Oct
2009
5
swift uplift, the perks of cycling
Beth breaks free from her normal routine to see if it really does spark inspirational thinking.
Being out on a bike is the best way to travel. It's easy to cover lots of ground and you see more than you would if you were speeding past in a car. I decided to break free of the monotony of public transport in March this year and I absolutely love the joys bicycling brings. It does come with some disadvantages. Unlike my native town of South Saint Paul, Minnesota, the weather in Edinburgh is very difficult to predict. It takes me thirty minutes on a bike to get to work and, in that span of time, the heavens have been known to open up and I arrive at work completely soaked. I'm very much like a cat when it comes to water. I can't stand the rain and being wet. I could carry waterproofs and quit complaining but I like to travel light so this is definitely not an option. My rebuttal to Mother Nature and her love for pouring buckets on me comes in the form of a spare pair of trousers tucked away in my desk drawer. This saves me from sitting in wet clothes for the majority of the day.
The advantages of riding a bike to work outweigh the disadvantages by a few elephant loads. I like to collect unwanted furniture and give it a new life. Edinburgh is a haven for amazing furniture pieces, which are left on the curb begging to be picked up. In a car, these gems would never be spotted. On foot, you might see some furniture. But more furniture can be spotted on a bike because you're covering more ground.
A few weeks ago, on my way home from work, I spotted a sweet little chair next to a skip. This little chair begged me to swoop in on a rescue mission! In the blink of a millisecond, inspirational thoughts of ‘ooh what colour could I paint it?' and ‘I know just the Ikea fabric for that seat' went through my mind. So I pulled over and gave it a good inspection. I don't know why I bothered with the inspection, obviously the chair was coming home with me! So I tossed the chair into my bike's ‘boot' and took off into the sunset a very happy lady with my new found friend.
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