Giving a family update and tinkering with an old bike may not necessarily be the most obvious combination. You may have to believe me, there is a link, honest.
Becky, our eldest daughter, is now approaching her final exams at university. She’s handed in her last bit of course work and is spending much of her time swotting for the finals. Quite a nail biting time for her and once the last exam is over, I can imagine the sense of relief that she will feel. Just three weeks to go!
Added to this is the delightful thought of her forthcoming marriage in August. Naturally David and Becky are excited (we all are!) and preparations continue. In fact this includes today when they make a whistle stop visit as they go to the church for some formalities later today; with a bit of luck we might see them as they pass through.
Hannah is a little younger and yet she’s been in the world of work for some time now. In fact she’s just about to start her second full time job in her career as a sailing instructor. She is lodging with a lovely young family in Southsea for the summer months.
Hannah has accumulated a considerable amount of gear which travels with her. This includes two wetsuits, buoyancy aids, various sailing jackets and all kinds of other outdoorsy kit.
Sometimes our hallway is filled with all of this gear and, although I like a nice tidy house, I do love seeing this. It reminds me how she is doing something with her life (in fact they both are). She is not just sitting around, watching TV and fiddling with Facebook while eating junk food and getting fat. Yep, I really do love seeing those piles of outdoorsy stuff, perhaps even with a little envy myself.
“I need to take a bike” she announced at short notice.
”Which one? Both?” I gently enquired “your mountain bike perhaps?” knowing how Portsmouth is flat.
It was decided Hannah’s hybrid bike would be ideal. This is an old bike which had been given to Hannah when the word got out that she had the front wheel of her bike stolen at church one day. The bike is very old and is quite literally a hybrid of all kinds of odd bits thrown together. It won’t exactly win any races but it is a very useable bike and just needed a bit of a tune up.
I hung the bike from the garage roof and ran it through the gears. Everything was a bit stiff, including those charmingly inefficient Weinmann centre pull brakes. These brakes used to be the bees knees back in the 1980s but just don’t measure up these days. A bit like an old Austin Princess against a modern Ford. Nevertheless with a little lubrication and tweaking here and there, the brakes and the bike as a whole ran smoothly and well.
As Hannah’s proud Dad, I did enjoy doing this for her. I know other times when I am being wrapped around her little finger and I happily go along with it.
Not that I’d ever let her know that!