In the water, the big risk to life is drowning and near-drowning.

In the context of the way so many of us live our lives, not taking a break for something pleasurable is just business as usual.

It is a cliché that middle-aged Americans like me should indulge in nostalgia for the lost years of banana-seat bicycles and 10 speeds, but they did carry us far and they did provide us with a bliss of freedom completely unknown to my children’s generation.