Maybe the City isn't trying to kill me.

Every so often, whilst outside, I'll be overwhelmed by feelings of claustrophobia. The idea that the city is pushing in on me, trying to compress and squish and - well.I used to escape by going for a drive out of town, but since I sold my car last year and bought a better bike instead, that's not really an option anymore. And the train service is limited in terms of going to places I want to go to at the time when I want to go.

Sunday, I woke to a message from a friend asking if I wanted her to drop around the first three episodes of GoT2 as she was going for a ride.
I'm going for a ride near your place. I messaged back. How about I grab it from you?
Sure.
Fuck. Meant I'd have to get out of my warm bed and go for a ride. Well, I'd put on  a new cassette the night before and only ridden to the pub. Could do with a more extensive test. And, admittedly, would like to know if I'd actually done it properly. Somehow, it had seemed to go on too quickly, and ease scares me.

So, I rode out, collected my evening's entertainment, and headed across to the Darebin Creek trail. Yep, slightly boring, but rather pretty, and there's paddocks to ride through at the end , and sheep. SHEEP! Good for the soul. (Uncoated though, and only a handful. Hmm)

Back down to the last road crossing, and across to the Merri Creek Trail. Although the concreted paths are not the most exciting, that's ok - it was a great day for riding - drizzling constantly, which meant that hardly anyone else was out. And, just north of Coburg Lake Reserve, was this:

yeah, yeah, shitty phone in the rain shot.

Just glowing back at me.

A couple of hours, so cold by the end that my legs wouldn't work properly (funny how getting wet will increase the chill factor dramatically), and a brief escape. The city's ok.