Ouch, says my wallet

This is getting ridiculous. I thought it was supposed to be cheaper to bike than to take public transport! Note the charges thus far accrued over a mere TWO WEEKS of biking:

Bike helmet: £8
Bike lock: £20
Bike lights: £17
Flat fixed (rear wheel): £10
New front wheel: £30
and attachment/labor: £10

AND I went to pick up my bike today from the spot it had been locked to all weekend, only to discover that the front tire was flat. Argh! The last time I rode this bike was before my accident last week; the last time the front tire had anything done to it was when I had my entire wheel replaced on Thursday. I'm suspicious that the bike guy inadvertently punctured my tire while he was changing the wheel, but I have little doubt that he'll charge me to mend it anyway. Thereby adding the following charge to my already-far-too-lengthy list...

Flat fixed (front wheel): £10

and bringing the grand total to a whopping ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE POUNDS.

(And no, I'm not going to convert to dollars. I'd like to continue to view the situation as eye-rollingly-irritating, as opposed to garment-tearingly-terrible, thank you.)

Luckily, a lot of those are one-off expenses - helmet, lights, lock, etc. And I suppose all the repairs are just something that happens when the bike itself is free. I mean, my friend Maria lent it to me, so it would've been free for me anyway, but I just found out recently that she found it in a bush somewhere in the first place. Perhaps too much to ask, then, that it wouldn't need as many repairs as it has. One thing's for sure: when the time comes at the end of the summer for me to get my own bike, I'm getting mine from an honest-to-God bike store. A used bike store, but a bike store nonetheless.

In other news, I had a lovely time at Peter Vanderford's wedding this weekend. I was able to dance after all (though now my shoulder is hurting again... oops!), the service was lovely, the company was lovelier, and it proved to be a nice relaxing couple of days. It was awesome to get a chance to catch up with Peter, and meet his beautiful wife (!) and it was great to see Mike and Mary, as well as other members of their extended family that I'd never met before, all of whom who immensely accomodating and very kind. And best of all, I got to see Paul! Paul! Paul of the best hugs known to humankind! Paul my favorite! Paul Paul Paul! Oh, it was so exciting. Unfortunately, he was sick as a dog, so I tried to be kind to him and leave him alone to rest from time to time. Mostly, though, I just hung around and beamed at him. He's so great.

You know what isn't great? The weather. The fact that it's been cold and wet and rainy ALL SUMMER LONG is really starting to get to me. I can tell that I'm crabbier than I usually am this time of year, and I'm putting it down to the fact that there's not any sun. Boo, hiss.

Fortunately, there are still fun things to do inside when it's shitty outside. Yesterday my friend Andy and his wife Mandy had a little get-together for his birthday, which involved about six of us sitting around their living room, looking up tabs on the internet and then singing with guitar, piano, and harmonious vocal accompaniment for seven hours. Lovely. I've warned them that I may be calling periodically to see if I can come over and sing with them. I'd forgotten that I missed it.