How to check online connection status?

On a Raspberry Pi 3 with RISC OS 5.28, what would be a proper, non-blocking way to check if it is online and the Internet is reachable?
In my setup, the Pi is connected via a WLAN bridge and has a fixed IP. In this constellation, RISC OS boots into the Desktop within 15 seconds, but the WLAN bridge takes another ~30 seconds to be connected and ready.
A simple ping -c 1 8.8.8.8 on the command line would do the job, but this call does not return until the WLAN bridge is up.
Is there a different, non-blocking method I could use?

I haven’t tested this, but you may have better luck with TCP/IP 7. I suggest that you make a backup of !Boot before installing.