The key to freedom?

This week we were let out of the house for the first time in what seemed like ages. I work from home and don't have a wide social circle, so it didn't actually make much difference to me for most of the time. I did miss going down to the beach when I wanted or going for a bike ride at the weekend though.

Yesterday while gardening my wife found this key in the garden, we consonantly dig up a wide range of junk thrown away over the years. I washed it a little and gave it a brush to get rid of the soil, but as you can see it's returning to the state from which originated - iron oxide (or in this case hydrated iron oxide, rust....!).

I had a devil of a job to get my bike's rear break caliper to work yesterday, in the end I stripped it down, removed all the grease, dirt and grit, put fresh clean grease on it, and then rebuilt it. I can't say I was 100% happy with the result, and a quick check suggested that a new higher spec part is only €30 so maybe worth upgrading. This morning I had another look, and after a little fiddling I was much happier with the result.

With our new found freedom we went for a short bike ride - the first in quite a while and I'll admit it was hard going up some of those hills again. It was a lovely day and on the whole the traffic levels were slightly lower than normal, but as someone I know pointed out carmageddon has returned pretty quickly to the roads...