too much stuff

Another weekend, another adventure.
I was preparing to go to Bristol and Bath with the AnaNichoola gloves to show to some of the cool bike shops there. I was combining the trip with a DH race, and aware that on Monday evening I'd have to be packed for a 3 day trip to Milton Keynes where I have a job promoting rollers by riding them. I've never ridden rollers. With a bit of forward thinking I got my boyf to fix up my track bike on Friday night (it's been in pieces since the mini drome) so I could have a quick practice/learn. But a load of things went wrong, and the bike wouldn't work and the series of events led to me sitting on the floor crying because I have too much stuff for 5 days worth of thinking and most of it doesn't work, or I can't do it, and it was a bit overwhelming. And I had a cold. And I'm just a bit of a cry baby. We decided that the track bike was now "good enough" but still a bit fucked, I guess I must have crashed it harder than I thought...
Apparently at 6 am the alarm went off. I disagree. So at 8am there was a rushed panic to the car. It actually turned out to be a fantastic day, meeting the people running independent bike shops and having great success with the gloves. Fingers crossed for 5 new stockists! TBA. As I had my meetings Ed wandered around the towns patiently, we had packed lunch ready in the car (cheese and pickle rolls) and finally ended up the day in the Mud Dock bike cafe. As it got dark next to the river we had a beer and a wine, it's a really, really great place and I recommend anyone to go there.

We met our hosts for the night, my team mate Wiesia's best friends. I'd never met them, but they let us stay in exchange for a dinner of carbonara and Jamaca cake and custard for desert. It was nice to meet some new, lovely people and chill out somewhere different.

The next day was down hill day. I had google searched "down hill near bristol" and was delighted with the result. The Black Canon Collective is one of the best things I have discovered recently, it's like a club for people who want to ride in Frome. The guy that runs it was really welcoming and ensured that we found it ok and the kids that populate it are friendly, chipping in to help mark out their local course and making sure that no litter was left around. You get given a timing watch and time yourself on the run, using honesty to write down your time. I dragged my boyf into racing, he doesn't own a mountain bike (well, he does now, he just bought on on ebay) and I was quite upset that he was hot on my heels. I feel really lucky to date a bloke who is proud when I beat him in a male dominated event, and instead of just leaving me to it, he gets stuck in and gets involved. There aren't many guys like that. And he's really good looking, so it's a double bonus. We both beat a few people, there were no girls there which was a shame. On my final run I crashed on some roots and crushed my fingers under my body armour. I stood up and felt the familiar heat-wave of pain flow through me, I thought they were broken. But then I remembered being laughed at by Louise when I thought that before. They are just bruised, but bruised black and gooooood.

So now it's monday night, I have black fingers and instead of recording my life I really should go and learn how to ride rollers in time for tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!