Ferry musings

I´m perched in a litte nook on the windowsill right at the front of the ferry, where no desperate loudspeakered ´entertainment´ hassles me and the seat is comfier for not even trying to be comfy - the sky is hazy blue and I´´m squinting through my eyelashes from the sun (you know when it goes all rainbow blobby?)

I think I anticipated the fear of actually being on the journey so much in the time leading up to setting off that I´´ve got no room left for anxiety- I feel a little drunk and spacey, from lack of sleep and the rocking of the boat, and slightly timeless, having explored the ship quite thoroughly, watched a film, snacked all day...

My time in Bristiol was good if busy- the harbourside festival, where i saw some pretty faces I´ve not seen in a long while and some fireworks and had a good laugh, did some work setting up and taking down from the Invisible circus´´s Swing Thing, it was Ash´´s birthday on Monday which was a fine occasion indeed- overall it was hard work remembering to get prepared for the trip.

This morning I remembered a few essentials, but after a little disagreement with my alarm at 5:40 didn´´t have quite enough time, but I´ve got a good feeling and even gooder friends and I´´m fully looking forward to the journey ahead. The pass I´m thinking of taking is as high as Snowdon on the day I arrive, but I´m only planning on doing about 30k and I´´ve got acouchsurf organised who seems really lovely, so I´m not worried.

In fact I´m REALLY EXCITED!! And looking forward immensely to travelling for at least some of the distance with Nick and Hannah, who are also cycling to Boom, and just happened even to be on the same ferry!!

I´d be out of my mind with boredom already if they weren´´t here and it´´s lovely to have someone else with the same plans nearby.

We´ve been discussing routes, I think we´ll definately cycle together for the first bit- it makes sense to share each others company, slipstreams and luggage; but I´ve also come to terms quite well with travelling alone and may split off for parts of the journey, if purely for thesake of feeling I have. It´´d be good to give them space to travel as they´´d intended, too, and I´ll have more time to write if I´m not socializing :P

New toy- sorry, Machine!

Eek!

The stress has evaporated and I’m literally quivering with excitement! Ask anyone of the poor folks at Info, I have been having a great deal of trouble concentrating all day.

The thing is, you see, I got a text off my lovely housemate Suzanne yesterday informing me of the arrival of my new bike- exactly as described, exactly the right size, exactly what I needed and just just on time! A big thank you to Big Bills Bikes in Chester for that (www.bigbillsbikes.co.uk), after all my ebay troubles they helped me so much and restored my faith in internet shopping- a dangerous activity indeed, and far scarier than cycling across Spain and Portugal.

After staring wide eyed at the screen and jiggling for a bit I asked my very understanding boss person and friend, Tobi, if I could go and play; whistled down this side of the valley, panted up the other side at record speed, and put the beast together.

Oh he’s so handsome. A fine and trusty steed. Definitely my favourite non-living object of all- I’ll soon sort that out with some googly eyes and fluff (sorry to all you real cycling enthusiasts who would sooner die than (de)face a brand new shiny kona jake in such a way, but it has to be done. Things might have been different if I wasn’t travelling alone, but as it is I’m going to need his company!

After putting him together, with some help from my other lovely housemates Tom and Paul, I got on for a little test run and somehow couldn’t quite get a grip on the brakes. Juddered down the little driveway from our house over some bumpy rocks and roots of the ash tree, turned the corner at the bottom a bit wide and a bit fast with eyesight still wobbling, and had a forceful encounter with a big clump of brambles draping across the track. Tom found me picking the many embedded thorns out of my arm and sulking.

I’ll show you a picture when I work out how! I’m starting to understand that weird psychology of bike people where the worse a crash or an injury is, the ‘sicker’ or ‘sweeter’ it is… I’m actually quite proud of my wound! Now I will really respect my new machine, and I expect our relationship to be a fiery one!

Today he took me to work, and we missioned to town in my lunch break to get some last-minute essentials at the Holey Trail again. People stop and look at him in the street. I overtook 8(!!!) people and 3 of them said "oooh, nice bike!" or words to that effect. I swelled with pride each time and am still having trouble thinking about anything else. I feel like singing. Basically my friends, I'm in love.

Tonight there is a clothes swop in town to raise money for Grania's circomedia funds, and afterwards I'm being seen off by my dear friends at CAT. I can't believe my volunteering stint is over, it has been a beautiful spring and summer and I have seen a totally different side to my already amazing home town, and learnt so much about all the things I expected, and even more about all kinds of things I never expected to learn- about myself, about people and their incentives, about volunteering and what a wholesome thing it is to do...

I've made so many lovely friends and I'm going to miss them! This aspect is really starting to sink in now, and I won't be able to sneakily skulk off like I usually do! I better go off and see them now...