The, Hopefully, Happy Return.
Over four weeks on from the calf-slashing event which spawned the posts on Cambridge's Cow and Calf as well as its namesake in Chadderton and things are progressing. Still advised against pedalling outside for another week I have been able to give some gentle riding a go in the much more controlled indoor environment. A short ten minute try-out around the early morning streets of Yokohama, in the company of a trio of bicycling bots, didn't set the world alight on the power output front, but neither did it throw up any warning signs that my wound was about to ping open again.
The following day, accompanied by the same three extremely patient bots, it was a slightly longer, slightly faster, gravel ride in Portugal.
I have since progressed to riding for a full hour indoors and am now able to clip my foot in and out of the pedals without the risk of painting the room a nice shade of arterial red. The plan was to make a happy return to outside riding today, but it'll be another hour of riding somewhere indoors. I think I'll go to Norway.
And here's another happy return: the former Happy Return which used to exist on Church Street in Lenton, Nottingham.
On Friday 29th July 1966 the Nottingham Evening Post reported on its official opening by James Shipstone, chairman of the family brewery business. The pub's name was taken from C.S. Forester' novel, The Happy Return, but also marked a return to Church Street by Shipstone's who previously had three pubs on the road, all of which had disappeared during the redevelopment of the area. I would imagine the place was pretty full the following evening, celebrating Geoff Hurst's hat trick and England's victory in the World Cup cup final.
In 1978, Shipstone's was acquired by Greenall Whitley and at some point the pub must've got into the hands of Home Brewery as if you click here there is a photograph of it from 2002 in their colours.
The Happy Return had a relatively short life as a pub but, unlike so many estate pubs built in the 1960s, it is still standing today and it's earning its keep in a not too dissimilar manner as the home of the Nottingham Royal Naval Association Club.
My happy return to pedalling has once more been delayed. If Storm Austen wasn't enough, Storm Boelo is now on its way. My hopefully happy return to outdoor pedalling now looks like being delayed to next week.
SK53's image is copyright and is reused under this licence.
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