Learning to cycle.

It was probably going out with a guy who's been cycling since he was like 5 that did it, but some point last year I realised I wanted to relearn how to ride a bike. It makes sense, London is lovely and flat, I don't want to drive a car, and this way I'll have some form of transport.

Thanks to my grandparents generosity I was able to buy myself a bike last November. She's a lovely blue Dawes bike I christened Wings. The first time I took her to the park by myself, and it made me laugh, as I put one foot on the pedal and then froze, as I realised I couldn't lift my other foot off the ground! So there was a certain amount of me sitting on the bike and pushing myself along the ground.

Things have definitely improved since then. I can now cycle around the park pretty confidently. I have dodged two suicidal dogs and several pedestrians, small children and people with pushchairs.

Starting and stopping is still sometimes tricky, and if I wear my purple vans they sometimes slip off the pedals which is a little scary, but I've found if I just let myself coast along I have time to put my feet back on the pedals.

The aim is to do the sky ride in September. I think that should be enough time for me to get better at cycling.

Today I tried cycling on the roads. I have tried it before, but on my own. I managed to get to the corner of my road, turned the corner, saw a car which made me panic, and i fell over. Luckily not in front of the car or into a parked car. I just fell sideways. It was more embarrassing than painful. The driver stopped and was asking me if I was ok and if it was her fault, and I was trying to assure her I was ok, and that it wasn't her fault, but I was embarrassed, and in a bit of shock, and so tearing up. Needless to say I limped home, walking the bike.

So this time was somewhat more successful at least.

I had asked Francois to take me for a ride to the park, going via the roads.

It's really quiet on the roads round where we live, but even so it was still terrifying. It was like I'd totally forgotten how to ride, I was wobbling all over the place. Francois made me feel somewhat better about that, he pointed out that I was focusing so much on the roads and the cars that I wasn't focusing on riding. I guess it isn't quite second nature yet. So the wobbling around was freaking me out, as were the parked cars, the moving cars, and the fact that most of the time I couldn't see the moving ones. And trying to keep my speed down so I didn't crash into the back of Francois, and so I could stop quickly if I had to, all of which was surprisingly hard.

All of these combined left me with an annoying weak and shaky feeling which wasn't condusive to successful bike riding. Still, I made it most of the way to the park, stopping and starting, and occasionally walking my bike parts of the way. Unfortunately the weak and shaky feeling persisted after got to the park. I had to sit down for a few minutes and persuade myself that I did know how to ride, it was just a very different experience on the roads.

So I did a lap around the park, and was coming up behind this old woman. I was a little nervous as there wasn't that much gap between her and the edge of the pavement, but there was enough. And then, just when I was almost right behind her she starts walking sideways really quickly. I had to swerve a bit to avoid her, and I called out to her to watch out.