It was great to see some of our more long-standing members reunited for this special Christmas social. We spent the afternoon chatting and looking at a number of previous tour videos that brought back memories for those who took part, and Tao promised to help Michael complete the Norway 2003 video as soon as possible.

Michael forgot to bring out the cheese and biscuits he had bought specially for the occasion, so Tao polished half of them off next day when he came up to sort out the video!

With everybody either away or ill today the ride was cancelled.

With several members still away on holiday Dillan got to choose exactly what he wanted to do this evening, and that turned out to be some computer games and a visit to Sainsburys at Marsh Mills for some snack shopping.

Disappointingly only Michael turned out for today's ride, so he did a brisk ride to Cross Furzes and around to Holne where the café staff were very pleased to see their first customer of the day.

Tonight's social was cancelled owing to the fact that none of our members had been cycling during the past three weeks.

Calling in at John's house on the way out yielded the additional attendance of George and Will, who had been planning to stay in bed! It was a great day for a ride however, so they were grateful to us for the encouragement as we enjoyed the delightful lanes through Scoriton. We couldn't help but stop to admire some pigs at Littlecombe that were waiting by their gate for attention.

The café at Holne provided the usual high quality refreshments, including a number of items that contained bacon (if only the pigs had known our group's culinary desires). Plans for a return via River Dart Country Park were vetoed by the younger members when weather conditions deteriorated, so we returned via the Hembury Woods tracks as usual.

This unexpected mid-week treat went down well with our members, who thoroughly enjoyed the latest Liam Neeson movie. New member Tom would very much like to join our club rides but unfortunately is never free at weekends.

After computer games at Crofters John very generously offered everyone a very tasty free meal in his Buckfastleigh restaurant on a very icy evening. We concluded the evening with Supreme Commander and a music quiz at Crofters.

Lawrence missed the bus from Newton Abbot this morning which rather messed up our plans for a ride to Totnes. The solution to the problem was that he took the next bus to Ashburton while the rest of us rode up Green Lane and took the Baddaford lanes to Chuley Cross and Ashburton. Politics featured high in the conversation today, with the youngsters learning the differences between the various political parties.

We all met at the Ashmoor Centre, then returned to Ashburton for the purchase of hot pasties. Meanwhile Will met us there but wanted to do badminton for an hour. So John went back to Ashmoor with him while the rest of us took an interesting route home via Ashburton play-park and then the track to the ruins of Buckfastleigh's church on the hill.

After much discussion we visited Tesco Lee Mill so the youngsters could buy some snacks and then returned for a grand game of Lord of the Rings on the PCs, using the new HD widescreen interface. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the game, but it was 10.45 when we finally defeated the computer-controlled enemies.