Inner Boy and Outer Grey

This week I encountered a situation that should have scared my wits from me, yet I managed to navigate through it with deftly calm, and it left me a little exhilarated! I shall attempt to re-tell the tale swiftly as it was is not very engaging, it is more the fact that it happened at all, which made it exciting.

Last Wednesday I left for work as usual. Whilst fastening my helmet and pulling on my gloves, I noticed a few flakes of snow. The boy in me threw kindling on the hearth of my inner joy, whilst the my Grey cursed and grumbled. There were only a few flakes and none had settled, so I felt confident in riding to work. Yet not long after leaving the calm of my cul-de-sac the snow started falling a little heavier, only 10 minuets into my journey and I witnessed the grey dank streets, turn white and majestic. Ever since coming off of my bike last summer, I've been a cautious rider and being on two wheels when the road is becoming a blanket of white was making me a little nervous. To add to the distraction my visor was also receiving the tender embrace of the falling snow, making visibility tenuous at best. There was a roundabout ahead and I saw this as a prime opportunity to abandon my journey and head back home.

But being no stranger to English weather and knowing how fickle it can be, there was a good chance that this snow was just passing through and would be gone by the time I got to work. I paused at the roundabout and weighed up the odds, the roads were fairly busy with traffic so I didn't have long - Boy and Grey tugged over the matches, Grey thought he heard the door bell and whilst distracted, Boy deftly slipped the box out of Grey's grip and threw a match into the fireplace - fueled with excitement, I decided to give it a go.

The tires of the cars ahead ploughed through the blanket, giving me a choice of two narrow, yet clear, sections of road to navigate. With regular wipes of the visor from the back of my glove, I managed a continued steady journey, then quite suddenly the world disappeared. The snow was falling so thickly that no amount of wiping had an affect - Grey started to panic, Boy was oblivious. With my vision gone, sounds normally in the background found me. The strong steady patting on the flakes upon my helmet, the crunch of the blanket underneath car tires about me, the whistling of the wind and the satisfying pops of my engine - Grey told me to slow down a little - which I did - Boy wanted to play a game - which I obliged. The game was simple, before me lay out a series of pictures, all taken from the memory of my, usually straightforward, journey to work. All I had to do place myself within the pictures, based on how fast I thought I may be going - Grey was uncomfortably silent, he was finding trying to look unimpressed yet encouraging a difficult combination.

Wrapped within the game I was playing with Boy I had no thoughts of time passing, and was only drawn away as the patting of flakes about my head slowed. I gave my visor a hopeful wipe and vision was returned. I had traveled blind a few hundred meters and gave Boy a mental Hi five for being pretty much where I thought I was in the game. Within another half mile the snow had stopped and my journey continued hazard free. I didn't think about the 'what could have beens' and arrived at work with a smile on my face, somewhat in wonder that I had arrived at all - For the rest of the day Boy and Grey enjoyed company by the fire, Grey looked over at Boy and smiled, despite what he lets Boy think, he never likes saying I told you so...