Freezing rain, freezing feet, freezing hands...and a few other freezing things as well

Baz came along late yesterday afternoon determined come whatever may that his new dropper seat would be tested out. So regardless of the fact that the rain was tipping it down we set off to do the Pentlands Winter Loop. The climbs weren't too bad as we were kept warm just by the effort we put in, but I discovered that while Baz had invested in waterproof clothing that had cost a bit of money (and worked) my bargain basement clobber wasn't to prove so successful. The dropper post was duly tested on several dodgy sections of track by both Baz and myself and found to be very good, so good in fact that I'm seriously considering one now! By the time we'd reached the 18 mile mark my second rate waterproof clothing was leaking badly, I felt as though I had a gallon of frozen water in each shoe and my gloves were full of water as well. The temperature was at freezing but it stilled chucked down with rain, it would have been warmer if it had snowed! To cap it all Baz had a puncture with about 3 miles to go, somehow he managed to run over a tack of all things, but the hole must have been pretty small and we limped home by blowing up the tyre a couple of times. 24.5 frozen miles ridden and the pain from my feet and hands when I showered later was something else!!