Introducing Matilda

This is Matilda.

She is 1 day old (well, in my counting).

She is the result of astute reader, Matthew T., having had the intelligence to navigate the UEA website and the kindness to inform me last Thursday of a benefit scheme offered by my green employer (of which I was completely unaware. There are lots of things at UEA which are out of the sphere of normal comprehension -- titter.). This scheme involves me paying for the 'hire' of a bike before taxes are taken from my salary each month, thereby saving me some mathematical calculation of money -- M and E both tell me it is good, and since they are both fabulous computer geeks, my faith is in their calculations. At the end of the 'hire' period, I will have the option to buy her outright for a small percentage of something...

You see, my previous bike (pictured to L, at Cardiff Bay) was a mountain bike. She was purple, but she was also really a pain to ride on the road. When one is commuting to work, one generally cycles on the road. Mountain bike tires have a lot more friction on the road or something, but they are just a lot harder to pedal, rendering certain pro-sweaty people to have a less than professional appearance upon arrival to work. So, as much as we got on, I sold her last week. I love Gumtree! (She never told me her name, unless i happened to mention it on the Cardiff blog...)

Purchasing a new bike may seem like a frivolous luxury, and walking to work is very good for me, but it does take 45 minutes (although I have walked to and/or from work about 10 times in the past week - click link to see route! This has been outstanding!). Not really something to be done every day, especially if no one is going to be my nanny and wake me up on time, force me out of bed and to the ironing board, and make me tea so as to stimulate functionality in reasonable time to arrive at 9am. Being Ruth's grand-daughter, there is no 'speeding up' gear in my walking as I already outwalk most people, so 'late' is really and truly 'late'. And just gives me high blood pressure.

So, what I got to do was pick out a bike last weekend, get a quote, take the quote to Finance people on Monday, sign an agreement for my salary to be altered on Wednesday, and go collect Matilda yesterday! E has made some adjustments to chains and things, attached the front light (the back light is being a tricky customer).

Today, I will take her out on errands (since I am having to use holiday time up before end of August) and see how she likes me. I shall now get myself ready, as the tea is kicking in.