How to Lose a Belly When You're 42 (part 11)

Half-term holidays.
On Monday, I was at Kwik Fit when I got a text from Nigel asking me if I could go round. When I got there, I had a bowl of fantastic orange chocolate cake with cream thrust into my hands. Shortly after, a Fender bass guitar was nudged in my general direction.
"Remember? You agreed to be in the band."
Erm...? My memory is getting worse.
Anyhoo, Nigel, Penny and I rehearsed some well-known tunes (including some by CCR, Bon Jovi and Hendrix) and it was a good feeling playing a guitar through an amp for the first time in about 15 years!

Two guitars in the mancave!

Nigel very kindly let me take the bass home with me so I could learn the tunes.

The rest of the week was nice, but didn't have anything to do with health and fitness either, and certainly didn't have anything to do with losing my belly!
Halloween meant that there were always treats such as biscuits and cake in the house. Lucy and I kept my beer shelf well stocked.
I didn't attend dojo on Tuesday because I was cooking liver and onions for myself and Eric. 
I cycled into work 3 times this week (no teaching, just paperwork.)
I went to the dojo on Friday night for a fighting lesson with Sensei Mark. Martha and I loved it!

On Saturday morning, I met up with Nigel, Chris and Pete at Jonnie's house. The five of us set off into the damp lanes; three riders with jackets, myself and Chris in only two layers. 
It rained all day; only a very fine misty drizzle, but non-stop.
I led the charge down to Lowsonford and there were mutterings that I was going too fast - I was accused of having Weetabix for breakfast. All I was trying to do was keep the average speed above 15mph (it was 15.3mph as we passed the Fleur de Lys pub.) Then I kept pushing towards Claverdon, onto Norton Lindsey, through Snitterfield and eventually to Wilmcote. We were all very damp when we got there. Jonnie would sometimes take over at the front and his efforts on Featherbed lane meant that I could freewheel behind him as he punched a hole in the air with his massive rain jacket!
After we had refreshed ourselves with homemade coffee and walnut cake without any walnuts (the chef had ran out of them) we agreed that we were all getting cold sitting in our damp clothes and we needed to get moving again.
We headed out into the wet lanes and pointed our handlebars north.
On the approach to Aston Cantlow we were joined briefly by an ancient man on a racing bike with terribly skinny legs in baggy Lycra. He was turning a big gear and finding it quite easy to keep up with us. He seemed to be a bit of a loony and was complaining about a Dynamic Rides route he had been on that morning. He told me that he'd left them to it after a while because he didn't like the route or choice of pit stop. I noticed that he took a Tony Martin approach to riding and was therefore covered in snot and dribble. I tended not to look at him as we were chatting.
After a short while, He grew tired of my responses and got on the front of our 6 man peleton. A mile or so went by. Realising that everyone else was happy to sit behind him, I took over for a bit. However, this was obviously not acceptable to our new lunatic friend and he insisted on riding beside me to talk more nonsense. After a while, he shot off the front and stayed about 100m in front of us as we approached Ullenhall.
As we got to Ullenhall, myself and Pete were closing in on him but Pete reeled me in because, quite rightly, he thought it would be a good idea to wait for the others.
We continued on our usual route through Tanworth and finally back to Jonnie's.
Like last week, Jonnie and I opted for specially brewed bottled energy drinks while the other, more sensible, chaps chose pop.
There was no wind today and I was disappointed not to have achieved a 15mph average.
We eventually came home after 39 miles with an average of 14.7mph. Maybe it's the steady diet of cake and beer?
Once I became too cold to sit around Jonnie's drinking beer, I went home.

Sunday included rehearsal with Nigel and the band followed by a good basics and kata lesson from Sensei Gary, 'assisted' by Sensei Jim.
And then more beer. 
And cake.