Leaving

I would like to tell you how I was packed and ready to go in almost no time and how I got a full 8 hour sleep in before getting up refreshed and leaving on time with 2 neatly packed baskets.

But that’d be lying.

I wasn’t at all ready for anything and I didn’t sleep and apart from the baskets I also had a backpack and a shopping bag for extra stuff I couldn’t fit in the baskets but didn’t want to leave behind.

But.

Against that, I did pack and change the water in the aquariums and water the balcony and kind of clear up the kitchen* and the sitting room and sweep most of the flat and attempt to open and save my tax return** ..

..and I even showered.

I left later than I wanted to and then had to go back for my helmet. (Which I embarrassingly only noticed I wasn’t wearing because I wasn’t wearing my gloves and my handlebars felt weird.***)

But.

I still got to the bus on time.

See the clock in the background? that proves I was on time 😉

Or at least: I got to the bus before they stopped letting people onto it 🙂

And I wasn’t the last one to arrive.

The lady who arrived while they were hanging my bike on the hooks thanked me for getting her the extra time she needed to be able to catch the bus 🙂

What more can you want?

Yeah.

Ok.

Sleep’s important too.

Zzzzzzzzzzz

* kind of cleared up is basically an extravagant way of saying I emptied the table by piling things closer together on the work surface..

** the tax office loves playing the we’ll-delete-everything-you-haven’t-opened-in-a-while game with me. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose by a few days or, occasionally, minutes. This time I’m destined to lose because I couldn’t find the letter with the new secret code in it.. *sigh*

*** my gloves live in my helmet

Baskets (part 4)

The coolbag inserts were the perfect shape, size and colour to go in the baskets:

The shoelaces I’d saved were the exact right length to each go around a basket at the height needed to hook the clips in 🙂

Et voila!

Behold le finished basket!

Isn’t it beautiful?!

Ok, a couple of centimetres more circumference wouldn’t be awful, but I’m pretty impressed 🙂

I am incredibly grateful to my neighbour for driving me to the shop (and to work)

I guess I have to be grateful to Decathlon too, for not stocking the bags I originally wanted..

Let the packing begin!

Bottle holder, baskets and bar grips (part 5)

Bottle holder

It was almost closing time again when I got to the bike shop. I was supposed to be picking up the bottle holder adapter and maybe a bottle holder to fit to it. I’d been looking at some for sale elsewhere but hadn’t bought one because it felt somehow ungrateful since he was ordering the other parts for me to look at.

The bike shop guy met me at the open door with a grin, “I’ve found you something much better” he said, holding out a bottle holder. “The clip’s built in so it attaches directly; you said you’d need to take it off for bus journeys, so I had a look at other options. I think this is a good solution……?” He looked hopeful.

It was the kind of look that in a different situation might have persuaded me to be kinder than I felt, but here it was entirely unnecessary: if it’s possible to fall for a bottle holder, I already had. Even without the hopeful look. 🙂

The holder is made with the same principle as my (now probably redundant) phone holder and has the same kind of quick release screw my wheels have. And that means I can mount and unmount it whenever I like in seconds and without tools.

Awesome.

Especially compared to the other option. He showed me the parts he’d ordered at the weekend. It would probably have worked, but it would have felt temporary, like I’d be on the look out for something better. This feels like the ‘better’.

(I might have to follow his lead and show more initiative at work, it’s great being on the receiving end).

Baskets

I asked, on the off-chance, if he had any rain-covers in stock that might fit my baskets. He didn’t but he looked at them approvingly, “genuine Electras?” I assumed so (they have a label saying Electra ;p) and asked if they were a known make and admitted that I hadn’t heard of them a week or so ago. “Californian company. Make cruisers. Hard to come by here, not many stockists. Expensive. Good though.”

If that isn’t justification I don’t know what is.

Handlebars – part 5

On my way out I thanked the bike shop guy for being so helpful and specifically mentioned how great the handlebar grips were…

“Yup. They came in a while ago. I was going to put them on one of my own bikes..” He shrugged. “Have a great trip!”

🤭

Only feeling slightly guilty now 🙃

Later:

Another parcel! – Baskets (part 2)

This should have been delivered on Monday while I was at work but they took it to the post office instead.. (apparently no one was in the building.. possible but unlikely)