My New Bike

A colleague of mine here in the office suggested that I head into town to go to a store called Decathlon to replace my stolen bike. The best I can say about the store to describe it is that it is kind of like REI back home. The store is huge (it actually covered two buildings in the big box mall at Canada Water) and has all kinds of things.

The bike department was bigger than some bicycle shops back home. I looked over a number of bikes, they had a great selection things that were as cheap as £59 some ran as much as a thousand pounds. I settled (after riding a few of them around the store) on a model that ran about £160.

They put the bike together for me out of their stocks and then I headed out. After buying the bike, I rode back to Waterloo for the train home. With a brief stop to look at the map that they had (and ask directions to Waterloo) I was off.

By dint of following their directions, I ended-up at Greenwich. (Greenwich is at the right of the map, Waterloo is the red marker to the left.) The sun was setting as I finally reached Waterloo. I had ridden about three times the distance that I really needed to go to get where I wanted to be.

At least I can now say that I have ridden to places that I really never wanted to be. Anyone who has never ridden through Elephant and Castle at sunset just hasn't lived!

I got home well after nine and collapsed into bed. I have to start getting some rest to catch-up on the rest I lost-out on whilst on vacation!

Wherever you are today, I hope you know where you're going!

Don Bergquist - 30 May 2007 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK