Blog catch-up

Here we are, nearly Christmas, and I haven’t done any blogging for nearly two months. We haven’t done a lot of biking either.

We are still in the grips of renovations, which means that one of us has to be home for the tradesmen to come in, so that tends to curtail the times we can go out for a ride. But the work should be finished very soon – this week I hope. We are getting heartily sick of the dust and grit being tramped through the house, although I must say our tradies are pretty careful not to leave too much mess.

And John’s health is still a worry. His facial paralysis has not improved, so he has to wear an eye patch most of the time, especially when biking. Despite feeling pretty grotty some of the time, he still wants to keep up with the biking as he wants to maintain a modicum of fitness.

We have done a few easy rides – around the suburb and along Te Ara Tawa. As well, John went on a substantial Folding Goldies ride, and together we did a good long ride around Miramar, both of which I shall describe in separate blog posts.

Without wanting to grizzle about things, I feel that in some ways, 2016 has been stolen from us. When we wanted to go for a long trip to ride the West Coast Wilderness trail during summer/autumn, we were still waiting to hear when our renovations would begin. We waited and waited, couldn't get our builder to give us a starting date, and time passed. Then the lousy weather set in, and the trip was no longer a sensible option. When the renovations were finally underway, John had his health crisis. There’s no knowing if we’ll ever go on a big road trip again. Time will tell.

But let’s be positive, and hope for a better year in 2017.