Originally my outline plan for today had involved going to work in the morning and then going down to an event at the Radcliffe Science Library mid-afternoon followed a bit of reading in the stacks, catching up with a few emails and then back home. However, towards the end of last week, I was alerted to a meeting that I needed to attend back at base mid-afternoon, so I had to shift things round.

In the end, I managed to get away at about 1:30pm, attend my event and get back for my 3pm meeting. Each journey took about 20 minutes of the half hour I had allowed. What I was most pleased about was climbing up Morrell Avenue, one of the steepest hills in the city. It isn’t like being in, say, Switzerland, where “hill” seems to mean what I would call “mountain” but I remember when I first started cycling in Oxford, I’d be dropping down to the “granny gear” (small at the front, large at the back and very little forward momentum in return for a very efficient transfer of power).

Today I think the lowest I got down to was four from the bottom at the back and the small drive wheel at the front. It wasn’t quite that I didn’t notice the hill but it seemed much less significant than it used to be. Hurrah for the benefits of regular exercise and hurrah for the possibilities this opens up – I could probably enjoy a pleasant half hour in the Botanic Gardens and still be back to base within my lunch hour if we get another run of fine weather!