My gammy knee

As planned, we took our bikes to church today and left them parked outside for both the normal service and the afternoon one, with the Moderator. It makes a statement and the Moderator's wife (who we'd met before) recognise the Pan.

I wasn't able to ride my bike home. I have a bit of a gammy knee. It's behaved itself quite well for the last few years, but is aggravated with damp weather. This year has been rather moist.

During the service, I was doing one of the readings and was "aware" of my knee; no worse than normal when it becomes "present". As I was helping to clear up the church after the Moderator's service, I turned and felt a pain like my knee being stabbed. Not pleasant, but not always lasting. This time it was. A couple of times after that I was standing, but my knee stated not supporting me. I sat down.

Although it's my right knee, I didn't want to risk riding my bike home. I'd hate for the stabbing pain to recur during one the country road stretches. The initial logistics were my OH would ride my bike home, drive the car to the church and I'd drive home (driving's okay; no weight). A friend took pity on me and gave me a lift home and my OH a lift back to the church. My OH still rode my bike home. I hope it gets better, I'm loathed to go to the doctors. Doctor's are for ill people. An occasionally sore knee isn't an illness. Somehow, I think I'm going to get "advice" from people on what I should do...maybe I'll take it.

Normally, this only lasts a couple of days, so I'll worry about it when it really starts to get in the way of me doing things.

The mad dash.

On Sunday, despite the recent miserable weather, the forecast was wrong - it was a beautiful day. Ordinarily, when it's dry, we like to take the bike(s) to church. We get a run and, even taking both bikes, it still uses less petrol than our car (a 1.4 litre polo).

Being a trainee biker, I can't get from our house to church as quickly as my OH. Also, I was on the readings, so should have got there sharp to check the bible was bookmarked at the correct points. We live 15 minutes drive away (not including unlocking, getting kit on and locking bikes when we get there time). Given the time we had to get to church (we'd slightly slept in), I decided we should go two-up on the Pan - we left at just after 10:40; the service starts at 11am.

We arrived in time and I did have time to check everything was bookmarked. The other advantage with travelling two-up is I will wear just jeans (with the waterproofs in the pannier, just in case). Much better when it's really warm. Before you wonder, yes I would wear my bike trousers in church. I have on numerous occasions. At least once, when doing readings. There are some who don't approve (they don't approve of my OH and I wearing jeans to church, either), but they are in the minority. If I was bothered what I wore to church, I wouldn't be going for the right reasons. (Small rant over).

I'm hoping for dry weather on Sunday. The Moderator of the Church of Scotland is visiting Kirkcaldy presbytery. He's the yearly "head" of the Church of Scotland. My church building is being used for a special service in the afternoon and as my OH is on projector duties in the morning, he's offered to run the projector in at the Moderator's service. It will be interesting to see the members of other congregations faces when they see the bikes. They'll either love them or loath them. As for the Moderator - I've met him and he's pretty cool. I'm sure he'll not mind. If he doesn't, tough.

I've only gone and done it!

I needed a new helmet. The old one wasn't too bad, but was uncomfortable when worn for long periods of time. Well, when I say uncomfortable, that's possibly a little strong, but I did notice I was getting a sore neck. Although my old helmet was not heavy, a few grams makes a difference, especially with the additional weight of the mic and headphones for the Autocom.

Naturally, I visited my favourite bike shop - Forth Gear in South Queensferry. After trying a couple of models, I found the Shoei Raid II fitted best and was most comfortable. Sold. I had a choice of colours and designs, but plumped for plain black - so much easier to accessorise!!!

A few days later, my OH and I went for a ride two-up on his bike. Only then did I realise what I'd done - we now appear to have his and her helmets!!! My excuse is his is a different model. Not that you'd know unless really close...perhaps I should have got the slightly satanish design - that definitely would have made a statement arriving at church!

P.S Hi Jo.