The water’s lovely! Well, there was quite a lot today, not all of it welcome, falling out of the sky and being propelled at us as lorries drove through the puddles, but it could have been worse.
It was our youngest son’s first day at secondary school, so I cycled up there with him this morning and back this afternoon. His elder brother goes there too, so hopefully they’ll travel together generally. It’s about two and half miles away, so ideal for bikes, and perfectly possible, if a bit tedious, to walk. There are buses as well, though we haven’t bothered with them so far.
None of the students, apart from our boys, seem to cycle to school (not sure whether any do in the whole town, though one or two staff do) so there aren’t, of course, any bike sheds but there is a convenient stretch of railings with a CCTV camera above which seems safe enough, if a bit damp in the Northern Irish climate. This morning was brilliant sunshine, and I blithely told A. to leave his coat at home. Of course it didn’t last, saving the most violent storm for precisely 3.15 to 3.45 (school finishes at 3.20) but I found an old coat of his at work which, if a bit mildewed, was at least still waterproof.
And I suspect we got home faster than anyone going an equivalent distance through town by car, given Enniskillen’s enormous school-run congestion. Tomorrow all the schools* go back, so there’ll be a chance to see it in all its smoky, honking, bad-tempered glory. Can’t wait.
* An enormous number, despite the minute population, as most of the kids have to be divided by gender, religious affiliation and 11+ (officially ‘transfer test’) performance, plus one extra school, the one our boys are at, for the few that don’t want to be so classified.