As a European I have been waiting (and waiting and waiting…) for this day to arrive for 4 years now. I’m more or less ambivalent about our British friends ‘leaving’ us (you never really had the impression they were all in anyway), but I do feel for my buddies in France whose lives will become a tad more precarious at midnight. But onto more important stuff – my new tubes!
I’ve had two rides on the Tubolitos now and I think I can say that I feel a difference. First, the ride is a bit ‘harder’, as if I pumped the tires up too much. I was sort of annoyed with that for about a kilometer or so, but the Colnago is very good at soaking up road noise and I quickly forgot about it.
Another reason I may have ignored the less forgiving ride is that I immediately also felt I was rolling faster (I suppose there’s a connection between the two sensations). Let’s just call this a theory for the moment because I’ve got no real way of knowing if it’s anything but. Maybe my legs are coming around this week? Perhaps I’m getting more tailwinds? Whatever it is, I’ve felt a little less sluggish on the bike. If this keeps up I might start wondering why on Earth I had never thought about these things before.
Back to Brexit, here’s a new video by ex-Oasis bro Liam Gallagher (ardent Man City fan) featuring French ex-footballer Eric Cantona (Man United superstar), proving that after all is said and done, there is more that brings us together than tears us apart.
I loved Nigel Farage’s farewell speech… and that the bureaucracy cut him off for waving a British flag was priceless.
I just want to point out that I am still a European. Since in the so called thousand years of glorious English history, they have had Norman, French, Welsh, Scottish, Dutch, German and the occasional English royal families (they don’t like to talk about Harold because he lost), I feel the European credentials of good old England are sometimes underrated.
There are doubtful times ahead though I hear frequent talk of us being ‘like the Canadians now’. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I don’t know.
Good point and it seems to be the tack many of my friends are taking. I also suppose that because you are in Scotland there’s a chance you will be ‘back in’ someday? I’ll be rooting for you.
I am very pessimistic about Scottish independence as if the resent government pursues ‘uncoupling’ from the EU, it would require a hard border at Gretna which is not a good idea.
Another Scottish friend expressed similar sentiments. It’d be nice to think all borders would remain ‘soft’ no matter what.