A flat day

The pictures are from last week.  I like them.  Back then, cycling to work in the freezing cold I had to stop to take a picture when in Castle Park.  On that day, the kids were behaving themselves mostly, though my daughter had been in a bad mood at the beginning of the walk to school.  But we had left with time to spare and the kids appreciated arriving early as that meant that they could talk to friends in the playground before school.  Before I got to work, I cycled to a nearby bicycle repair shop as my bike was very overdue a service.  And on collecting it, I really appreciated the difference the service made.  My brake pads were worn before, a light was not working and also in addition to this, my gears were sticking.  Having the bike serviced changed all that and also it rode better, which meant that I was able to cycle up hills that I had started to give up on!

On the weekend, my daughters fish tank was cleared. but we changed a lot of water, and due to concerns about the water temperature afterwards, we went to the pet shop to get a thermometer for Nevyn, the Siamese fighting fish.  He had not been named, so I named him after a favourite character from a series of books I read from years ago.  The kids are aware that they are not allowed to read them until the are aged over 18.  In fact, I would rather they read Game of Thrones before the Daggerspell series!  But going into the pet shop we ended up leaving with a hamster in addition to the thermometer.  His name is Ron, and he was named this in the shop.  He was up for adoption and we all loved him on seeing him.  He was the maddest hamster we have ever seen and this includes the Syrian hamsters that my wife had 20 years ago when we were going out with each other.  Ron though is a Roborovski hamster and is very fast.  I have seen him run on his wheel so fast, that when he stops he spins round 360 degrees (once this was 720 degrees as he spun round twice).  He has a tendency to nip when we put our hands in, but unlike the Syrian hamsters my wife had in the past, this one does not draw blood and only seems to bite to see what we are.

And today on cycling to my other job I found that I had a flat.  I had to stop in the town centre to pump some air in, and had to repeat this twice before I got my bike to the shop it had been in last week.  I am sad in that I can not even change a tyre, but to be fair, today I did not have the time as I needed to work.  But it is great to have the bike back.  Cycling was becoming a chore before, and now is fun again.  Part of me is tempted to think what it would be like with another bike, but I think I should be faithful to this one.  I had not treated it that well, and it has been true and faithful to me.  And I love riding on it, though that enjoyment had started to go before I had it serviced.  When cycling on Sunday to do paperwork, I had fun and on cycling back, I made it home in record time, and that included slowing for a Pokéstop!

Today, the kids have been very patient with me.  Last week, my son had to attend a hospital appointment.  This week we went to our GP surgery where I got something for one of the children.  The other was very curious to find out what it was, but on getting back, they put up with me and my various demands about them doing one thing or another.  And, with my son being unwell last week, both appear much better today, and long may that continue.