This morning saw a planned return to the homestead, however having awoken late, knackered and needing supplies after a week of pitifully low mileage I decided a utility ride was a better idea.. at least to start.
With the intention to go back later in the day I pared the ride right back in the interests of time and energy conservation; to include only a few choice charity shops. In the first I discovered the so-far-least-worst sofa - a nice looking mid-century styled job in a coarse-ish burnt orange fabric. Would absolutely have taken it were it not too large, so I reluctantly passed.
As I left I was struck by how dark it was - evidently as a combination of the heavy, overcast sky and fact I'd gone out a fair bit later than usual and it was legitimately on the cusp of dusk. Ten more days until we're on the up again - which is both relieving and slightly terrifying as it only seemed to be summer a couple of weeks ago.
Having found nothing of note in any of the other shops I made an impromptu stop at a small Waitrose for butter as it was en-route and meant less of a detour to go to the big one, losing all the faff of dragging myself through the Doom-level-esq pedestrianed underpass at the perpetual bridge works on the Botley road.
As I agonised over the pros and cons of buying larger packets to save 2.22% on the cost per unit mass a woman enquired as to my dilemma; my subsequent explanation probably leaving her regretting that she asked..
Having been absent from the rings for probably a couple of weeks I'd chucked them in the panniers on the off-chance and found the resolve to give them an airing as the light faded to nothing; since I had no kickboxing today.. My reward was a somewhat stunted session that was probably as good as I could have hoped for and doubtless better than doing bugger all.
Back through town and I remembered I was out of Guinness; thoughts turned to the local shop however I was reluctant and an unpleasant exchange outside earlier in the week thanks to my scant ability to hide my disgust in the face of other peoples selfishness.. while it was approaching rush hour so the chance of dickheads was high.
I detoured to another local co-op which was inexplicibly off-limits with the doors closed, roller shutter half down and security guard loitering inside. As I sat outside on the bike to consider my options numerous other potential punters sidled up to the the doorway, also trying to figure out what was going on. This gave rise to a bit of conversation; and perhaps in a very British way our collective disappointment seemed to create some collective feeling of solidarity and mutual sympathy; everyone I spoke to being really sound.
I gave up and headed back towards home; electing to give the local a fair crack of the whip. Happens there was no rage-bait w*nker parking outside and I scored some super-reduced bargains so it all came good in the end
Back home after a modest but non-trivial 16-odd miles and generally feeling all the better for it; even if I never made it back to the homestead and will have even more stuff to cram into tomorrow..