Our precious “FREE” time.

"Cycle of Fiends"

Those who have been reading this column, for some months now, will know that I have quite openly come out and I am now officially a MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra). Whilst having my mid life crisis, I could of course have bought a Harley – but alas with number one daughter in University of Limerick, pedal power won out – after all this was the cheaper option for this Scot!

Yes, I have gone completely mad into the sport of cycling – the new golf! I am a member of the Waterford Biscuit Club. I have now become one of those people who one way or another seems to infuriate some of our vehicular brethren.

I have heard and read about cyclist hating drivers who text, emailing and commenting on award winning programmes such as Deise AM, or Saturday Cafe. But why bother?

Readers, who know me more intimately, are aware that I am a self-confessed petrol head. I have raced XR2’s around Knockhill. Owned all manner of interesting cars from a 1964 Mini Cooper S, Triumph Dolomite Sprint, MKII Escort Mexico, Escort Turbo, Astra GTE and so on, right through to my current generation R53 Mini Cooper S – I really have had the whole gamut of boy racer cars and I am still driving one today. Some say I am driving a hairdresser’s car!

Spraoi 2016

Whilst, I do agree that there are some very poor cyclists on our roads, I see proportionately, far more very bad drivers, who still insist on using their mobile phones. I see children not suitably restrained in the front and backs of cars, people who treat a roundabout as a “squareabout”, people who ignore the speed restriction signage and above all I see lots of very angry people in vehicles, who are quite plainly one hoot of their horn away from a serious road rage incident!

Solas Cancer Support Centre

The fact is that everyone who is entitled to use our roadways and laneways should do so with the utmost respect for other road users. Yes, this might even mean, having to lift the occasional hand to say sorry, rather than flicking one or two other digits at an offending road user. Life is far too short to be Mr Angry all the time and to be honest, it does take far more effort and concentration to be the ubiquitous “I don’t believe it!” grumpy, Victor Meldrew, rather than Roger Hargreaves Mr Happy.

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the De La Salle GAA fundraising sportive cycle, around the scenic roads of County Waterford. I think, there were over 200 people taking part in this “leisure cycle” that inevitably became a very “fast race” the closer we got to the end destination, the GAA complex. The spread that awaited us was worthy of any high-end cafe. The ladies and gents who gave up their own free time to prepare, bake, steward and organise the event must take great credit. I hope that a lot of money was raised by the hordes in Lycra and I know that we pedal-pushers raise literally hundreds of thousands for many worthy local causes.

To volunteer your own FREE time and lose out on precious family moments, for the benefit of others, is by a country mile, the greatest thing you can give. This is something that we in Waterford, or at least the projects that I am involved with, seem to be extremely good at.

Spraoi 2016

Continuing this theme, last week, the Solas Cancer Support Centre (note the name change), launched the “Run & Walk for Life” (I am Chair for 2016), announcing a new suite of services starting in Dungarvan and celebrating the Centre’s 5^th Birthday with over 2,500 clients to date. The majority of the Team in the Centre are volunteers and they were thanked, by me and others, for giving up their own time to benefit clients. It was a very emotional and moving afternoon.

We are a shining light for volunteerism and perhaps we need to shout just a wee bit louder to reinforce this message.

Finally, well done to Spraoi.