My latest Scaredy Cat Challenge was to get on my bike and cycle to the next town. Go on, you can laugh if you like – it’s a round trip of about 10k (6.2 miles)! But as I haven’t regularly ridden a bike since I was about eight years old (and have owned a car for 21 years, half of my life) then you might understand where I’m coming from. Some people have a fear of driving, I have a fear of cycling 😉
Thursday was a beautiful day – it really felt like spring had come to Denmark. With all the snow we’ve had this winter, I didn’t dare believe that spring was actually a certainty rather than a possibility. I ran 3k in the park with the girls first thing in the morning and decided to strike while the iron was hot. Filled up my purple NEWO water bottle, put on my cycle helmet and started my heart rate monitor…
I can’t claim it was plain sailing or that I made good speed. It was extremely windy. Made me sympathise with Jacob Haugaard, a Danish comedian who was famously elected to Parliament in 1994 with his manifesto for ‘more tailwinds on Danish cyclepaths’… Not to mention ‘standardisation of hoover bags’, ‘longer green lights at crossroads’ and ‘young men for single mothers’ 😉
But I kept Jonathan Roche’s (founder of the NEWO system) words in my head. (Jonathan is truly inspirational. You can listen to the archives of his internet radio show here.) One of his favourite lines is “When climbing a mountain, don’t look up at the summit. Just make for the next shelter”. Or in my case, just cycle to the next lampost. And, bien sûr, when I reached the next lampost, I found out that I could make it to the next one, and the next one… Lo and behold, I got to my destination with stopping once! 😉
And my destination? My favourite little shop in the next town. The Pink Flamingo. Where they feed my ‘addiction’. Scarves. I had promised myself (yet another) new one if I faced my fears and passed this particular challenge. Because one of the fun things about these Scaredy Cat Challenges is deciding on a lovely big carrot to dangle before my little red nose 🙂 Here’s my ‘carrot’. Turquoise – one of my favourite colours and the ‘hot’ colour for summer 2010.
If you want to see what else The Pink Flamingo has to offer, lookie hereat a previous blogpost. And if you’re lucky enough to live near to Hellerup, then go and see for yourself!
Is there something you’d like to try but fear has been holding you back? Learning a language, decluttering your dungeon, trying a new hair colour? If you have a blog and want to hold hands with me on a Scaredy Cat Challenge, then what are you waiting for? Sign up with the MckLinky below 🙂
Hope you have a super Sunday – with plenty of tailwind! 😉
