I’m going on holiday. Yes, again. I know. But the other 4 people we’re going with had to have a say in the date too and so this week it was. 4 of the 6 people going are photographers (some exhibit), 1 is an artist (exhibits more), 4 are paid geeks and I am one of them and I have been leant a ‘bridge’ camera to have a bit of a play with.
Only 2 of us are taking bikes. 4 of us are slightly leftfield board game addicts (Catan, Carcasonne etc). 2 of us knit, but 1 most definitely better than the other. I’m the only one who cross stitches because it’s thread programming, and I’ll take my iPad to try and do some more silly biking cartoons. I’m taking my laptop to write some articles, and I’ve committed to riding my bike every single day. There will be films, there will be music, all kinds of music from old school rave to classic rock.
We are all, however, creative in some way. Except that…we’re not. But we are. Each of us can see beauty, be it in words or photographs or on canvas. And we all love being outside. Our number contain a recently outed twitcher, a few recently outed architecture obsessives, some tree spotters, a few owl adorers and every single one of us can appreciate a really good flower or two.
Why is this edit here? Because I spent Sunday immersed in bikes. I spent Saturday immersed in planning for bikes. I spent the preceding weeks obsessing about getting enough miles in my legs, enough hills in my legs, enough distance in my legs.
The focus of next week, for me, is recovery. Lots of spinning, hence the riding at least once a day thing, but also, lots of pausing and remembering why I love to ride my bike. Riding my bike will not always be fun. I am comfortable with that and made peace with that, somewhere on a fire road around Dalbeattie. But I want the riding next week to be the indulgent, slow, meandering, spotting the details on the dragonfly that just flew past kind of riding. And I don’t want it to be the centre of the holiday. I want it to be enfolded into it, so that it becomes natural.
And part of that, is going on holiday with friends and my bike coming with me, and it simply being a part of me, in the same way that J is an artist, A is a photographer, S is a photographer too, L is a chef and the other A is a jack of all trades (photographer/fixer/planner/motivator/hacker/cook/stargazer).
Riding a bike is becoming a part of my personality, is what I am trying to explain, but very badly. In fact this is possibly the clumsiest edit I’ve ever written and there is at least one person laughing loudly at that. But it’s important to me that this is recognised, this tipping point, yet another waymarker on the journey to who knows where.
I always had a serious case of wanderlust. I always wanted to know what was around the next corner. I’ve discovered the means of tapping that curiosity and turning it into something healthy and positive and good – and I am very grateful.
