Farewell Apollo Highway.

Apollo Highway (Having a rest).

Last week when I was uptown, I spotted this nice swivel chair in a charity shop. “That would be perfect for me”, I thought, because I spend so much time on my laptop every day I deserve a decent chair to sit on. So, I bought it. The man in the shop said they would deliver it on Monday morning. Then I had an idea. “Would you like a bicycle?”, I asked. I had been thinking of getting rid of my bike for at least a year but hadn’t done anything about it until now. He was pleased to accept it and said they would take it away when they delivered the chair.

New Chair

This morning I was up and about early to wait for their van to arrive. They came at about 11.00. I’m really pleased with the chair. Compared to the old wooden one I was using; this is very comfortable. I feel like Captain Kirk on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise. I felt a bit sad when they took Apollo Highway away though. (I called the bike Apollo Highway because that’s the model’s name on the crossbar) We had lots of adventures together over the last ten years or so, exploring the local highways and byways, and the surrounding villages. We went uphill and down dale together. However, I had been finding the uphill bits a bit of a struggle in recent years. I don’t think I had been out on my bike for about two years. I guess I just lost interest and found walking a lot easier. Another consideration is that the main road through here is so busy with lorries and cars it is quite dangerous for cyclists, So it is probably for the best that I have given away the bike. I gave the man a bag full of extras as well such as the helmet, pump, lock, puncture repair kit and spanner. So, goodbye to Apollo Highway. 

On My Walk

As I was up and about already, and it was a beautiful sunny morning I decided to go for a good walk. It was very cold, but I soon warmed up once I got underway. This time I turned right at the Equestrian Centre and walked along the bridleway to Wellhead. It felt great to be out in the countryside enjoying the fresh air and saying hello to the occasional dog walker that I met. Reflecting on Apollo’s departure I remembered the words of Flann O’Brien in his hilarious book The Third Policeman where he is discussing De Selby’s Atomic Theory of Bicycles, how if you spend too much time on a bicycle you can eventually start turning into a bike when your atoms start mingling with the bike’s atoms.

I quote, “The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.”

So, It is just as well that I stopped riding bikes before I turned into one! 😊