Stripes

When our car died six and a half years ago we decided to see whether we could live without one. The answer is yes – bikes, buses and trains work well where we live and we hire a car about once a year to take heavy loads or go to remote places. Recently I’ve been insured on a car that’s kept a cycle-ride away and today I borrowed it for the first time to visit a rural friend (the one I bumped into by chance on a New Zealand train).

A good thing about cars: you get to blippable places that are too distant for a bike.

A bad thing about cars: when you see a picture there’s nowhere to stop.

I managed it for this one though. I also stopped in the Chiltern hills on the way back to watch the low sun on the turning leaves and the red kites riding the thermals. This morning when I was testing new students one of the oral questions was ‘If you could be any animal you liked what would you choose and why?’ Obvs: red kite, thermals. Though I warmed to the student who said, ‘I’d be a tiger because they are beautiful and there aren’t enough of them.’ More stripes.