On My Bike

I bought myself a new gps watch last week.  I find the act of going out running or cycling and recording a track which I can then upload and look at on a map strangely magical.  I started doing this when Sue and I were in Borneo, where there were so few maps or signs that it was actually a good way of getting a picture of where I really had been.

I've got a busyish day today so I decided to get a bike ride in this morning.  It was cold and bright as I cycled around the flat surrounding countryside, past bright yellow fields of oilseed rape and along dykes.  At one point a young deer broke cover and bounded along in a field next to me.  Eventually I cycled into the middle of Lincoln down the Foss Dyke and into the Brayford Pool before returning to dad's bungalow.

I guess I should stop calling it that, I suppose it's my bungalow now, though it doesn't feel like it.  I feel I'm camping here while I finalise dad's affairs, which is nearly done now.  All the bequests have been paid and I've written to the bank asking them to close his accounts.  The strangest parts of this process made me sad, quite unexpectedly.  Like surrendering his old premium bond certificates to National Savings.  They'd been bought over the years at different stages in his life and many of the documents had his signature.  I guess buying premium bonds is a hopeful act and by surrendering them it's a kind of recognition that in the end all those dreams and aspirations come to nothing.