Deaf girl on a bicycle

Today is Thankful Friday and I am very thankful that I timed my late lunch perfectly with the break in the apocalyptic London weather. As I write this while munching my Tesco vegetable thing, it’s bucketing down outside.

But actually I am thankful for this too, as we kind of need rain right now…

The thing I am most thankful for this Friday though is that I finally took the plunge and bought a folding bike…

I already have a much-loved, although somewhat neglected, Dutch bike, which has been sat in London Aunt’s alley for the last 18 months after I moved house and lost the keys to all four locks on it.

This bike was evicted last weekend – quite rightly so as it was cluttering up what is normally a minimalist space – and has now gone to a foster home oop norf at The Rents.

So this left me bikeless and, with my neighbour already causing more than enough hassle with her own bikes, I decided I needed one that could live in my flat. So came the idea for a folding bike.

Now, I cannot afford the fancy Brompton ones, nor do these really suit river path jaunts and Richmond Park escapades I intend to go on, so in the end I plumped for a retro looking Raleigh Shopper in lilac… with a basket on the front. On this bike I will either look 100 or 5 years old and I LOVE IT!

Well, I think I love it, as so far all I’ve seen is a picture on the internet and I couldn’t find any online reviews, perhaps because everyone else in the world chooses to buy a better, less embarrassing bike than me, but I think it will suit me just fine.

The wheels are big enough to cope with the wilds of London parks but small enough to fit in my spare bedroom cupboard and there’s a basket for my handbag…

What more does a girl need?

Well, a guarantee of not crashing my new bike would be nice. You see, because of my deafness, I can’t hear cars coming up behind me – although in London you’ve got to pretty much assume there will always be a car coming up behind you…

I also can’t hear emergency sirens… so that’s a bit hair-raising, too.

So I’m just off to Google bike wing mirrors and see what I can find.

And in the meantime, if you see a mad blonde girl on a purple folding bike completely oblivious of everything around her, make sure you wave, I’ll try and wave back!

*Crash!