Nursery Trips

I finally got the hang of picking Mike up from Nursery on the bike. The real hurdle had been manoeuvring bike and Mike up and down the stairs at my station. In the end i decided to use a parents oldest trick....looking helpless. Someone always offers to help, someone always grabs the handlebars of the bike to help me onto the train with it, someone always smiles and waves at him on the train or the bike. People are basically nice. Children give them the opportunity to express that. Isn't the world great?

Now I've been waxing lyrical about how wonderful people are , I'll move on to gloat at my proud father one-upmanship moment while picking Mike up from Nursery. The first time i picked him up, he was ever so pleased to see me and the bike (Ah bless him!). We were just getting his stuff together and his helmet on, when a second dad squeezes by in his car and picks up his toddler. CarDad looks at us and the bike with a look that says 'Oh dear is that the best you can do?'
CarDads Toddler looks at the bike all eyes wide and excited, then turns to his dad and gives him a look that clearly says 'Dad that looks fun. Why cant we do that?'.
CarDad looks at me crossly with a look that clearly says 'Damn it! That's not fair, now look what you've done!'. CarDad grabs Toddler and and shoves him in his car. We smuggly mount up and head off.......Weeeeeeeeee!

Trains and Roundabouts

My normal commute is ride to station (4.5 miles all hills), take train to Harlow Station , ride from station to work (1 short hill and 1 busy roundabout).

Since i got the Agattu, I've left it at the station and picked up a second bike at the other end. The Agattu just looked too big to fit on the train and was going to be very heavy to lift up the stairs. I'd been thinking that I'd try it when the school holidays started on a day when Mike wasn't going to nursery. As it happened when i got to the station this morning i found that I'd left my bike lock by the backdoor. Time to take the bike on the train....

Damn its heavy to lift! Eventually i found a spot to hold that worked. There's no way i could lift it with one hand while carrying Mike in the other. But i have a secret plan on how to handle that......

I got it onto the train and yep the damn thing is far too long to sit in the corner like my Dawes tourer can. However, i put the stand down, put the front brake on (with my magic hair tie, that i keep on the handlebars) and left it stretched across the carriage between the doors. In this position it was very stable, didn't move and people could get around it easily. Hurray!

So i got to Harlow and get to my busy roundabout. As i approached i saw a car turning left into the exit before mine and a blue van moving fast behind it. I slipped the gear into 5th, shot out (like a rocket!) , quickly slipped to 7th and Bam! I've cleared the danger zone of entering the roundabout. The blue van was left standing. That's the quickest start I've ever done! That'll cut minutes of my commute (it wont be any safer I'll just adjust when i can pull out at junctions :-)

The capability of these machines continue to amaze me. Why doesnt everyone have one?