The first bike ride of 2006 has left me with sore legs and a sore shoulder (the latter the result of trying to fit in the ludicrously tight shower we are currently forced to live with). It was nice to get out into the fresh air and feel the road under the tyres again though. I need to implement new routines, and bike riding is such a fine one. I always forget how the bike can help keep my mind on the straight and narrow and it’s always a delight when I rediscover that fact. It feels a little strange doing similar routes to the ones I did out of Exeter though. Today I headed out to Killerton and then on to Cullompton and Willand and from thence back via Halberton, Tivvy and the valley. What a relief not to have to haul my sorry ass over Stoke Hill at the end… but even so, it felt odd not to do it. And I’m sad enough so that these little feelings of change transform themselves into little feelings of loss. But that’s the nature of life I think; travelling on those spiralling ellipses and returning to a core of loss every so often before shooting off on a new trajectory. Or the nature of my life, at least.

Yesterday we walked out to the Agricultural Inn over in Brampford Speke for a New Year’s lunch with some friends from the city (ha ha). It was really lovely, and even the half hour walk over the fields (with suck your boots off mud in places) and the long abandoned railway line was, ah, bracing. We did the same walk a few days earlier in the frosty midday and it was glorious. There are some photos here if you care to have a nosey. The pub even does some halfway decent veggie food, which is a rarity, especially in this part of the world. Walking around the village afterwards we passed the site of my brush with death and/or the Parish Priest in his Volkswagen, and I realised with a shock that would have been around eight years or more ago. It made me suddenly very aware of the fact that I Have History sewn into the fabric of these roads, this countryside. And whilst that makes me feel old, there is also a degree of warm comfort to be had from it. Everyone needs their histories, after all.

Wrote an album review this morning for Plan B. My first piece of ‘real’ writing since the holidays started, and it was difficult. I feel rusty as hell. It’s supposed to be a lead review too, of the Commercially Unfriendly compilation which is sporadically brilliant. It’s nice to see The Nightingales getting more exposure too (they supply the excellent ‘Urban Osprey’), and incidentally, who’s going to see them play at the Spitz on January 13th? Fortuitously it coincides with a trip up to London for the BETT conference/show so I will be able to attend. Hurrah! Even more so as The Fallen Leaves are playing support, this being the band featuring Phil King and Rob Symmons amongst others. Should be a good night.