My tour

Oh dear, I'm really rather a long way from fit.  Not, however, beating myself up about it, I do all right for an old burd.  I started the week with some enthusiasm for cycle commuting, not even letting slightly iffy weather forecasts put me off, and made plans and cracked on.  Such was my ardour that undeterred by book club after work Wednesday I still planned to get on and ride it.

Last experience of trying to get to book club by bike had resulted in a somewhat stroppy e-mail to someone somewhere who might possibly have some kind of remit for signage.  I chose to ride into Manchester City Centre and follow bike route 6, a gritty route taking me through some areas I had in honesty considered no go places for a middle class middle aged Caucasian woman.  Getting lost there was both mortifying and a little scary, not wanting to stop and look at a map and therefore be seen as vulnerable.  The area has a reputation for violence.  When I say reputation, this is based on the fact that whenever you travel to work listening to local radio news you can predict that the news reporter will nearly always finish the sentence a fatal shooting / stabbing took place in the early hours of the morning with "in Moss Side".  It's that kind of place, high unemployment too and frankly I stick out like a sore thumb.  It's a vibrant area, no denying it.  Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss_Side but rightly or wrongly I find it intimidating.

So my visit plan this time was simple.  Not to get lost in Moss Side.  To this end I took guidance and advice from a work colleague on how to get from my place of work to Chorlton (place of book club).  It was a fantastic awesome route.  This bad boy.  Guardian Fallowfield Loop line.  OK, so I did get lost once and have to retrace steps and yes, it did add 20 minutes to my journey (I timed it from the point I was unsure to the point I returned there ...). 

All in all, yesterday I left the house at 07:15 to ride the 8 or 9 miles to work, then left work at 5pm for another 8 mile journey, and at 9pm was leaving Chorlton for the 5 mile ride home.  Frankly I was pooped, slept like a baby (but without the bed wetting and crying), and drove in this morning!