It's Like Riding a Bike!

They say that once you've mastered the art of riding a bike you never forget. Well, I think 'they say' correctly. 
My first bike, a girls' 'sit-up-and-beg type bike, was my sister's cast off when I was too small to ride it without discomfort and great fear of falling off! But ride it I did and I so loved it, the sense of independence, the wind rushing past my face as I sped down hill.  The smell of the Germolene beneath the plasters covering my many scrapes and grazes! Nothing put me off, but then I grew up! Bikes lost their charm as makeup and boys took precedence and working up a sweat while getting to your destination was definitely not cool!
The next time I had a bike it was a new bike, it was a blue bike and it was my bike! A blue mountain bike with rugged tyres and NOT having the dreaded drop handle bars that I was scared of. I didn't want my head to be so close to the ground, thank you very much! So, my new bike came to me when Harry was young and his dad and I planned to ride the South Downs Way over two days. To say planned is barely truthful, to say prepared would be a lie, so the 70 mile off road, up hill, down dale, over tree roots, grass, stony tracks first day finished me off! Much more preparation was needed! I gripped those handle bars so tight all day that I couldn't open my hands for a couple of days afterwards, so Harry's dad completed the second day on his own!
So the blue mountain bike spent its days rusting away in the shed and was given away when Duncan and I moved from Dewsbury to a much smaller house here in Luddendenfoot.
When I retired we got rid of one of our cars, Harry took it off our hands! When Duncan began teaching 3 days a week in order to support us as we began the church I was left without the car 3 days a week. Now I have my own transport again as on Monday I bought another bike! A second-hand mountain bike which was a very good buy and enables me to nip along the canal bank and to get to church in about 10 minutes. Fantastic! Independence once again!
The canal bank is very muddy at present and the negotiation of cobbled bits beneath the canal bridges was scary as I was riding much too close to the murky canal; the lively dalmatian who, in the cheery words of his owner, 'loves to chase bikes' was also a challenge I could have done without on my inaugural ride, but I got there unscathed and feeling very good!
We bought a basket for me like the one in the picture so that I can carry file and Bible and bits and bobs for the Womens' group. I wanted a wicker one so that I could be a real 'Miss Marple of Mary Meed' but it really didn't seem to be in keeping with the mountain bike image!
So, yes, I think that once you've learnt to ride a bike you can always get back in the saddle. I wonder if the same is true of roller skates. I used to LOVE my roller skates; they too had the attendant odour of Germolene but they too were worth it!
Watch this space!