Molly is a Monkey!

I spent Easter weekend with my Sister's family and my folks who are back from Hong Kong for a good few weeks.

Here's a picture of Molly, a purple monkey that I bought for Aimee quite a while back. It's quite satisfying to know that she still likes Molly and by the looks of her, has been cuddled so much that she's almost worn out.

For Saturday lunch I went out with my parents, Aimee and Elise for Yum Cha in Southampton. I think the last time I went for Chinese lunch was with Allen out in Sydney. It was really satisfying to have Dim Sum lunch again.

On the way back from Southampton we stopped off at a Chinese supermarket for some supplies. Aimee and Elise were both given a fortune cookie. On the way home they asked whether they could open the cookies in the back of my car. Not really thinking I said yes. Unfortunately this meant lots of crumbs in the back of my car. Never mind, live and learn.

Here are the two little blighters on their Christmas scooters when out for a walk.

On Saturday night I went out with Helen and Aran for a few beers. It was good to get out with my Sister for some drinks. It was one of Aran's friends 40th birthday party. We all got quite merry and had a good time. However we all suffered a bit on Sunday morning.

I went out for a mountain bike ride on Tuesday over the Mendips. The planned route was a 24 km ride over the Mendips, starting at Cheddar.

I packed my bike into my car and was quite surprised at how much space the bike took in the back. I guess my choice of estate wasn't totally driven totally by practicality. I just couldn't bring myself to buy a more sensible Volvo or A4 estate car. I see so many of them on the roads and really didn't want to join everyone else.

I got to Cheddar just after ten and the Cliff street car park was very empty when I arrived. Following a route in a book that I have and also an OS map was quite easy.

However it does mean that I do have to stop every few minutes to check that I'm heading in the right direction.

My route started with a very steep 2.5 km climb, so steep and muddy that I had to walk about half of it. I was quite disappointed with myself at having to walk so much of the climb. I think I'll have to work out harder this summer to get much fitter.

Once I got to the top of the climb there were some spectacular views of Cheddar and the Cheddar reservoir.

At the very top of the hills there is a marker at Beacon Batch. I was quite pleased to be able to make it to the top and there were some great views of the surrounding countryside.

There are some great single track routes leading to and from Beacon Batch which I really enjoyed. Some of the routes had some very red dirt along them, which really reminded me of the dirt in Australia.

On my way down I took a slight detour though Rowberrow Warren. Just past the warren there was a strange set of settlements, and this bird was carved out of a tree on the settlements.

It felt a little unsettling to be there on my own and images of me coming across some hostile locals encouraged me to move along rather than hang around and take more photos.

Unfortunately all these photos were taken with my phone camera as I couldn't take my proper camera along. It was a simple choice between my lunchtime sandwiches or the camera.

On the way back down to Cheddar there is a great 1.6km downhill ride though very rocky single track. I decided to not go too slowly on this track to have the most 'fun'. I did almost come off my bike a couple of times. Once when I rapidly came up to a gate along the path and almost went over my handlebars trying to stop quickly.

At times the downhill route was quite steep but I figured that my momentum and a bit of luck/skill would carry me over the rocks.

At the bottom of the long downhill, just before entering Cheddar there were a few cows! I thought I had taken a wrong turn, but it turned out that I was in the right place and the cows were just there to congratulate me for not falling off my bike and arriving in one piece.

Once I got back to my car the car park was full of tourists and I was attracting a bit of attention. More so probably because I was covered in mud and had a massive smile on my face too.

It was an excellent ride and I really enjoyed it. The only down side was that I managed to lose my bike trip computer somewhere on the downhill section. I was also very lucky with the weather as it was raining the week before and the week after this day. Roll on the summer and even more adventurous bike rides. I can't wait!