On ya bike

Today I ran out of excuses for not doing exercise. Some time ago I thought that a bike would be the perfect way to motivate myself to actually get out and do some physical activity. Fortunately, I didn't own one. Dale had one, but it was all the way out at Darra and (so I thought) irreparably damaged from living outside in the weather. Then some idiot had the idea of moving to Canberra, and lo, I have a bike living in my hallway now, nice and convenient, and apparently in good health, apart from suffering from flat tyres. And here's me with no bicycle pump. I tentatively suggested that I could go and buy one, but Dale assured me that it would easier (and cheaper) just to take the bike to the nearby petrol station. It quickly became apparent however that neither of us was willing to expend the effort required to walk the bike to a petrol station that neither of us was even sure existed (according to the refidex, it's about 500m away from our house, but I still have not seen it to this day).

A new plan was suggested - one of our friends owns a bike pump - we can just borrow hers! Unfortunately, she was in Melbourne during the single ten minute period when we felt motivated enough to go and borrow it (she lives on a different side of town and living in Canberra for any length of time makes you intolerant of drives longer than ten or fifteen minutes).

Eventually I succumbed and went to a sports store to buy a pump. It turns out that the kind of bike pump I remember having when I was younger is no longer an option. These days bike pumps are lightweight and snazzy and aerodynamic, with folding parts and clip on bits and things. I fled the store in confusion.

Two weeks ago I managed to overcome my fear and ventured into a specialist bike store (with Dale holding my hand). I won through the confusion by simply choosing the cheapest pump on display. I took it home and (eventually) managed to master using it well enough to pump both bike tyres and my football. I was keen to go riding but, alas, I soon discovered that our house was completely lacking in a bicycle helmet.

So my next mission was to buy a helmet. I spent minutes and minutes wandering the hyperdome and Westfield alike searching for suitable headgear. Surprisingly, Big W at Woden didn't have any bikes or bike equipment and the hyperdome doesn't have a Big W (it does have a bike shop, but I chose not to go there for a very good reason which I'm sure I'll think of soon).

Today though, I did it. After two weeks of occaisional thoughts that I should get a bike helmet, today I went to some sports store and bought one. It's red, so it should go really fast. I no longer have any excuse not to go out and do some exercise - except that I've spent enough time writing this blog that it's dark outside now so I can't go today. And Thursday is poker night, so I can't go tomorrow. And then it's the weekend, and nobody exercises on the weekend... ;)