Have bike will.... go to work.

I had to drag my carcass off to work on my trusty £40 mountain bike today as the wife needed my "soon to be smashed to a thousand pieces" car which has developed yet another fault. Not that i mind the cycle in (5 miles = 30 mins hard pedal) but i am sure the rain clouds will break when i step out of the office at 5pm and i will have to endure the smug "i'm not soaking wet" glares from the cars as they cruise past. What i did suffer from was the remnants of drinking too much wine the night before and having my Son in the bed with us after a nasty dream which prevented me from sleeping until 02:30am. I used to cycle all the time when i was younger and it was my main mode of transport around my good city (not officially a city - but near enough). We have a network of cycle paths called "Redways" that span the entire reaches of the city and take you along side roads and through housing estates to pretty much every part of the kingdom. My route only has one section of "real road" and then drops onto the Redway to take me to work. It's nice not to have to worry about cars too much - but if you take the Redways a night you may come across a few teens on their mopeds speeding off to their next "underpass tagging session". It also means that i can listen to the radio on my headphones to and from work - until i get my iPod of course. My route to work also takes me past a few places from my youth which is a nice reminder of what i got up to in those days long past. - Past the golf course where we used to sneak around at night pretending to be Ninjas, writing secret Ninja messages in the sand bunkers and putting extra holes in the putting greens (sorry!). - Past the farm behind my mates old house, the smell of which made him sick after some under age drinking at a party. Are you sure it was the smell? - Past the newsagent where i used to stop at in the car and buy my pack of 20 Malborough Lights on the way to work, all whilst pretending i did'nt smoke. "No love... i.. er... gave Phil a lift home and he had a fag in the car...". - Past the industrial estate where we used to trawl the bins and skips for pieces of thick black foam rubber which had one sticky side. Usually used to end up stuck to my BMX which was of course, very cool. I do get angry when i see people not using the redways and the worst case of this was seeing a man cycling on the road next to the kerb whilst pushing his son of about five years with one hand along next to him on the busy road during rush hour, nearest the traffic, when the Redway was right next to them! Total idiot. The kid did have a helmet on but also had his stabalisers on too! A recipie for a disaster. Yet another of those moments when i wished i was a policeman.