So it’s been awhile (well eight days) since my last post and some of you might be wondering why……. though I am sure others are thinking thank god for a bit of peace. But just like the Austrian Oak ‘I’m Back.

But why the scribing silence?

Well I would love to say I have been off cycling the route that Hannibal took with his long trunked friends in 218 BC as described by Felix Lowe in his cracking read ‘Climbs and Punishment’ (review pending but FYI a perfect 10). Or alternatively that I have been liasing with Purito Rodriguez to design a more challenging stage than this years ‘Easy Peasy’ Queen stage at La Vuelta.

But alas no it’s more simple than that, I have just been busy. I have spent most of my spare time on Dad duty looking after my future rainbow jersey whilst his mum (Mrs Rouleur to me) has been churning out all sorts of fancy sounding sciency words for her imminently due thesis on proteins or protons or prions or Pinky Ponks (no wait that’s back to Dad duty watching the mind bending ‘In the night garden’).

Added to toddler chasing, cleaning, entertaining and feeding I have been doing two things;

1. Interview prep
2. Watching cycling

Lets start at the bottom and work up, so cycling…..Any fan of the glorious world of pro cycling will have enjoyed the last few weeks with La Vuelta, the conclusion of the women’s world cup and the Tour of Britain to enjoy.

Seeing such a star field come together at La Vuelta (minus a certain Manx Missile who prefers a ride around this little island instead) was certainly a treat. Tom Dumoulin’s time loss limiting rides have been nothing short of incredible (though the less said about stage 20 the better). The aforementioned ‘Easy Peasy’ stage 11 designed by Mr Rodriguez and containing 6 categorised climbs in just 138km with zero flat sections was a lesson in how to torture a large group of individuals, and the dominant Astana (no comment) could have given Team Sky a lesson in race control.

A world cup win for the newly engaged Lizzie Armistead (you can breath a sigh of relief Mrs Rouleur :-)), a win for the Norwegian champion, Edvald Boasson Hagen, riding for the African MTN Qhubeka team (the new team of Messrs Cav and Renshaw apparently), and a tube ride to the airport for Andre Greipel topped off what has been a great few weeks of cycling, and has certainly kept my fingers from the keys.

Now to the top of the list (is something that contains only two elements really a list?) for the other reason that has stopped me tapping away like a wannabe screenwriter in Starbucks.

5 years ago I made a difficult choice to retrain and 3 years ago I landed on my feet in a very big way with a decent paid job that I love. But now with itchy feet I have started to look around for something that would not only offer a promotion and more responsibility but importantly would also shorten my colossal commute (90 mins each way) to allow me more time at home.

Whilst a few of my loyal, possibly biased (the moneys in the post) readers have said I should try a writing job I am not sure that would work (fear not Mr Lowe you are safe for now, especially considering you are way funnier than me!). Instead an Epi-Scientist post was seen, applied and interviewed for. Sadly a weak answer on study design, a misguided use of a word (more in a minute) and more experienced applicants created a perfect storm (of failure for me).

So here we are, cycling over and interview complete I have time on my hands, time to start churning out the words again….. oh wait isn’t it the World Championships in Richmond this weekend?

Anyway I didn’t get the job, but I know there will be others and interestingly I have found writing about this failed application (I only heard today) rather cathartic, though perhaps it was the ‘Pity Takeaway’ and Sailor Jerry that helped……….

Oh and as a side note I now know that the word ‘Determined’ is definitely better than the panic thrown ‘Stubborn’ when describing yourself in an interview. I best get myself a Thesaurus!!