I should not be let out.

or at least not let out on a bike.

Jen - you're going to love this one....

So I made mention recently of my new bike purchase. Yeah, yeah, it's was mostly about how the bike people scared me, but its all fixed up now and ready for me to ride. Once I got comfortable with Mr. Bike Man, I was all like 'I need clip pedals because that's what I used to have and can't really remember how to ride without them." Yadda, yadda. I'm so obnoxious sometimes I can barely stand myself.....

So today's Good Friday out here which means its holiday time for Sydney's tourist mecca: the beach on the last nice weekend of the year. And its a beauty of a day here - 27 degrees, sunny, a slight breeze - but not too cold a breeze, calm ocean - great for paddling in (which I did do today) - so the streets are fairly crowded and the corso (kind of like an outdoor mall with interlocking stones on the street with no cars) is completely chockers.

Now I live one block from the beach and one block from the corso - and due to the geography of Manly (which I can't explain because, as I told some guy once, if I hadn't cheated in Grade 8 geography, I would have failed) no matter what route I decided to take for my maiden bike adventure, I would ride past the corso. Which is something I manage to do only because I have to.

See, I'm usually a pretty shy exerciser. I like to run at night because then people can't see me if the sun's not out (amazing how close this is to the dog's logic that if he shuts his eyes while sitting on the couch, no one will see him and he won't get in trouble); I generally wear black clothes because it makes me harder to see (or at the very least thinner...) as long as its not too hot, and I don't have equipment that's too flash - I leave that to the experts - don't want to increase the chances of making an ass of myself.

Like today.

Now, it is true that I wore clip shoes for years on my bike I had in Canada, but it is also true that it's been years since I've ridden that bike and/or clip shoes.

Until today.

Now it is true that my clips were old so they put new ones on - and probably an upgraded version of what I had before, but it is also true that they operated much in the same manner as my old clips.

Not today.

Today I rode my bike that one short block towards the beach. Turned left at the corner and half a block down, the light at the end of the corso that allows pedestrians to cross to the beach - which, as Sod's Law would have it - turned red. I had to stop. Stopping involves just that: stopping. Stopping on a bike also involves putting your foot down on the ground.

Very hard to do if you can't get your foot out of the clip pedals.

Do you know what happens if you can't get your foot out of clip pedals when your bike comes to a complete halt? You fall over.

Me? I fall over in front of literally hundreds of people.

Still in my clips.

Picture this: me lying half on the curb, half on the street, basically strapped into my bike with tourists and cars going around me as I struggled to get my feet free. Ever have moments where 60 seconds feels like a decade? Think I aged 20 years today...

Hopefully my braided hair, bike helmet and sunglasses was enough to disguise me. Certainly no one stopped to say hi.

I've heard it's hard to speak while laughing.