Daisy Chain Fail

Looks like the daisies are taking over from the buttercups this week.

Snapped my cycle chain heading up here this afternoon. Contemplated walking the eight miles or so home, shoving the bike, but it meant a bit of a harum-scarum traverse on a pedestrian unfriendly road. So I free-wheeled down to the village in the picture there and chained the bike up against a fence to head off for a bus, not altogether optimistic that it would still be there by the time I made it back with the bike rack. Stopped off for a microwaved mini steak pie and plonked myself down at the bus stop and waited an endless 45 minutes before anything turned up (if that was the 1:22 to Callander, then it was 25 minutes late). Then changed to another bus in Stirling for the second leg. Took an hour and a half to wend the eight miles home. Even I can better that average. In a headwind. Up a hill. Stuck in low gear. With a monkey on my back.

Anyhow, made it home, drove straight back, picked up the bike - still in one piece, and even had my helmet hanging off the handlebar that I forgot to link in to the lock - and popped along to the bike repair shop to see if they could sort it out. Not 'til next Wednesday they can't. Only if it pisses with rain from now until then will I be able to do without, so now trying to make up my mind if it's a repair job or it's time to upgrade.

Decisions, decisions...