Ah, look at me then, brimming with possibility. Ha!
What followed that blogpost was some mediocre food, some apple scrumping, before that rare Friday night indulgence of eating chocolate biscuits in bed watching Grand Designs. For someone who doesn't have a tv, that's a pretty epic night in, I'm telling you!
But, my friends, you know it's a bad sleep when you're mentally drafting your scathing TripAdvisor review at 2.30am... Cranky.
Cracking cup of tea & a superb toasted egg, cheese & tomato sandwich.
Day 2 was put on the right course by these blokes.
That's the kind of start I thought I needed to ride 91kms. Questionable.
About half way through the day, we rode through Banbury. I'd seen it on the map & it made me want to jiggle my knee and talk about horses. Over the course of the morning, careering down country lanes, I tried to dredge the scraps of a nursery rhyme up from the depths somewhere. I couldn't quite get it.
When we got to Banbury, I was half wild with hunger. Ravenous. About 8kms before Banbury, my hunger-ravaged brain had rearranged the letters on a roadside sign from INDOOR PARTIES to NOODLE PATTIES. 'Mmmm, noodle patties', I thought, 'I've never eaten one, or ever heard of them before, but they sound amazing...' No. Idiot.
Somewhere along the way I had become obsessed with the the idea of fish curry & rice. Obsessed. I simply couldn't imagine going another km without it. We found a could of curry joints, all closed, and I was about to loose my rag completely when I spotted a Thai place up the road. I ran. Ran. I could barely walk, but I ran.
'Closed'. Cruel, cruel world. I let out a wail befitting the death of a loved one and was literally on the brink of throwing myself on the footpath when Jai wheels up & says, 'Dude, it opens in 4 minutes. Were fine.'
I love that woman.
While we waited an eternal 4 minutes, I harangued a passerby and asked, 'Hey, do you know a little song about a horse in Banbury?' This had the delightful effect of causing an unknown middle-aged man sing me a lullaby in the street. An excellent distraction from hunger if ever there was one - I highly recommend it. But what a forgettable ditty! That same afternoon I had already forgotten the words and couldn't sing it for you now if my life depended on it.
I'm regularly astonished at how migrants wind up places. For instance, how did this beautiful Thai woman, our waitress, find herself in Banbury? Got on the wrong train in Chiang Mai? Easily done. But seriously. How? And she wasn't a loner - there was a whole Thai supermarket up the road. How did this community arise? I look forward to a link to a scholarly article 'A social analysis of the Thais of Banbury - their journeys and history', regaling me with the long history of the Banbury Thais who came over with the Vikings and have been sowing fields of lemongrass ever since...
I do see the ridiculousness of me asking this question as I move to Belfast, but I am one woman. And with the best will in the world I don't rate my chances of coaxing a whole community of Austalians to join me.
I digress. Day 2 was a lot harder than day 1. While there were some delightful bits early on, rabbits in hedgerows, etc., I did spend a lot of the day feeling like I was being chased up A-roads by people with driving convictions and ants in their pants. It was tough. If I'm honest, it was really only the thought of seeing the Spen-dog's little smiling face in Stratford on Avon and knowing that she would ply me with booze that got me up some of those hills. Thanks, Spen-dog, you're ace. Everyone should have one.
Big Al's: Probably the biggest caterer in the world'. Whoever thought up that tagline is probably a legend. Probably.
ReplyDeleteI can't vouch for their marketing, but I would say that their greasy breakfasts are probably the best in Aylesbury. Probably.
ReplyDelete