Garry-McGivern East-England Bicycle-Tour Friday 6th-March-2015. Sandwich to Maidstone. 46 miles. Thankfully, I slept a lot better last night and didn’t wake up until five! And despite getting a good night’s sleep, it’s been a pretty abysmal effort on my part today! What with not even being able to cycle 50 miles!
The pretty town of Sandwich
For some reason, today, it took me until near lunchtime to reach Canterbury. It was only about 15 miles! Then when I got there, I managed to just ride straight through it without seeing anything! I did have a puncture, but that didn’t take me that long to sort out. Maybe it was because I was taking the cycle route, which passed through loads of small villages, and I wasn’t really riding. I was more sightseeing, or what I think is probably the real reason. I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go in! So I spent most of my time looking at the map! Even now I’ve finished for the day I’m not too sure which way to go!
More Dithering
I prefer my normal riding style where I have a clear target to cycle to, albeit Australia or wherever! After I’d managed to cycle straight through Canterbury, I followed another cycle path along the River Stour, which was rather pleasant despite having quite a strong headwind. After a while, I left the river. I stopped in a small village Chartham to look at my map (still undecided on my route!) when a motorbike pulled up alongside me and asked me where I was looking for. When I explained that, I wasn’t sure which way I wanted to go. Jo, the girl on the motorbike, invited me into her place for a cup of tea. Her house was just 100 yards away.
Jo was an artist. Her paintings were all over the walls of her house. She explained that she doesn’t sell any but teaches others to paint. Jo also explained that she too had a cycle tour planned from Bangor in Wales back to her home in Chartham. After chatting for a while and getting advice from Jo about which way to go, I decided to leave. I wished her luck on her tour and left still undecided on which way to go!
In the end, I’ve made it here to Maidstone, and I’m hoping that after a good night’s sleep, I’ll be able to decide on where to go! Very much a day of indecision!
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Garry-McGivern East-England Bicycle-Tour Thursday 5th-March-2015. Hastings to Sandwich. 64 miles. Early morning today, I was wide awake a 4 am! But then I seem to wake up early most days these days, possibly because of my medication! I was hoping that by doing this tour, I would be tired out and sleep through a bit more, maybe tomorrow!
Net drying sheds in Hastings
After filling myself up on the buffet-style breakfast, it was time to leave the hotel. I knew it was all uphill to get out of Hastings from the two previous times I’d cycled here. And once again, I made the mistake of following the cycle route. It takes you all around the back streets, which is fine, but it also takes you over a ridiculously steep and long hill! Only to go back down and meet the main road I’d just left! A lot of today has been on cycle routes. I wanted to see if they were better than the route that I would usually take, the main road! And my verdict is that some of them are better, but nine times out of ten, they’re worse! I’m sure that whoever works out these routes is undoubtedly not a cyclist, and quite possibly they’re sadistic! Despite going on all these out of the way roads, I’ve had quite an enjoyable day.
Slow Going
I was coming out of Hastings first thing this morning after I’d been over my big hill detour and had rejoined the main road. The road was still going up, so I was peddling slowly. And I found myself cycling alongside some school children who were keen to talk and ask questions about what I was doing and why. I cycled alongside them for a good ten minutes having a good conversation before we were at the top of the hill, where their school was. And where I could pick up speed and go a bit faster. So I bid them farewell and went on my way.
Sandwich, where I’m staying tonight, looks like a charming place. It’s a shame I can’t explore it a bit more. I did go out for a short walk to a local shop (to get essential supplies!?!?) which was no more than 500 yards, but it was such a struggle to walk! I was glad to get back to the hotel.
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Garry-McGivern East-England Bicycle-Tour Wednesday 4th-March-2015. Felpham to Hastings 67 miles. Well, I’ve finally managed to getaway! Not too sure how far I’ll get, though! I’ve not managed to get as far as I’d hoped today, not the best of starts! And I’ve done my normal thing of intending to camp but ended up staying in a hotel! But in my defence, there are not that many campsites open at this time of year!
Beacon mill at Rottingdean
I’ve found it more and more frustrating being at home, not being able to do very much. I put two plants in the garden yesterday, which I found hard going. Yet today, I’ve cycled 67 miles and feel fine! It seems to me that anything I do that involves standing up just hurts! I must admit, though, I have cheated a bit on this cycle ride. I made sure that I headed in the same direction as the wind blew!
So not only have I been blown along today, but I’ve also been taking loads of drugs! (for my back) As I said earlier, I’m not too sure how far I’m going or where. I’m just going to follow the coast and see where I end up! I’ve got until Sunday night before I’ve got to be home, so hopefully, I’ll cover a good few miles! Although going on today’s effort, maybe not!
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The first two weeks of the month I wasn’t really allowed to do too much apart from get plenty of bed rest. So I decided seeing as I’ve got to spend a lot of time lying down I’ll put all my old diaries up on the website the ones that use to get sent out by email before I had the website, it wasn’t a very hard thing to do as I already had them as emails and it was just a case of copying and pasting which is easy to do whilst lying down just a bit boring! But it did bring back some wonderful memories. I suppose I really should have tried to get on with writing my book but it’s very hard typing whilst lying down and I find it difficult enough writing at the best of times as you can probably tell from the diaries!! The website has also been upgraded or rather it’s been switched to a different host provider. I’d been having problems with the website since before Christmas not being able to do certain things and it kept crashing which apparently was all down to the host so hopefully now it’s been switched it should be a lot quicker to load and more user friendly, I’ve also added a Favicon the little icon that appears next to my website name.
I went to see my consultant three weeks after my operation who after examining me could see that there was no movement in my left foot and my left leg was still numb and very weak so once again I’ve got to go for another MRI scan but not until the end of March, I’ve got to allow my last operation to settle down first, he did however say that he wanted me to do as much as possible, i.e. exercising whether that’s walking or riding a bike just do as much as you can! I did question him as I remembered last time not being allowed on my bike for at least six weeks after the operation, but no he said as much as you can! Maybe he felt sorry for me this time and could see how much I was struggling to do anything!
My first ride out I really wasn’t very comfortable at all and found it really quite painful and only managed to cycle 2 miles, I didn’t intend going that far as it hurting me, it was more that I couldn’t stop! I was just so uneasy and apprehensive that I would fall off, which foot should I put down first? If I put my left foot down I can’t feel it and I can’t take any weight on it! If I put my right foot down I can take the weight but feel so unbalanced! In the end I had to jump off and put both feet down or stop next to some railings or post to hold onto.
At one point I really started to get down, my sciatica seemed to be the worst it’s ever been and I was really struggling to do anything, it was bad enough not being able to walk more than 20 yards without being in pain but when I found that I couldn’t cycle that was it! Cycling is the one thing that I have always been able to do in all the years that I’ve had this back trouble but now even that was a problem! I persevered for a few days getting more depressed that I was now unable to cycle or not very far, then one morning as I was cycling along my foot came off the pedal (as it keeps doing due to me being unable to feel it) when I got it back on the pedal it was now out of the toe clip and on top of it and I found it so much easier to pedal I could actually put some pressure onto the pedal instead of relying just on my right leg doing all the work! I’ve now changed my riding style and instead of putting my foot in the toe clip on the left pedal I’ve taken it off and I now use the back of my foot rather than the ball it’s still a little uncomfortable but nowhere near as uncomfortable or painful as before and I’m feeling a lot happier now as I’m at least able to cycle, maybe not as quickly or as far as before but at least I’m mobile again now! (Now that I’ve adapted my bike can I get a blue badge!?) And now at the end of the month things seem to have settled down a bit, possibly because I’m taking so many tablets (14 a day) but at least I am able to do some things without too much pain but only for a short periods!
Physio started this month which I was a lot happier with this time, Simon the physio said that I was doing really well and to continue with the exercises I’d been given by the hospital but thought that I could probably benefit from doing some hydro therapy. The hydrotherapy went really well and I felt as if it was really doing some good although I did nearly miss the appointment for some reason I thought it was at 10 o’clock but it was at 9 o’clock, I was still faffing around at home at quarter to 9 so I had to make a quick dash on the bike to get there and made it just in time! Before they started they took my blood pressure which after my mad dash to get there was pretty high so I had to just sit there for a minute or two until it came down which luckily it did and I was able to continue with the session.
Now that I’m back on my bike and I’ve been cycling around locally a lot I’ve noticed just how many pubs have closed in the past few years, which I always think is sad to see. To me a pub plays a big part in any community it’s a focal point a place to meet up with friends and neighbours a place to keep in contact with each other it keeps communities together. Now I know that pubs aren’t as popular as they use to be, possibly down to the smoking ban or maybe there are just so many other things that people can do at home these days i.e. so many different TV channels, the Internet or playing computer consoles, but a lot of it is also down to greedy landlords who charge to much, to them it’s purely a way of taking as much money off people without giving anything back! I.e. a free pint at Christmas!!
