You dont see that everyday.

Rather pleasant day today, did absolutely no work not even the much needed tidying of my desk I had intended. My daughter had not been well in the night and so jumped in with me. I love this, makes me feel like a Dad and reminds me of getting up in the night when she was little. All together....Ahhhhhhhhhhh. So basically, this resulted in a rather splendid lay-in. Bravo Jeeves.

Half a stone was accumulated over the last week or so and the fight back began today. My daughter and I cooked our favourite lunch. Known simply to us as 'Peppers'. A recipe first proliferated on these shores by the proprietor of the famous Walnut Tree restaurant. They consist of Tomatoes, Garlic, Anchovies and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Delicious. Nice bit of real bread and voila, you have the perfect lunch. A bit more sunny Italy that cold English Winter but most nutritious. See picture.

This was followed by a cycle ride with Big Brother Al and Nick. Beautiful clear day in our neck of the woods and Nick was keen to head out in the daylight but wanted to ensure a post sundown return. This is not because he did not want the world to see him wearing silly tights but because he wanted to test his new super bright bike light! I was keen to see it as well!

All was going well and I took some beautiful wintry pictures of the countryside but just as the sun was dipping below the horizon for the one of last times of the year we had a bit of an incident.

Nick somehow got a twig caught in his rear spokes and this banged into his rear derailleur and subsequently came to rest against the frame of the bike thus locking up his rear wheel. Or this is is what I thought had happened. No! Upon closer inspection the chain looked rather twisted as well.......The 'twig' had completely ripped the rear derailleur off the frame! I could not believe it but when I saw Nick was dealing with it fairly calmly I could not help but laugh. I have simply never seen anything like it (See picture). I immediately offered him my bike and said that I would run home whilst pushing his one. He declined and managed that half on half off pushing thing that Postman seem to do so well.

I was curious to see how far we had come since leaving home until point of disaster but like a dickhead I had forgotten to press 'start' on my GPS gadget. Anyway whilst the two grease monkeys tried to manipulate the twisted bits of metal to a position whereby the rear wheel would at least move I took the chance to get some more pics of the stunning sunset. Enjoy.

I estimate only 8 miles were covered in total but we did discover that Nick could definitely cut it as a Postie!