Flaming Nora

If anyone had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be a happy cyclist, I'd have laughed in their faces and took their beer away from them as clearly they wouldn't have been right in the head. Either that, or it was said by someone who didn't know me very well. And if anyone had told me a couple of years ago that not only would I be a happy cyclist, but that I'd be cycling in to work and back on a regular basis (as long as it was dry and sunny) and I'd have taken part in not one, but two, Sunderland Big Bike Rides, well, I wouldn't have believed them. But, dear reader, all of it came true.  This weekend I rode 27.5 miles in the Sunderland Big Bike Ride 2013,  raised £175 for the charity Cancer Research UK.  There's a picture of me in the Big Bike Ride photo album on the Sunderland Council facebook page so if you know me, you'll find me there. Obviously, the picture on this blog post isn't me. It's a stock image, copyright free. But...

I was always on my bike as a kid. And never on my own, there was always a gang of us, always on our bikes. Always, every single day no matter what the weather or the time of year. Or maybe it just feels that way. What I do remember is being on my bike a lot in the school holidays, in a gang with other kids from our street, riding around the estates, across the fields, freewheeling down hills and standing up on the pedals to get the oomph needed to get up the banks.  And over the last few weeks, that child-like exhileration, the joy of cycling, has come back into my life. Slowly, tentatively, carefully, and this time wearing a helmet and cycling with gears, I'm getting back into the saddle. And loving it.