often
\nBy the way they get up from their seats way too early<\/p>\n
Pausing for a while
\nLook out on what will be new houses
\nSomewhere down there is the train line
\nBeyond it is the motorway
\nFar beyond it are other lands<\/p>\n
Gazing at the existing houses
\nThis is totally that feeling of teatime
\nAnnuals, Bay City Rollers, 1976, Shang-a-Lang<\/p>\n
But right in the distance on a hill
\nI can see a field with a combine harvester in it
\nIf that was flat
\nIt would be such a sign of my adolescent youth
\nIt would be around this time
\nMiddle of August
\nMiddle of summer holidays even if it isn’t the middle of summer
\nGoing out, riding around, driving around later on
\nJust like now
\nSeeing farming going on
\nYeah
\nRiding around in the dark
\nDeep in the fens
\nOnly occasional farm houses
\nAnd miles and miles of fields<\/p>\n
There’s a moon, quite a full moon
\nAnd a new park
\nWhich you can’t get into
\nBut you can see it from the train<\/p>\n
Though you can’t get into the park
\nFrom the look of the gates and fences everywhere
\nThere’s somebody in the park tonight
\nAnd one day, I will go into that park<\/p>\n
A street beckons me
\nWhere does it go?
\nNo dead-end sign on it
\nA church
\nMormons
\nI feel this is just going to lead nowhere in particular
\n…although…no, I was kind of right…
\nOr am I?
\nIt’s not very exciting<\/p>\n
A pub! A whole new world!
\nI had no idea this was here
\nThe pub is closed
\nThere’s a Co-Op
\nWow!
\nWow!
\nThere’s an old-people’s home
\nI have a vague idea where this might lead
\nBut it’s certainly nowhere I’ve ever been in my car
\nHousing isn’t distinctly different in any shape or form
\nI’m motoring along
\nThe moon looks full
\nIf it is, I will be indulging in my usual superstition<\/p>\n
Wow!
\nNo idea this existed at all
\nIt’s like seventies and eighties housing
\nThere’s a main road
\nWhere are we?
\nThis is really weird
\nAh! Got it!
\nNot a main road
\nJust further up the road we were on
\nBut that’s fine – I discovered a whole new world
\nA whole new world, and there are many cars turning to get into it<\/p>\n
Sad though it is to say
\nIt is true
\nThat was as exciting as finding some ancient pathway
\nOff-road in a wood<\/p>\n
Now we are up where the new park starts
\nMaybe where that person got in
\nThough things are padlocked<\/p>\n
New housing estate being built
\nMe and my cousin drove around here
\nLooking for a way into that park
\nWhich we couldn’t find
\nThis is just like all the other unfinished and finished new estates
\nExactly like where my mate lived
\nBut…no shops or anything
\nJust house after house after house<\/p>\n
It just goes on…
\nLike a weird ghost town
\nClearly people live here as there are cars all over the place
\nAm I finally at the end?
\nSomeone was shouting, singing maybe
\nI don’t know<\/p>\n
There is a combine harvester
\nDefinitely the end of the estate
\nAlthough…it goes around a corner
\nAlright combine!<\/p>\n
I’m not sure that moon is full
\nBut it’s very close to it<\/p>\n
So if we can go down here
\nWhere does this go?
\nGo back up there?
\nHmm, someone’s yard
\nWell it’s good for biking, definitely
\nIt’s strange though
\nSo huge, and I’m in danger of getting lost
\nRiding and riding and riding
\nReminds me of a house I know well on the other side of town
\nReminds me of a house in Oxford when I visited someone once
\nI came down this way earlier
\nNow I’m going to go down this way
\nI think this is going to be more views of the combine harvester
\nIt’s definitely a dead-end<\/p>\n
Wow!
\nMore houses bring more people
\nMore people need more things
\nCustomers for shops
\nEspecially down here
\nYou are going to need taxis home
\nOn a Saturday night
\nAs it’s miles away
\nMore people to go on dates with
\nEven at my advanced age<\/p>\n
This is a different way in I guess
\nFrom the big road
\nAt this point…
\nIt’s “lights on” and homeward bound
\nAlthough…is this a bike path
\nThat will save your epic narrator
\nFrom sharing the road with cars?
\nLet’s find out<\/p>\n
It isn’t what I’d planned
\nBut it’s good!
\nA real adventure
\nI feel really good having discovered all this
\nIt sounds really stupid
\nIt’s just a housing estate
\nBut it’s true<\/p>\n
“Hi there” to passing dog walkers<\/p>\n
So where the hell am I?
\nI’m on a big road
\nBut I don’t have to go on it
\nSo I’m not going to go on it<\/p>\n
I don’t know where I’m going
\nBut it looks semi-okay
\nNot brrrrrrrrrrilliant
\nBut not terrible
\nOne side of the road nice houses
\nThe other side not quite as nice<\/p>\n
Actually I know where I am now
\nSo I’m taking
\nA deliberate detour
\nKeep going where you’ve never been
\nJust turn around
\nIf you are not sure<\/p>\n
“Evening!” to a passing dog walker<\/p>\n
Oh it’s so pretty around here
\nBut what do you know
\nI don’t live around here
\nAlleyways and bits and bobs<\/p>\n
“Kiss-kiss” to a cat
\nZoom-zoomability<\/p>\n
What an epic night of discovery
\nAnd what is there ahead?
\nOh the big road again
\nYes it is
\n(and a funny little unfinished plinth thing)<\/p>\n
Turn around and we are back
\nClearly lots to discover around here
\nand soon I will have been out for an hour
\nI will call it a day soon
\nWhen I get back to the land of ET
\nand that’s not yet<\/p>\n
I will confess, I feel
\nWhat do I feel?
\nI don’t feel lonely…
\nBut I do wish there was someone to look forward to
\nLet’s put it that way
\nAnd there isn’t
\nAnd I don’t want a lot of what that brings
\nBut there are a few things
\nThat that brings
\nThat I wouldn’t mind
\nIs that lacking in my life?
\nI am reluctant to say that it is
\nBut I can’t say that it isn’t<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note that
\nWhen I made a statement about that once
\n(When I was ill)
\nThat some of those things
\n– it is such a pretty row of houses –
\n(Those things) turned up really quickly
\nAnd they taught me that
\nMaybe I don’t know what I want
\nAfter all
\nSo
\nSo-so-so-so
\nLots to think about<\/p>\n
Right now I am near a curry house
\nOh I’d like to go for a curry
\nThere is a pub
\nI am not bothered about going to a pub
\nAlthough
\nI do sometimes think about riding around here
\nAvec mon frere
\nAnd il aime les pubs
\nWe could stop at one of these
\nIf it ever happens
\nWhich it won’t whilst he’s currently living where he lives<\/p>\n
I am riding through the town
\nI am not actually in the town
\nI’m in the distinctly different part of town
\nBut it’s all alright
\nSoon I will finally be in the estate I was in last week
\nWhere we will trundle back<\/p>\n
Erm, umm, sod it
\nLet’s go a different way
\nI may regret this
\nBut, you know
\nYOLO and all that
\nThis is going to go back out into the countryside
\nExactly why I’ve got my big light
\nThe back light is on
\nI think I’ve ridden down here before
\nI don’t recall exactly when
\nI’m going to take it easy because it’s basically dark now
\nFive past nine pm
\nEven in spite of the clouds
\nThe sun will have gone down now<\/p>\n
There is nobody but me
\nThe houses are thinning out
\nWe are now in the countryside
\nWhich smells lush and green
\nIt reminds me of riding as a kid
\nIt is what this is about
\nVital, energetic
\nA fantastic allotment
\nWith little sheds
\nOh greenery!<\/p>\n
Car<\/p>\n
Pretty church spire looking illuminated and all pretty
\nGreat to be out in this level of light
\nWhere there is no artificial light
\nApart from my bike light
\nThese hedges were cut recently
\nWhich is why everything smells so sappy
\nOh it smells so fantastic
\nWhat an invigorating ride
\nEmotionally and mentally
\nI hope I get home in one piece
\nWith the way I am rabbiting on at the moment about how great biking is
\nIt would only take some silly incident to spoil all that<\/p>\n
A car<\/p>\n
I hope he can see me
\nHe seems to be slowing down which is good
\nThank you for not driving into me<\/p>\n
I am not going to put into words
\nSome of the things this makes me feel and think of
\nBut it’s REALLY GOOD<\/p>\n
When I get home I am going to have
\nA drink of passion fruit squash
\nA shower
\nI am going to play my guitar, have a decaff coffee
\nand catch-up online
\nSort out the laundry that is currently in the washing machine<\/p>\n
Look at those cows and sheep
\nThis car has hopefully spotted me
\nAre they sheep?
\nI think they are sheep
\nBut there are calves too
\nThis is just so epic and brilliant and amazing<\/p>\n
Somewhere
\nIt is very dark now
\nRiding in real darkness
\nReally glad for the headlamp
\nYes!
\nThere is an epic bridge
\nI have been down this road
\nI remember doing this one Sunday
\nI really hope there is nothing big and scary coming
\nI’m going to drop a cog as this is a bit challenging<\/p>\n
A motorbike
\nNot big and scary
\nBut nevertheless I was not alone<\/p>\n
Out of breath
\nThat was incredible
\nOh!
\nRight…I’m going home
\nThat was great
\nBut I’ve had enough
\nI know there is a more epic road to the left
\nBut, yeah, I’m done with that one<\/p>\n
So much exploration
\nReally good
\nI don’t like this main road much
\nI am on the path
\nBut I think my time is limited
\nThis is so good though
\nThis is really like my…well
\nExactly what I was doing thirty years ago
\nThirty one
\nThirty two years ago
\nOut and about exploring the world
\nIt is very very dark
\nSo I am not riding around at any great speed
\nJust feeling gravity’s pull now
\nComing down this hill
\nGears are slipping slightly
\nAll a bit annoying<\/p>\n
I think we are now getting back to the land of the living
\nDistant lights seem to suggest that
\nYes!<\/p>\n
I was listening to Transatlantic earlier on
\nWhich is it’s own special thing
\nGetting quite emotional listening to that at work<\/p>\n