Pushbike Problems...

After a week of terrible weather (..no really raining all day but still nearly 30 degrees!) we decided to get out of the house and on to the bikes we shipped half way around the world but have sat idle for over a year. By the time I had fixed the rack to the car and loaded the bikes we had kinda missed Alfie's "sociable" window! Still we ventured on, we parked the car, Alfie had his helmet applied and it was off without too much fuss. Despite having an increasingly large noggin his helmet was still a little loose and would fall down over his eyes blocking out the wonderful view of the lake. Beth said that at one point he was peering out through the holes in the top!


The sun came out and so time to apply the all important sun block, which we had left behind in the nappy bag, all of Alfie's other supplies had been loaded into a rucksack. So before we could do anything else it was off to the supermarket for the lotion. At this point I lost Beth and so she was forced into wheeling her bike (without lock!) through the shopping centre and up and down the supermarket!

With lotion now applied it was back onto the open footpath past the picnic-ers who would often point at Alfie which was somewhat disconcerting as I thought that he may have escaped, be standing up or just dangling precariously. I bet you can imagine the scene the perfect family cycling together alongside a beautiful lake. Well it wasn't quite like that as mummy always seemed to be at least 50 metres behind despite my best efforts to go slow! A later investigation of her bike identified a loose brake part damaged during shipping which meant that her rear brake was on continuously!

After about twenty minutes it went very quiet on the back and the repeated head butts from a cycle helmet in my back told me that Alfie was nodding off. It was time to get him home. With quite a way back to the car, and an exhausted Alfie (... and Mum the brake situation made any forward movement hard!) I decided to go and get the car to save them the cycle. Beth threw me the keys and I was off eventually making it back to the car. The bike was loaded, secured and it was at that point I noticed that Beth had given me the house keys but not those for the car. So it was bike off the rack and cycle all the way back to get the car keys, before turning around again and cycling back to the car.

We eventually all made it home exhausted... a great time was had by all (...I think!) ;0)