I'm in Love ...

with my Apollo Cafe 2. I know it's only a bike but what a wonderful piece of machinery it is. 21 speed Shimano gears with revo-shift, lightweight aluminium frame, front suspension, seat suspension, och just all the bells and whistles you could wish for, including a bell! But that's not the point. The thing just beguiles me with it's ability to make me feel good.

It was stuck in the coal cellar for eighteen months, lying neglected with deflated tyres and not even cleaned of the muck I had subjected it to on its last run out. Then my colleague started talking about how he had always wanted to cycle round Arran. Well I was really energised by that for some reason. Whether it's because Arran is one of my favourite places or whether it was just the idea of the challenge, I don't know but before I knew it I was dragging the thing out of its dark hole into the sunshine of the back yard, pouring 3-In-One onto the chain and gears, buffing with a cloth, and preparing to mount.

Despite the lay-up she whirred along like a sewing machine. A scoosh round the coast road past the Cloch lighthouse on Sunday morning was just idyllic. Joggers jogged past smiling; Maw, Paw, and the weans cruised by in the old family jalopy, the sun shone on all who were skidging church. It was a perfect day. And the bike made me a part of it.

You see the thing is, I work too much so I need some antidote to work and a day on a bike ... well a good day on a bike, I wouldn't want it to be pishing down ... is the perfect antidote to work. And work is the main reason I can't keep up this blog the way I would like. I mean it's just not possible. Here's a typical day for me:
06.30 Alarm goes. Up, bath, breakfast, cuppa in bed for the wife.
07.30 In the car, up the M8.
08.00 Arrive in office. Open computer - on the batter.
10.00 Tea at desk
12.00 Lunch
12.30 Back to desk - continue on the batter.
15.00 Tea
15.15 Meeting - yadda yadda yadda.
18.30 Start to clear up.
18.45 In the car, music up to max volume, yaaaaa-aaaah!!!!

Five fucking days a week, I shit you not. I know it's no way to live but that's the way it is, and I actually enjoy a lot of what I do, it's just I've got very little time to myself. I'd love to just spend ages and ages doing my OU thing (did I tell you I'd passed that BTW? No? Sorry.), keeping a nicely creative blog going, writing pithy short stories, meeting fellow bloggers in Babbity Bowsters for a pint (Oh so yoo-oo-'re Ill Man, yes you do loook a little pale ...). I mean look at what interesting lives all these bloggers are leading. It's fuckin' cuttin' edge stuff ... Tommy Sheridan and bits oot o' the paper and, and ... aw sorts. It's jist awesome, and here's me.

So a bike is good. Gets ye oot. (I''ll need to get a grip here. I'm starting to sound like Billy Connelly). Anyway here's the plan. We're gon'eh cycle round Arran for charity. September week-end. All the way round Arran (57 miles by the way) in aid of cancer research. Do you think I've got it in me?