I'm Back - With an Apology

I have been absent from science20.com for some time due to illness.  I apologize for not reponding to the many comments and emails I have received in my absence.

I was diagnosed with very high blood pressure last year - a worrying state of affairs linked to high cholesterol levels.  I have attacked the problem with diet change and exercise to supplement the effect of the medicines.  I used to indulge in the sport of cycle racing, so the need for exercise naturally led me to think of buying a bike.  My first recent bike was a battery-assisted 'shopper', which got my 'legs' back but was disappointingly slow.  Driven by the 'need for speed' I bought a second-user mountain bike, serviced it and put on a new rear derraileur for a total outlay of less than GBP 50.  This compares very favorably with the cost of renting a bike - GBP 51 per day for a Boris Bike  in London!  Of course - as a climate activist I should perhaps have rented a bike from Barclays Bank to help them save the planet from greedy corporations and bureaucrats.

I am still nowhere near as fit as I would like to be, but each day on the bike I find some hills easier to climb than before.  But the hardest hill to climb has been the mental barrier between me and my writing - in a word: depression.  The recent warm sunny weather has helped - last year I could hardly walk a mile without getting extremely fatigued.  Now, I find that a 5 mile bike ride is a joy.  When I can manage a regular 20 miles a day again - as I once did - I shall be very pleased.

Of course - if I trusted the Daily Mail for accurate scientific reporting I would never ride a bike again.  Apparently, cycling to work is one of the biggest causes of heart attacks.  I wonder - does cycling for pleasure count?

Fortunately, the UK's National Health Service  has torn the Daily Mail a new one, so I don't have to.  I will merely add the thought that if anyone is mad enough to rage at truck drivers while snorting a line of coke in traffic fumes while having sex on a bicycle then perhaps they deserve to have a heart attack!  Or an Academy award!