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#1
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Afternoon with a stranger
There was me, driving back from Chalk Farm on the other side of Swaffham,
car full of plants, and I spy a cyclist on the A47 pushing a heavily laden bike along, looking a bit, well, dejected. I happened to have a track pump and a puncture repair kit in the car with me (as one does), so I pulled up a bit in front of him, off the main carriageway, to enquire if he was in need of assistance. Turns out he was having a rest from cycling. No puncture, but a few irritating things wrong with the bike. Strange accent - Canadian/Danish... and basically this guy is working his way around the globe with his bike as his transport & all worldly goods on it. So it being Easter Monday, no bike shops for a long way - so I gave him the address of Chateau Unfit Family and said that if he was heading in that direction (he was) to call in and we'd see if we could help out with his bike as Vernon has a garage full of bits and today he was doing bike maintenance. Anyhow - I'm back at Chateau Unfit Family (potting plants while Vernon does the bike maintenance) and a while later, a globe-trotting Danish/Canadian cyclist shows up. His steed is an ancient German thing that has seen better days, as has his luggage, containing his worldly possessions, as he tours around like this, looking for work in various parts of the world. Anyhow, we provide tea, cake and Vernon cleans his bike for him, does a bit of maintenance work on the mudguard, headset & drum brakes - cleans the bike too. We supply him with spares of Useful Stuff such as batteries, cable ties, LED headtorch, rear LED, reflective stuff, bottle carrier for waist belt, detailed maps of the area. Vernon is given a rather nice Leatherman multi-tool as a thank you, and I'm given a stopwatch. We didn't want to accept but did not want to offend. He's now headed off in the direction of Fakenham, with Nathan going part of the way to show him the route up the back roads, to avoid the busy roads. It was a thoroughly interesting afternoon. Seeing a cyclist looking as if he was struggling along the mad A47, I had to stop, as I would not want to be in that position myself, and be stranded on a day when there's not that many places open and in a strange place. As it turns out, Vernon & I had an interesting afternoon chatting with a cycling stranger. Cheers, helen s -- ~~ you may need to remove dependence on fame & fortune from organisation to get correct email address ~Noodliness is Good~ |
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#2
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Afternoon with a stranger
wafflycat wrote:
There was me, driving back from Chalk Farm on the other side of Swaffham, car full of plants, and I spy a cyclist on the A47 pushing a heavily laden bike along, looking a bit, well, dejected. I happened to have a track pump and a puncture repair kit in the car with me (as one does), so I pulled up a bit in front of him, off the main carriageway, to enquire if he was in need of assistance. Turns out he was having a rest from cycling. No puncture, but a few irritating things wrong with the bike. Strange accent - Canadian/Danish... and basically this guy is working his way around the globe with his bike as his transport & all worldly goods on it. So it being Easter Monday, no bike shops for a long way - so I gave him the address of Chateau Unfit Family and said that if he was heading in that direction (he was) to call in and we'd see if we could help out with his bike as Vernon has a garage full of bits and today he was doing bike maintenance. Anyhow - I'm back at Chateau Unfit Family (potting plants while Vernon does the bike maintenance) and a while later, a globe-trotting Danish/Canadian cyclist shows up. His steed is an ancient German thing that has seen better days, as has his luggage, containing his worldly possessions, as he tours around like this, looking for work in various parts of the world. Anyhow, we provide tea, cake and Vernon cleans his bike for him, does a bit of maintenance work on the mudguard, headset & drum brakes - cleans the bike too. We supply him with spares of Useful Stuff such as batteries, cable ties, LED headtorch, rear LED, reflective stuff, bottle carrier for waist belt, detailed maps of the area. Vernon is given a rather nice Leatherman multi-tool as a thank you, and I'm given a stopwatch. We didn't want to accept but did not want to offend. He's now headed off in the direction of Fakenham, with Nathan going part of the way to show him the route up the back roads, to avoid the busy roads. It was a thoroughly interesting afternoon. Seeing a cyclist looking as if he was struggling along the mad A47, I had to stop, as I would not want to be in that position myself, and be stranded on a day when there's not that many places open and in a strange place. As it turns out, Vernon & I had an interesting afternoon chatting with a cycling stranger. Nice one. I'm sure what you've done will go a long way. -- Hywel |
#3
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Afternoon with a stranger
well done to you, what a nice family of caring people, i am still seething
at the arsehole who shouted the obsenities at me on Friday morning in Helmshore!!!!!! So much so that I am thinking of going up there qgain (to see my dad) and hope that this foul mouthed cyclist passes me again, he won't stay on his ****ty old racer for long, thats for sure!!!! Your story has given me re-assurances that some of us cyclists are decent folk! "wafflycat" wrote in message ... There was me, driving back from Chalk Farm on the other side of Swaffham, car full of plants, and I spy a cyclist on the A47 pushing a heavily laden bike along, looking a bit, well, dejected. I happened to have a track pump and a puncture repair kit in the car with me (as one does), so I pulled up a bit in front of him, off the main carriageway, to enquire if he was in need of assistance. Turns out he was having a rest from cycling. No puncture, but a few irritating things wrong with the bike. Strange accent - Canadian/Danish... and basically this guy is working his way around the globe with his bike as his transport & all worldly goods on it. So it being Easter Monday, no bike shops for a long way - so I gave him the address of Chateau Unfit Family and said that if he was heading in that direction (he was) to call in and we'd see if we could help out with his bike as Vernon has a garage full of bits and today he was doing bike maintenance. Anyhow - I'm back at Chateau Unfit Family (potting plants while Vernon does the bike maintenance) and a while later, a globe-trotting Danish/Canadian cyclist shows up. His steed is an ancient German thing that has seen better days, as has his luggage, containing his worldly possessions, as he tours around like this, looking for work in various parts of the world. Anyhow, we provide tea, cake and Vernon cleans his bike for him, does a bit of maintenance work on the mudguard, headset & drum brakes - cleans the bike too. We supply him with spares of Useful Stuff such as batteries, cable ties, LED headtorch, rear LED, reflective stuff, bottle carrier for waist belt, detailed maps of the area. Vernon is given a rather nice Leatherman multi-tool as a thank you, and I'm given a stopwatch. We didn't want to accept but did not want to offend. He's now headed off in the direction of Fakenham, with Nathan going part of the way to show him the route up the back roads, to avoid the busy roads. It was a thoroughly interesting afternoon. Seeing a cyclist looking as if he was struggling along the mad A47, I had to stop, as I would not want to be in that position myself, and be stranded on a day when there's not that many places open and in a strange place. As it turns out, Vernon & I had an interesting afternoon chatting with a cycling stranger. Cheers, helen s -- ~~ you may need to remove dependence on fame & fortune from organisation to get correct email address ~Noodliness is Good~ |
#4
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Afternoon with a stranger
"Hywel Jenkins" wrote in message . uk... Nice one. I'm sure what you've done will go a long way. -- Hywel Ta. The Unfit Family had kindness from total strangers when we needed it in France a couple of summers ago. It's good to be able to pass kindness along in turn. Cheers, helen s |
#5
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Afternoon with a stranger
"jss" wrote in message ... well done to you, what a nice family of caring people, i am still seething at the arsehole who shouted the obsenities at me on Friday morning in Helmshore!!!!!! So much so that I am thinking of going up there qgain (to see my dad) and hope that this foul mouthed cyclist passes me again, he won't stay on his ****ty old racer for long, thats for sure!!!! Your story has given me re-assurances that some of us cyclists are decent folk! Sadly your past and current postings do little to reassure that there's much that decent cyclists can identify with you..... |
#6
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Afternoon with a stranger
jss wrote:
Your story has given me re-assurances that some of us cyclists are decent folk! ITYM "you cyclists" -- Tony "The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the right." - Lord Hailsham |
#7
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Afternoon with a stranger
"Hywel Jenkins" wrote in message . uk... Nice one. I'm sure what you've done will go a long way. Very true. Its the people that you meet touring that makes it such a blast. Cyclists the world over seem friendly and helpful. T |
#8
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Afternoon with a stranger
jss wrote:
well done to you, what a nice family of caring people, i am still seething at the arsehole who shouted the obsenities at me on Friday morning in Helmshore!!!!!! Why, for goodness sake? Some idiot shouted at you, maybe as a deliberate wind-up, or possibly he mistook you for someone else he'd had a run-in with earlier. Who knows? He almost certainly forgot about the incident completely within the next 60 seconds. You, on the other hand have been carrying the psychological baggage around for days. Why would you let someone you don't even know affect you like that? These things happen in life. Let it go. -- Dave... |
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