Slip on your gloves and cross this countryside
A one day flying-cycle across three counties from Bournemouth to Midford
Happy Friday!
It's been another week of madly squeezing in everything. Instead of slogging across the M4 corridor from London to Bristol, I took a one day flying-cycle across three counties from Bournemouth to Midford.
If I needed any reminder of why Britain is the most beautiful country to traverse, then I got it. I haven't always thought this way about our shores, always wanting to be elsewhere and ideally elsewhen. But what better place is there than right here?
The cycling started at dawn, which in our lazy winters scarcely breaches the horizon at 8am. I had 8 hours of daylight to madrush Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset. The sea sloshed unsteadily, Bournemouth beach, Poole harbour.
Then into the hills and pretty villages with unlikely names: Lytchett Matravers, Blandford Forum, Fontmell Magna. I blessed the defunct Devon and Somerset Railway, closed the year England last won the World Cup, now converted into a delightfully fast and flat piste for rushing cyclists.
I cursed the annual Santa Stride that diverted hundreds of charity costumed Santas into my path, as we passed the burial tumulae of ancient druid folk. On and on they drove, until dusk.
Frome: darkness and a dinner. I had forgotten how much magic there is in a night ride. The senses standing up on pins: especially the scents of mud and bare branches that come out when the curtain falls.
Riding was easy with moonlight on the loamy disused railway path and I wanted it to never end. But end rides must. This one on the bridge over the reservoir: ahead of me the two eerie tunnels that bore through the hills I wouldn't have to climb.
My bivvy bag unfolds, I slide inside, warm. A stag screams, owls holler.
I polished off the ride to Bristol the following day, taking in a floating pit-stop for plenty of tea and porridge with fellow 2011 round Britain cyclist Anna Hughes. (I'm sure we've both done incredible things since then - especially Ironwoman Anna - but round Britain was a defining moment.)
It took little over 24 hours, but the sleepless David that left the warmth of a flat in Bournemouth was a different being to the worn out one that arrived in Bristol.
When the winter gets to you, when the weather wrings your life force from your feathers, and when you think the darkness might just do you in, slip on your gloves, wind your scarf around your neck and cross this countryside of ours.
Dave's Books of the Year
This section's so sophisticated it gets its own Times Literary Supplement font. Hopefully that'll distract you from the embarrassing fact that most of these are non-fiction. But hey - these seven books inspired me this year, each in their own way.
PSYCHEDELICS: A Really Good Day by Ayelet Waldman. A first person primer on microdosing LSD, by the most respectable acid-head imaginable. So good I wrote a wee review on my blog.
FICTION: The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. I can't shrug off the lust this book gives for the idiocy of abdicating responsibility for decision-making: the dice told me to do it. It certainly opened my mind to the tantalising potential that lies behind every moment.
NEUROSCIENCE: The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge. Another optimistic book, but for altogether different reasons. Turns out that our brains remain supple despite heavy trauma and old age: neuroplasticity is a great thing. No excuse for not learning Arabic in my dotage!
ADVENTURE: The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane. Beautifully written, I concede jealously. When a man writes so lyrically about crawling into a hedgerow, I can but bow. And then rush off to Scotland and discover my own wild places.
REFUGEES: The New Odyssey by Patrick Kingsley. I have the special privilege of hanging out with refugees every week. It's easy to forget that, behind the broad smiles and superlative table tennis skills, each has their own epic yarn of journeys that would have made Odysseus baulk.
STOICISM: Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson AND The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. Two books that did more to develop my thought patterns this year than any others. Stoicism meshes very nicely with my interests in both counselling and psychedelics. I've written about Stoicism a lot in the last couple of months.
COLD: What Doesn't Kill Us by Scott Carney. The book that introduced insane ice prophet Wim Hof to a popular audience. I also wrote about Wim and his cold exposure method earlier this year. (DISCLOSURE: I no longer do the breathing, but I did have a cold shower this morning. Yum.)
What have you been reading this year?
INPUT
Five alive.
MONEY: Universal Basic Income Explained – Free Money for Everybody? (10 minutes)
COMEDY: Joseph Morpurgo's Walking Tour: The Louvre Do yourself a favour and get the laughs in. Egyptology-fans, look out for the hieroglyphics rap. If you missed Joseph's tour of the East End, don't make the same mistake again. (15 minutes)
ADVENTURE: Alastair Humphrey flees digital distractions to go and write his book in a bothy. (2 minutes)
REFUGEES: Conversation between The Bike Project's first two Bike Buddies: actor David Morrissey and Nisreen from Homs in Syria. (4 minutes)
STREETS: Road signs suck. What if we got rid of them? (7 minutes)
OUTPUT
Fortune favours the Dave.
Learning Arabic from a Syrian wanted by ISIS (December)
Tomsleibhe, Isle of Mull (November)
Meditations on Meditations: Praise & Service, Core Beliefs, Adversity, Love, Change, Retreat, Indignation, Contentment (October, November)
"No one ever died while breathing". Psychedelic Breathwork with Alchemy of Breath (October)
The Most Living: Synopsis (October)
COMING UP...
Foiled Episode 3: Everything's Glitter is back on the airwaves, guest starring Felicity Montagu of Alan Partridge fame. Plus, if you know what's good for you, you'll catch up on Everything's Kings and Everything's Baguettes. And share with friends? Legend.
Options for Dealing with Squatting, my episode of The Narrativist is set to be released on the 16th of December. The recording was today and the motley troupe of incredible improv actors really brought the anarchic vision of my script to life - adding plenty of their own comic genius. Credit to biscuit-wielding director-producer Charlie Kerson for making the magic happen. I can't wait to hear it!
It's getting super late, so that's it from me - here's MARGE:
... the good man's only singularity lies in his approving welcome to every experience the looms of fate may weave for him... (Meditations 3:16)
Be singular!
- dc
SALESY BLAH
I (try to) make a living by writing. If you could use my writing services, or know anyone who could, please get in touch. Stone the crows! I'd be thrilled if you fancy...
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