{"id":1098,"date":"2019-06-20T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2019-06-14T14:40:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T13:40:23","slug":"melancholy-is-incompatible-with-bicycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/melancholy-is-incompatible-with-bicycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Melancholy is Incompatible with Bicycling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former housemate bought me this picture many years ago, when I was an avid cycling commuter in London, and it now hangs in my office. (It\u2019s a quote by James E. Starrs, author of The Literary Cyclist: Great Bicycling Scenes in Literature).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--> I have to admit I can\u2019t think of any \u2018great bicycling scenes\u2019 in literature \u2013 I\u2019ll have to read the book one day to find out what they are; but I do know that in my life story, cycling has played a lead role. I\u2019ve always loved being on two wheels, right from the get go, when as a small child I got my first bike and couldn\u2019t wait to get rid of the stabilisers!<\/p>\n<p>Following the onset of persistent knee pain several years ago, and then a confidence-shattering cycling accident on holiday in France in the summer of 2016, I wasn\u2019t cycling at all, something I now realise was making me feel a bit glum. At the end of March 2019, after a particularly difficult couple of months emotionally following the death of a close family member, I bought my now beloved orange and black Brompton, and oh what a joy this bicycle is! (Yes, all the hype about them is justified).<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1106\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/602\/2019\/06\/Brompton-2-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/602\/2019\/06\/Brompton-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/602\/2019\/06\/Brompton-2.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/602\/2019\/06\/Brompton-2-680x907.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Despite smaller wheels, it still makes for a speedy ride &#8211; except up hills \u2013 and I love how it folds. It has become a constant companion as I\u2019ve gone back to commuting to work on it, and when I\u2019m using it socially or for errands etc, take it everywhere with me.<\/p>\n<p>Being on my Brompton reminds me just how true this quote really is!<\/p>\n<p>If you like cycling why not join <a href=\"https:\/\/cccu.canterbury.ac.uk\/estates-and-facilities-services\/our-services\/transport-and-travel\/cycle-scheme.aspx\">CCCUBUG<\/a>, the University\u2019s <strong>B<\/strong>icycle <strong>U<\/strong>ser <strong>G<\/strong>roup? Email me, Maz Hamilton on <a href=\"mailto:bug@canterbury.ac.uk\">bug@canterbury.ac.uk<\/a> for more info.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Maz Hamilton, Sustainability and Futures Initiative Co-ordinator<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former housemate bought me this picture many years ago, when I was an avid cycling commuter in London, and it now hangs in my office. (It\u2019s a quote by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136217,"featured_media":1101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[202,206,94],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","tag-bicycle","tag-sustainability","tag-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Juliet Flynn","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/602\/2019\/06\/bicycle.jpg","postExcerpt":"A former housemate bought me this picture many years ago, when I was an avid cycling commuter in London, and it now hangs in my office. (It\u2019s a quote by [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}