(aka Bike) Part 1087 by Angharad Copyright © 2010 Angharad
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“I wonder what Trish said to her,” Simon pondered as we lay in bed.
“I can guess at the message, if not the wording,” I offered.
“At least she had some of her body covered the second time she came down, so whatever it was, it worked.”
“I find it quite frightening at times that in a few years she’ll be telling us all what to do.”
“She does already,” chuckled Simon. “D’you know she has an opinion on the economy?”
“No?” I gasped.
“Yes, she read some article in your bloody Guardian about what Osborne was doing wrong with his cuts, and she agrees with the author.”
“Yeah, I saw that, was by their financial editor or some such, made sense while I read it.”
“She’s absolutely right, this coalition shower couldn’t run a bath.”
“Ah, but they’re going to bash the bankers, so that’ll be popular.”
“Yeah, and who’s gonna make their money for them? Manufacturing? Ha no wonder the Germans are doing so well with exports and so are the Frogs, they still make cars to export. What cars do we make? Even Jaguar and Land Rover are owned by the Indians. We don’t make any now.”
“What about Moggies and Supersevens?”I ventured though I wasn’t sure.
“Yes Morgan and Lotus are still British made, and half the F1 cars are run from over here.”
“I used to know a girl who was a computer tech with one of the F1 teams.”
“How did you know someone on a F1 team?”
“She was TS as well, used to ride a bloody big motorbike.”
“At least Julie made her curfew,” he sighed.
“Only just and she was pie-eyed.”
“Drunk as a lord–and being one, I ought to know.” Simon laughed at his own joke and so did I, though I’m not sure if I was laughing at the bed bouncing up and down with his laughing, or at his joke.
“I’m going to sleep now, darling,” I pecked him on the cheek and turned over to face away from him. I hope to beat him to sleep because once he started to snore I’d be climbing the walls unless I was also asleep.
He muttered to himself for a few minutes, probably because he hadn’t got his wicked way with me. I was far too tired and at the moment with all that was going on, just staying awake was as much as I could manage.
I drifted off thinking about how I could take Trish and Billie out for a ride, I was also wondering if it would be worth me trying to build a bike for Trish.
”Hurry up, Mummy, you’re slowing down my averages,” Trish called back to me as I tried to keep up with her. We’d come a long way since she’d started racing on the bike I made for her. Now she had her own workshop and was making her own bikes and racing them, with interest from a sponsor to take her on to his team–although she was more interested in finishing her master’s degree–not bad going for sixteen. It was funny that cycling got her interested in engineering, and I know that Aerospace were making overtures to her university–bloody Cambridge.
I’d been doing some regular riding, but ever since she’d had her op in Holland, she hadn’t looked back, and there was always a load of boys hanging around her–mind you she’s blossomed into a very attractive young woman.
She still tells Julie what to do, although Julie has been married a couple of years now, runs her own salon and does the works from pedicures to hair extensions. Simon set her up with a few months rent and a loan to take over a rundown business and she’s doing very well. Her hubby runs his own specialist bakery business, ‘Knead the Dough’.
Billie’s doing okay, but very quietly. She’s training as a paediatric nurse, a choice she made after Stella had her second baby–when she married Ken. Ken’s been a great support for Billie, encouraging her to complete her nursing degree.
Only Meems left now, Danny went off to the Royal Airforce and became a pilot, he’s married, with one little boy, though we hardly ever see them these days. He does see Trish now and again when she’s at uni, because Danny’s based at a station in Suffolk. Neither Simon nor I were in favour of him joining up, but he was eighteen and we couldn’t stop him. I suspect he only did it to get away from all the women in the house–mind you when they weren’t nagging him, they were spoiling him.
Henry’s practically retired now, so Simon is chairman in all but name. We see each other once every week or two, when I’m not flying to Geneva or New York, well the United Nations is such a pain to work for. Still another year and it’s rumoured that a certain university in the south east with whom I had some contact as an undergrad will be looking for a professor of mammalian biology and ecology.
“Come on, Mummy,” said Trish’s voice. Then suddenly she was pulling on my arm–I was falling off my bed? “Mummy, Meems has been sick in her bed.”
I struggled out of bed and staggered into the girl’s bedroom, Mima was sitting in a pile of vomit and crying to herself. The smell–ugh. I took her into the bathroom and cleaned her up, sat her on the loo and wrapped her in a spare towel while I remade her bed and settled her down again, then put her bedding in the washing machine. It was three o’clock when I go back to bed and Simon was lying on his back snoring Colonel Bogey.
I crawled back into bed and five minutes later Trish came in beside me. “What’s the matter with you?”
“It smells in there,” she said and cuddled in between Simon and I. A little later a tapping on my back just as I was going off, “Does, Daddy, always snore like this?”
“No, sometimes it’s worse.” I hissed back.
“What, whoa, hold him, Stella, while I get back on...” Simon suddenly said and both Trish and I dissolved in laughter. “Hold still you swine...” Simon continued his problems with a recalcitrant horse–maybe it was a night mare? I snorted at my own joke and Trish giggled behind me.
“Have you ever thought about becoming an engineer?” I whispered to Trish.
“What do they do?”
“They design or make machines, or buildings and so on.”
“Dunno,” she yawned, “do they make bikes?” she asked sleepily and next thing she was fast asleep while I lay there listening to Simon playing all the parts of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. It was going to be another long night.
Comments
I wonder?
I hope Meems is okay. It would be nice if the dream sequence were an accurate portent. An interesting chapter.
Portia
Portia
I also loved the dream sequence
and this episode contained some other classic lines, like “She’s absolutely right, this coalition shower couldn’t run a bath.â€
Susie
To be pedantic ...
... Lotus don't make Super Sevens these days - they're made by Caterham Cars but they're British too. I too wish we were more like Germany and actually had a decent manufacturing sector but engineering and engineers have always been held in low regard in England (not so much elsewhere in the UK) despite the great successes in the 19th and 20th century. At least most of my working life was in actually making things rather than shuffling money about.
Loved Cathy's dream sequence as well as Simon's attempts to ride his nightmare.
Robi
British carmakers do better than you think...
I know one of the senior engineers at Lotus, and our car industry actually does far better than the press, or the politicians, claim.
With the exception of Ferrari, all the F1 cars, and all the American Indycars are built in the UK. They are 'hand machined' to the limits of available technology, and we make millions for each one. (And, in practice, you need a new race car almost every race.) Furthermore, much of the technology that now exists in today's mass-production cars was developed by the racing industry (or companies like Lotus) and earns us millions in license fees. The friend told me that what he descibed as "high performance cars" was worth about 4 billion a year to the UK, and when I spoke to a friend who's an economist, he checked the appropriate databases and said the figure was right. If three Lotus engineers earn well over a million for a month's consulting to Opel, is that better or worse than selling a similar value of cars off a production line?
Wot no Livvie?
Dream sequence:
Julie - running a hair salon, husband runs a bakery called "Knead the Dough" (hmm...I guess he doesn't see much of her income!)
Danny - RAF
Billie - training to be a paediatric nurse
Trish - cycling / bike engineer
Mima's described as the only one left (presumably studying for her GCSEs) - so what's Livvie up to in Dreamland?
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Whoops!
*Blushes* How did I forget Livvie? She's at medical school at Southampton. See the Bonz is not infallible, in fact he fell off the kitchen table yesterday - frightened the life out of Izzy who was standing underneath him. I actually forgot about my knee pain for a moment as I was too busy laughing. Raining cats and...?
Angharad
Angharad
Hey Ang
Only one comment tonight. "You're awesome".
Trish is scary
Scarier still is that there are people that smart out there. Trish will no doubt be at least second of command after her mummy if not already. Hope Julie enjoys her hangover. Teenagers. *sigh*.
Kim
Drunk As A Lord
In Bonnie Scotland we tend to say “Fu’ as a Laird†or “Fu’ as a Whelk†if one is in polite society. Otherwise it can often be heard coming as out as, “P*ss*d as a Bluidy Newtâ€. *Blushes furiously*
“Fu’ †is actually “Full†with the double-L swallowed.
Another delightful chapter Ange, Ah dinna ken hoo ye dae it, Hen.
Love
Hilary
Bike pt 1087.
It'd be interesting if Cathy's Blue Light was able to let her see the future. Perhaps it gave her the Dream because Mima is sick.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
I don't see Livvie mentioned
I don't see Livvie mentioned in Cathy's dream about the family, was she no longer with them by that time? All in all, it did seem like they all did fairly well in their particular lives as they grew. Cathy and Simon as grandparents, now who is spoiling the little ones? Jan
also concerned about Livvie
but not at all surprised at Trish doing so well. Wonder what she said to her sister to calm her down and get her to change clothes. The dream sequence seemed way too real. Suspect that if Cathy builds Trish a bike, Trish will be righ in there on the design and construction. Since kids don't know when something is "impossible" I could imagine her inventing some kind of frame innovation simply by asking Cathy a question about "why do you do it that way, what if ...."
Highly unlikely ...
... that Trish will think of an innovative frame design to supersede the diamond frame as used by Starley for his Safety Cycle over a century ago. Lots have tried - Dursley Pederson, Bates Didrant, 'Curly' Hetchins, Flying Gates, even Lotus with Chris Boardman's pursuit track bike as well as that dreadful plastic bike whose name escapes me but none have had more than passing success. She may have an inspiration in component design, of course.
I'm glad Bonzi has been corrected and found Livie a place at medical school. I wonder if Tom's still alive in the dream world?
Robi
You have to remember that a kid
hasn't been indoctrinated via education that it can't be done. So they simply do it.
I wonder just how
much of the dream sequence will actually take place in the way Cathy saw it, Nothing seems to be beyond Trish, You would have to say whatever she sets her mind to will be acheived.... As for the others, Given they are all the children of a wealthy Lord and Lady, You cannot help but think that with the British love of the aristocracy, Doors will open!!
Hope your recovery is coming on apace Angharad, Thanks for still keeping all us Bike addicts going with yet another fix of our favourite story, Even though i would imagine you must still be very uncomfortable... But i'm sure that with Bonzi's tender care!!! you will soon be feeling much better....
Kirri
Livvie?
Like many other commentators here, I couldn't help but wonder about the absence of Livvie from Cathy's dream. I just hope it's not an omen—à la Daisy.
Thanks A+B: I'm continuing to enjoy my daily fix of Bike.
Possibly Strayed
Bike Resources
Bike Resources
Wow! You Scared Me!
You got to that italics part and I thought "She's done it! Got bored with it, as some writers do, and has gone into summary overdrive to get all the loose ends tied off and bail out on us!", all the while praying (I know, you don't but I do!) that it was a dream sequence and all would be back to Cathy-normal when she woke up. Who says prayers aren't answered?
I know, I know, I'm worse than your mother for nagging you but is this wedding blessing really on the horizon? Can you tell some of us are champing at the bit? (Well, one of us, anyway.)
Yours from the Great White North,
Jenny Grier (Mrs.)
x
Yours from the Great White North,
Jenny Grier (Mrs.)
One very sad thing about that dream
Cathy and Simon still are apart, for even longer durations. Perhaps that is Cathy's dream relationship, but I don't really see it being a happy one. I do expect the UN job to make a comeback, but I still maintain she needs to do it on her conditions.
Chattie Cathy ! "Knead the Dough" someone was a 3 stooges fan
Poor Meems, it's her turn to be the dramatic next to death member of the family..
Hope she doesn't have TB, you know , like Curly, TWO BELLIES, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Cefin