moody welsh cycles

I've been to Wales!

Leaving the lab at 3.30pm on a fine day feels nice. really nice. especially when it's at the end of a week where the starts have been around 8am and the ends around 6pm. it's even nicer when you're leaving to go grab a shower, your bike, and hop in a van to go to wales. the 4 hour drive passed relatively smoothly, the last hour with a different driver who's style is more than a little scary, but by 9.30pm we'd reached our destination, braig gogh bunkhouse in Corris, a small town just outside of Machynlleth. we got to cooking the tuna pasta salad for the lunch the next day with vigour, and after an hour, the water was boiling and ready for pasta. should have done it all in the kettle.

Wales is a stunning place to cycle in, the weather was good, with a mild temperature and moody skies on the first day, cold and slightly rainy on the second, but with a mammoth climb on the second day i wouldn't have wanted it to be any warmer. my technique is coming along too, it tends to do that when you have a mantra consisting of "look ahead and STOP BRAKING!". and i'm definitely getting better at the climbs. let's hope that stays!

Both days involved hilliness and some stunning scenery that comes with it, and both evenings involved pub food which always leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

Now it's back in the lab and back to reading, writing and the odd experiment here and there. it's good to see my project taking off, and i've found a couple of interesting leads that are keeping me occupied for the time being. things with the postgrad students association are moving along too, tonight we have a bar social (the first of 2007 no less), and at the weekend i'm taking 2 coaches and 100 people to see the wonders beholden in liverpool. i am yet to decide whether to do the tourist thing there or just potter around a little in shops and cafe's on my last day before hitting a quarter of a century. i'm sure i'll do a little of both and return exhausted.

And once again, someone tried to steal my bike from outside the hospital last night. i don't like chavs.