Ok, it had to happen. I tried out my new SPD shoes and clipless pedals for the morning commute. I spent a few hours at the weekend getting used to clipping in and out. No problem I thought. I whizzed down Wickham Road and joined that lovely thoroughfare known as the ‘A20’.
I was skipping along without a problem then the traffic slowed up. I unclipped as I came close behind a Bendy Bus. I clipped in again just before the traffic stopped completely. I then ungraciously fell to the left as I realised too late that I ‘SHOULD HAVE UNCLIPPED BEFORE I STOPPED’. Luckily for me, as I arced towards the road flailing helplessly, my left foot managed to ping out of the pedal and halted my fall in the nick of time. I still looked like a total knob-head though. I attempted to assuage my embarrassment by heading off at a rate of knots. Halfway into my journey my knees started to ache. Evidently I didn’t adjust the cleats properly. I gave them a tweak at work so fingers-crossed for tonight and remember the mantra ‘unclip BEFORE you stop, unclip BEFORE you stop, unclip BEFORE you stop…’
The weekend was wonderful. Hot and sunny. On Saturday we met up with my old college friend Jimmy who I hadn’t seen for many years. We arranged to meet in Greenwich Park at 12pm. In true Jimmy style he didn’t show for nearly four hours due to a late start. It didn’t really matter though, as once Jimmy, his son Leon and Michelle had arrived we pootled off to the park and had a lovely picnic with Pimms and lots of nice food. Jake loved running around trying to play cricket and making new friends. I also loved ‘trying’ to play cricket which I was rubbish at. I fared a little better playing the frisbee with young Leon. We had a nice patch under a big shady tree so it wasn’t a problem trying to keep Jake out of the rays. We ended up staying till 8.30pm. I felt sorry for the guys as they had to take a train back to Reading.
Jake completely zonked out when we got home and then slept until 9.30am Sunday morning. That was a rare lie-in for us. 🙂