Walking the 600 metres or so to the yoga studio this morning, I accidentally bought a bicycle.
Living in the inner city is much more like the country town where I grew up than the suburbs were. When I leave my building I see at least one person I know and say hi, or recognise some of the others also bustling about their day. Most of what I need is in walking distance. More than what I need.
The bicycle? I already shipped my faithful Giant across the Nullarbor with me when I moved. I happily used it to travel those extra kilometres that my feet would not take me. Now that its parking spot is my entryway, it was pretty heavy to get up and down in the lift. I sort of vaguely thought it would be nice to buy something not 20 years old with a steel frame.
So – this morning, a few doors down, a roller door that is usually closed was open. A charity that works with kids ”at risk of not being awesome” was holding a bicycle workshop and sale. The kids work on donated bicycles then sell them. I bought something light, white and cheap; and donated the blue Giant. It wasn’t until this evening that I realised that my Bottecchia lite cross is actually a really super-duper bicycle that usually only people who LOVE, really LOVE, bicycles buy.
In this street of around a kilometre, I can choose from five or six places for a morning coffee. I could order a gravestone at one end of the street and have a will drawn up across the road. I could have my bridal dress altered in the shop downstairs, and send my kids to the community school. If it didn’t work out, I could go to the family lawyers across the way. I could have my tyres changed next door to the electronics importers before popping in to the barbers. I could browse the real estate agents and buy a house, use the conveyancer a few doors down, then pray in the Christian Centre. If I was really, really into print I could get the printers to make a batch of flyers, but if I preferred digital, I could always go to the mysteriously windowless data storage and cybersecurity centre on the corner. I could even buy a specialist hockey stick and all the hockey gear I could ever use.
So, given all the opportunity, I guess it is not THAT surprising that I ended up accidentally with a bike!