Scream if you want to go faster…!

“There are nine million bicycles in Beijing”, or so the song goes.

Well, give or take the odd million, there are a heck of a lot of bikes on Beijing – or London – and it’s a wonderful way to get some you time.

Cycling gives you such a great sense of freedom, although these days it tends to be more cycle path in woodland than busy London street.

As an entrepreneur, cycling is such a brilliant way to de-stress and enable you to get clarity on your business, and creativity. 

Getting on the bike enables you to switch off, and unplug, and in the process you become more creative and more productive.

In my life as a foreign correspondent (pre-little one), I lived in Beijing, and the restrictions and surveillance imposed by the government could get a little overwhelming, so I would use my time on my bike as my moments of freedom.

My bike became a therapy session to relieve stress, anger and tears. My trusty wheels are pink and came from a little bike shop in a back street in Beijing that has probably already been bulldozed away for a tower block.

I would get on my bike to escape the pressures of my job, and cycle fast and SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM! With a gut-wrenching, traffic-stopped, blood-curling howl, I would charge past pedestrians as they weave their way past people on busy streets. And as I screech and cycle, the pedestrians on the pavements momentarily pause and turn to see what the commotion is, and by that time they stop to look, I’ve cycled past.

They would think I was a nutter, but it didn’t matter, I had released all that built up tension and stress.

Now in the UK, when I get on my bike, I’m free, and my two wheels take me out of my funk, and forces me to interact with the world, and before I know it, I’m smiling again. And of course cycling with little one on cycle paths is such fun… if only I could keep up with my husband!