The Lair of the SlowFox

I decided to ride in along Newland today, so that I could admire my passing reflection in the shop windows check out the shop displays as I rode past.

This proved to be a mistake, though, because it transpires that they've 'resurfaced' the road on Princes. I say 'resurfaced', but what this actually means is pouring tar across the road surface, and then spraying loose gravel across the top.

There's always too much gravel, and the council rely on the volume of traffic to bed in the extra.

What actually happens is that the vehicles' wheels plough parallel furrows in the surface, pushing a nice thick pile of gravel to the side of the road which is where, of course, you'd ride a bike (unless you had a death wish and wanted people to drive into you whilst you're riding on the only compacted bit of roadsurface).

Consequently, the section along Princes was a little more hair-raising than anticpated (especially since I was riding one-handed, because I've brought in a book to lend to a colleague).

Nonetheless, I made it into work unscathed, and Newland was unfettered with deep streams of gravel to ford, so all was well in the end.

But who was the cool bloke on the bike? :-P

So, just after 5pm yesterday evening, I noticed that the skies were darkening overhead.

And pondered.

I suspected that, no matter what time I decided to head off home - early, late, on the dot of half-five, the rain would hang on until that same instant before starting to fall.

At 5.20, then, I decided to sneak home 10 minutes early.

Glancing out of the window at the top of the stairs, the world was dry, if overcast.

By the time I get to the inner courtyard where the bike gets locked up, spots of rain were falling. And by the time I was rolling, it was raining properly.

No surprise there, then.