Transport of delight

[radegund]

I wish there was an L-plate for cyclists - something that would signal to the world that I am a beginner, awkward and clueless, that I have only the crudest notion of how far my handlebars stick out (wing-mirrors beware), that I'm liable at any moment to swerve, feet flailing manically, having abruptly mislaid the pedals.

So I collected niallm's bike from the shop this morning and rode it to work. It wasn't too bad, I suppose, despite the obvious scorn and frustration I engendered in all the real cyclists who whizzed past me as I threaded my ponderous way through the traffic. (Superego? Moi?) Leg-wobble-wise, moreover, it wasn't bad at all. And I felt quite energetic on arrival, despite my ridiculous lack of sleep.

But the burnng question is: will the oil-stains that transferred themselves to my sky-blue trousers as I gripped the machine in a panic on Harcourt Street come out in the wash, or do I have to give them individual attention?

Comments

Oilstains

[ailbhe]

No, but you can use washing up liquid on 'em to great effect.

Or you can go and buy one of those Stain Devils or Dabitoff things, but I bet you already have washing up liquid.

Long live The I Hate to Housekeep Book.

Re: Oilstains

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, The I Hate to Housekeep Book! I read that many times when I was in school. "How to be happy when you're absolutely miserable" - "How to look as good as the lord intended" - the spotless housekeeper, the spotted housekeeper, the random housekeeper - the mnemonic for French verbs that take être. (Stop with the babbling, Radzer.)

Ahem. Every home should have one.

Every home should have one, was Re: Oilstains

[ailbhe]

This home has two, but no I Hate to Cook Book.

I particularly like the reverse-housekeeping theory, which I have often used - particularly at Christmas, when people are coming.

Re: The I Hate to Housekeep Book

[ailbhe]

Ohh, you could! Every home should have one. IIRC, it's by Peg Bracken.

Re: The I Hate to Housekeep Book

[radegund.livejournal.com]

It's a classic. It was written at the beginning of the 1960s in America, and basically takes the piss out of the 1950s domestic ideal - lots of shortcuts and tips for fooling people into thinking you're a model housewife.

Now I'd better go and hide somewhere before anyone notices my strange addiction to housekeeping books ... particularly anyone who's seen my house :-)

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Ailbhe is quite right: washing-up liquid, and sugar, for scrubbing.

In Germany, of course, cyclists do sometimes wear L-plates. However, I need one for my waterproof; kamikaze cyclist that I am, I can judge to a millimetre whether or not I will make the gap between a car and a lorry, but when I was wearing my waterproof, unzipped, the other day, the flying wings of it with the heavy zip-pull neatly clipped and scratched the wing-mirror of every car I went past.

Stop? Apologise? To a car? Never! Cycle free or die! The latter is most likely.