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  • Unexpected News

    August 4, 2017 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    With only a little over two weeks to go till we head off to Frankfurt to begin our 2017 European rides I thought that everything was pretty much settled. I had typed up the latest itinerary, rechecked the flight details, updated my travel folder and even finally started my packing. Nothing usually changes at this late stage of the process. I was wrong.

    While driving back home from Inverloch to Pakenham I had a incoming call from Dana at UTRACKS. "I have some news about your trip", she started.
    Such calls usually don't end well. I tried to control the rising tension and sound pleasantly surprised.
    "Oh yes" I answered casually.
    "It's good news" Dana added
    I relaxed a little.
    "We will be including some extra dinners at no extra charge to your group"
    Now she really had my attention.
    "How many dinners ?"
    "Quite a few, seven in fact"
    This was starting to sound a little too good to be true, but she went on to explain that we would now be getting restaurant meals for virtually every night of our upcoming rides in France.
    My previous trips in France had already taught me that French food is almost invariably delicious and I could feel my taste buds start to tingle.
    "Are you absolutely sure ?" I asked, thinking that maybe she had us mixed up with some other much wealthier cycling group. "Could you confirm that in writing ?"
    The following day she did exactly that and I was presented with the full updated list of evening restaurants. I kept thinking that there must be some catch. Maybe they were all restaurants that had a terrible reputation who were desperate to drum up some more business.
    I immediately summoned up my old travelling companion - Mr Google and asked him for more information about each of the additional restaurants. To my amazement I discovered that they were all highly rated establishments that had incredible reviews. Some were even Michelin rated !
    At that stage I had to make the difficult decision to share this news with the rest of the group or keep it to myself. To my eternal shame I was even tempted to keep it a secret and then pretend that I had decided to treat everyone to the additional dinners out of my own pocket. My conscience got the better of me and I just had to share this windfall with the rest of the team. They were all just as thrilled as I was - especially Carol who spent the rest of the evening drooling over the Internet images of the meals served up by each establishment.
    If we were looking forward to getting underway before, we are now even more eager to get our wheels rolling and our mouths chewing. Only a few sleeps to go....
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