Awoke feeling terrible this morning with every physical and mental drive willing me to stay in bed and sack the world off.
Sadly this wasn't an option so after dragging my sorry carcass from the bed's sweet refuge to negotiate the usual morning hoops before I was out on my way.
Thankfully it was a lovely bright, clear morning so I headed into town. I'd emerged from the flat in front of who appearead to be a larger, older lady on a bike who then followed me for the next mile or so before blowing me into the weeds; and by my own standards I wasn't hanging about
Traffic into town was fine, plenty about but it was flowing reasonably and at a speed that was easy to integrate with. Got to one set of lights to find an unfeasible amount of other cyclists waiting; our resultant collective departure behaving like a fluid under shear with two or three columns spread across the road moving at different speeds; the most leisurely on the inside to the faster amongst us creeping past on the outside.
As usual the sun had brought out the best in people and there were lots of nice interactions and much gratitude exchanged for considerate actions, which was really nice.. this included one oncoming BMW driver who waited for me to pass instead of squeezing past at speed like most of his ilk seem to.
Since I had a little time I took an alternate route I'd recently become aware of; taking me through a small part of the city I'd never ventured through before and bringing me out at a junction I'd oft-wondered the origin of. Another tiny bit of my surroundings discovered and another little variation on the route to help stem the inevitable boredom of familiarity.
As usual I wished I'd brough the camera as the river and surrounding fields looked fantastic; shrouded in low-lying mist backlit by the sun.
A picture-postcard representation of the city this morning that really buoyed my mood
