South Downs Way

The challenge of cycling one hundred miles from Winchester to Eastbourne during the May half term has begun to capture the imagination of some of Nathalie's friends who are now offering to sponsor her. The bikes are ready, the accommodation (for three of the four nights) is booked, all we need now is a continuation of the current good weather for another couple of weeks so that the training rides each night and at the weekend can continue.

Last Friday night was the first ride with full backpacks and whilst I was happy with the additional weight on my back I had to admit at the end of the ride that my hiking sack is too big, it's a 65 lire bag, so I've ordered a Deuter mountain bike rucksack which comes in at 30 litres, which still means it's twice the size of Nathalie's ladies rucksack. We did a quick five mile circuit and Nathalie said she forgot that she was actually wearing her pack which is good, the only downside was that she didn't have room for all her clothes and told me I will have to carry some of them, and her food. I can see we are going to have to have a serious review of exactly what it is she is carrying!

This week is SATS week and I've never seen Nathalie so tense and worried about school, the ironic thing is that she is doing well in all subjects except maths - ironic because of my day job. She's been completing additional homework and mock tests to try and improve matters and spent yesterday morning under exam conidtions completing a sixty page paper that took two and a half hours. I have to be honest and say when it came to my schooling I was useless at the mock O levels - much to everybody's surprise - but came good when it mattered when I sat the real exams.