I’m generally pretty satisfied with my lot – I work hard doing things which interest me and I spend as much time as possible cycling and cuddling my four cats. I always have plenty of good food to eat, enjoy time in both the countryside and the capital and I have several bikes to ride. Yep, I’m lucky and I appreciate my good fortune.
So on the whole, I don’t spend my time longing for what others have, or dreaming of bigger, better, more etc. Sure, I wish I had a garden and a bath instead of a shower but if that’s all I have to complain about, well, I don’t have anything to complain about. To put it plainly, I’m happy with my lot.
But then…I went and upset the balance…
It started off in Afan Forest when I was riding and writing an article for Coven Magazine. For the first time in my life, I rode a full suspension mountain bike, courtesy of Skyline Cycles, and oh yeah, it was an Orange 5. Cue, a terrible hunger for an all mountain bike, because hell, that bike was FUN. Previously, I’d been more than happy with a hard tail, dammit.
Just to make things worse, I’m now testing a really rather special road bike for Total Women’s Cycling, the Trek Domane with Ultegra Di2 electric shifting group set. I decided not to check the price before I rode it, thinking I’d rather not have perceived value cloud any judgement. Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was a fancy bike, but I didn’t know the price. So anyway, I took said bike for a test ride the other day (after two agonising days of it’s staring at me from the box – I was on deadline for Coven Magazine) and holy shit, I loved it. I was blasting up hills doing mental arithmetic, figuring out how I could get one of these, how long it would take to pay for etc… Then when I got in, I checked the price and felt really, really bummed out about the fact I will never own one of these bikes and I’m going to have to give this one back.
So now I’m filled with yearning, with envy, whereas I wasn’t before. POOP!
