2023-12-10

Woke up at 10am, not sure how. The cavehill hike was to be at 11, but Shruti wanted to be dropped at the gym first. We were running late, but I managed to drop her at the gym, ride back home, change from riding gear to hiking gear, hop on to the cycle, pedal as fast as I could, and get to the start point just 5 minutes late! It didn't look like there was anyone around and I was about to turn around and head home disappointed. I wasn't expecting people to leave after just 5 minutes! Turns out they were just waiting in their cars as it was raining. It was 6 of us, and we started hiking, but about 15 minutes in, people felt like turning back as it was raining too heavily. I was prepared for the rain though, and was really looking forward to doing the whole hike as it'd been a while. Thankfully, Conor was happy to hike all the way to the top too, so it was just the two of us for the rest of the hike. We did it in good time, and headed to the cafe "cHILL" for a coffee after. We were having such an interesting discussion that time flew and I headed back home at after 2:30pm! I was supposed to drop Shruti to her German meet-up at 3pm, and she was ready and waiting for me. Unfortunately the folding cycle developed a puncture on the short way home. I located the puncture, marked it and filled the tyre with air in the hope it props it up until I could patch the tube. Unfortunately the puncture was so large that air was audibly escaping it, and I could even feel the air escape! A problem for another day, I guess. Left on the motorbike, dropped Shruti off (there was terrible traffic!), headed to refill quarter, and sure enough, I had forgotten the flaked almonds there. Went for a short ride that turned into a long ride because I had completely lost my sense of direction and was riding away from Belfast instead of towards it! A couple of road closures didn't help. Once I finally found my way back to Belfast, I picked up my favourite bubble tea, picked up Shruti, and headed home. I had my first bite of the day at 6pm, and surprisingly, I still wasn't hungry! Made chicken thai curry (Shruti made the rice), and then got to work on the cake. Tried making an experimental eggless cake with 1/4th of the batter, while the rest was the usual. Didn't really factor in having to cool the cake down before going to bed, and the cake also took 25 minutes longer than the recipe predicted. Must have been all the brandy in the batter! Either way, the eggy cake looked good... the eggless one, not so much. I'm sure it'll taste fine though!