Something else

"Is it true I'm an eagle? Is it true I can spread my wings?"

Is there a better country that Sweden?  Successfully managed the transition from berserk blood-soaked conquest and pillage, accompanied by rabid Protestantism into peace-loving, militarily-neutral social democracy and a liberal approach to love, peace and something else. And general acceptance of beards.

When I was a kid I used to get a lot of enforced bed-rest every time I got a cold, it triggered asthma that used to last for a couple of weeks. Before I discovered The Clash, Boomtown Rats, U2, XTC and a whole load of other credibility (spiky hair, leather jacket etc.) I still enjoyed simple pleasures. Riding my bike for fun, and jumpers for goalposts. and listening to Abba.

How was I to know that life would come full circle? For it turns out that the Mendip Rouleur family have somehow managed to acquire whooping cough. Unfortunately the only vigorous exercise I'm allowed to do, well actually capable of doing, is walking out to my car and driving to work.

I am grounded. For an unspecified indeterminate period.  Never mind flying like an eagle, I can't even stumble like a partridge (Alan or Andy). In a way it may turn out to be a blessing. I haven't watched as much TV for years, and I get to watch every bit of the Brexitshambles unfolding in front of my disbelieving eyes. Lucky me.

But I have also dived deeply into YouTube, surfing from Larkin Poe to Jimmy Page, from Taylor Swift to No Doubt, and from Joe Strummer to The Dead South, and of course from Bono to Agnetha Fältskog.  I still can't even grow a beard.

I'm all over politics. I'm all over work. And I'm all over music. Sort of.

But the bike, well it'll have to wait.

When we dance in the light

There are quite a few people alive today who not only can't remember a world before the internet, they also think there was no football before the Premier League. It's as if the world started in 1992. What? Yes of course it's a metaphor, I don't deal in anything else. Come here, get big picture, other blogs are available.

My cycling this year has been rubbish, well not rubbish exactly, but sub-optimal. I've been ill, with varying degrees of severity, in the respiratory department since 9th January. For three weeks, my bike languished unloved and without use in its high-security steel shed. Even without these latest setbacks and indignities 2019 was going to be hard. When you've been to the top of the world, it's quite tough to scale new heights. Whatever new people think.

I've been here before, in 2008 after quite a few years of mountain biking, I felt I'd taken that oeuvre as far as I could.

Likewise my stand-up comedy persona. Even if no-one really knew I was doing it. And you thought it was real. No one could really be that grumpy in real life. Or that clever. 

So I switched to the road. What a long road it has been too. It didn't necessarily take me to where I thought it would, but I have enjoyed the ride. And my achievements, albeit downplayed, have been remarkable. And there have definitely been so many good people along the way, as well as a few trying to knock my block off. But it's time for another change, and quite a few people could be annoyed if I do. But the angels won't.

But it was always about changing the world. Of course. And when the road is no longer steep enough, or just a mild false flat into a headwind,  and people who know nothing of the 1980s belittle those achievements, it's time to look for a new country to ride in. I don't know where that country is, but I'm sure there will be plenty of options. If I can't ride or run, I'll just walk, because the spirit is in the house.

So big question for this weekend, to take to the road or not, despite the frequent coughing and wheezing from within and the rain and wind from without. But just as the life inside my head belongs to me, so the road belongs to us all. We are all on it, even if some of you are trying to run me over. You just don't realise. But little by little you will.

Here I go then. New goals time.

 

And if you don't understand this, well, you need to stop talking and be quiet. It's all right in front of you, you just need to listen.