I was cycling around Lough Neagh last week. You could say that I was striving in the pursuit of happiness. How else do you explain a 60-year-old man pumping along on two wheels in the rain?
I wanted, I thought, to be out in the fresh air, to feel accomplished and fit, even to have the story of the journey to talk about to entertain friends with at dinner parties. "You should have seen me; I was amazing."
Then I could be smug about their paunches and their fag habits and feel like a superior being.
But the journey went awry. I got lost a few times. My friend Pat, cycling with me, didn't just get one puncture; he got two. And it rained.
(...)
My trousers were as wet as if I had waded through a river in them. My thighs were aching and I was plodding at the best pace I could manage along an 'A' road.
How do you feel about this? I said to myself and I noticed that I was not fretful, or uncomfortable; I was not afraid, or tired, or hungry.
I was just wet and zipping through puddles and skirting potholes under my own adequate and quite thrilling exertion. I was like a child in a sand pit.
I was feeling just great and that is the truth. I was loving it. Full story...
Don't miss:
I wanted, I thought, to be out in the fresh air, to feel accomplished and fit, even to have the story of the journey to talk about to entertain friends with at dinner parties. "You should have seen me; I was amazing."
Then I could be smug about their paunches and their fag habits and feel like a superior being.
But the journey went awry. I got lost a few times. My friend Pat, cycling with me, didn't just get one puncture; he got two. And it rained.
(...)
My trousers were as wet as if I had waded through a river in them. My thighs were aching and I was plodding at the best pace I could manage along an 'A' road.
How do you feel about this? I said to myself and I noticed that I was not fretful, or uncomfortable; I was not afraid, or tired, or hungry.
I was just wet and zipping through puddles and skirting potholes under my own adequate and quite thrilling exertion. I was like a child in a sand pit.
I was feeling just great and that is the truth. I was loving it. Full story...
Don't miss:
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