bike love

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.
Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.
Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

Get a bicycle.

You will not regret it if you live.
~Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"

Think of bicycles as rideable art
that can just about save the world.
~Grant Petersen

~♥♥♥~

i am in love with my bicycle. i really am.
it wasn't love at first sight (or ride!) to be honest though, as i have always associated it with exhaustion and panting and cold and thirst and every other imaginable inconveniences. in the past, i rode it because my husband made me. otherwise he will go cycling to parks by himself and i didn't want to be left alone and miss the fun and the beautiful scenery. i rode because i needed to pick up packages from the post office and the bus didn't drive there and taxis were ridiculously expensive. i rode because i was in a hurry and couldn't wait for the bus to take me to the shopping centre. i always felt "forced" to cycle.

that was a year and a half ago. since we moved farther from the main street, my bicycle has given me the convenience of getting there in five minutes. whenever i have shop orders to drop at the mailbox, my bicycle saves me a whole half an hour of walking back and forth. when i'm out of bread or milk or cheese, the shops are a few pedals away. it has made me enjoy going out, feeling the cool breeze on my face, feeling my hair flap and ride the wind, and feeling the thrill once again of my childhood. the simple joys of cycling hard while half-standing, riding through high curbs and bumps and swerving smoothly on curved paths. during these brief moments i feel totally free from my worries, as i become fully aware only of my legs and toes and arms and hands and i've never felt so well-coordinated as when i'm cycling.

kj has been cycling since he started walking. he and his brother and the rest of their schoolmates cycled to school, rain or shine, sleet or snow. they cycled everywhere. mothers with their babies, dads with their kids, grandpas and grandmas, teens and adults...to the park, to the grocery, to school, to work. kj used to have two bicycles in amsterdam and he drags them 8 stories high to his flat. he can cycle for hours and hours and that's no big feat. i may never be like him, but at least i'm starting to love it (and i don't have to drag it to the 8th floor).

i only wish that dublin would invest more on cycle paths, and make the roads safer for cyclists. we are fortunate in this part of dublin though, because we have convenient cycle paths around us that we have never felt the need for a car. the shops in the main street are 5 minutes away in my cycle. kj's work is 15 minutes away, and the big shopping centre and even the hospital are 30 minutes away. we cycle through beautiful scenery all along, and the changing of seasons bloom before our eyes. we can stop at any time to enjoy a sunrise or a sunset, or pick a blackberry from the bushes, or shriek (just me!) excitedly at a brown furry rabbit hopping in the distance.

this video is soooo worth watching, it's about cycling friendly cities.

so, who's going cycling with me?! ^-^