I bought a bike yesterday.

In a way, it’s blogging that’s responsible for that bit of wishful retail therapy.

I went around to my mom’s house yesterday and unearthed a bike that had been languishing at length in the garden. It was covered in birds feathers, muck and moss and I needed to clean it up (eugh!) before taking it to the Bike Surgery. That establishment is in the grounds of the Queen Alexandria School for the Blind, (I think that’s what it’s called), in Harborne and there I let the bike bloke assess it’s fixability.

It was fixable but at a price that turned out to be slightly more than the price of his cheapest second hand bike. Considering the precarious nature of my finances this would appear to be a reckless move on my part. But the bike bloke at the bike surgery beamed and beguiled this Bengi Brummie by offering to buy it back off me so, I bought the bike. (I’m alliteration crazy, I am!) If me and the ‘Mountain Ridge Destroyer’ don’t work out, I’ll have lost little.

Why is blogging responsible for this, (probably futile), attempt by me to avoid having to buy larger sized pants? … I looked back to one of the ‘snapshot’ blogs – the one about La Rochelle – and remembered how much fun it was.

Now my problem, apart from living in a city that has more canals than cycle paths, is that I live on the first floor of an apartment block. I’m going to get fitter just from carrying the damn thing up and down the stairs.

[Lance Armstrong – a man who is truly inspirational, will be attempting to win the 100th Tour de France, starting this Saturday… who knows, it could be me one day… well, maybe not]