A very good day. Firstly, my hostess and I took the first car-load of bequeathed rubbish from our cellar to the recycling centre. The staff there were noticeably friendly and helpful. My hostess then spent the afternoon in town while I bought some bits and pieces for Vilior at the Edinburgh Cycle Co-op. Then the sunshine and Union Canal path beckoned.

There’s good tarmac from the start of the canal until a small distance after the bypass. After that, the path is mostly packed earth and stone, with the occasional muddy puddle: rather momentum-sapping. This, and having not taken any drink, may account for the feeling that my hands were holding separate handlebars going in different directions around Broxburn. Perhaps my corpus callosum had been jolted into inactivity.

Vilior had his first puncture not far past Broxburn and his second hardly any distance after. Spending over an hour playing canal-side grease-monkey is my excuse for taking 3¹₄ hours overall to cycle 21 miles, so I’m claiming an average speed of 10·5 mph for this run.

Vilior and I took the train back to Haymarket. A blessed can of Irn Bru enabled me to potter home and find that my hostess and her friend had just started cooking aubergine and potato bhuna. Large amounts of good food and and small amounts of alcohol later, I’m very happy with my lot.