Literally, that is what I am and have been for almost a week. I’m on the mend but it scares me to remember the days with high fever and hallucinations. I have not been this sick since I lived with my parents, now I had to manage all on my own – quite hard work being sick!
I used to say that when I’m riding my Ducati I fear only two things: idiots turning left and water in the electronics. Now I fear a third thing: getting sick along the route and not being able to continue, or take care of myself. This week of illness has not only drained all my energy but also my inspiration.
I also feel slightly stressed. There were plenty of things that I was supposed to do last week, not to mention during the weekend. I had planned to do long dayrides to see if my back holds and build my durability and strength. Riding a bike is a physical activity, a sport. You need muscle strength to do it, especially if you want to ride long distances on a café-bike, like I do. This might be needless to explain for other bikers, but I find that for non-riders this is often hard to understand.
My Ducati could do with a good wash as well. I did drag myself out there to cover it for the heavy rain on Saturday. That was done by pure love and I had to rest for hours after that. I had an idea of at least cleaning the rims today, but that just has to wait, it was like I was glued to the sofa. (Which indeed is a step up from the bed, proof of healing).
Some really good news though – I made plans with my Estonian friend Anneli and she will join me in Sweden and we’ll ride to England together. This is just as nice as unexpected. Apparently she is alone representing her country at the WIMA rally as well.
And also, I managed to make the reservation for the Kiel-Gothenburg ferry before I got sick. So now I have a shared cabin and my membership in SMC gave me a flexi-ticket instead of a budget for the same price. That is something to be happy about, ferries are expensive even though I saved about 20 euros by sharing a cabin. Now I’m thinking of that poor woman who will share it with me. Bikers tend to not smell like roses after a few days intensive riding, even the female ones.
