My favourite hat

I lost my favourite hat this morning!

Somewhere between home, a quick stop in Altrincham for a can of stove juice and the procurement of breakfast materials.

I realised it was no longer in my back pocket the second I got inside the door of Monty’s sandwich shop, gutted!

I loved that hat. Bought from a charity shop for £2 a few years ago, hand knitted, great fit, super colours with a robust yet subtle bobble… Warm, but not too warm, it has been the perfect cold weather riding hat.

I’ve not been the best version of myself recently, and as today’s ride was a positive pulled from the ashes of a negative start, I very quickly put the (uncharacteristic) loss of such a cherished belonging down to karma.

In a philosophical mood, I waited patiently for my sausage & egg butty and set my mind to other things…

Not a bad morning to be out. Cool, but not cold.

The trail, although sticky, is not fairing too bad after the recent rain and looking very pretty in it’s Autumnal outfit. There was one unfortunate victim of the high wind of a few days ago, or so I thought…

On closer inspection this very young, healthy tree looked to be more the victim of vandalism than wind? I’d of said it was too low on the trail and the roots too strong to have been bullied by the storm, but I’m no expert.

Very sad if vandalism was the case. Much as I tried I couldn’t budge it on my own, so I slipped past and continued along the trail.

My destination? The bench of course! And with a hot butty in my bag I was eager to get there.

Bloody marvellous!

I’ve been made jealous by Steve on numerous occasions based on this very scenario. As is his right, being retired and all, he quite often makes his midweek way to HQ for some R’n’R and makes sure everyone knows about it via the Interweb (he does take great pictures though, so we’ll let him off).

Long story short, I desperately needed some me time today and this was just the ticket!

A few hours of head space and a chance to sit peacefully, food for belly and soul…

Now, about that hat…

I was always going to retrace my steps today and thought there may be a chance I would find it. Without expectation I headed back down the trail, onto the canal and after a few minutes there it was!

The chances of it still being where I’d dropped it were pretty high let’s be honest (it’s not like I dropped my wallet, phone, etc) but I’m putting this down to karma again today…

I could have easily let losing my hat ruin my day (historically money could’ve been placed on this outcome!) but I stayed calm, kept things in perspective and got on with it.

Maybe I was rewarded for once? :-)

Words and pictures - Paul Rance