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Date & Time: Saturday 9th February 2013 at 19.30 hours.

Venue: The Mill at Elstead;
Address: Farnham Road  Elstead, Surrey GU8 6LE.   Tel 01252 703333.
http://www.millelstead.co.uk/find-us

Cost: £20 per head for all 3 courses, £15 for two courses (starter & main or main & dessert)

Menu:

Starter:
(a) Confit Duck pate, onion jam & toast
(b) Leek & potato soup, country bloomer
(c) The Mill prawn & crayfish cocktail
(d) Black pudding hash, soft poached egg & hollandaise

Main Course:
(a) Pan seared breast of chicken, thyme potato cake, creamy mushroom reduction
(b) Roast topside of beef, goose fat roasties & chasseur sauce
(c) Loin of pork, grain mustard mash & creamy cider sauce
(d) Roast fillet of salmon, pumpkin & sage potatoes
(e) Root vegetable & goats cheese pie, tomato sauce (v)

Dessert:
(a) Chocolate profiteroles, hot chocolate sauce
(b) Braeburn apple crumble & custard
(c) Vanilla cheesecake, red berries
(d) Sticky toffee pudding & vanilla pod ice cream

Guest Speaker: yet to be confirmed. It’s possible that we may not have one on this occasion.

Action required if you want to attend:

Please confirm your intention to attend as soon as possible by …

1. …sending a deposit of £5 (or full payment if preferred) per person by cheque. Deadline 1st February.

2. …providing the menu choices of everyone in your party along with your cheque.

Send these to John Murdoch at 4 Park Avenue, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2NQ.
John may be contacted by phone on 01276-681131 or by email at ridessecretary@ctcwestsurrey.org.uk with any queries.

Contact him also if you would find it easier to make your payment by bank transfer over the internet; he will provide you with the account details.

Look forward to seeing you there!

 Ah…. Sound of Music land, fabulous mountain scenery and a route planned by an expert (Chris Juden). Chris says this of the tour (which has completely filled after just a few days on the CTC H&T website and is thus no longer visible except to us tour leaders):

Short days and rest days will provide many opportunities for sightseeing or relaxing. In addition to spectacular alpine scenery, the sights include picturesque towns and villages, churches, castles and caverns.

Chris has asked if I would like to lead a repeat tour. Well, yes, I would, perhaps as a bona fide CTC tour, or perhaps as a friendly little West Surrey expedition. Several West Surrey folk managed to get on Chris’ tour, several others weren’t quite quick enough and didn’t.

The plan so far is to see if there are enough of us to make up a group (of perhaps ten?). The tour is about 13 days of riding and rest days. It’s up to you how you get to Salzburg – train, plane or car – I plan at this stage to drive and could take three people, taking two days to make it comfortable. Suggested departure date is 4 July 2013, so the return date would be 18 / 19 / 20 July depending on your travel arrangements.

For a copy of Chris’ Prospectus and Information Sheet, plus an estimation of tour costs, please email me.

There was a great turnout at this excellent event – first time for me! The brave among us cycled to the King William IV pub in West Horsley, whilst others (me included) decided it was really a bit too icy. Shame because the sun was shining. Hilary gave a brief speech, principally to thank Peter Fennemore for all his hard work in making these rides happen. Hurrah! Thanks, Peter!

Can’t believe it but I think I’m acquiring the desire to go riding with my local group(s) – it’s only taken twelve years, but having done four rides in the last two weeks, the bug is beginning to get a strong grip. Mind you, it helps to have decent weather – which it has been on two and a half of the rides. The next thing to do is remember to bring my camera; iPhone cameras are useless for action pics. The two below are OK though (because they’re static).

There were only four out on last Wednesday’s ride. OK, it was pretty grim.

The Sunday Intermediates at Grayshott. It only rained a bit – honest! But so lovely and mild!

One of my favourite cycling blogs is Cass Gilbert’s While Out Riding, principally because Cass’ photography is so good < http://whileoutriding.com/author/otbiking/ >  His latest email post had a couple of links which caught my eye – both have been around for a while and I probably discovered them years ago but, with the passage of time, they slipped away. Here they are again, because you’ll probably like them:

Bicycle Traveler magazine – don’t be put off by the American spelling (it’s an American magazine) but it’s an online magazine and it’s free, and it’s all about touring and photography and equipment and… well it’s just a little bit of heaven really. Here’s the link to it
< http://bicycletraveler.bicyclingaroundtheworld.nl/ > and here’s a crafty photo of the contents page to demonstrate what kind of stuff is in it. Very worthwhile reading – there’s even an old interview with our very own Ian Hibell in it.

Note that when you sign up to Bicycle Traveler, you can download a free book about taking better photos. All quite basic stuff, but worth looking at all the same.

You might also like another link < http://www.worldwidecyclingatlas.com/ >