‘Wheelbarrow’
Our street’s tug-of-war rope (every street has one, right?) is needed for the church weekend away. Could I drop it at a friend’s house so it can be packed into the minibus?
Er – yes…without using the car. I should add that the friend’s house is at most ten minutes’ walk away, but seriously, check out the size of that rope. Just as well I had a device in the garden that offers a zero-carbon rope transportation option, known as a ‘wheelbarrow’.
I’m honestly beginning to wonder if needing a car is just a state of mind. I have such deeply engrained car-brain, that the idea of getting rope from A to B without C (car) triggered a mixture of bafflement and panic. In the event it took less than ten minutes each way, it was a nice evening for a walk, and I didn’t have to push my empty barrow round the block three times on my return looking for a parking space.
There is another example of car-brain today. It’s Wednesday, which means the Cutester has gymnastics on practically the other side of the borough. I booked her lessons there when there’s a perfectly good gymnastics club less than five minutes from her school. What was I thinking? I can’t actually remember… something to do with the head coach being called Olga, possibly, which promised all sorts of incredibly disciplined training… What I wasn’t considering was, ‘How are we actually going to get there?’ I’m now putting her on the waiting list for the nearby gymnastics club (her best friend goes there anyway) and today we got the bus. Again, surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad. It was about 25 minutes each way, which is maybe a total of 20 minutes more than driving the car, and no need to find or pay for parking.
I wonder how long it takes to cure car-brain. I bet a week is not enough.
Subversive Suburbanite 
very clever! our buggy has similarly been used to transport tonnes of stuff to church. but then i got one of those old lady shopping trollies. we don’t use it much, but it can be handy.
And of course in London you can happily wheel a wheelbarrow full of rope through the streets without anyone giving you a funny look or saying anything because, well, it’s London innit?
You’re dead right. Not a second glance.
I have just this week got myself an old lady shopping trolley! I’m very excited about how this is going to transform my life but can’t think how just yet…
When I lived without a car in Edinburgh the buggy was the grocery shopping vehicle. One of the kids would get a ride to Tesco in Canonmills (from Albert Street, a good 2 miles or more) and then they would have to all walk back with the buggy loaded with bags loaded in the seat and hanging from the handle. Character building!
You’re making me feel like a soft Southerner!
ah, the memories! we used to walk from Iona St (ie the next one down from albert st) to Canonmills tesco too. a good trudge. don’t do tesco anymore: http://deceasedcanine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/hit-and-run.html
Actually the old-fashioned pram was our conveyance of choice. 1-3 children up top, week’s shopping in shopping tray below. Tesco Canonmills to Stockbridge.
And it is true- it will take more than a week to de-car your brain.
Fortunately Neuroscience is already on the case http://www.isolatecyclist.com/2014/05/15/neuroscientists-have-found-the-cause-for-car-dependence-but-will-they-find-the-cure/
Oh brilliant! You are writing my next post for me…