Amber - but not Orange!?

Saturday morning saw me defying the undeniable and almost gravitational pull of my bed at 7:00AM. Yes. A-M.. and by 20 to 8 myself and my trusty steed were making our way upto Pollicott to meet my 3 favourite fellow early morning cyclists. I was a little disheartened, as I had built myself a reputation for being eternally loyal to my bright orange Helen & Douglas House t-shirt whilst the others had all been unfaithful opting for warmer attire over the last few rides.. but today I was the one who wasn't sporting the orange as I had been living at Mum's for the past week, catching up with some washing and had left it there!! Oh no!!! Words cannot express how gutted I was when i'd defied my gravitational bed and received a text from Sian explaining that we would be needing our t-shirts for a group photo at the end of the ride! However, I couldn't justify driving to Mum's as it would have cut the ride short..

So, I arrived at the top of Pollicott in my non-orange completely YELLOW high vis jacket. Sian, Alex and Vicky appeared soon after in their lovely H&DH t-shirts (and a few extra layers due to cold!) and Sian explained the route she had in mind.

I have to admit, as always, my first thought was 'oh no, hills!' but we were soon on our way upto Winchendon. With Vicky behind me consistently cheering me on, I made it to the top in my fastest time yet and we then made our way to Cuddington. A quick cross at the A418 (I think!) and a sweet stop.. which is when I had a bright idea. Sian had mentioned that we'd be crossing in Stone to get to Eythrope a little further along the route.. With Mum's house only in Fairford Leys (5 mins from Stone) Could this be the end to my lack of Helen and Douglas House t-shirt? I deployed my iPhone with the intention to speak to Mum and see if she would be able to meet us in Stone with my beloved orange garment... but it soon became apparent that Mum had not been able to drag herself from her own gravitational bed as there was no answer.

We continued on our route and before I knew it we were approaching 'Little Meadle' - this is when I started to panic a bit - Little Meadle? I glanced at Sian who looked just as confused as I did - despite living a few miles away neither of us had EVER heard of it! How bizarre. With all of the major hills out of the way I started to really enjoy the gorgeous weather and was taking in the views! We were passed by two groups of racing cyclists - sleek and lovely with their featherweight bikes, elastic band tyres and streamlined Lycra. Casual, effortless 'good morning's coming our way.. There I was leading our pack with my halfords special mountain bike - tyres fit for a land rover and my not so streamlined hoody, yellow high vis and invisible orange t-shirt. With out of breath, couldreallydowithsomeoxygen 'Hiya's somehow coming out of my mouth.

Another sweet & drink stop in Bishopstone confirmed my thoughts - Mum had infact only just got up and would be in no fit state to meet us in Stone in the 5 minutes we had to get there. So, a little disappointed that a reunion with my t-shirt wasn't meant to be, I continued to take the lead and we arrived in Stone and carried onto Eythrope (which is apparently dog central - have never seen so many dogs and dog walkers in such a short space of time!)

The long and windy slope back upto the Lodge between Upper Winchendon and Waddesdon was a killer on my legs, and I have to confess, I did have to jump off and have a little stroll for a short distance, with Alex not far behind. With Sian and Vicky ready to get going again when we reached the top, we took a nice freewheel down the other side of the hill and came to the Manor crossroads. 10 minutes later we had all tackled the steep downhill muddy track without getting off OR stopping, and I was lucky enough to be very nearly home. The hills back up to Ashendon were sadly on the cards for the others as i'd already cycled them earlier in the morning (mwahahahaha)...

But before they could depart - we still had a photo to take! With only 3 orange t-shirts!! My pining for my lovely t-shirt coupled with the fact that i'd just cycled 20 miles and my legs were about to wobble away from my torso meant that a photo was the LAST thing I wanted. Sian had been clever enough to improvise and had worn her ORANGE high visibility jacket, which I sneakily adopted especially for the photo so that I too, could be orange. My techno-phobe father was handed an iPhone, shown roughly where to poke on the screen to activate the camera and we all posed with our best 'honestly, this is a genuine smile' faces in our orange attire.

After a quick chat, the 3 Belles set off on their way home, whilst me and my legs wobbled our way indoors and got straight into a hot bath., grateful that I lived at the bottom of a hill. Not at the top!