Aftermath...

Now that we are sort of pulling ourselves together after the news of the twins I thought it might be nice to give some other news - of a far less life-changing nature. Last Saturday Paul, Andy and myself went on a mountain bike ride in the hills of Dorset (about an hour from Bath). The route was one recommended by MBR magazine (Mountain Bike Rider) and was designated "Easy". Perfect for us. Anyway, Paul was able to program the route into his GPS device and we also had the map provided by MBR - so getting lost was not a worry. The route was 17 miles in total and it took me a little by surprise how quickly we covered that distance, even over less than ideal tracks. Nevertheless, about 3/4 of the way around, I was almost completely exhausted and when presented with anything like a semi-steep hill I got off and pushed the bike. That said, I think we all had a very good time. The weather was great and the exercise did us all good. I found that having no suspension on my bike (actually, my brother's bike) was a disadvantage and after having tried Paul's bike (that has suspension on the front forks) I think that, if I was to take this up more seriously, suspension would be necessary.

One huge thing I have not mentioned was the Champions League final on the 25th of May and Liverpool's fine win. Has there ever been a more unlikely and thrilling come-back in the history of competition - or even all of football? I was in a sports bar in Schaumburg, Illinois for the match. There was no sound, but I got to see every second of the game. It would have been nice to have joined in with the celebrations back in the UK, I understand that the entire country (apart from Chelsea) was celebrating. I even got a celebratory text message from my brother! Now that the celebrations have passed, Liverpool can start looking toward next season. There is already talk of Gerrard signing a new contract soon, and now that UEFA have announced that Liverpool will be able to defend the title things are looking very promising for the Mighty Reds.

Other news: Andy and Fi are off to Spain for the weekend; Fi is doing well their future son appears to be healthy. We're still playing softball; had a game last night and were comprehensively beaten. I was however happy with the way I played. And that's about all for now. Going to see Revenge of the Sith again tonight... I'll maybe post some thoughts about it later in the week.