Let me down gently

It's very cold here in the UK at the moment. Snow has been forecast and I think some has fallen on the higher ground, none where I live as yet. Our house takes a while to warm up and the heating is not really set for this cold temperature, so it tends to shut off before the house is comfortable in every room. We have had to use portable oil radiators to keep some rooms warm without resorting to having the full heating system on. It means we stay warm and have to stay together. At least until the times when the heating system starts up again.

After doing the house cleaning hores this morning, we decided to go on a family bike ride. I pumped the tyres up, as I usually have to, because it's been a few weeks since we took the bikes out for a ride. They were okay, to be fair, just not as hard as I like them so I added some more air pressure into each tyre to make them more solid.  We decided to ride along by the canal on the towpath, we like to look at the canal barges and imagine ourselves living on a boat. My children think it would be exciting, I'm less keen! About halfway through the ride, just as we decided to turn back my wife heard a pop, pulled over and as I pulled up alongside I could hear the fateful hissing. First time she has had a puncture since we bought the bikes a couple of years ago, so not bad average really but it does happen. Unfortunately, we had no repair kit to fix the problem so she pushed it home with us walking and riding at her speed.
My face and hands were really cold (even through thick gloves) and my nose was a bit drippy. We got home and the smell of the food cooking in the slow cooker was delightful. We'll be eating that stew very shortly and I for one and looking forward to it. Just what we need in this cold weather to warm us up.

Postscript: The stew was lovely, really yummy!!