It was raining today. As my late mother
would put it: stair-rods. It was raining stair-rods!! This was going to test both
the bike and my mettle.
In the past, when I used to cycle to work
on my other bike, I cycled in rain, snow, sun, wind and thunder. Sometimes on
the same journey!! So I had the gear.
As the great Sir Ranulph Fiennes might say:
“It’s not bad weather, it’s only inappropriate clothing.”
I togged up and set off. I had forgotten
how it was to cycle in heavy rain and wind. It was wet and cold. Still the
first leg of the journey (to the station) is met with a reasonably steep, but
not long, hill. This warms up the body sufficiently to be able to stand on the
open platform and brave the inclement weather, without too much discomfort.
The train arrives and I’m on, bike folded
and I’m seated.
There’s a little trick to those who have
folding bikes, that the rest of the commuting community don’t have – a seat
when ever you want. The Bickerton folds in such a way that the
seat post rests on the floor. Thus the seat can actually act as a seat in itself
(useful if the wait for the train is extended beyond five minutes or so). One
this occasion though, I’m on the train seat.
Once I arrive at NSS, it doesn’t take long
to be cycling up Corporation Street on my way to work.
Remember the building works I motioned
previously? The ones where Birmingham City Centre is building a new tram
system? A cautionary tale ensues (two, in fact).
Cautionary Tale #1 - When I was a lot
younger (forty plus years younger) we lived in an area where residual tram
lines were still in place at the bus terminus. Although there was no tram, the local
authorities didn’t see it appropriate to completely remove the, now disused,
tram lines that were there previously. Perhaps it was a boundary dispute (after
all the tramlines did cross through two boundaries). Anyway, cycling along that
stretch required extra concentration, because if one didn’t, one’s bicycle
wheel would get caught in the tram line and there’d be trouble. As it happens, in
all the five or so years I used that section, this only happened to me the once
– Phew! Another, more serious incident, is worth the telling.
Cautionary Tale #2 – (the names of
characters have been changed to protect the innocent). In the 1970s we (and I
mean we – even the boys) used to wear
what was termed at the time as platform shoes. So I’m meandering near the tram
lines with my platforms, when across the road I spot her – Judy X (a
particularly lovely local girl, who I would not have the courage to even say ‘hello’
to, let alone ask out – ah being 14, eh?). So rather than meander I strut (this
was before Saturday Night Fever)
hoping that she would notice me. Well she might well have done. Just after I
got my platform shoes caught in the tram lines and ended up doing ‘a Pope’
(kissing the floor). A quick get up and look around. Did anyone notice? I think
I got away with it.
So if you’re ever wearing platform shoes on
a night out in Birmingham City Centre; meander, don’t strut.
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