Lost Time

Everyone loses time and the key thing about lost time is that once lost you never find it again. During everyone’s day, there is a period where you could do something useful like mending a fuse, cleaning the car or baking some scones. Instead we all waste that time and it is lost. It can occur It could be at any time It could be in the morning if you work nights or even in the dark for a commuter. If you are neither a lark or an owl the gap between afternoon and evening is ideal for fresh scones, or for pedaling. If truth were told, many of us prefer the scones.

My real problem is like everyone else I do not seem to have enough time, so it becomes another exercise in balance. Work, family, friends, cars, gardens and even other people’s bikes seem to come ahead of my own bike, which despite my best efforts need lots of extra care. I ride a lot so it always needs cleaning, I tried to jump that log and now it needs repairing. It is making a tiny noise so it obviously needs absolutely everything adjusting. It has worn something out and needs replacing. Riding conditions have changed so something needs swapping. There is a new improved widget just launched that I want to get. And you have something on your bike that I like, really like, and do not need but it feels necessary somehow. Therefore, I do not have enough time to ride further, to ride more often, to ride more places or even to ride an extra local loop. I have a solution for this that does not include winning the lottery. I need to improve my time planning. How long will this take? An hour. No, it will not! By the time, I am organised and ready to start that hour has slipped away. By the time I have finished and cleared away - half a day. A meeting scheduled for an hour with everyone prepared and a fixed agenda can eat up a day and achieve nothing. Hence, the result is that the time left is never enough to go for a ride with the only exception of when it has just started to pour down of course. Therefore, I will try to be more realistic about the time for everything but plan in some rides, ideally with someone else, so I cannot change it and also to try, just try mind, to take advantage of some of my lost time.

Need to go now, almost teatime and I have arranged a ride. Make mental note - Buy ticket just in case…