I must have been filled with a little too much adrenaline on Friday when I sped out of my apartment, pedalling with all strength and style as I hurried towards the University. A few blocks away from my building, I began a little display of daredevilry and found myself in the grass, a few feet away from the depth of the lake. I didn’t fall in, and it was a relief – not because I won’t be able to get out (I can swim), but because I had my back-pack and it had my laptop and other important documents. I would be a shame to lose all of them in such moment of playfulness.
I can only blame adrenaline because there was no reason why I should have been speeding so much at the time, or standing up on the bike while riding, or – as I discovered while laying flat out on the grass – stretching one hand instinctively and without need to touch an overhead tree branch as I rode under it. By the time I brought my hand back on the bike handles, I had lost total control and was doing a 360 degree tumble from the bike track/road onto the nearby grass – luckily. The lake was still a few feet away, and I had a helmet on. There were no cuts or broken bones, but there was a little bruise, and a dirty spot on my cream chino’s trousers. It was some relief to find that there were no passers-by at all - male or worse female students – who could have had no choice but to laugh or giggle at me as I tried vainly to pretend that all was fine and I didn’t have grass slivers somewhere in my mouth. The supernatural almost always kicks in to save me from undeserved embarrassment. I’m grateful.
I laid there for a while, staring up at the clear sky, then stood up, dusted my shirt, and rode on to the University in style. I did tell you I lead an interesting life, didn’t I?
