Pedestrian Dodgems

It's the holiday season. School holidays. Apart from the daily commute being that much more unbearable, there is an up side to the situation.

Betty is securely attached to the train handrail, so no danger of tumbling. The train is overcrowded (although for some reason, certain of the standing passengers decide to not take the empty seat opposite me – I have showered, honest), and because of this overcrowding, ventilation is minimal – it’s hot.

I digress – this is not the upside.

It’s holiday season, and my daily commute encompasses: a short cycle ride to the train station, from home; a just-enough-time-to-write-a-blog-entry train journey; a longer (but still short) cycle ride to where I work: very near Millennium Point, Birmingham.

It’s holiday season and for those who do not know, Millennium Point houses the ThinkTank – a pseudo science museum populated during term time by young school kids out for the day, on a day trip. During term time... During holiday time it is populated by young school kids, accompanied by one, other or both parents. Lots of them.

Whilst on the subject of the the ThinkTank, I might as well recall a short conversation I had with one of the staff one day. The date was 1^st July 2009. I was due to take part in an activity with The Boy, but wondered if the ThinkTank were also aware of the commercial opportunities of this activity. So I asked: “What are you doing to celebrated the 40^th Anniversary of the Moon Landing?” – to my mind, one of the greatest scientific achievements of the last fifty years (a part from the iPhone, of course). Their response: “Er, is it forty years?”. Enough said. The Boy and me got on with building a 1:144 scale model of the Saturn V, Apollo 11, space rocket and listening to the replayed, in real-time ‘live’ event on the website We Choose the Moon. Heaven.

To get back to the ThinkTank today, these ‘enquirers of science’ have to walk along a cycle/pedestrian route (did I mention the forward thinking Birmingham Council?) and during holiday season, this route takes on The Challenges, which I call Pedestrian Dodgems. You have the walking phone gazer, who could change direction without notice (and not show any signs of navigational awareness); the bus runner (these are more obvious, as they’re likely to be running for the nearest bus stop); the ambler (not in a rush, but also unaware of their surroundings); and, during holiday season, the excited, can-go-anywhere-in the path of the cyclist, pre-schooler (toddler) accompanying their older sibling and parents to said Thinktank – not to mention the chasing mother, ready to dive into the path of any vehicle to save their precious little one (let’s be honest, wouldn’t we all?)

The game is simple really – it’s the reverse of Death Race Two-Thousand ­– you have to avoid contact with any of the aforementioned obstacles to gain points (in fact, any obstacle). You are allowed to ding the bell, use the brakes, change gears, suddenly swerve and anything that you can think of to avoid contact with The Challenges (even SHOUTING, where necessary). For each challenge avoided, a point is awarded.

Today, I got over fifty.

Betty is approached…

I mentioned yesterday that I had found a new way to secure Betty whilst travelling on the train – a bungee around the handrail.

This new way of keeping Betty secure has a number of advantages. When the train brakes, Betty is often prone to take a tumble. Ordinarily, this is only painful for me, and occasionally, Betty. However, there have been times when this tumble has prompted Betty to try and kiss the legs of a passenger standing next to her (not good, Betty, not good). On one occasion, it was a pushchair – every time the train braked!!!. The train would set off, get up to speed, brake for the next station and Betty would loose her footing and take a tumble. I’d get out of my seat, pick up Betty, set her straight and the train would set off again. Rinse, spin, repeat.

Now there was no harm done to either pushchair or the occupant, but it did give rise to an interesting conversation where I was subtly trying to suggest that, if we were to swap the pushchair around with Betty, then Betty would not continue to tumble (as she would be resting against the doorway) and said occupant might be less disturbed by this re-occurring incident. Phrases like “This happens every time the train brakes, coming into a station.” And “If the bike was there then, it wouldn’t fall over.” and “Are you getting off at the next station? I’m travelling most of the way.” were being deployed. To no avail.

Although I wasn’t ignored by the owner of the pushchair, perhaps I needed to be a little less subtle. Maybe a “Look, if we swap round, so that the bike is leaning against the doorway, so that when the train brakes the inertia would push the bike into the doorway, rather than over into your pushchair, and your pushchair would naturally rest against the bike, rather than the bike tumbling into the pushchair and disturbing me and youngster, that might make a better journey for us all.” Might have done the trick. But I wasn’t thinking, at best, and a coward, at worst.

Eventually, they got off and I was able to move Betty to a more secure position. Lesson learned – hence the bungee (see yesterday’s post).

This time, though, it was Betty’s turn to receive the kiss.

I’d secured Betty with the bungee and we were both enjoying the journey to work – it’s a great trick as anyone who tries to quickly steal Betty finds her incredibly heavy because they have to take the train carriage with them!! At one point, another bike user (not a folding one this time) also got onto the the train and rested their bike against the doorway. The train set off and I waited for the inevitable CRASH!!

It didn’t take long. The next station as I recall. The person got up out their seat (been there) and chained the bike around the handrail, while I just sat there, ever-so slightly smug (but not too smug). When we got to our destination he asked what bike it was. “A Bickerton!” I reassuringly asserted. “Nice bike” he retorted. “Thank you” I said. “I know.” I thought.

It reminded me of my days when I used to commute with a non-folding bike. It also made me very glad to be the proud owner of Betty - a Bickerton Portable, no less.

Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag

The daily commute rested for a while – thanks mainly to the Easter holidays. In UK we get Good Friday and Bank Holiday Monday off, official. 

As I mentioned in previous blogs, it has been our usual practice to attend Spring Harvest. However, this year – for a number of reasons (which will be discussed in future blogs) – we decided to give it a miss and stay at home. There were other opportunities open to us, and there were other churches that we could have gone to on Easter morning (for me Easter is still the better event in the Christian calendar), but we elected to go to our local Anglican church.

There was a time when we were regular members/attenders of this church; and simultaneously another church. This eventually got a little too much - trying to attend the CofE church and then tank down the Bristol Road, ready to set up for playing bass in the worship band in the morning, was too much of a rush. Sadly, the CofE church lost out (or gained, depending on your POV). But this Easter we were good to go, participate in the service and catch up with old friends.

The other advantage of not going to SH this year was that I had chance to make the most of the bank holidays, by finishing off the raised beds in the garden… 

‘The Boy’ is usually pre-occupied with badminton (he plays five-to-six days per week, and has won a number of medals), but on BHM he was not playing. It rained in the morning – which was a chance for Wifelette and my-good-self to have a project meeting (we have an extension project looming), and for The Boy to have a standard-teenager-activity-lie-in-until-lunchtime. However, in the afternoon, he worked like a trooper and we got the job finished.

One of the other events that happened during Easter weekend was the arrival (eventually) of my birthday present – as ordered by Wifelette - note: the delay was because of the online shop, rather than Wifelette's procrastination. She really is a good'un. A Carradice Super C rack bag. I did my research and this was the one to go for: it would be secure on the rack, it would be big enough to carry my small laptop, it would be durable and long-lasting (it’s a bit more pricey than other bags, but does the job well).

When loaded, it would also make the back-end of the bike heavier than usual (something that didn’t occur to me until trying to get onto the train - duh), which, of course, upsets the balance of the bike when folded. So true to form, Betty fell over when the train braked.

This time, however, I had a cunning plan. I picked her up (which was more difficult than usual) and used a bungee to secure her to the hand rail. It worked a dream. Me and Betty back together on the daily commute – with a brand new bag…