making much-needed space in the fridge

Having not (I think... I shall have to inspect the non-blipped photographic archives) been out on a bicycle around the parent-local area since 28/09/2008 (and even then only on my dad's weird suspended hybrid thing) it was nice to be able to reassemble my own bicycle (which I think has only come here once, possibly during the 2006 winter festive period, immediately after which the relatively new chain had to be replaced when Lincolnshire's strangely corrosive road-water caused irreperable rusting seemingly just during the journey back up north) after the journey down (tucked in the boot rather than requiring the extra faff (and reduced fuel efficiency and increased potential-accident-terror) of the rack), leave my locks in the shed and pop out around the route generally known as 'round the lanes' augmenting it slightly by going via Stixwould (but resisting the urge to go append Horsington, Minting, Thimbleby, Hemingby, Goulceby and many more), bringing it up to 12.9 miles from the more usual just-under-ten. It was always a handy circuit for a quick before-tea anticlockwise mostly tree-protected trundle when heading out further west across the fens to Martin or Timberland might have incurred wind-based maternal-wrath-begetting delays. Apart from a few little patches here and there where the uppermost surface has been worn away the road surface was excellent, though only because I was going anticlockwise and avoiding the other side of Kirkby Lane which gets a little chewed-up by the traffic from the gravel farm beyond Kirkby. Whilst Lincolnshire's motor car drivers are generally swervey speedy arseholes they're mostly only driving relatively light motor cars, so the roads exhibit far less of the severe chewing exacted upon them from public omnibuses, though as bus escape services are steadily increasing (from the one-per-day of my childhood) the main roads might start to require resurfacing more frequently than once every thirty years. Even with the wind in my face for north-of-the-village sections it never felt slow. More importantly, it reminded me quite how bicycle-speed is the correct speed to travel at around most of the relevant bits of the county in order for it to seem properly familiar. Some bits take a bit too long when walking round them and a car makes everything pass much too quickly but at cycling-speed everything's the right distance apart, the curves of roads' corners are as I remember them and it's still possible to notice things. I didn't set my phone's GPS running in order to record the elevation (mid-Lincolnshire remains mostly flat but there's a wee slope up Kirkby Lane to the junction with Wellsyke Lane) and estimate the energy required but hopefully managed to slightly mitigate the large bowl of chocolate-covered ice-cream I had after my tea, as I have had after my tea many many times before in this house.