Ra Cyclista!
Thursday 00:39 p.m.
The North Edinburgh cycle pathways ... I have been there before. They are old railway lines recovered and covered over so that cyclists can have somewhere to cycle. The Poisonous took me along them before his kid was born, about eight years ago, but today I went onto them on my own with the nazi bike.
I have a very poor sense of direction. On the cycle paths, it's dead easy if you follow Poisonous on the one brake bike, but with the nazi bike on your own, you have a lot of anxiety checking in. I'm not used to this. Why am I on my own? It's quite bizarre, like being in an alternative universe. There is the track and the trees overhanging and the incomprehensible signs. Ferry Road Path, then the Telford Path, then the Roseburn Path. Outside of all this you see glimpses of the real world. The world outside the paths which you are somehow dissecting.
You can cycle on the pathways, and walk, and walk your dogs. I saw one guy with his lovely wee girl walking along beside two pit bull terriers. They will eat his child at some point. The joe walking his rottweiller. Then there was this guy with the backpack who was obviously crazy. He was the cycle path equivalent of this other guy you see walking around Edinburgh who is also mad, but this joe was better equipped. Nice backpack. Mad as a hatter.
I was expecting Robin Hood's pals to come swinging out of the trees, or to be ambushed, captured and beseiged in some way then .... lo! I found myself out with the real world and on this road in Silverknowes. Not many folk know about this. It's a road, completely unadvertised, to help you look at the view. So I found myself cycling along this road and the view was gorgeous. You could see the still clear water of the Forth, Cramond Island, etc.. Very beautiful views. Cars were parked. Sometimes folk sat in them and were reading books. Just a time out place.
Then there were two police people coming my way back on the cycle paths. They got their horses into line when they saw me. Great big horses! So the first up policeman turns out to be a lady policeman, and she was on top of this big kind of snorting horse, perfectly in control, and she smiled down at me on the nazi bike as I was moving towards her. Hello, I shouted. In that instant, obviously, I was in love with life. On the horse, in that uniform, were you not for that moment perfect, Mrs Policewoman?
An hour and a half on the nazi bike. But there was a liberation in it. After watching the footie last night, then the not going to work, and the biking. God is Great. Allah Akbar! What a good day I had today!
The North Edinburgh cycle pathways ... I have been there before. They are old railway lines recovered and covered over so that cyclists can have somewhere to cycle. The Poisonous took me along them before his kid was born, about eight years ago, but today I went onto them on my own with the nazi bike.
I have a very poor sense of direction. On the cycle paths, it's dead easy if you follow Poisonous on the one brake bike, but with the nazi bike on your own, you have a lot of anxiety checking in. I'm not used to this. Why am I on my own? It's quite bizarre, like being in an alternative universe. There is the track and the trees overhanging and the incomprehensible signs. Ferry Road Path, then the Telford Path, then the Roseburn Path. Outside of all this you see glimpses of the real world. The world outside the paths which you are somehow dissecting.
You can cycle on the pathways, and walk, and walk your dogs. I saw one guy with his lovely wee girl walking along beside two pit bull terriers. They will eat his child at some point. The joe walking his rottweiller. Then there was this guy with the backpack who was obviously crazy. He was the cycle path equivalent of this other guy you see walking around Edinburgh who is also mad, but this joe was better equipped. Nice backpack. Mad as a hatter.
I was expecting Robin Hood's pals to come swinging out of the trees, or to be ambushed, captured and beseiged in some way then .... lo! I found myself out with the real world and on this road in Silverknowes. Not many folk know about this. It's a road, completely unadvertised, to help you look at the view. So I found myself cycling along this road and the view was gorgeous. You could see the still clear water of the Forth, Cramond Island, etc.. Very beautiful views. Cars were parked. Sometimes folk sat in them and were reading books. Just a time out place.
Then there were two police people coming my way back on the cycle paths. They got their horses into line when they saw me. Great big horses! So the first up policeman turns out to be a lady policeman, and she was on top of this big kind of snorting horse, perfectly in control, and she smiled down at me on the nazi bike as I was moving towards her. Hello, I shouted. In that instant, obviously, I was in love with life. On the horse, in that uniform, were you not for that moment perfect, Mrs Policewoman?
An hour and a half on the nazi bike. But there was a liberation in it. After watching the footie last night, then the not going to work, and the biking. God is Great. Allah Akbar! What a good day I had today!
posted by Hotboy at 12:50 AM
10 Comments:
Splendid! That's my idea of a good day, though I can't ride a bike. Hope you saw the Cramond swans from Silverknowes.
Ion: I cycled down by the promenading way and up through Cramond before I found another cycle path. Yes, saw ther swans. Edinburgh is very nice to look at sometimes! Hotboy
Do you ever wear a backpack? I do, and I'm obviously not mad.
PS - what is it with you and women in uniform? Just get one to wear a habit and be done with it, that would help.
Adolf! Heil! It takes one to know one! I can see you clearly in a backpack. Do you wear it at the same time as your noise blockers? Which I'm sure you forgot to take to the Fatherland because ... well, why didn't you take them? They would have helped! Hotboy
Nothing wrong with wandering, a knapsack on my back and the medium-strength plugs in the ears. The police horses usually give me a wide berth too.
Sounds like you had a wonderful ride on the bike.
Sounds lovely there!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
~xo
Lee Ann: Have a good weekend too! It's bucketing down here at the moment! Hotboy
I say!
Blogger is very erratic this evening, anyway...
What a wonderful post about cycling around Edinburgh using cycle paths. Was it culled from your best seller "Are you boys, or cyclists?" by any chance?
I remember our time this past summer, on my visit to Edinburgh, when we cycled some of those same paths, together. They certainly give you a rather Victorian perspective on Edinburgh, passing, as they do, to the back of various establishments which were once thriving factories and sweatshops.
As for your sense of direction, or lack of, rather, I can certainly verify that.
Did we not once find ourselves traversing the Ptarmigan Ridge in the mist once, in the early eighties, when you, as chief map reader, had to ask a passing climber "Er 'scuse me Jimmy. Is this RaBenLawers or RaPtarmigan?"
MM III
I say!
I've discovered what Mr RobMcJ was doing in Poland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYQ8Ia0lHiw
MM III
Mingin! Wouldn't it be wonderful, cycling along with ra Brian Wilson blasting out and the overhangings overhanging! Californian police ladies! On huge snorting horses! Shouting hello, Hotboy! What bliss! Hotboy
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