Santa didn’t let Miss M down, and as hoped, a fabulous new bike awaited her when she went downstairs this morning. My neighbour (keeper of the bike until last night) described it as a Bollywood bike, which is exactly right - a fab melange of colours, with handlebar streamers, a white and silver seat and every accessory a cool young girl might want.

This afternoon we went to the school to practice riding, and thanks to Dave, fabulous carpenter and general go to guy for Finbar neighbourhood house, I now know the secret to learning to ride, which is basically forget my own fears, and encourage Miss M to go fast and hold on as little as possible (I mean me holding on, not her). So within minutes, she was moving under her own steam for at least fifteen seconds at a time before almost crashing into the basketball hoops.

I think teaching spinning has warped me a little (!), because I became obsessed about setting the bike up properly, and kept measuring hip height and trying to work out whether her leg had only a five degree bend at full extension. Not the way to go, and on Dave’s advice, I lowered the seat, which made all the difference. Although I wasn’t really doing that much, I’m trashed from concentrating so hard and bending over at a weird angle.

Now I just have to pack for tomorrow, and steel myself to get up at 4.30am. Hmmm.

Happy Christmas to everyone, and hopefully you’ll come back for more in ‘07.

Today I’m loving: my fabulous Spanish shifting spanner, which was a gift from Harry and Mieke. It’s got great heft!

Bollywood Bike