I feel I’ve been neglecting you, blog friends. I’m sorry, I have no good excuses, but as usually happens when I am in the wrong, I will try and make some.

I’ve been riding: Exactly 1072.4 km’s worth, if you must know. I had a bit of a stomach flu or something for a few days this month, but other than that I’ve been on the bike 6 days a week, just like old times. Last January I had 952 km, which means 2013 is only 10% better so far – I’m pretty sure that the Haute Route is more than 10% harder than two Etapes du Tour, so I will try and stick to the program and up the percentages in February.

I’ve been working: Apart from an ever-growing Alps tour that John and I have been madly working on in the background (20 riders so far!), the new business has been experiencing all sorts of growing pains, from bank choice to payment methods to the right advertising channels. No answers to any of these issues (and more) yet, but I’m sure they’ll present themselves before it’s too late!

I’ve also got my first self-guided tour of 2013 happening right now, which has taken up a little time in meeting and greeting my Australian clients, arranging baggage transfers and making sure my one vegetarian is well provided for.

I’ve been buying stuff: OK, this isn’t a good excuse for not blogging – in fact it’s probably the opposite, given what I’ve been shopping for. I finally settled on a saddle, after giving one a test run for a couple of weeks. Yes, it’s Italian again, and comes with its own air vent!

This is the Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow, which is a version of a pretty ‘classic’ pro saddle, it appears. It comes with carbon rails that I’m sure I’ll be crushing any day now, but till then I can be happy with a pretty astonishing 115 grams of saddle. And, believe it or not, it’s just as comfortable as my old padded-up Fizik.

So what do you say, am I forgiven? My wife says I’m good at making excuses, so if you aren’t satisfied I can come up with some better ones.