More thoughts from Bedford

What an interesting and relaxing day. Saturday brought beautiful weather and lovely surprises. I slept well, woke refreshed, and after a good breakfast with David Powell set about some chores. All cycling kit has now been laundered (and is folded and ready to pack), and the bike has had a thorough clean and check over. Most of the nasty red grit from the paths of Sherwood Pines Forest Park has gone, and it looks good again. More importantly, if you inspect the chain and gears carefully they are back to normal - clean, smooth-running and lubricated. Cross fingers.

After a simple lunch we set out in search of one or two things in the town centre, and to explore some old haunts. I had said to David that it would be nice to have a walk on the embankment alongside the river, so we headed down there. It seemed rather busy, but it was a nice day, so that didn't seem too surprising. However, we soon worked it out - Bedford Regatta was happening! We were able to park and get a couple of prime positions to stand on the Ouse footbridge right overlooking the finish line, and had a tremendously enjoyable couple of hours watching the racing and eating ice cream.

It was wonderfully nostalgic for me because I had coached the second boys VIII when I taught at Bedford School from September 1981 to early 1985. It is a stretch of river I have raced on and ridden alongside and love well. I am pleased to say that both Bedford School and Bedford Modern School crews were performing extremely well yesterday in the races we watched. Memories both happy and difficult started to flow. I wondered whether we would run into people I knew (but perhaps whose names I had forgotten) but we didn't. One person of note we saw was Martin Bayfield, former England rugby player, who I taught back in the early 80s, but I didn't rush up and greet him - he was too busy cheering on a Bedford High School crew, perhaps with one of his own children, I wondered?

From the embankment, we headed back into town and made our way to Bedford School to see if it would be possible to look around the grounds. In the early '80s there was open access, but now all the gates have automatic closure devices and numeric keypads to gain admission. The only access was via a manned security gate on Burnaby Road, but the security officer was happy for us to go in and have a look once he knew why. We wandered, and David was a good listener to my reminiscences.

Much is almost the same, but there were surprises too. The main building, which had been gutted by fire in the late 70s and had just been restored when I began teaching there, has mellowed and matured back to how it always looked instead of being slightly too squeaky clean. The first surprise were a huge new library, tucked away behind the old one. In a way the surprise was that it would still be called a library rather than a resources centre or something similar. Hurrah for books. The second was the striking new music school, complete with a glorious small concert hall or rehearsal room with a beautiful view out to the playing fields. Cricket was being played, of course, on all the pitches - Bedford Regatta wouldn't bring that to a halt, and all looked right with the world. My memories of that time are mixed, but there was a lot to cherish.

Our final bit of following memory lane was to drive down St Andrew's Road and have a look at the house where Kate and I had a ground-floor flat when we first married in July 1981. We only lived there a little over a year, but it is a place of many intense memories. The house looks remarkably like it always did, though the front door was now stripped to a plain wooden finish rather than having the many coats of paint I recall. I couldn't be sure whether it is still divided into flats, but it looked very much like it could be.

It has been a refreshing time, and now it is Sunday 16th. David is making final preparations for the services he is taking today and I am about to shower, don my cycling kit, and pack. We will go our separate ways at 8.15 and I will head off to Lewsey, in Luton, for the 11am service. St Hugh's Lewsey was where I began my curacy, and again a place with a great variety of memories. From there I will head to Abbot's Langley to stay the night with Martin Cooke and his family - Martin was one of my earliest and best friends when I went up to Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1977. There will be more to talk about and more memories to explore there, for sure. The only worry today - it could rain en route!