What a name!  What a past time!  What a great topic of conversation to bring up with anyone with a few wrinkles and a head of grey hair.  I have had conversations with my grandma, a guy on the train, a couple at a funeral, and when the topic turns to cycling, they pretty quickly want to tell me about their dinking experiences.  How they courted each other, how they got around as kids, how they got their kids to school - it all involved more than one person on a single bike.  They talk with fondness, including stories of the various mishaps - which are just a fact of life.  It always makes me feel a bit fuzzy to hear of the joys cycling has brought to people in the past.

Does dinking belong in the past where safety standards weren’t as high and a bike was highly prized and something to be shared?  I think there is room for it to come back. 

While cycling was not a big part of my childhood, I have embraced the concept with my fair share of experiences being “the dinker” and “the dinkee”.  Not only is it fun, it can be challenging, it can be an adventure, it can be romantic and I guess it’s a pretty efficient way of getting around as long as your bike can cope.   You get some interesting looks and the ocassional cheer as you and your passenger fly through the street.  I think it’s an important representation of the lighter side of cycling, which is important in an age where lycra, bicycle performance, speed and conflicts with cars seem to swallow up the coverage of the cycling world.     

If you think your bike is sturdy enough why not try dinking someone.  There are an array of ways of getting them to stay on your bike with varying levels of comfort for the rider and the passenger.  The front handle bars or basket gives the passenger a great view (and a great workout for their abs), the crossbar gives you a cosy configuration, the rack is easy to get on and off but it makes the bike a bit back heavy and if you are a true gentleman/lady you can always offer them your seat and you can stand to peddle.  I would love to get some dinking pictures together, so it would be great if you could send them in.  If you have hints for stability or maximising the fun of dinking please leave comments.

Now I’ve grown a little, I’ve learnt a little and also started choosing my behaviour with more awareness.  I am, however, still heavily involved in the demand for burning fossil fuels and I have a big backlog of emissions that I have accumulatively emitted throughout my life.  I have been in cars, planes, trains.  I have used washing machines, heaters and hair dryers.  I wouldn’t know how to start counting my historical carbon emissions.

Looking back at my life of environmental and social “sinning” – would a sensible person happily admit to all this and agree to change their ways.  Trying to cope with the magnitude of your impact would probably make you want to slash your wrists and insist they dispose of your body in the most environmentally friendly way possible (not exacly sure what this is). 

So I don’t advocate that everyone goes to the church of the environment to pay pennants for all their sins in the past.  I do suggest you go to the temple that is the natural environment and rediscover how beautiful it is.  Maybe while you are there, you can make a promise to it – something you are going to try – a new way of eating, living, playing, or travelling – something that might do less harm to our natural world.

The trick, with starting something new is to not look back until you are set in your new ways.  Don’t think about your previous life, don’t make yourself guilty about what you’ve done – just believe in what you are going to do.    

This doesn’t relate to the Dutch and their love of cycling, it is to do with fruit (as all good things are).  I bought a bag of oranges the other day with all the good intentions in the world to eat them all up to stop me from getting a cold.  Everyday I saw them there, next to them were apples and bananas.  For some reason each time I went for some fruit I passed the oranges and went straight for the others.  Why?  I love the taste of oranges and I know they are healthy for me and once I start eating one I feel like I’ve discovered a hidden pot of sweet gold.

For me, I think it is peeling the orange which seems like such a mission when it’s sitting their all wrapped up in its thick coat.  Once I start peeling it, of course it isn’t so bad and it can actually be a bit of an adventure to try and peel it in one piece.  Maybe this is the case for your bike as well.  Not that you need to peel it.  I think, when you haven’t cycled for a while the prospect of getting on your bike seems like a whole lot of hassle.  Once you are on it and feel like you are flying, you can’t comprehend why you thought it would be so hard.  Mind you, if you stop cycling for a while (for some strange reason or another) - you will probably go through the whole “but it’s so much of a bother to cycle” phase.  The question is how do we make oranges and bicycles more (warning pun coming up) appealing.  Do we just need to get rid of this awkward peeling or is it a matter of reminding people that it’s not so hard to access the juicy orange or the joys of cycling.

As a nation, we are going to have a quota of greenhouse gases that we are allowed to emit.  This will mean that each industry will either be given, or have to buy emission permits in order for it to carry out processes which emit carbon dioxide.  The generators of electricity will be required to buy emission permits and then they will burn coal or whatever they have to produce electricity and they will give off some emissions in the process.  This is quite straight forward as all the emissions are occurring within the environment that the permit holder controls.  This will be the case for most industries.

Transport will be interesting though.  Without having read the CPRS I cannot speak as an informed citizen, but I struggle to understand how emissions will be controlled and counted.  Petrol will increase in price due to the Emissions Trading Scheme, and it will be assumed that those who purchase the petrol will use it to pollute.  Maybe, what we need to do is somehow purchase this petrol and then not pollute with it.  Emissions will be counted, but we won’t have emitted anything.  This is the same as retiring emission permits, but without the government knowing about it - so it won’t be able to give out extra emission permits so that the nation is still emitting up to its limit.

I am just going to have to think of a way of safely stockpiling millions of litres of petrol to do this.  But, surely there must be an easier way ……

Would you be prepared to ride

To a place you didn’t even know?

With no map, no direction and not even a guide

To find out how to go.

To make it tough, it won’t be easy

You’ll have to challenge yourself

If you stay, your life will be quite breezy

To go, threatens your status and wealth

Of course the journey will be fun

As you break all the barriers before you

It’s just a matter of staying on a run

And knowing that you’ll make it through

And yet no matter how hard you try

There will still be a catch at the end

You will not be able to arrive anywhere

If you haven’t brought along a friend

While the place we go is still a mystery

We should really get going their soon

Otherwise, by staying we’ll make the world a misery

And we’ll have to go and live on the moon