I heard him before I saw him. The distinctive sound of someone whistling the Pink Panther theme song. He stopped at the same lights as me. He seemed to be quite passive-aggressive. I took a very big dislike to him (this has happened before - see blogs passim). It was the loud way he was doing it, kind of pretending he hadn't noticed any of us other cyclists, and kind of trying to look totally "relaxed" while in fact pedalling as hard as possible to be at the front of the pack.
I wanted to get away from the whistling. A few minutes later, there he was again, at Old Street roundabout. Thank the Lord it wasn't the Pink Panther any more. He'd switched to some jazz number. This guy clearly thinks he's one of the all-time best jazz whistlers. And he's loud. He somehow managed to cycle right through a red light while whistling and only avoided being overwhelmed by the mass of motorbikes, other cylces and cars coming the other way by some very polite driving from the pack.
On reflection, I realised (yet again) that my instant reaction was silly. Perhaps the guy really is a musician - the kind who'd we'd all pay good money to watch in a club. And whistling is cool, isn't it? And it makes a lovely change from the silence you often get when a big pack of cyclists are waiting competitively at the lights.
Perhaps you're the mysterious whistling cyclist of the East and you're reading this. Let us all know. Or perhaps you've seen him. Or just heard him.
2 comments:
People who whistle should be shot.
There's an elegant simplicity to your argument JJ and you're admirably direct.
It's not quite clear whether you're limiting your view to cyclists who whistle or all whistlers ...
And - what if you like the tune they're whistling???
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