It reminded me of when Chris and I first started going out. We lived in St Kilda and we rode our bikes every weekend. When the girls were little, we put them in bike seats and rode around with them. As they got older, they rode alongside us. And then somewhere along the way, the girls lost interest and our bikes got rusty and old so we just stopped riding.
Chris has some friends who cycle, so he took it up again early last year and after Bali, I decided to join him. I’m not brave enough to ride on the road but the bike path along the beach is only ten minutes from home. So I bought myself a beautiful retro bike and we have started riding together.
It made me realise how much I had missed having a shared interest. For years we’ve been parenting, renovating houses and landscaping the garden together. Now the girls are grown, the renovations are finished and the garden is taking care of itself. So we need to find new things to keep us connected.
We cycle along beside the beach and chat about other stuff we can do together. We’ve only had a handful of rides so far but it’s been great to reconnect with something we love to do.
We would be delighted for you to reproduce our articles as long as they remain intact and contain the author’s details as follows: ‘Kate James is a coach, speaker and writer. She works with people who want to live confident, creative lives. Kate can be contacted at totalbalance.com.au.’