Riding a bicycle

     I believe I was either ten or eleven years old and had never owned a bicycle. Living on a busy main road, it certainly would not have been safe to learn to cycle outside my childhood home, and I had to make do as a child with a scooter or pedal car in the garden.

     For reasons that I am unclear of, I went to stay for a couple of weeks in the summer with my cousin, Diane, who lived in Northern Ireland. She was eleven months older than me and more like a sister than a cousin as we were 'double cousins', her mother being my mother's sister and her father being my father's brother. She was the eldest of a family of five.

     It was a glorious summer and she and I and her two younger siblings played outside every day. The house, a bungalow, was situated on a very quiet crescent, well away from busy roads with no through traffic. We congregated in the garage, playing music on a portable radio. One day, Diane had acquired some bottles of Coca-Cola. I tasted it for the very first time and detested it, but sipped it slowly, pretending I liked it. To this day, I cannot drink Coca-Cola.

      There were several bicycles in the garage.  Each day I would take one out to the road and attempt to ride it, wobbling precariously. I was a bit embarrassed at not knowing how to cycle, and did not let my aunt and uncle know what I was trying to do, but they had probably glanced out the window and seen the red faced determined girl in shorts , T-shirt and hand knitted cardigan, struggling again and again to balance on the bicycle.

      We would attach old playing cards to the spokes of the wheels, secured by wooden clothes pegs. No need for a bell to announce our presence as the wheels made a pleasantly addictive whirring noise, alerting pedestrians, as we cycled by on the pavement.

     One memorable morning, I climbed on the bicycle and began to pedal. A slight wobble as I sat on the saddle, and then away I went, passing all the neat gardens, up the gentle slope, and then with the wind in my hair, freewheeled down the other side of the hill to arrive back at the house with a big grin on my face. It was almost as if I had added another dimension to my life; a skill to add to the milestones achieved during childhood. The next challenge was to learn to swim, and I did not achieve that until I was more than twenty years old!