Thanks God summer is over! Don’t get me wrong: I do love hot weather, hell yeah. I associate it with bare legs, though… While now I can’t possibly show my poor legs off at all. People may confuse me for a rare breed: half-human, half-leopard.

Yes, this is how bad my legs are after my first riding lesson. There is hardly any areas left without bruises… well, not the best sight ever.

On the bright side of things, I was ever so proud of myself. I did actually manage to ride the damn thing, yuppie! Not without falling over a few too many times – which would have been an amusing sight to pass-byers, but I (carefully!) made sure no one was around. Ain’t I a clever girl!

Balancing didn’t seem to be an issue as much as taking off, but towards the end of this exhausting session I seemed to have got the hang of it. Thanks God for that.

All in all, yes I will need lots (and lots) of practice, but the first time wasn’t as disastrous as I expected it to be. Even my husband (AKA my riding instructor) was surprised. I guess more by the fact I got up and carried on after each fall. His opinion has always been that I whine too much and can’t endure pain – until I had a baby with no pain relief at all, so proved him wrong. Yes, I can take pain, but in reasonable amounts, so an hour of systematic inflicting pain onto myself was pretty much my limit. Ouch, those damn pedals, don’t they hurt, and why do they bash me so hard?? Hasn’t anyone thought of inventing soft pedals at all?

Next time, I am sure, it will all fall into place and come to me naturally, so watch this space!

Oh, and there is another skill I have mastered to perfection: driving into tiny little objects with accuracy one could only envy. According to my tutor, you need to look where you’d like to go, rather than where you are actually going. I did try that, I swear. Still, how come did I stop exactly at that one empty coke can that I tried (hard!) to avoid?? Or, I couldn’t possibly hit that post, could I, as the park was rather spacious. Amazing skill, isn’t it! Or that tree I’ve been desperately trying to give a miss: how on earth did it come so close to me??

No idea. But this must be something to be proud of, definitely. No one else, I am sure, can do this as perfectly as I can!

Let’s just hope that next time I will learn how to avoid obstacles, rather than crash into them!

P.S. Picture taken from http://www.wikihow.com/Ride-a-Bicycle – all rights reserved, hopefully