In the past week more and more restrictions have been put in place to try and slow the spread of Coronavirus. Our leisure centre is shut for the foreseeable. For us that means no more spinning, gym, swimming, group exercise and pilates. Although we do not have a group to motivate us ….we do have each other, a plan and some old but usable equipment to work out with!
And some new…..Last year during our road trip travelling around New Zealand we visited Arrowtown on the South Island. You can read about our visit here Arrowtown
Whilst there we hired a couple of e.bikes to explore a bit further. The bikes were a revelation. Steep hills on my road bike at home I would normally struggle to get up – with my hip/leg issues – whereas I zipped up the hills with ease and the Long-suffering did not have to pause doing roundabouts at the top waiting for me to appear on foot pushing my bike for the last few yards!
January this year we decided to research ebikes. Long-suffering spent hours online – I joined in when the search became offline!
Poundbury in Dorset – famous for being the brainchild of Prince Charles – was our nearest stockist of ebikes. In fact Dorset Cyclelife only sell ebikes.
Buying an ebike is like buying a car, you need to road test it first. In store we were asked the key questions. Budget – ebikes can range from fifteen hundred pounds to fifteen thousand pounds. Our budget was at the lower end! Terrain – for us it needed to deal with serious hills, we live in a valley. Next power, size and style. The service and knowledge of owner Peter and his technician Mike meant all our questions were answered without any hard sell and they actively encouraged us to try out different styles riding a circuit around the block.
Mid February we took charge of two ‘his and hers’ brilliant white Haibikes and have not looked back.
Gone are the excuses and despondency – from me – at the thought of the pressure on my leg and the discomfort on my return. Now I can use as much assistance as I need on the steep uphills and set it to off for easy to mid terrain.
As the weeks have gone by my assistance needed on the hills has decreased but the best thing is both of us enjoy cycling together again and can go further afield – a maximum range to 90 miles – without the worry of me not managing to cycle back before dark! Now we can exercise and benefit from fresh air as well as observing social distancing.
Last week Long-suffering decided to ride to work a fifty minute cycle there his first and last journey as Monkey World shut its gates the following day to visitors.
Long-suffering as of today is now working from home, his edit suite from Monkey World has been set up in our spare bedroom for him to edit the next series of Monkey Life. I think he will be happy in there, it is a room with a view after all!
My Art Materials have been consigned to the unheated summerhouse, as temperatures rise I will be quite snug out there and may well practise some oils again without worry of making a mess on carpets or soft furnishings.
Mother’s Day came with cards and a gift of flowers to paint….
One of our offspring showed there is still humour to be had even in these challenging times with a card that made us literally laugh out loud!
Outside the wildlife are oblivious to our self isolation, the bird feeders are busy….
And beetles… well they are happily flouting the two metre social distance rule, lucky them!
The Creative Muse 