There and back

After blogging about my great-great grand-dad I looked out of the window and saw that it was a lovely day for a bike ride.

So I packed a picnic and a bottle of water, shouldered my backpack and set off on two wheels towards Lancaster.

Two and a half hours later (including a coffee with Andrew Pye at his house in Claughton) I was sitting on a bench admiring the view of the Bay from - Morecambe!

Yes, I had ridden more than twenty miles by the time I got there. The last half of the ride was on a cycle path all the way from Caton. It made things so much easier. I didn't have to deal with road traffic, just pedestrians.

I celebrated with an orange juice at the newly updated Midland Hotel and rode back to Lancaster and caught the train back to Bentham. This was another first. The first time I had taken my bike on a train. What a day!

Biking and Hiking

My mate Stewart Goudie from Edinburgh just wrote a blog about whizzing downhill on a bike being like life, and here's what I commented:

I love biking too and it sure feels great when you are whizzing downhill after straining up a hard incline. That's what I feel like at the moment, after going through a lot of depression and coming out into the light. But when you are flying downhill you have to watch you don't go too fast and come a cropper. That's why I'm going to get back into work gradually. Set off slowly and build up momentum is the best idea.

I have taken up biking over the last month or two and really enjoy it. I have been walking a bit more too. This has helped me in several ways. I feel better, because the endorphins get going, it is good for my physical health, and counsellors have told me (again and again) that exercise is an important way of getting to grips with depression.

Geoffrey Barnard is unwell

That was a euphemism used for a writer who used to get so drunk he couldn't produce his column. It was turned into a play.

Well, Peter McCabe has been unwell, and not able or willing to blog.

You've guessed it. I was very depressed. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I went back onto some stronger tablets and they gave me physical side effects: bad headache, nausea and light-headedness. Maybe it was because I couldn't think of anything to write about. Maybe it was because I was trying to come to terms with not having any money and owing people money I don't have. Or maybe, and this is getting to the real crux of the matter, I just couldn't be bothered.

Well, I'm back now. I guess the tone is pretty weary, but, hey, that's the way I'm feeling.

Three positives during this time:

1. I really found the Veronica Zundel book "Crying for the Light" helpful and am reading it again.
2. I have started riding a bike. Not only does this save money of fuel but also gives me exercise and gets the good feelings going a bit.
3. Springwatch on BBC2 has been fantastic. To see God's creation in all its majestic and tiny glory has been thrilling. Maybe I'm improving. At least I'm blogging again.