Of meetings and my April birthday

Yesterday I spent two hours driving to Dumfries for a one hour meeting. And worthwhile or not, the thought of immediately turning round after the meeting and driving for another two hours to get home didn't seem like a great use of my time. So instead of coming straight home I headed for the lovely Mari's house, which is about 25 minutes outside of Dumfries.

Mari is one of my OU connections. Someone who I'd never actually met in person until yesterday, but we've had quite a bit of forum and email contact and I felt like I knew her anyway and that's exactly how it felt when I was with her.

I was only going to spend an hour at her place, but time just zipped along and I found myself three hours later wishing I didn't have to make that two hour journey home and that I could've stayed longer, but I needed to get back.

Mari has several things going for her, three of which you can see in this photo:

Chico, Tess and Rolf

She also has some gorgeous chickens (which are rescued battery hens), two horses, better known as 'the girls' but who were down at the stables and because we chatted for so long there wasn't time in the end to get down there. As well as all that Mari has an incredible talent as a poet and I was lucky enough to get to read some of her work.

However, the piece de resistance was her e-bike. No that's not a computer bike, but one that when you start to pedal a little electric motor kicks in and takes all the effort out of bike riding.

I'm not supposed to ride a bike because it puts too much pressure on my dodgy knee, but when I tried this one, well it opened up a world of possibilities, it really did. I was completely hooked in seconds and I want one! And as today just happens to be my April birthday, I'm now looking into the possibility of buying myself a little (?!) present to celebrate.

Mountain Man bought me a DVD of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron for this birthday. It's a bit of a family joke, but there's a lovely line from that film that we use a lot (or rather I do), which is 'Run, run like the wind'. But of course if I got myself an e-bike... well need I say more?