This is the third time I’ve been on a Critical Mass Harbour Bridge ride. With more than 400 cyclists, this year’s turn out isn’t bad. I’m glad it didn’t rain this time.

As always, it’s a great photo opportunity.

There’s the crowd at Hyde Park waiting for it to start.

And this time, since it’s not raining, we can fit in some posing while we waited for the ride to start.

And then it’s time to start!

Typical “stopping in the city” shot complete with someone looking back and someone else taking a photo.

And one where I look back.

And a closeup of me.

And we get closer to the bridge…

Almost there…

There’s got to be some interaction between the cyclists and the motorists…

And finally, we got onto the bridge itself.

The obligatory photo of the bridge.

As always, there’s the bike lift on the bridge. As the too-much-stuff-girl, I can barely get mine off the ground, so I took a photo instead.

As always, someone I don’t know offered to take a photo of me. Back in 2007 when I didn’t have panniers, I at least attempted to lift my bike when posing for such a photo, and even then I couldn’t get it over my head. This time round there isn’t much point in trying.

And then it was time to keep riding.

As with the ride in 2007, once again I have a photo featuring Bina.

Riding up the Pacific Highway at North Sydney, I went past this family on recumbents. Aww… <3

And that’s the end of it at North Sydney.

This year, I have stickers to sell.

So, that’s another great ride. Critical Mass Harbour Bridge rides will always be special to me. My first one back in 2007 made a real difference to me. It was pretty much the start of my social life. I remember looking at all those cyclists all dressed up for the ride and spotting Miss Helen in the crowd. It was her idea to go to BikeSydney’s twilight ride together, and ever since then I’ve been a regular. All these big group rides also helped me get used to going out and meeting people. Now I’m part of so many groups that it gets annoying when I leave Sydney during the holidays, because I know I’ll be missing out on lots of parties. I have a t-shirt that says “Asexuals Party Hardest”, and I live up to it.

On the other hand, it also means that I don’t really have the same excitement looking forward to events any more. There’s just so much happening that it has became the norm for me. Time seems to go by so much more quickly these days. There are so many things happening that I don’t even remember everything I’ve done in a week. I used to always have something interesting to tell mum when she called, but these days I usually can’t think of anything to tell her because everything is so interesting and nothing in particular really stands out any more. Back in 2007 I went to Hyde Park an hour early because I was so excited. This year, I arrived 10 minutes before the mass was due to leave. (I did get a flat tyre on my bike on the way there, but still.)

Actually, this lack of excitement also applies to uni. Then again, doesn’t this happen to everyone? I was surely a lot more enthusiastic back in first year. This semester, even in stuvac I was already in holiday mood, and I just didn’t feel like studying. Once I get into studying, I actually really like it, but I still lack the motivation to start.

And to think that I’ll be doing my last arts unit in semester 1 next year… it’s all engineering from then on. It’s just not as exciting.

Oh well. I know I’ll make up for it with all the excitement from riding my bicycle.