To Cycle Or Not To Cycle?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Not long ago I described a lovely walk that I enjoyed with my sister in law and these are some of the photos that I took as we walked along the cycle path.

I described how dangerous the silent cyclists were when they sneaked up behind us with out warning, not ringing their bells or shouting out that they were there.

However,  all this cycling  talk reminds me of the last time I was on a bike myself, only few years ago.............

I used to cycle to and from work........... but not anymore!

One lunch time, I happened to be cycling home from work and was waiting at a junction to turn right into a very busy main road and I can remember pulling away.......... 

The next thing I remember was lying on my back in the road and an ambulance was not far away. I could see it. A lady was saying, "Now don't you worry about the blood, a little bit goes a long way. You silly girl why didn't you wear a crash helmet?" 

The paramedics had arrived by then and put a neck brace on me and slid a straight board under my body. The right temple over my eye brow was gushing blood. They bandaged it.

I was worried about what would happen to my bike and a woman in one of the houses said she'd take it in for me.

It turned out (and I only learned this later from other people), that an elderly driver had driven into the back of my  bike while trying to pull away on the same righthand turn too, but had not given me time to get away.

When she saw what had happened, she ran away to get someone to help, leaving me to lie unconscious in a busy road that has juggernauts thundering by. Anyway I was well out of it so didn't know the danger I was in at the time.

After a couple of days in hospital suffering from concussion, throwing up and so dizzy that I could hardly walk, I looked a sorry mess with black eyes, bruising and swellings on various bits of my anatomy, I had to take a couple of weeks from work and was sore for ages.

People used to joke as to whether my old man had given me the black eyes. Not so funny after the first half dozen times you hear that!

I did try and get back to cycling again, after I'd had the wheel straightened out, but it wasn't the same after that.

Flashbacks........

This is my story and these are my photos. Photostory Friday, hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

 

Foggi, Sticky & Furry Fred!

"Just for one night," I firmly told my teenaged children when one of them brought a wet & bedraggled, frightened, black kitten into the house, rescued from slashing rain outside. "Tomorrow it will have to go!"

Well I couldn't send it back outside in that storm, could I? But I definitely didn't want a cat. It had been a wonder that the frantic meowing had been heard above the storm, in the first place, when it cried outside the back door.

As we had no suitable cat food, we fed it small pieces of Cheddar cheese, that disappeared quickly down its ravenous throat.

In the end, Sam braved the storm and went to the nearest shop to buy a small tin of cat food, as it wasn't staying, I stressed. The hungry kitten devoured it quickly and it was obvious that it hadn't been fed for a long time.

Well this was the beginning of our love affair with cats. Debbie named him Furry, as his black coat had dried out to reveal his lovely sleek fur. However, Sam thought that was a soppy name and called him Fred. He soon learned to respond to either or both, so he was named Furry Fred!

Furry Fred was a bit of a wanderer and kept escaping from the back garden and liked to sit in the main road and was always weaving in & out of traffic. I tried to keep him indoors, but he was never happy and usually managed to escape.

He was forever being bitten by the local felines and must have been defending himself, as he certainly wasn't a bully by nature. This resulted in him having to have abscesses lanced at the vets. We had already had him neutered 

Four years later, my friend asked me if I'd go with her to help her choose a kitten! Well that was a silly thing for me to do and I came home with Foggi, a delightful  grey female kitten and she looked as if she was an expensive pedigree.

Furry Fred was not at all impressed with his new companion and hissed and stomped off, spending more time at Doreen's house over the road. Doreen was rather a lonely lady  who enticed him over with expensive tins of salmon, not realizing how dangerous it was becoming for him to dodge the traffic.

The lady who gave us Foggi, had one kitten left and as he was the runt of the litter was very small and not attractive in any way, having black, sticky fur that stuck out in all directions, he was going to be put to sleep if no one chose him by the end of the week, she had said.

Well, I couldn't let that happen to Foggi's brother, could I? So within a few days I went back to see if he was still there and he was. Nobody wanted this poor little mite.

Foggi was delighted to be reunited with her brother & she and Sticky were always close by one another and slept head to tail, snuggled up.

Because of his love of danger, and his salmon addiction, Furry Fred had several accidents in the road that resulted in him breaking a leg on two occasions and his jaw on another and together with his frequent trips to the vet for abscess lancing, Furry Fred was an expensive cat to keep!

In spite of his unfortunate start in life, he went on to live for 21 years, living a happy life, I think.

Sticky grew into a fine, handsome cat and lived a happy and uneventful life in the house and back garden to the age of 16.

Foggi was my absolute favourite and she & I were very close. She was pretty and affectionate and always sat on my knee while I twiddled with her ears and watched TV. She died at 14 years of age and I was truly heartbroken.

I have fought off the temptation to even look at another kitten, even though I've had many opportunities and offers! However I often think back to how our "cat era" began when I agreed to take in Furry Fred for just one night!