The Seven Day Itch

Throughout the past week I have been recovering very well from the fairly minor injuries sustained when I had my first fall off the bike.  It took my shoulder most of that week to feel normal again, but a massage on Thursday more or less sorted it out and now it just feels slightly uncomfortable - it turned out the issue was really in my neck muscles, kind of a mild sideways whiplash derived from falling over onto my left side.  During this period the enormous bruise and several grazes on my legs haven't hurt at all.  Not one bit.  OK, so if I prod them and poke them, they hurt, but I've managed to avoid doing that most of the time.  Yesterday, however, all this changed and I spent the entire day with an enormous problem - all the grazes started itching furiously and when you are sitting in a shared office and wearing tights, there really isn't much you can do about it other than grimace and spend the entire day in a slightly hysterical delirium.  On the plus side, I did consider myself to be the most hilarious person in the world - there was no stopping me, the jokes were coming thick and fast and I pity my poor office mate, who had to put up with it all day.

Today, the grazes are still itchy, but it's a beautiful day for cycling and I'm not going to let it spoil my mood (and I won't be wearing tights, which helps).  We're going on a big adventure today.  We're going to try to tick something off the list that we didn't quite manage last year.  It's going to be tough and it's going to require significant navigational skills and emotional determination, but we think we're up for the challenge - we're going to try to find Welwyn Garden City.  If you remember, last year we made an attempt to chart this new territory, but failed miserably when we got stuck in Hertford for far longer than anyone ought to be stuck in Hertford on a bike.  So now we're preparing for our journey, looking at maps and making sure the trains back are actually running and then we'll be on our way.