On the way home from a pleasant and sociable two hours cycling with George, I decided to go down John’s Hill (aka Cribs House Lane) for a change.  Just because.  Variety being the spice of life, ‘n all that.  Plus little sheltered roads are attractive when the wind is like it was today.

It’s your typical country lane.  One lane.  Narrow.  Banks and high hedges on both sides.  Wiggly.  To be approached with a degree of care, however quiet the road usually is.  So as I head down it and around a bend I am indeed paying attention.  Just as well; as coming straight towards me at considerable speed is a road filling white transit van…something that comes as a shock to both of us.

Cue my anglosaxon vocal reflex.
Braking, both heading for our respective left banks.
There is skidding, and slipping, and scraping, and a slowing down of the space time continuum…
Somehow a gap appears on the left, I’m going through, and the van hasn’t hit me, and I’m out the other side and am stopped upright on the road, now behind the van.
Which has ground to a stop and other than possibly some hedge, not hit anything.
Somehow, inexplicably, we are all fine.

I retrieve my heart from my mouth, and kinda wave in his direction so he knows that I’m ok.
And ride off on legs that are a little wobblier than usual for a while.

Should I have gone over and said something?  Maybe.  Well I didn’t, but don’t blame me, it wasn’t really a time for rational thought.  Thanksgiving maybe.  Thinking, no.  If he’d been going any faster, or had been there 10 seconds earlier, all the above evasive action would not have had time to happen, and I wouldn’t be writing this.

We’re a cat family.  We have a Gumbie Cat.  And a Jellicle Cat.  And if the book my Mother was given for me before I was born, which I can’t find for the life of me, is anything to go by, my name should begin with an N.  Which clearly it doesn’t.  However, cats have, allegedly, nine lives.  Put all that together, and today my tally is one less…

This afternoon I went and had coffee and gluten free banana cake at The Almshouse to celebrate my continued existence.  That and because they make exceedingly good cakes… 😉

Cycling time: 2:03:22 hrs
Distance: 30.76 miles
Avs: 15.0 mph.
ODO: 15831.22 miles