Inverness in The Rain...

...which is supposed to be a rip off of a Deacon Blue song but it's not.  Even though Inverness was very rainy. And cold.  June! It's Midsummer as I write this, and it has rained since 2pm today.  And it's so windy that the Giddy Blonde TV isn't working, and the dog is in hiding in the bathroom, trying to wrap herself round the U-bend as much as possible.  I wouldn't mind so much but she seems to want me there with her.  And we're at Giddys flat and he's a very stinky boy - as was testament last weekend in Inverness - lets just say the things ensuring his toilet doesn't walk away isn't the rusty bolts through the floor!  Any way, last time it rained this much there was the Black Death, which is one of the four horsemen of the Apocolypse, the others were War, Famine and Archie.

Anyhoo.  We were in Inverness in for the mighty Shinty, for the MacTavish Cup Final.  And what a final it was.  There was blood, sweat (cos lets face it Lochaber did do an awful lot of running around)  and a wee boy behind one of the goals busting a joyous move every time Newtonmore scored - which was quite a lot.  It was a bit of a shame really.  All of Lochaber and their dog were there in magnificent support, but it was all to naught as Newtonmore - who seemed to have recruited the towns joiner and woodworking profession, so you and your shelves were scuppered that weekend - gubbed Lochaber 5-1.

And it was cold, 7 degrees at the most, in June.  I could see my breath in the air. It wasn't too bad in our little tent.  We camped out as a test for going to Benicassim soon, and I've decided there is no way I am sharing a two man tent with a 6'5" trumpet arse in 30 degree heat.  No way suree.

We then decamped to Scary Blondes flat (GB brother) for Chinese food where they watched football and I fell asleep.  I'm not one to drop off of an evening, it could have been the cold, the Chinese food, or the 4 pints of red kite we had watching the Shinty.  More than likely it was the lack of oxygen from spending a night in that tent with GB's phfaarrffy bot-bot.

We did do some cycling, quite small but glorious all the same.  Inverness has a brilliant pathway which goes straight through the City from one side out to the other, running along side the river.  It was perfectly safe and a little sheltered from the worst of the weather.  We cycled from Bught Caravan Park to the city centre in what must have been 10 minutes, across little suspension bridges with leafy pathway on either side framed by glorious sandstone houses.  In the city centre there were loads of places to park your bike and we had lunch in a place called Leakey's which is definitely the place to go on a rainy cold day.

Other than that my exercise these past couple of weeks has been minimal - I did do a spin class this week and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I didn't go to Deeside Divas this week as they were doing threshold work and I'm a bit funny about doing intervals on the road - I feel much safer going a bit grey around the temples in doors - but I'll see what they're up to next week.  Also this weekends pretty quiet so I might go out for a longish ride too.  Perhaps do 30 miles or something reasonable.

Mx