Down hill and against the wind.

When I left the wedding weekend, I was on my way to cheer up Alastair. Everyone has times when they need cheering up, and that's when you're glad that you made friends with a bloody lunatic who is quite prepared to bomb up and down the country if you need her to. It made a change to be approaching his house from the north, though, I didn't see that coming. We had a very relaxing quiet time, although I did go for my run on Monday, which was a 40 minute jog. I managed quite well, even though the wind was blowing so hard I could hardly hear my iphone. It managed something quite unusual, which was to defy the first law of cycling ("it's always up hill and against the wind") by being downhill and against the wind. This is quite a common Scottish phenomenon, however, which I remember fondly from my student days. It's disheartening when you are looking forward to a bit of easy downhill on a bike, but funnily, less annoying when you're running. You just feel like you are getting in some extra exercise, like a canoeist going up the current. This is probably why it's the first law of cycling, not running.

The rest of my time with Al was mainly spent lying underneath Sam. I was reflecting on the number of dogs that have fallen head over tail in love with me. Sam is one such. Aside from him was my own dog, but that probably doesn't count. I did often find it uncanny how quickly he knew which human was his, though, especially given that, as I was a small girl, mum did a lot of stuff for him. But he knew. Then there was Kodi, who was a Siberian Husky I met in New Mexico when I was 17. He loved me so much, he wouldn't get up to say hello to his owner, who said he had never known him to not come and say hello. And then there was Penny. Lovely Penny. She loved everyone, but I did feel she had a special love for me. When I asked Billy why she was called Penny, he said it was because he felt like he'd lost a pound and found a penny... When I left the farm, she got into the footwell of my car, and wouldn't get out.

Hopefully it was as relaxing for Al as it was for me. Unfortunately, it seemed like the recharge time wasn't enough to kick the cough I'd been developing. I brought it right back to Peterborough with me...