Bike Hunt. Take One.

We went to town today looking for bikes. We had a plan. Two refurbished shops and one other. Well, I was given the impression that all three were. But it doesn't matter. Cyclemagic is a refurbish shop that specializes in customizing bikes for special needs riders, but they do a fair number of regular bikes as well. Unfortunately, they only had a few bikes in. They were in our price range, but Roger said they'd probably have double if not more next week, and he didn't want to sell us bikes we weren't sure we wanted. It was a good place. We'll go back next week and try some out. Hopefully we'll find ones that work for us. I'm excited about being able to cycle to the shops, and we'll be able to go to town more, since we won't be spending bus money. The bikes really will pay for themselves in no time. We'll be able to go on more and longer journeys, like our trip to Watermead Country Park last week.

Of course, since we were in town, we went to Burger King and Nid got his triple whopper with cheese. It's always fun to sit in the window and watch the people walk by with their crazy fashion and ugly shoes. I went in a stationary shop and looked over the day planners. Right now they've pretty much just got back to school ones, but 2010 ones can't be far away. I just love getting a new day planner. Writing in all the birthdays and events and highlighting and color coordinating. It's just so exciting. Then, of course, I have to put it away for the months leading up to the new year, but when the 1st of January comes along, I'm already organized and ready for the new year. The new year I'll be starting with my new family. It's been a crazy year for me so far. We've started a list of all the places we want to see and things we want to do together before we move to the US.

I'll end with this. The route we took today led us past a lot of night clubs, and I learned a new factoid about England. It is legal to serve alcohol 24 hours per day. I learned this as a result of seeing this sign. STRICTLY no admission after... 4am?! Crazy. I must really be an old foggey, because, really, 4am? I need to be in bed! Oh well, this has gotten me off on a whole nother tangent. I Googled some stuff. And of course I now have 10+ tabs open while I compare data and sources so I don't misrepresent something... The legal drinking age in the UK is variable. According to Wikipedia you must be 18 to purchase alcohol (16 to purchase chocolates with liqueur). People aged 16 and 17 may consume wine, beer or cider on licensed premises ie.pubs, bars, and restaurants with a table meal. But this is the kicker... Children aged 5-18 can drink in their own homes, or someone elses, as long as they are supervised by an adult (over 18). Children under the age of five must not be given alcohol unless under medical supervision or in an emergency (Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937). I have not yet looked up what type of emergency qualifies for giving alcohol to an under five year old. And really, is it good parenting to allow your five, six, any year old CHILD to drink? I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around that one.

While I'm on this tangent, I'll move on to ages of consent in Europe. I'll leave this to you to look at if you wish, but what got my attention is that in Spain, the legal age of consent is 13. Do you remember what you were like when you were 13? I wonder what the teenage pregnancy rates are there?

If you are curious, a breakdown of all sorts of minimum ages are provided here courtesy of the Essex Police Department.

Wow, so this post went off in a direction I could NOT have anticipated when I started!

THE END.