Bike!

Being born and brought up in Cambridge meant it was inevitable that we should have bicycles as our main form of transport. As a family we didn’t have a car until I was about seven or eight years old, and even then for everyday travel around the city we used our bikes.

One of my earliest memories is being on my dad’s bike, on a little seat which was somehow fixed on so I sat beneath his knees, my sister in a similar position on my mum’s bike. We were cycling to Histon for some reason… maybe it was just a nice day and mum and dad wanted to take us out. As we cycled along (on a road which has long since vanished, victim to modern transport needs) my dad pointed up into the trees above, and there was a red squirrel. I don’t suppose there are any red squirrels in Cambridge any more.

When I went to secondary school, after the first year I always cycled, four miles there, four miles home. we went to the swimming club on our bikes, to the training sessions at the pool and at a gym. I cycled round my paper round, we went just everywhere on our bikes… as did most other people.

We must have had an essay to write which we then read out to the class, because I remember my friend Maaike reading out her description of the undergrads who always wore gowns in those days, riding their bikes like so many crows, flapping their black wings.

My featured image is taken in Cambridge’s rival city, Oxford… but there are bikes!