The New Forest, where I live, is a 40mph zone throughout, not that some obey it, but it's great for cycling. There's a number of tracks too, a little bumpy but quite manageable, I've yet to get a puncture on them. Twice a week, more when the weather is clement, my old, 1922 Phillips bicycle comes out, it's got a lady's frame, which is ideal for me, the whole point of cycling is to follow doctor's orders and keep the hip replacement joint exercised. There's a quite a few different types of watering holes in The Forest, most popular are the thatched roofed pubs, but there's also tea rooms, cafes and my particular favourite, a former railway station.
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It's not just the hip that has a problem, my bladder doesn't have the holding power that it once had and as Holmsley is within bladder distance, I cycle there and back. After refreshments, I came out to find a group of cyclists gathered around my bike. They were, like me, retirees, in fact seeing them gathered around my bike, they look like a pack of 'Q' Tips, those little white sort of cocktail sticks with a cotton wool bud on the end.
"Is there a problem?" I asked, turning round and seeing me caused a spontaneous laugh. They were all dressed for cycling, modern day cycling. I was dressed as was, when the bike was new. Turns out that they are members of some retirement club, and would I like to join? Thanking them for their offer I declined, explaining that we, that's my wife and I, are so busy we wouldn't find time. Then one fellow said that he thought that he had seen me somewhere, probably prompted by my mode of dress. "Would it be here?" I asked him, holding up a picture of my MG at a classic car show. "That's it!" he said, "last year at East Boldre." "Correct." I said. "You wore a hat that day," he replied, "So did my wife," I answered.
https://newforestrun2019finish.shutterfly.com/pictures/9#101
I then had to pose, phones and cameras came out, click, click, click they went. We said our farewells and away the went. I guess it was the old bicycle that amused them so, I find that my old MG has a similar effect. In case you missed it when I posted it previously, here's my old bike.
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Just in case you might think that I have been ignoring the lockdown rules, I must add that this took place just before the pandemic broke.