one for the adrenalin junkie

Before moving to London a friend of mine told me to be prepared – cycling in London is a high intensity, extreme, combat sport. The other night I had to get to the other end of Oxford Street and learned what he meant.

Biking in London is fun. I have a very basic commuter bike but have now started to cast hungry looks to a light, courier type speed bike. They look so nice and neat and handy. And the whole thing gets even more fun when you don’t know where you are going.

London never sleeps and hence there is always traffic. Days are fine, as the majority of the drivers on the roads do that for living and hence they don’t have time for all the hassle that follows from knocking a biker over. It just takes too long to sort it all out. And hence – they watch out.

Motorbikes are the worse. In my view. And busses.

I have now learned to comfortably manoeuvre between two double-deckers and they no longer make me scared. They did at first. Very scared. Now I flap my arms like a malfunctioning helicopter when ever I need to go from one lane to another, from one side of a lane to another or just to turn. Oh yes, I need to go on roads that have 3-4lanes. And tunnels. And speed cameras. And traffic roundabouts. Horror.

And the traffic circles the wrong way round. For me that is.

When I felt that I had learned to master the London traffic someone whooshed past me on blades. On roller blades! Madness. Pure madness. Though made me feel like a bit of a coward. As he disappeared through a tiny, narrow path between two buses, one where he had to put his blades one in front of the other I saw his arms and legs – bruised, torn and bleeding. Now I see how it all works.

Shoot, almost smashed into a cab door.

Must not lose focus. Must not lose focus.

I still wear my ipod. But now the sounds are at the lowest, just background humming that doesn’t stop me from hearing the traffic. And I wear my glasses. Always. And I have flashing lights. But I still jump lights. And I still go too fast. And I still go past the idiots that are slowing me down and I still cross lanes between two cars in order to find a narrow path, which allows me to go go past the cars that are stuck in traffic.

And one day I will get knocked over.

But until then…lets raise our glasses to the dream of an adrenalin junkie.