Once upon a time i asked my mom “Mi, how come i don’t know how to swim and cycle?”, when all my friends in school was going for swimming classes and i see kids in the park balancing on their striking bicycles. All mom mom said was “What for?” and that was the end of it.

Fast forward today, i’m 29 and i finally albeit a little late, mastered the bicycle for the first time in my life. It was only 2 years back that i learned how to swim but having succeeded at last; i am exhilarated and felt an impossible sense of achievement. Call me silly but to me it’s a great feat.

I had no idea how fun it was to ride a bicycle and to paddle breathlessly uphill and roll uncontrollably downhill is really fabulous. To have learnt how to ride at an age when i’m the most afraid of falling and gashing my leg or hand (oh the horror of having permanent scars) is something i’m proud of. But all doubts aside i manage to ride within day 3 and the only serious injury i obtained is a scratch on my right calf.

I find it strange that i would veer off-track all the time, hitting the bushes but each time when i hum an out of the ordinary tune i would be able to ride straight on without a hitch. It’s even more bizarre that i should have hummed the Pokemon Jiggly Puff tune the very first time i rode straight! I had no idea why but it just came into my mind. The second day, when even that tune failed, i began humming the Indiana Jones tune which miraculously helped me through.

Now i can ride straight (without humming like a mad woman although sometimes it helps a little) with only an occasional lapse in my pace but i need more practice with U-turns. I’m even thinking of getting a bike soon if it’s on tax-rebate that is. Our May trip to Yogyakarta is going to be fantastic if we are able to secure some bicycles to cycle around the heritage sites.

Fingers crossed.

When i came home with light scratches on my arm and leg, my mom took one look at me and asked what i was up to. It was almost comical when i told her i had been learning to cycle and the only thing she said to me was “What for?”, the same answer she gave me many, many years ago.