What has a 4 feet 4 inches (133cms), 83 year old female got
to do with e-biking?
The last day of April dumped a month's rain on this corner
of England. We have recently experienced "The Beast from the East".
Now we had "The Souse from the South".
But by May Day the sun and seemingly ever present wind had
dried the roads. My wife was off to her lunch club so I decided to cycle down
to the small village of Hamstreet to get a mid-day bite at The Cosy Kettle cafe. Cycling down the road through the woods was pleasant. Frothy green trees
and carpets of bluebells.
I joined the short queue at the counter and got into
conversation with a tiny little lady, neatly dressed in a tartan skirt and
large red beret. She came up, nearly, to my shoulder and her manner was chatty
and birdlike. As the small cafe was quite full we shared a table. I had quiche
and salad and she did justice to a large panini with salad, which would have
been ample for me.
Apparently she lived in the local old folks' bungalows and
took her walking stick for a toddle daily to get her midday bite at the cafe.
Bright and cheerful, she regaled me about her busy little life. With plenty of
outings and meetings, she wasn't lonely and appeared to know everyone around
us.
She was a tonic and when she went, saying goodbye to all the
tables, I asked the staff about her. Pauline had been coming in regularly for a
couple of years. They looked forward to her visits and noted she had recently
taken to using the walking stick and she was getting slower, but still
cheerful. What a tonic to see and talk to.
Then off to continue the 16 mile ride across the open fields
of Romney Marsh with a very stiff south westerly wind in my face. The electric
genie in the rear wheel was very useful.
8 comments:
a lovely day out...the electric genie is keeping many older cyclists going..and starting a few new ones as well!
gz:
The e-bike has been my saviour. A life-long club cyclist (life member of CTC - now renamed "Cycling UK") it has kept me active and contributed to my sanity post stroke.
Happy endings give you limited elbow room; disasters have more literary potential. Consider the Ancient Mariner, the nineteenth-century equivalent of your encounter at The Cosy Kettle Café. Resist an invitation back to the old folks' bungalow; it may end up like the early part of Psycho. Although if you survive you'd have more to write about.
So there are places still serving quiche. Were Rupert Brooke to update Grantchester he'd ditch honey and replace it with quiche - the mildest of comestibles. Come to think of it with quiche one isn't eating pastry and an eggy filler but pure nostalgia. Wasn't there a reaction against quiche - a movie or a song entitled Tough Guys Don't Eat Quiche? I assumed it was based on an expectation that tough guys had to eat quiche, they'd had all their teeth knocked out.
However my compliments on avoiding what to many is an imperative after taking a trip - to grind out insufferable detail about the journey itself. It's the unexpected that matters, never that which can be predicted. Further compliments on what sounds like a new tendency - towards journalism of all things. You asked questions! I based 44-and-a-bit years of my life on just that. It kept me entertained.
Well I took your previous comments on board and tried, reasoning that a fresh blog-start warranted a fresh approach to my posts. How long I can keep it up depends on the material available, although you seem to be able to write about anything at the drop of a hat.
I have tampered with my blog template with disastrous results and am now going through reams of HTML to try and rectify it............
As I said, the material exists on your internal hard disc and the triggers surround you in your home. Open up your wardrobe, note a garment you haven't worn for ages; ask yourself why. Sit down to an evening meal, regard what you're eating, trace its history and list its modifications. Trawl through your poetry books and find a poem you once liked and now don't; try and explain why. Recall your schooldays; who did you most dislike? Is there DIY work you've been unable to master? Where would you like to visit assuming money was no object and you could travel first-class; but don't write this up as some imaginary travelogue, discourse on the likelihood of disappointment. Are you sexy? - if not say why in as honest a manner as possible. What's your worst failing. Examine the roots of your sentimentality towards old cars. How many trees can you name - aren't you ashamed the list is so small? Rewrite your post about the Cosy Kettle removing the generalities about your impromptu companion's conversation and replacing them with speech in quotes (And don't say you can't remember; the quotes don't have to be exact). Are you subject to any dietary restrictions? - daydream about what you're missing. You mentioned once you'd like to have been a policeman; suppose it had happened.
Please, please don't wait for things to happen; they're happening all the time, even as you read this. For instance your immediate reaction towards some the above suggestions: eg, what an old fool RR is, coming up with this and that. Tell me what an old fool I am. Wittily. Can't manage wit. Try and explain why and expect to fail.
I appreciated this post and said so. Now walk to the bottom of you garden and back and challenge yourself to re-capture what happened mentally.
RR:
"An old fool"? Rather that last post is a master class in the basics of journalism, I think.
G.K. Chesterton was once queried by a young boy, "Did you really travel from London to Paris with only sixpence in your pocket?" (Theme of one of his works). "Young man, I am a journalist" was his reply.
Great to read about your jaunt (do you jaunt on an e-bike?) The little old lady has got the right idea about life, I'd say. I read something the other day about a lot of people over the age of 65 having accidents on e-bikes. I trust your previous motor cycling and cycling experiences will stand you in good stead as far as that goes.
Kay:
I guess a lot of those over 65's had not ridden two wheelers much before venturing forth on a new e-bike. Touch wood, I have managed to stay accident free, both on motorcycles and bicycles all my life.
The one exception was when I was 22, out on a bicycle club run, when a car rammed me from behind, fracturing a couple of vertebrae and putting me in a plaster cast for 6 months!
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