No Pain, No Gain.

As some of you may know, I am making a concerted effort to stay fit. Age is no excuse for letting things slide and so, just recently, along with my daily running, I have decided to try cycling again. Something I haven't done for a couple of years.
Well, I live in a particularly hilly area of the country, on the slopes of the  Pennines, to be exact, which does tend to make cycling difficult; well, going uphill anyway ! So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to fling my bike into the back of my car and drive over to the East Riding, find a nice flat stretch of open road , park up and cycle around for a while.
This proved to be far more difficult than I thought and I soon wished I had never had this  'wonderful' idea. Although there are many,  many stretches of flat road all over that part of Yorkshire, most of them are very busy and the area  I chose seemed to suddenly attract hoards of  lorries, hurtling up and down the carriageway, splashing me with water from muddy puddles and passing far too close , even though the road was very wide. In fact, a few times I had to call out and gesticulate wildly , but they still whizzed past, dangerously near and each time I wobbled precariously until, all of a sudden, I found myself hurtling through the air and landing in a soggy ditch with my bike flying over my head and landing beside me with a crash !
There I lay, soaking wet and slightly dazed, rubbing my shins and wondering if I had the strength to remount my bike, let alone cycle all the way back to my vehicle, when a large car pulled up and a smartly dressed gentleman got out and peered down at me. He smiled and enquired  if  I was all right, then , calling out to another gentleman who was dressed in a rather natty pale blue uniform and peaked cap for assistance, he proceeded to haul me out of the boggy beck. I was totally exhausted and have never felt punier and more vulnerable and  afraid , so I tried to sound bossier than I felt and refused help. However, they ignored  my silly protestations and soon I was reclining in the warmth and comfort of  soft leather seats and  a cosy  cashmere travel blanket. Well the owner of the car was handsome and most charming and I was so grateful to be rescued from my plight and limousines  have such a lot of wonderful facilities with which to avail  oneself !!
Needless to say, my clothes were far too wet and muddy to be allowed to sully such expensive upholstery and the gentleman's chauffeur was very discreet and kept his eyes on the road as I disrobed and wrapped myself in the blanket. As for the owner of the car, well he was a perfect gentleman,  but it was a long drive home !
Much later, he said that I certainly didn't need to be cycling  on such dangerous roads and something should be done to ensure my future safety while exercising.
So, I write this from the comfort of a gym , on his yacht, which is moored just off  Bermuda and he smiles at me as he dilutes my glass of  Bombay  Sapphire with a splash of tonic and watches me as I take a sip and cycle , very slowly , on an exercise bike.



Yes, dear reader, you have been led up the garden path again. This is my entry for this weeks word game as invented by the incredibly talented Matt Mascarenhas.  This week the story had to include the following words :

WISHED, LORRIES, BOSSIER, REMOUNT, DILUTES, AVAIL, PUNIER, AMPLE, OPEN, ROAD.

Matt's blogpage can be found at http://miblodelcarpio.blog.co.uk/  where you will find the words and rules and all manner of interesting articles . Why don't you give it a go, it's great fun .