Today was the day after Donald's ninth birthday, and by way of celebration he had invited four of his friends to join him on a special club cycle ride to Holne. Two parents helped to run the ride, but Michael had to run the support vehicle as he was still recovering from a virus. Dennis, being Dennis, just had to make sure the support vehicle was needed by overtaking Joe and then going over his handlebars - he was OK once he had been patched up.

Some of the new youngsters had cycled before so they had no difficulty with the ride along the lower Hembury Woods track. Even Tom and Lukas, who were relatively inexperienced, did remarkably well and didn't complain at all about the big hill up to Holne! The best part of the ride was the downhill woodland track into River Dart Adventures which offered plenty of opportunity for fun and adventure. A short ride along the old Ashburton road then brought us back to Dart Bridge, from where the birthday brigade returned to Donald's house at Buckfast for a birthday lunch and the rest of us returned to Crofters for an afternoon social - which included selecting and buying a few exceptional fireworks for our social next Friday evening!

The usual fun evening of computer game battles kept everyone happy for hours.

Following the popularity of our last visit to Tesco a few weeks ago, demand was high for a repeat visit. Kane wasn't so enthusiastic at first, but he warmed to the idea when he spotted huge racks of discounted chocolate puddings! The youngsters really enjoyed their trip out, and enjoyed eating the puddings even more!

The morning weather forecast suggested continuous rain by 11am, so Michael arranged a short excursion through Buckfast, confident that rain would be falling within minutes. Well eleven o'clock came and went and there was still no sign of rain, so we extended the route a little by taking the track through the woods near the cricket pitch, getting back to Crofters by about 11.30. The rain didn't come until nearly 1pm, but perhaps it was better to be sure of staying dry than to risk a total soaking!

Tonight's cinema trip was arranged at the specific request of the younger riders. The film was at Vue cinema, Plymouth, and provided an entertaining night out for everyone.

There was considerable indecision tonight about whether to stay in to play the newly-arrived game Battle for Middle Earth 2, or go on yet another excursion to Tesco for the purchase of chocolate puddings. Clearly the decision was just too difficult to make, so we did both and had a grand evening!

Kane was slower than usual today as he was riding a borrowed bike, so we contented ourselves with a modest ride through Pridhamsleigh and Baddaford to the cafe at Landscove garden centre. When scones and hot drinks had been consumed we set off in search of some tracks and found two that took us from Abham to Charlie's cross, both rather muddy and wet but fun nevertheless. Kane didn't like the tracks much, so we returned on the main road just to keep him happy.

Our long-awaited trip to Plympton Mega Bowl finally took place tonight, although it got off to a sticky start when Michael's car developed a fault just outside Buckfastleigh. We swapped to Gavin's car and managed to squeeze two good games of bowling into our special priced Family Hour for just £4.50 including show hire! Gavin won the first game and Michael won the second.