V (2018)

I mentioned in my previous post (I know - two in one day to make up for my complete absence of blogging in the first three weeks of November!) that I was down at the Motor City Autodrome yesterday evening. The main reason for this is that V. has decided to try to do the 30km 12-15year olds ride as part of the Spinney’s cycle challenge. V and I have been out cycling together on the weekends over the last few months and she has recently started to use her Brother’s mountain bike as her bike did not have sufficient low gears to maintain a decent pace. She seems to enjoy our trips around the Villa and we have been gradually trying to increase the distance although we have been hovering around the 10 – 12 km mark. However, the Autodrome was a completely different experience for her as not only were there some serious cyclists (with some serious bikes which did not go unnoticed by her!) out on the track with her but there was some fairly steep slopes to contend with – a marked contrast to the relatively flat paths and roads around The Villa! However, with her usual determination V. struggled up the inclines (the Autodrome is designed as a car-racing track so there are banked turns, chicanes and some quite steep downward parts as well) and hurtled down the slopes. This is very much in keeping with her character generally – always up for a challenge and quite happy to let go of the brakes and get a bit of speed up as she demonstrated during our ski trip to Norway a few years back. Having now reached the grand old age of 12, V definitely knows her own mind (twas ever thus…) and is not afraid to speak it! She now has a circle of friends at school who she generally gets along with and when they do have their ups and downs seems to be more of a peacemaker rather than a protagonist. She is particularly enjoying her debate club and the model UN activities that she does as part of the ECAs (and is in fact going to an all-day debate at one of the other local schools tomorrow representing her school). She also continues to enjoy the creative arts – including her writing and drawing and generally seems to be doing very well at school.

We both have a few more weeks to complete our preparations for the cycle challenges so fingers crossed that we both successfully navigate our respective rides.