So they say that when one door closes another one opens. And the more I live my life, the more I have come to believe that. What’s on the other side of the door is not always what you originally wanted or expected. Sometimes it’s better!
For a few months I was searching for a new house share and after trawling through spare room I had my heart set on a house in Greenfield in The Peak District. It’s long been a dream of mine to live in this great blanket of hilly green that we are lucky to have in the North-West of England.
I met with the Landlady and she was lovely! The house was right next to a train line (I quite like trains) and she would have me, my bikes and my Maine Coon cat Haku. All seemed like it was going well, until that is the Landlady changed her mind and said she was going to live alone for a bit. Fair enough I thought… but I couldn’t help but be feel disappointed – it was the best place I’d seen. How typical for me to get so close to something then it’s so far away again.
Back to Spare Room I went. Where I found my current house share near the West Pennine Moors. I was so happy to live near some hills. Just different ones!
If it wasn’t for that Landlady saying ‘no’ to me, I would never have gone for a walk around my new locality with my housemate and bumped in to a cycling club, whose newsletter I subscribed to. This is how I saw the call for cycling models for a commercial. I replied to the ad and well, that’s how I ended up being a sports model for two days in the Peak District.
I made some money which helped to fund my cycling trip to Mallorca with Team Glow. I met some great people, did some networking. Broke my bike – which encouraged me to develop a relationship with the owner of a bike shop who has since helped me a lot. More on that later…
Where I live now. I have ‘The Rake’ Climb (in the top 100 climbs book) pretty much on my doorstep.
I have a cycling club just around the corner, a tandem club too. Which I should explore at some point!
Occasionally a ‘no’ can be a good thing.
