Tag: loneliness

#365daysofbiking Sometimes the darkness is your friend

January 21st – Returning home from Bloxwich through Clayhanger, I took the Spot Path back to Brownhills rather than the usually manic and stressful Pelsall Road, the main reason I don’t usually go that way. As I left the village and headed up over the common, I found myself totally alone in the dark.

It was murky and drizzly and there wasn’t a soul about. I could hear distant traffic, dogs, the sounds of people on the new estate over the back – but compared to the ride I’d just had, this was blessed solitude.

This is never a particularly beautiful spot by day. It’s OK, it’s nice enough. But it’s at night that it’s specialness comes to the fore.

Sometimes the lonely dark can actually be reassuringly companiable.

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#365daysofbiking On the spot

January 2nd – Crossing Clayhanger Common on the New Spot Path, it occurred to me suddenly that this was an anniversary for 365daysofbiking.

I started this madness on April 3rd, 2011 resolving to cycle every day of April, to do the 30 days of biking project. I enjoyed it so much I vowed to do 365days continuous.

The following New Year 2011/12, I was very very ill with food poisoning, and slain for 2 days in which I didn’t ride. So I restarted the clock in embarrassment.

So this is the eighth year of cycling very day, rain, snow or shine. That’s 2,922 days, on a bike every day, sometimes with multiple journeys.

It’s fair to say I like keeping the journal and love to ride a bike. I’m slowing up and getting more cautious as I age, but I’m still rolling down the hills and panting up them on the way back.

And I’m still haunting the locality at night, on my way home from work, unafraid to stop in the loneliest, creepiest places… Like Clayhanger Common – to document my life on two wheels.

I’m glad you’ve been there by my side. Thanks. It makes me less afraid of the dark. Not the dark of the night, but the dark of the loneliness of the commuting bike rider.

Here’s to another 365days under the wheels…

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September 14th – This last few weeks I’ve been travelling home late a lot, and commuting in the dark. During these tired, weary evenings the rides have occasionally been very solitary, but one thing keeping me company has been the moon. Watching it wax and wane over successive fine nights has been a genuine joy, as has being observing the position every night.

This evening, with low cloud and mist on the ground, when the moon occasionally emerged, it had a lovely orange red hue.

It’s an odd friendship, me and the moon…

November 9th – I’ve also been passing this advert in various spots around town, and it’s bugging me a bit.

No one should have no one at any time of year, not just Christmas.

We can all do something about this here and now.

Any time is a good time to take someones hand, smile and say ‘Hello, chum.’

Do it now.