And I start with this wonderful pearl from Susie Dent.
If your feeling a little short on words these days “laconic” looks to the Laconians of Ancient Greece, known for their pithy speech. When Philip of Macedon thunderously promised that if he entered Laconia he would raze it to the ground, they sent a one word reply “if”!
Apparently Houston Airport were getting a lot of complaints about how long it took for passengers baggage to arrive. So they moved the the baggage claim further away and the passengers had walk further to get there......the amount of complaints fell dramatically!
I am a cyclist, I have mentioned this before. I have always had a love of bicycles and riding them. I still vividly remember learning to ride a bike when I was no more than four. I had a little red bike and my father patiently held on to the back of the saddle and kept launching me until at last I found my balance and wobbled unaided down the garden. My father used to cycle to work everyday on a sit up and beg heavy steel cycle with a large saddlebag hanging off the leather Brooks saddle. When we moved into our own house having lived with my mothers parents until I was eleven, he bought a beautiful Holdsworth road bike. Not long after we got our first car a two tone Ford Anglia, which seemed quite big then but now if you see one they are really small. We lived in a cul-de-sac with a large green in the middle. it was perfect for, Cricket, football and many other games. It was best though as a race track for riding round. it had it all, a hairpin, a downhill section, uphill and two long straights. My mates and I used to see who could do the fastest lap. One day one mate was doing a particularly fast one when he failed to appear after the last corner, we rushed up to se where he was to find him still sitting on his bike embedded in a hedge. He’d taken the corner so fast that he could not avoid it! Naturally we laughed a lot, fortunately apart from a few scratches he was not hurt.
My father tried to teach my mother to drive going round the green, she got three quarters of the way and drove up onto the grass. She never got behind the wheel of a car again!
I eventually inherited the Holdsworth and it was my first real road bike. I am sure I ruined it and I cannot remember what happened to it but how I wish I still had it now, what a classic it would be!
I have had the odd gap between cycling but I have never really stopped. When we got married and first moved to Northampton I found a group of riders who delighted in riding fixed wheel bikes, taking snuff and riding to pubs to drink real ale! They did take part in regular time trials as well. They introduced me to a man well in his seventies with legs like two thick ropes who was the first vegan I ever encountered, though I really had no idea what that meant! He was far quicker than me but then most cyclists are!
I cannot recall a time when I have not owned a bike, mountain, road or other. I currently have two road bikes one mountain bike and a hybrid! This late twentieth century upsurge in riding and the subsequent greater interest in cycling in general has been fantastic, as has the renewed interest in the sport, Lance Armstrong not withstanding!
I would be lying if I did not admit to a touch of snobbery for these johnny come lately’s! I jest, it is good to see the popularity of cycling after it languished in obscurity for so long. I am determine to continue to ride until I am no longer able. My legs also look like to knotted ropes though more from varicose veins than constant riding and I am as far removed from being Vegan as one could get!
Don’t ride? Have a bike don’t use it? Get out on it, doesn’t matter where you ride, how far your ride or if you ride alone or with others, just ride. It clears the mind, it’s good exercise, you see things at bike speed you may otherwise miss. These days I find longer distances difficult because I get neck ache but I still go out two or three times a week and stick to distances I can manage. I will confess I’m a “fair” weather rider but believe me I have been out, in some pretty severe conditions, including snow and rain so heavy the roads were running with water. I’ve been so cold, I could nor feel my hands and feet and whilst I would not subject myself to those conditions now days, there was a perverse enjoyment in those rides!
So I encourage you to get out on a bike, it’s fun!
Stay well
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