Single Female Bicycle Rider
# 6
When one grows up on a bicycle, like I did in the Netherlands, it is amazing how quickly one picks up the art of riding, even after an absence of thirteen years.
I only learned to drive a car when I arrived in Australia and bought a farm.
In Amsterdam and later Tokyo, a car had been merely a nuisance. My first car was a grass green Holden Camira 1991.
I learned to drive her in the paddocks. My neighbour was my teacher. It took seven (7) goes to pass the exam. The driving instructor was Dutch and I think she hated me.
I had purchased the Camira on the Sunday market. I paid with a painting. She fell apart after a couple of years, due to the abuse I bestowed on her, no doubt.
I upgraded to a brand new Holden Rodeo 4WD. The happiest day in my life was when I bought that ute.
The second happiest day was the day I sold it. I then went with considerable speed through a number of cars.
Some were wrecked, some were stolen, yet another one was set to fire … Still I loved my cars and did not ever look back to bicycle riding.
Until the job loss.
And getting single.
I was now considerably older, but it was amazing how quickly I became skilled on the bike again. After a couple of days I could zigzag in between cars at traffic lights and leave them all behind, standing on the pedals, skirts flapping in the wind, hair in disarray, I loved it.
I have not lost a beat! I annoy the hell out of men in utes, that’s for sure, but if they get too rude I give them the finger.
Yes, it is good to be a Single Female Bicycle Rider in Alice.