Tango

They're not going to be pushing lessons in critical thinking are they. Their days would be numbered if they did!

The tradition here on epiphany is to eat Galette de Rois, which is a pastry cake with frangipane filling. There's normally a small trinket hidden inside the cake and whoever gets the trinket in their slice of cake gets to wear the crown that normally comes with the cake. I'm going on a short walk on Monday afternoon, which ends at the village hall to eat some Galette de Rois. Enjoy the day with your family, @Pedro.

Had a cycle ride with the group this morning, which took me up to lunchtime. Just finished taking the Christmas decorations down, so it's coffee and cake time and feet up for a bit.

Ride with the group today, but we clocked a few more km's. Another chilly start, but warmed up a bit later. A reasonable headwind on the return leg, which gave my legs a good workout!

I don't mind them, in small quantities. Prefer swizzles though!

Hmmmmmm.....!

It was a fair bit cooler when I was out on the cycle this morning, Caroline. I think it was 5C when I left home and about 9C when I got back!

Still an absolute classic IMHO.

Wasn't quite as warm as that, Pete. 15-16C I think was the max this afternoon.

First cycle ride of 2023, although I should be out on one tomorrow too, all being well. Blew some of the cobwebs away!

I think some have already started..........!

Certainly an incentive?

I've been to Milan with work a few times. The first time was for an international engineering meeting for the company I worked for at the time. It started well, with our International business director, who had flown in from the European headquarters in Geneva. He got a taxi from the airport to the hotel, paid the driver and got out and walked to the back of the taxi to get his cases out of the boot (trunk) and stood and watched the taxi drive off with his cases. When he told us all about it the local guys just shook their heads and said " rule number 1, get your cases out of the taxi before you pay the driver!" We had a great meal one evening at a swanky restaurant and after the meal the Italian guys insisted that we try a good number of the extremely expensive grappa that they had there. Then, after all this, a few of the local guys insisted on taking some of us on a sightseeing tour of the city, which included stopping at various junctions and calling some of the extremely attractive "ladies" over to ask the price. Then taking great delight in pointing out the "ladies" Adam's apple and deep voices! I think that this was by way of a warning to us foreigners! A great city, but you've got to have your wits about you there!

Been there. It's certainly very impressive!

Exercise helps, Pete, but it can only do so much, mate!

Recovery could be anything between 2 weeks and 6 weeks, apparently. Hopefully it'll be closer to the 2 weeks! Snow shoeing sounds like fun! We're staying at a spa hotel, so we can recover in the pool if necessary!

We've got a week booked in the Massif Centrale at the end of January to do some snow shoeing and tobogganing, if there's any snow there! Friends coming over for a few days at the end of Feb. Got an appointment with the Urologist in mid-Feb to see about an operation. What I do after that depends a lot on the recovery time. Nephew's 30th birthday at the beginning of April, so we should be going to the UK for that for a few days. My boys are talking about coming here for a holiday May/June time. Mandy has to take the first 2 weeks in August as holiday because they shut the factory down, so we'll see about going somewhere on holiday then. I guess that we'll see what else occurs to fill the gaps!

Proper job, Bob. I could fancy one of those, but Honda France have decided that they're not going to sell the Rally here! Twats!

Things looked pretty grey and grubby, Pete!

Our flying visit to the UK earlier last week actually went without a hitch! Well, apart from having to get out of bed at 03:30 on boxing day! But it was a bit hectic! But..........when did beer go over £5 a pint?! A pint of bitter in Cambridge was £5.35 and a bottle of Sharpe's Atlantic was £5.65 in the Premier Inn at Stansted! Then we had friends from the village over for dinner yesterday evening, which went pretty well, but they didn't leave until a bit after 2am. So, after tidying up and loading the dishwasher, we didn't get to bed until 3am! Consequently nothing much got done today! Looking forward to a rest next week!