Wednesday 29 April 2009

By my armpits will you know me

The chills have descended rapidly on Sydney. Three weeks ago, I was smearing on factor 15 sunscreen before going for a ride. Today, it was a chilly 16 degrees (61 Fahrenheit), which might ordinarily be T-shirt weather, but that's a bit nippy for riding without a jacket when there is no sun. That meant digging the riding jacket out of the back of the cupboard, where it has lurked since I put it away at the end of last winter. I don't think I remembered to wash it before putting it away, on the principle that most of the smell would have leached away over summer.

It's a great jacket, but it's just a tad too warm for days like today. It needs to be about 12 degrees before it is really comfortable.

By the time I was 2km up the road, I could feel the sweat breaking out on my arms under the jacket. Unzipping the front didn't help much as it was too cold to go without the jacket entirely. I just had to live with a slowly escalating sauna.

It was a short ride - a jaunt around the block essentially that took just under an hour. I was able to pick up the pace as I seem to have finally coughed up the last of the green gunge that has been hanging on my lung sacs like grapes, and that meant the first bit of sweat in a month.

By the time I got home, conditions inside the jacket were well and truly ripe. My legs felt like they had a nice coating of ice on them, but my nipples were toasty warm and very non-pointy. I sat down inside to cool down and ingest a bit of water, and then I unzipped the jacket.

Phwoooarrrr! I was straight into the shower after that. It smelled like I had rubbed a rind-washed cheese into my armpits before going for the ride.

I was too damned lazy to wash the jacket though. It's gone back in the cupboard to await tomorrow's ride.

That's how men do it.

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