Now here’s a challenge I can aspire to; suitably silly, a name with a pun, involves coffee and cycling, easy enough but it’ll take a bit of paying attention to not let the days slip past. Let’s go coffeeneuring…
Somewhere around five weeks ago I stumbled across the blog post at Save the Date: Coffeeneuring Challenge Starts October 13 and decided to give it a go; seven coffees in six weeks didn’t seem too hard.
A day or so ago I realised that two of the six weeks have passed and unless I get going I’d not be able to make the two rides a week, so off I went in my lunch break today. For the first time in months – possibly years – I’d ridden my single-speed to work after collecting it from the bike shop with a new chain, something that it has been needing for months, if not years. My grumpy injured shoulder noticed the difference in riding position compared to the AWOL and my thighs certainly noticed the lack of gears. Out through the campus and wriggle my way southwards down to the Clayton shops for a first coffee of the challenge.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Caffè Corso, good cheap coffee and pleasant no-nonsense staff. Today’s cappuccino had an enormously thick layer of chocolate and was an enjoyable break from the working day. Half an hour sitting sipping and people watching, then back on the bike to get back to work.
Ducking through the alley to circle around and get back to the station I checked out all the murals that the council has had painted in order to discourage graffiti and paste-up advertising, then of course the bare walls that are covered in graffiti and paste-up advertising. The juxtaposition of the following two artists – Paul McCartney and Pop Will Eat Itself – caught my eye and made me laugh.
Back up the side streets past first the Skyrail building site for Clayton Station and then the hospital. Chuckle at all the nurses standing around on the footpath smoking – smoking is banned on the hospital grounds so staff and patients walk outside, cross the border, light up and then dump a sea of butts on the boundary. Then up to the vast acreage that is the North road/Wellington road/Dandenong road intersection and juggle the traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and bus lanes to cross unscathed.
So there it was, 5.9 km is enough to satisfy the philistines and their mile measurements. Nearly three weeks and one coffee down, three more weeks and six coffee to go…
