How I learnt to ride a bike

This morning I changed the handle covers (cubre manillares) of my bicycle, as they were already a little old and worn out (desgastados)... and, that gave me the idea for what I am going to tell you in today's story; how I learnt to ride a bike.

One beautiful Sunday morning, when I had just turned 6 years old, my family and I went to El Retiro so my brother and I could cycle a little around the park on our orange BH. Actually, I couldn't cycle yet, I still had to use those two little wheels that you put at he back of the bike, but my brother (he was 8 years old at the time) could, so he went first. After he had been riding for a while he said: "Come on, sit on the back of the bike and I will take you for a ride". It was probably not such a good idea, because not long after, we fell over... and to cut a long story short (para resumir), I broke my tibia.

It wasn't until I was about eight that I lost my fear of trying to ride a bike, but by then I felt "too old" to look clumsy (torpe) learning to cycle in front of everyone, so I never did. Whenever my friends at school met to go for a bicycle ride, I would just take my rollerskates (patines) to go with them, but to be honest I felt a little jealous and also frustrated.

Many years later -I was 19- I was on summer holidays in Galicia with my friend Cari. I don't know what got in me, and I suddenly told her looking at some people who were travelling on their bikes: "Cari, next year we are going to come here on our bikes" "But you can't cycle!" -she said. "I know, but I am going to learn" .

I don't think my friend believed me, but a month later I started going to the park behind my house at lunchtime (when there wasn't anybody in the park to see me) with my mum, who had also learnt to ride a bike as an adult... and that's how I finally learnt. 

A couple of months later, my friend Cari and I joined (nos apuntamos) a mountain bike group at university, to go on weekend excursions. At first I used to fall off my bike all the time, and people laughed at me saying: "they say people never forget to ride a bike, but you are probably the exception" I never told them I had in fact learnt two months before. But little by little, I got better... 

Needless to say, the following summer Cari and I went on a trip around Galicia on our bikes... and I have been in love with cycling ever since (desde entonces).

How about you; do you remember how you learnt to ride a bike?

April 28th

Do you know what? I already have plans for Sunday, April 28th. And I have plans for the whole day; from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm and probably even later. Have you guessed (adivinado)? No? Well, I'll tell you; I have been blessed (bendecida/agraciada) with the priviledge of being chosen to take  part in the celebration of democracy that are the elections. At an electoral table. So blessed.

Actually, if I have to be honest it doesn't really bother (molestar) me that much; probably because when I was told yesterday I was still a little ill and my head was not clear, so when the postwoman (cartera) told me she had a letter for me from the electoral table all my head had time to do was to make the connection: "Ah, so I am being called to sit at the electoral table?" "Yes" the post woman replied. And in my head there was no time for more thoughts or calculations.

And now, because I have no choice but to go, I have decided to take a positive approach and see it as a constructive experience. I think we get paid a little too...

Have you ever had to sit at an electoral table?

Daylight savings time

Last Sunday we had the summer time change (also called "daylight savings time"). The first thing I did in the morning was to go through all the clocks I have in the house to turn them forward one hour, happy for what that means; one more hour of sunlight in the evening, and cycling home when it's still daylight after finishing my working day.

Some other people, like my friend Angela, feel very strongly against the time change. She says she doesn't mind so much the summer change -even if it means she has to get up one hour earlier- but she really hates the winter change, when it makes days become "shorter". She says she finds these changes very disorienting and for the first few days she feels more tired, as if she was jet-lagged.

I agree with her that the winter change is not as nice, but to me it is another manifestation of the seasons, it's one more of the processes that we have to go through every year: spring, more light, winter, shorter days. It is like a ritual that we have, and I find it endearing (entrañable) when the Saturday before the change everybody is commenting it: "Remember, tonight we have to turn back/forward the clock" And all the conversations and even the confusion that it brings: "do we have to change the clocks back or forward?" "So does that mean we have to get up earlier or later?" "Do we get one more hour, or do we lose one hour?"

For some reason it always reminds me of one occasion when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old and I was meeting my friend Ana, who was also my neighbour, to go to El Rastro on a Sunday. I rang her intercom (telefonillo) one hour earlier: "No, it's not eleven yet... last night was the time change! hahaha... " And I had to go back home and wait for an hour.

So I feel kind of sad that it has been decided that by 2021 every European country must make their decision on what time they want, summer or winter, and stay there forever. Apparently there was consultation of the public last year that showed that 84 percent were against changing the clock... Really??

And you; how do you feel about the time change?