Lily and I cycled to Mission Bay - 2010-07-13

Lily is an amazing girl!

Lily at Mission Bay 2010-07-13

When she was about 8½, she wanted to go for a bikeride, "but further this time, beyond Kelly Tarlton's" (Underwater World)  - maybe to the next bay on the round-the-bays-route.
So on 13th July 2010, she and I set off and cycled to Mission Bay and back - 21K in all. Not bad for an 8½ year old.
We set off about 1520hrs and returned about 1810hrs.
Click here to see the route: Mission Bay bike route (21K) - Gmaps Pedometer

We stopped at Mission Bay for a rest and to take a couple of photos and a quick video.
On the way back, we had a refueling stopoff at Subway, where we shared a foot-long "melt" and a large lime shake from the next-door McDonalds.
Lily was pretty tired. I kept getting her to keep up her speed and stay in a high gear.
It was getting cold as the sun went down, and her hands got very cold. It had got dark by the time we got to Freemans Bay, and she was crying because her hands hurt. We stopped to warm them under my shirt (Argh! Cold little hands!) and then continued home.

A sad follow-on from this tale is that on Sunday 25th July 2010, I discovered that both our bikes

Take care when you are out cycling in Paris

"Angles Morts" in French literally menas "deadly angles", but "blind spots" is probably a more correct interpretation. The angles morts are the blind spots radiating out from cars and trucks. Cyclists are not visible if they are in these blind spots, and when vehicles are turning, cyclists run a very high risk of getting killed by the vehicle in question. That is why "Angles Morts" is the name of this 8-minute long YouTube video clip, which looks like it was composed of many takes of the dangers for cyclists on Parisian roads and especially the bicycle lanes. A fascinating vid, and in my opinion well worth a watch.

Thanks to the blog site Do You Vélo?

My second Trek SL1000bicycle!

I recently bought a second Trek SL1000 with a 58cm frame (see picture to right) - I bought it second-hand via TradeMe for NZ$650. This 2nd one has a blue/white finish, whereas my 1st one is black/white.

The reason for getting the secod one is that I can now have one bike in Wellington (where I am working at present) and one in Auckland (my home base).
So I can keep my fitness/fatness levels in relatively healthy shape, regardless of which city I happen to be in.

Auckland "Round the Bays" cycle trip

This is a picture of the Auckland "Round the Bays" trip at the MapMyRide site. This is one of my favourite bike-rides - 28K of scenic waterfront and beaches, cycling along (mostly) cycle paths, and mostly flat - apart from the start and finish. It takes me about 55 to 70 minutes on my Trek SL1000, depending on how hard I feel like working - concentrate and push it (like I should), or take a leisurely pace and gawk at the scenery.
Update, 2009/04/04: There's a new site that I've used to map the same ride, at Gmap-pedometer.

The Tooth Fairy, lice, Little Fish, and bike rides

Lily has been practicing singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth".
Her two bottom front teeth are now growing; her two top front teeth are not, yet. Last night, the Tooth Fairy visited and gave her a dollar. (NZ$1.00! - that's a lot for a little tooth!) This was for one of the side teeth near the front of her lower jaw. It had been pulled out when she bit into a towel in frustration and anger at something, and then pulled the towel.
She asked me the other day "Is the tooth fairy real?" I replied that the tooth fairy was made up to help children overcome their concern about their teeth coming out and whether it would hurt, and that the fairy was real if she wanted it to be, but that it was really me if she wanted to know. She seemed happy with that.

Lily is back at school after the summer hols, but has been suffering from persistent head lice. She gets them at school (the children have a head lice exchange scheme in operation), and then when we have cleared them up, she gets them again. We have avoided using the strong insecticidal shampoos that are available (too dangerous), having instead done the louse-clearing the time-consuming manual way with a lice comb and some aromatic oils that make it difficult for the little beggars to hang on to the hairs or scalp. I read somewhere that children tend to equate the amount of time you spend with them with love. I can think of more enjoyable ways to spend time with a child than lice-clearing.

I am trying to get Lily some music lessons to play the violin (that I blogged about below). I have not booked her in for extra art classes this term (at a place called "The Art Station"), as I have done that for 2 or 3 terms in a row and I don't want her schedule to get crammed too full. Children must be allowed time to experience just being children, without having every waking moment structured to death for them by well-intentioned parents. She has been going for about a year to swimming lessons at the YMCA tepid baths, every Tuesday after school, and is progressing really well - she loves the water. That is why I sometimes call her "Little Fish" - a nickname that she is quite proud of.

Lily has now started going on short bike rides with me - I have removed the trainer wheels from her pink bicycle, and she rides it on two wheels just fine now. Steep hills are a bit scary though, so we avoid those for the moment. Her bike has a rear brake incorporated into the rear wheel hub (just back-pedal to brake), and a front brake activated using a hand grip on the RHS of the handlebar. Her hands are not quite big/strong enough to operate the handbrake properly yet.

About bicycles and bike runs

This is a photo of my adoptive son Stu. Actually, he adopted me a few years ago, which was a signal honour as far as I am concerned.

His mother Fifi sent me this picture of him after he had finished a sponsored charity bicycle run - apparently he did 45 miles in 2.5 hours.
Stu travels a lot, working wherever he goes. He has a blog here, which he sometimes remembers to update.

At the end of October 2007 I bought myself a Trek SL1000 bicycle for my birthday. (You can read a review of this bike here). It is a beautiful bike to ride. The net cost was NZ$875 all up - of which my son Sean chipped in NZ$200 (seeing as it was my birthday).

[Updated: 2010/03/03]: I have mapped a couple of my bike routes into the Gmaps Pedometer site (I had previously used MapMyRide, but they have killed that site with advertising and over-commercialisation and so I do not use it any more). 
     * Check my favourite Round the Bays bikeroute (27K).
     * Check out the Okahu Bay bike route with Lily (17K) for my daughter (aged 8) and I.