have helmet..will travel

although not too far as it turns out....I think I'm going to be more than a little achy in the morning.

I bought the helmet this morning, kid sized, to fit my kid sized head, then spent a good part of the day psyching myself up to ride around the block instead of staying inside the complex.

I rode out of the driveway, turned onto the footpath with no trouble at all, ha ha! this is easy!
Negotiated the first corner into the very quiet back street and decided to ride this bit on the road, not the footpath. I made it safely past the first back street intersection, continued on to the next one, which was a major cross street.
No traffic was coming, so I turned in and rode towards the "big" intersection.
The one with traffic lights.

Shouldn't be a problem, this is easy, right? And I've been practising stopping.....

But this street has a slight downward slope...the traffic light was red, and in spite of my practising, my first instinct is still to back-pedal-brake. 
Naturally that didn't work, so I pulled on the handbrake while steering into the gutter, so I could rest my foot on the kerb while waiting for the light to change.

Miscalculated just a tad....uh oh! ....tilt...reach for the gutter....crash!....smack!! ....that was my knee and both palms smacking the footpath.
Oh shit! I got myself off the ground and the woman in the car next to me leaned out and asked if I needed help.
I said No, thanks, but maybe I should get some L plates.
We both laughed a bit and she drove on.

I walked the bike across the intersection, then continued my ride.
On the footpath. 
At every corner, I practised stopping.
I went around that block, then turned for home.

Oh F***, this is ever-so-slightly uphill now........pedal, pedal, pedal....stop and rest.
Pedal, pedal, pedal...stop and rest.

I made it home, locked up the bike, then washed the dust off my knee and hands and decided I needed icecream, to cool off and calm down.

Wouldn't you know it? I was out of icecream!  This will never do!
I'd have to go to the shop.....which I did, but walking, not riding.

I'll take a shorter ride tomorrow, keep to the back streets, avoid traffic light intersections.
I'm determined to get the hang of this!