A series of recent events has alerted me to the fact that I am officially middle-aged: The All Blacks seem so young to me they could almost be my kids. Our GP is my age - it's like having medical banter with a mum-friend who can write prescriptions.
And, this week, the real kicker: I got a bike.
I don't know when official middle-age begins but I turn 40 in a couple of weeks. So here we are, I'm closer to the "middle" than whatever was before that.
Isn't a bike the ultimate symbol of middle-ageism?
As is the reason for buying the bike: There is a problem with my big toe that has stopped me from running. It has bone spurs that most likely need to be shaved off some time when I can hang out recovering in a moon boot for three weeks ... which will be never because I have three young kids.
We got the bike for my fitness and sanity but also, like many families with kids, because the kids got bigger bikes and suddenly I couldn't keep up with them on foot, pushing the baby in a stroller, because they are fast now and I have an elderly person's toe.
I had to ride the bike home from the bike shop because we don't have a tow bar to carry it. It was the first time I had ridden a bike in many years.
I got out of the shop and started fiddling with the gears to see how they felt. I was spinning my legs in one of the easy gears and going nowhere fast when I realised I didn't know how to change the gears back.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.I rode the half a block back to the shop and explained: "Um … I fiddled with the gears and I don't know how to change them back."
The salesperson showed me what I had thought was a gear cable was actually another lever to pull the gears back. Push and pull levers on each handlebar! Bikes are so flash these days!
The last time I rode a bike they didn't do that … Ugh. I even sound middle-aged.
I started playing with the gears again as I stepped up the pedal power, riding into a head wind up the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Then the downhill. I felt like I was playing an old arcade car game with manual gear changes. It was exhilarating and freeing.
With a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and 16-month old - who has pretty much been with me since the day he was born - I had forgotten the beauty of solitude.
Not the solitude of a baby sleeping for a couple of hours but this - real solitude.
No one demanding emotional energy or attention or … anything. All I had to think about was where I was going and what gear I was in.
I had a grin from ear to ear the whole ride.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.I followed the waterfront all the way home basking in what an amazing place we get to call home.
The affection I have towards this bike from one brief ride is much like the love I had for my first car - which has never been replicated by subsequent family cars.
The freedom. The symbol of escape. The fresh air and endorphins. I get it now.
I wish I was middle-aged years ago.