Jandals & Togs: Up Hill, Both Ways!

I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night,

half an hour before I went to bed, eat a clump of cold poison,

work twenty-nine hours a day down mill,

and pay mill owner for permission to come to work.

And when we got home, our Dad and our mother

would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

- Monty Python "Four Yorkshiremen"

I live in the Windy City ... no, not Chicago, IL; I live in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The actual title for "Windiest City on Earth" is difficult to establish but Wellington, just 135km/84mi to the South of us, lays claim to it. While Palmy doesn't quite reach the levels of maximum sustained wind speeds experienced in Wellington, it is breezy more often than Wellington. As such, Palmerston North has a pretty good case for being the windiest city.

The wind speeds are high enough, and regular/predictable enough, that massive wind farms are built on the Tararua Range to the East of us and the local rugby team is called the Manawatu Turbos.

We have been here a month, and rain or shine (mostly rain), I have ridden my bicycle to work every single shift. It's not a bad ride; only about 3.6 km (2.2 mi), but it is a steady uphill climb in to work. I'm not exactly a Yorkshireman, but I do ride my bike uphill (one way), and for some god-forsaken reason, it does feel like I am always riding into a headwind. All day. Every day. No matter what direction I am actually riding in.

Recently, I had my mum send my commuter cycling shoes and pedals from an old bike and that has made a huge difference to my ride. I don't have a long commute every day (only about 10 minutes of cycling time), but I ride my bike to and from work and I am not driving the car. As the weather warms up and my legs get stronger, the ride is becoming more pleasant despite the near daily wind and rain.

I used to ride a bicycle every day and fancied myself quite the racer. I did pretty well, but I was never going to make a living on two wheels. After medical school and residency training, we moved to Myrtle Beach and I had grand visions of riding my bicycle to work every day. Unfortunately, MB is just not set up for commuting by bicycle. In Palmerston North, I ride my bicycle almost every day; sometimes for work, and sometimes for play.

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I really don't have much to talk about this week, nor much to complain about, so I'm going to leave off with some photos that didn't fit in with any of our previous posts.

Flying first class ain't too shabby. Biking isn't first class, but sustainable and better for you. A visit to the beach had us seeing live seals, and nature at work. I guess she doesn't know that Owling is passe.