Cycling! Jogging!

It was such a lovely morning that after we had sat out in the sun, we all walked down to the Meadows. I got one of the city bikes (Extra 1) and wobbled off round the cycle paths. JR and Archie walked/jogged round the paths. Archie is a natural! He loves jogging along and doesn’t even want to stop and piddle at every tree. 

We all went round several times, though not together. I'm not very confident on bikes, never having had one when I was a kid (despite asking for one every Christmas and birthday), so I’m rather wobbly, and I panic if anyone else is on the path. I went round about four or five times, then set off over the road and up the hill of Brunstfield Links. Wrong move! I couldn’t peddle up the (slight) hill, and couldn’t look at the gears to change them - not that I knew what to change them to. I saw visions of me straining to peddle, coming to a slow stop and tipping over sideways. Anyway, although there are bike ranks near me, they involve hills (slight slopes to some folk), cobbled roads, or narrow pavements with people clogging them up. So I went down the hill (slowly, with both brakes on) back to my original bike rank and walked home. (8,541 steps)

I looked enviously at the folk cycling with no hands, or casually holding on to the buzzer at crossings, without getting off the bike. When I had to cross the road I decided to try to hold on to the buzzer, but as I got nearer, I forgot to slow down enough and brake so that I (quite slowly) crashed into it. Nobody was around to witness this, thank goodness.

The Meadows was busy with folk out exercising, playing tennis, wee kids cycling, but plenty of room for everyone. Not like the National Trust parks down south where there are just so many people and they get too crowded and so they've been shut down. Or like Bondi Beach. In fact, I think most students have gone home, and there are no tourists, so the place is quiet.

I walked home past the cafe, which is closed, but has been doing takeaways. In the takeaway window, there were two scones sitting, beckoning me. I walked on past, then walked back and told the chap, 'I'm going to have to have those scones.' He scolded the scones, 'I've told you not to shout out at people passing!' He also gave me a big container of milk, as he's shutting completely today.

Saw this sign (Extra 2) on the Links. A Deliveroo cyclist came by, and I pointed it out to him and said, 'This is for you!' He was quite pleased.