Temp: 23C, humidity 34%, south wind, distance cycled 5 miles.
Sunny uneventful ride to Ramsgate along the cliff top and down past beach games and into the town where I come across Louise having a fag break outside Mad Max, sister shop to the one in Whitstable. She doesn't want to be photographed but tells me about her mother who has an inherited form of emphysema caused by a missing enzyme, alpha1antitrypsin.
I am heading for Karen's house. Karen is the friend of a friend and she hasn't met me before either. After riding around Ramsgate Harbour I arrive at her house. Karen knows what it's like to get diagnosed with a frightening illness and we talk about the fears and the coming to terms. She has cats (there are a lots of cats on this trip), and a small beautiful garden with a fairground figurehead.
After dinner I drop my extremely expensive pulse oximeter into my cup of tea. We attempt to dry it out with a hair dryer; the screen goes berserk, appears to die, but later it seems to have made a miraculous recovery!
