Fortunately I live on a quiet street with a gentle grade so I rolled her up the hill, settled in and hung on for my first run..... I think I went all of about 6 inches before keeling over onto the nice soft grass on the median strip.
Got back on and did it again, this time I got maybe 2 feet but just steadied myself with my feet and sort of walked myself along.
About half an hour of coasting down the road and pushing her back up eventually led to enough stability to do the whole 100 meter run with my feet on the pedals, yay!... and for my next trick? figure out how to actually steer this thing.
So I took her up to the local park a block away. This is a small suburban park with a swing set surrounded by a bit of grass, nothing special about it except for the somewhat circular concrete path that's about 200 meters long running around the perimeter, nearly flat all the way around, perfect for kids (or kids at heart v!
) to learn how to ride a bike. 
Over the next couple of hours I did countless laps.
Starts were wobbly and tense at first, then I'd make a conscious effort to relax into the seat and feel the bike, loosen up the death grip on the bars, and build just enough confidence to get cocky and go for a tumble into the grass which drew applause and cheers from the local kids that had now converted the jungle-jim into an impromptu grandstand..... a pattern that seemed to repeat itself often at first, until after a couple of hours something interesting happened. I stopped thinking about it and just rode laps, somewhat wobbly at times, but under control none the less! I kept alternating directions - clockwise and anticlockwise. Once the 'unscheduled dismounts' evaporated, so did the local kids, with parting comments along the lines of "cool bike, mister"
I allowed myself to gradually build up speed, even shifted into the middle ring! 
The hours passed quickly and daylight started fading so I rode home, yes I actually rode an entire block on the road under control (more or less
). You know when you were a kid and you rode your BMX around the neighborhood with the neighbor's kids and then as evening fell your mum called you in but you didn't want to go in? well, mum mum's not here to call me in so I went around the corner to the quiet but wide dead end street and practiced turning, figure eights, slaloms around imaginary orange cones (and I didn't knock over a single one 
)
Tomorrow I might ride 5 kays up the local bike path to my mate's place for a bit of show-and-tell. Fair dinkum, I feel like I'm 10 years old again. Life is bloody grouse!
