Cycles on Celluloid – The Bicycle Film Festival 2011…

I took my ‘Plus One’ (The Boy) with me to the Barbican Centre last Sunday to see the 2pm screening of ‘By Women About Women’ – a selection of ace short films, which lead into the main feature, ‘Labour of Love’. This was a documentary by Virgina Hastings, who followed the Canadian “ultra-cyclist” Caroline van den Bulk as she attempts to complete the RAAM (Race Across America) – known as the hardest endurance race in the world. I had never heard of RAAM before, so not only was seeing this film a cycling education for me, it was also an inspiring watch. Caroline is an amateur rider who put herself through an extremely gruelling race to chase her dreams of completing it in 12 days. Just watching her doing it made me tired… can you imagine doing something like that on a Pashley? 🙂

After the film, we had a look around the stall set-up in the lobby. The Boy bought himself a cool cycling t-shirt (will post a picture of that when I get him wearing it) and I picked-up some of the bike-stickers on offer – including the rather cheeky one pictured above with my bicycle brooch….

We actually had to resist the temptation to pop into The Bicycle Library which was parked right outside the Barbican. Although The Boy is loving his new Cannondale, it doesn’t take much to lure us into discussing purchasing new bikes… especially as I’m really toying with the idea of the next bike I want to get…

Stepping away from temptation, we spotted one of CycleHoop’s Bike-Cars on the other side of the street. In stunning Pink it was pretty hard to miss – and it looked fantastic! Ace to see it there, along with many cyclists using it…

It was also very nice to unexpectedly meet one of my favourite stylish cycling-tweeters – Anna of The Pineapple Bikes Blog (@Pineapplebikes) in Look Mum No Hands! The Boy and I naturally gravitated there at the end of the afternoon, and while I was busy tweeting I didn’t realise that Anna and I were sat next to each other all the time! It was lovely to meet her and see her bicycle… I need to sort out a ride with her soon.

The BFF was brilliant and I hope to catch it when it rolls into London again. Massive thank you to @Pamflet for the competition tickets and an ace day 🙂