Cycling to Dawlish

Taking advantage of the much improved weather, I went for an early evening ride down to Dawlish — a round trip of about 30 miles. I really enjoyed myself, although I found the journey back tougher than I'd expected after a nasty headwind picked up. But I still managed to get back without too much suffering — not that I'd have minded, I have a masochistic enthusiasm for hill climbing, which is probably just as well living in Devon.

I'm actually pretty pleased with how well my cycling is going at the moment. Everytime I go out and work a bit harder, I get a better feel for the limits of my stamina and how hard I can push myself before I run out of steam. I'm also starting to get a much better feel my bike — which, despite its understated paint job, attracts quite a few appreciative comments! — and how it handles. Rather pathetically, though, I've been forgoing my cycling shoes in favour of trainers so that I can get a feel for the way the pedals orient themselves without having to worry about align the cleats at the same time. Then, once I'm happy with everything else, I'm going to switch back to using my proper shoes.

I feel like I'm gradually starting to get my cycling groove back...

Proms: Going all MGM

Musicals aren't really my thing, but despite that, I really enjoyed tonight's prom, which featured a celebration the golden age of MGM.

There was a lot to like. The five soloists were excellent and complemented each other superbly, with a range of tones and styles running from Broadway to classical. But the orchestral players were really spectacular. Seeing them play through the pieces live made it possible to see just how complex many of the arrangements are — the barn dance from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers looked particularly fiendish — and how much work they had to do to make the whole thing sound effortless.

And serious kudos to conductor and re-arranger John Wilson who re-orchestrated the music by ear from all the old movies after the studio trashed their copies of the score to build a car-park...