A rebel without a clue.

Heading up above 1000 metres and need to gain sustenance... They always put these towns perched on top of the hill looking south, back to Madrid. An old folks kitchen, but they let me eat a couple of tapes of eggs and potatoes! Centro de Mayores... Which was wonder fuel! *** Here I am. Started joyful, because eggs and chips are skill, but then bored on the saddle before a switchback - looking forward to the turn in the monotony - and into Manzanares el Real. Into the Hostel Pedriza, sopa(not a patch on yesterday's white bean and pork wonder), but I am enjoying the Godello vino until I heave towards the dormitory: all of Madrid's day trippers are hanging on to the edges of the Massif rising dominating above the town. Tomorrow I turn my attention west before I have to go over this thing? Final vino. Looked at the castle here which is definitely a folly or remade and just a made-up thing on top of an original thing. It's a pile of organised stones which looks like a castle: b...

Day two dawns and I am awake around 7, but slept soundly and unbroken throughout the evening, after people around me in Hostal Tres Cantos*** had stopped running water... the sound of which carried along the corridor and between the wall and my space. Yesterday I had a great shower after two nights in Madrid when I didn't bother. This morning is fresh clothing too. It was trying to rain last night as I walked along the boulevard to see what the 'features' were of this planned satellite of Madrid (a Spanish Milton Keynes) but nothing really was reaching the pavement - it was a rain illusion and a warning against complacency. The main feature was the width of the central square/rectangular tree lined avenue and it's distance away from the train station and town hall where the Camino de Madrid carried on without coming into the town. Yesterday I thought to keep going as 25 kilometres isn't so long, but the sleep deprivation was getting to me so much better a quiet nigh...

The 1st of December arrives and I've checked in for the shortish flight to Madrid this afternoon (1715) from Manchester so will begin the journey there around noon from Leeds Station. Not getting to T3 the suggested 3 hours prior to departure Ryanair are suggesting - 2 hours has to be sufficient? As usual I will take the longer route: Northern Rail via Hebden Bridge to Manchester Victoria then on the Tram from the interchange in Victoria to the airport (around £12). Leaving the flat for a short trip to collect a free hot chocolate from Caffé Nero on Albion Street and onto the 10:12 to Manchester Victoria to begin the long day hauling to Chueca, Madrid for the first of two nights in that other area I stumbled upon over Christmas in 2019, before the phantom of COVID became a reality in February 2020. An afternoon in Manchester before the 13:55 from Oxford Road to get to the airport. It's a good city. I walked around it before eating in a Wagamamas on St Peter's Square and fou...

The sun is shining high in the sky, leaving me shortly to go to the other side of the block of flats. It was a big orange disk of a sunrise be behind the tower block which faces me in Mabgate: and I don't know which block it is, but it sits solo alongside York Road. Yesterday, after the guy from Mears fitted the Cooker, I went to the Light for my GP appointment to see yet another GP who knows nothing about my 'real' history and expected me to begin the 'pointless' process of accessing mental health counseling again. He was worried I spend so much time on my own... But I like this! I am not someone comfortable around crowds or clusters of people. I am good one-2-one isn't that good enough? Taking myself to Tharavadu for their brilliant lunch express veggie option I was in a very negative mood. The GP had upped my Venlafaxine dosage and indicated the website which has come along to replace IAPT(shite)... Leeds Mental Well-being Service? Mum made lasagna last night...

Tinnitus was bad yesterday too. It's still very present this morning, it is always present, but was more manageable prior to Friday's fall from grace. So I must be good? Left overs for breakfast as I always do enough fried rice for the morning too. I usually just add some eggs for protein as last night it was a veggie rice only. Mum's stirring and I am having a cup of tea, to help digestion, prior to walking up Deighton Road up towards Ainsty to do some digging on the allotment? *** I've hit a bad patch in my alcohol addiction. Friday and Sunday I overdid it. After three weeks of calm I am undoing all the goodness - it drives me nuts as I can't connect property without proper sleep. And all day today will be a right off: no fun. I am sleep deprived and that leads to feeling anxious - it's the opposite of what I was feeling before Friday. I know I can't be like this if I want to get out of the pits of despair: it's a cold and foggy morning which is very l...

What happens when a missile goes missing, into a neighbours region, and no one is claiming responsibility, but it's probably from The Ukraine in error - human or computer error. If Biden says it's not Russian it must be true because the US knows everything which happens militarily in the World and is very confident. To say it is not Russian means it is either one of Russia's allies (Belarus) or The Ukraine itself getting it's 'settings' wrong. All the rhetoric in the G20 makes Russia very isolated and backed into a corner: they respond with a wave of childish rockets thrown in tantrums from the cradle so recently rocked? Are these adults or children who run the nation's of the world? It was The Ukraine! *** Walking down to the corner of Albion Street and Boar Lane in the drench testing the Flecktarn rainproof with the failing seals, free chocolate and espresso and £2 left in the wallet from yesterday. A no cost morning. Went for, hopefully, my final meal out...

Mother has a cold, it's still foggy out and I woke up around 6am after a solid night's kip. Was hoping for a twinkling of sun to go out with lovely Lola, but perhaps not in the dullness... She's often in semi hibernation mode on days like today: lazy Lola days. Second day of leaden skies. That's the thing with the darkness and the cloud cover: it's an unwelcome blanket drapped beyond respite. 2nd set of 14 Venlafaxine this morning: half way into the first prescription will need to get another before I head to Madrid on the 1st. They're definitely working, but I feel a little less happy than during the first week, which was pretty blissful. *** Awake at 5 at the flat and the rainy day had already begun. A do nothing outside day... Except go to Wetherby and walk Lola - both of us with our raincoats on. Doing my weekly wash at the flat prior to 7 when the cost of electricity goes up on the dual rate "economy 7" system and now waiting for the X99 sheltered...