To become the spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life. ...... Oscar Wilde

So the sun was out and it wasn't even 9am when I got the urge. After weeks of hobbling around and then further weeks of limping and eventually a few of hamming it up a bit I finally got the urge to get the bike out!

The Big Plan has always been to get to Norfolk, knock the house into a viable B&B business, Run the business and in any free time to get out and about, especially cycling on the roads around the village. Well 2 out of 4 ain't bad and I really am working hard to get the other 2 completed as well.

There I was, the knee still a little fragile but, unexpectedly, reasonably no resistance to the cycling, I actually think it may have done it good. There was a time that I cycled quite a lot from my house down in our Sussex village, but it had a draw back, a very BIG draw back in my book. We were some 800ft above sea level and every time that I cycled outward bound I shot out from the village like a cork out of a champagne bottle as it was all down hill. It was great flying down the road like Chris Hoy......

There goes the church, there's the Old Priest House, Bowling green whooooosh, the old quarry house, wheeeeeeee, the cricket ground, a field, a farm, another field, the horses field, another farm wheeeeeeee, a sharp bend, whoaaaaa, screech and stop.  In a few minutes I had travelled towards the bottom of the valley and I could have continued further but it was usually at the sharp bend that I came to my senses and realised that I was biting off more than I could chew.


Anyone who knows me is very aware that I may, on occasions, make use of the odd hyperbole when describing events in my life but honestly If I didn't stop on the bend I would have shot down to Brighton faster than the old Brighton Belle!   .....  Honest!
But instead I stopped and I didn't even need a breather. Why would I? I hadn't even turned the bikes pedals yet and I had done a mile an a half. But with discretion definitely being the better part of valour, I simply stopped, for behind me was home and between me, that home and a cup of tea was the meanest hill, a hill that it took me another 40 minutes to get back up. It may not be Gold Hill in Shaftsbury but to me it was murder most horrid.

I don't know why I couldn't take it in my stride as I come from a strong cyclist 'stock' with both my Parents and Grand Parents having gone on long holidays on their bikes, cycling over 50 miles in a day. They must have cycled up about 10 hills like this one in a single day, with  luggage too. I often wondered, over my cooked breakfasts and croissants, what made them so much more fitter than me?

So we moved to a reasonably flattish Norfolk and today I got the urge. I slipped out of the back gate and mounted the bike in a small parking area behind the house. I felt that the neighbours did not need to witness the rather ungainly site of me clambering over my bike then trying to kick off with my characteristic first wobble, carelessly drifting across the other side of the road and then sweeping back to the correct side before finally getting some kind of balance thing going on. Does my bum look big on this? Mmmm.
So I was off and, would you believe it, actually having to pedal despite not having travelled a mile first. Within a minute I was out into the country fields and almost immediately a large Buzzard glided over head. The fields on this road have open boundaries with just the odd hedge here or there, this gives great potential to see Hares, but there are enough hedges to give a wealth of birds 'cover' and boy do they use it. As I cycled along on a crisp, sunny winters day loads of Yellow Hammers were darting along the hedge just in front of me as well as a flock of Blue Tits that seemed to follow me along. There seems to be a propensity in birds around this village to fly along side you. The Barn Owls have done this several times as we have driven along and the Blue Tits were doing so now, it is akin to Dolphins following ships.

There is a gradual hill and I was very aware of the possibility of my knee playing up, so this was a short slow and easy ride to get me broken in again. I stopped to watch several Pied Wagtails pecking away at one of the hoards of Sugar Beets piled up in a field. The Sugar Beets are a seriously major crop around here with thousands of tonnes piled up in fields throughout Norfolk, all heading to the Sugar processing plant in Suffolk. The Sugar Beet is full of energy and a fine mist of steam was rising from it as the birds scavenged. Eventually they sensed I was there and flew on.

Quite simply it was a delight cycling in such a traditional landscape. Several fields were just ploughed furrows and others had a fine light green covering as the first seedlings poked their little leaves out of the ground like a newly laid carpet. As I returned I heard the distinctive cry of a Buzzard way over head, and saw two of them fly across the wood, so I stopped and spent 10 minutes just watching and listening to them. They deemed to fly fairly close after a while then almost with no effort they slipped across to the far side of a field where they met two more and all four started to fly in circles over, I imagine, a thermal. They looked for all the world as if they were vultures waiting for an animal to die before landing to eat the carrion, still warm. Having work to do, I moved on, this was what enjoable cycling is all about - fantastic. In the distance I could see I was approaching the village again with the distinctive old tower Windmill standing out as a clear landmark and just behind that the red roof tiles of my own house.

When I got back, my knee was fine,  I was not wheezing and I felt that God himself had breathed into my lungs. I will venture out as much as I can and strive to go a little further each day, I will lose this tummy (or at least a bit of it). Now days life is very fast indeed and I have had enough of flying off down the hill, yes you can get places but the wind is deafening and your eyes are continuously looking just ahead with the odd look behind you to see which whipper snapper is coming up close on your tail. You miss the finer details of life around you, and when you finally get to that be all and end all destination that you have been striving for your whole journey long, well then......... Well it's all up hill and nobody wants to give you a lift they just think you're a slow old has been in their way.

    So take my advise, slow down a little and look around you because one day you will have regretted that you didn't.....  and then my friends,   well............







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