Who's been struck in the head by a pigeon, while biking? It happened to me this morning

I can't resist telling you this one - perhaps it's a common occurrence for cyclists.

I was cycling gently through Victoria Park this morning, near the lake by the Pavilion. My 3 year-old daughter was in the child-seat behind me.

Suddenly a flock of pigeons flew across the path - towards the water. I was right in the middle of the flock. Normally you'd expect them to avoid you. That's what birds do, isn't it?

Lovely photo by professional photographer
Simon de Glanville - Source

Well, one came thwacking into my head. Luckily I was wearing my helmet, which took the brunt of the hit. It didn't really hurt, but was pretty shocking. And unusual, I would have thought.

A quick query on Twitter was inconclusive about whether people get hit reguarly.

But this was revealing:

almacdSE1 @karmacycle I get pigeoned a lot in east London. Round Aldgate. Odd.

 

Anyway, if you have anything to add about the subject of being hit by birds while biking, please add to this blog by hitting the comment button!

Beautiful London morning in autumn; cycling through leaves in Victoria Park

Nuff said?

Doctor's orders - a cocktail of drugs, and get back on your bike

More attentive readers may have observed me banging on in my Twitter feed about how sick I am, how I'm now in my third week of having a cold and generally whingeing about not being on my bike.

You know how men are alleged never to visit the doctor? Well, that felt like a challenge to me, so I decided that I would buck current trends and go and see one, and at the very least have a good moan about my everlasting cold.

Drugs smorgasbord

I went to see the good doctor yesterday. He did some good work with his stethascope and quickly surmised that in spite of my fears, the infection had not spread to my chest. Relief. But was it OK to have a horrible cough and a miserably runny nose for weeks on end? Oh yes, a virus can be with you for weeks - nothing abnormal about that. So what can I do about it? Well, here was the surprising bit.

He said - don't do what a doctor says, but what he does. When he has a virus like that he takes:

- two paracetamol
- two ibuprofen
- one sudafed

Remember folks - I'm a blogger not a doctor!

all at the same time, every four hours! My God, I feel vaguely guilty about taking two paracetamol when I have a headache - God knows what this cocktail of drugs will do!

Wow. What about wine. Can I drink wine?

Oh yes - no problem there.

And (of most pertinence to this blog, of course) - should I be on my bike? And here was his best answer:

"Listen to your body". If it makes you feel tired and horrid, don't. If you feel good, go for it.

Result!

I came away from the surgery reeling a bit as I'd never have expected any of those things. I stocked up on the necessary drugs, went home, took some, drank wine. Slept better than I have for weeks. Got on my bike this morning and had a lovely, leisurely ride through London on a glorious sunny day.  Amazing how some positive advice from a doctor can transform you.

I'm sure many of you have doubts about the wisdom of this advice - but it seems to be working so far.

Any thoughts out there about when not to bike - for medical reasons - or indeed, strange things doctors have told you to do?

That London "heatwave" - part 2

Thanks to those of you who pointed out that the best way of getting over the heat is to ... wait for a day, and watch London go back to being rather cold and British. And also to those who noticed that 30 degrees hardly constitutes a proper heat wave - perhaps 40 would be more like it. Still, us British have got to dream at least that we live in the tropics every now and then.

But anyway - I'll certainly come away with one really good tip from Catherine - put your water bottle in the freezer an hour or two before setting off on your journey - and hey presto, an ice cold drink all the way home.

Happy cycling everyone.

Example of poor cycling

I've been mucking about with a camera on my helmet. You'll have to forgive the very poor editing but I thought I would show you this incident where a cyclist just pulled out right in front of me. Bear in mind I was wearing a very bright reflective sash, and had a light with brand new batteries flashing - and that he actually looked at me before manoeuvering right into my path. Nice work! I don't want to moan - I must say at the time I almost found it funny because it was so blatantly silly.

Cycling and bereavement

This is going to be a difficult one.  I've just come back to cycling after a couple of weeks away. My Mum died over Christmas and we had the funeral this weekend. I won't dwell on it as this is a cycling blog, but I will say that the funeral was beautiful and uplifting - as well as deeply sad and moving.

My Mum's favourite colour was purple, so close family wore a lot of purple including purple silk ties for the men. My Mum had asked to have a cardboard coffin and for it to be painted by the family. My sister, who's an artist, painted on some key scenes from her life (e.g. two of the houses she'd lived in) while her grandchildren painted on flowers, butterflies, ladybirds and birds. Then it was given a purple wash. Because she'd spent a bit of her life in Trinidad, the flowers on top were of the exotic kind (birds of paradise flowers, orchids). It was a freezing day on Saturday and in a very traditional church the coffin and flowers brought a bit of warmth to the occasion. Her four children - or perhaps I should say offspring as we're grown up - carried in the coffin at the beginning of the service. We chose hymns which people could really belt out (e.g. "bread of heaven" and "I vow to thee my country"). It also helped keep us warm. We had a huge family gathering afterwards, and, without sounding too hippyish, the love flowed.

Anyway - I said I wouldn't go on about it, but I did. But I did want to relate it to cycling in a weird way. I was back on the bike this morning after quite a big gap. I'd been almost wholly pre-occupied with other things. But - and here's the point - it was fantastic to get back on the saddle. And I suddenly remembered how good cycling is for thinking. Obviously not when you're about to be run over by a juggernaut, but when you're on a nice open area and you can get into the "zone" and just reflect. For some reason the combination of taking excercise and doing some thinking is fantastic. It's early days, but I think cycling might help with the grieving process.

And by the way - many of you guys have left really nice comments on the last entry in which I said that my Mum had died. I really appreciate them. Thank you.

Real exercise ... running not biking!

Ran out of house to get to tube. Tried to relax on tube and allow sweat to dry. (Sorry). Ran from tube to work. Ran to meeting room to attend clearly very important meeting.

Now feel more exhausted than if I'd been cycling 10 miles.

A minor landmark for Karmacycle

Just a note of thanks to users of this blog - my page impression counter tells me I've reached the giddy heights of 2000 since I put it in.  A drop in the ocean for a lot of websites, but I feel quite chuffed.

The downside is that most people who come to the site leave pretty much straight away (!) so perhaps I'm not doing everything right. Anyhow, I'll keep trying to spread good cycling karma around the streets of London (and anywhere else in the world you may be reading this) and perhaps in a few weeks I'll be celebrating ... well, 3000 ... thank you.

What to do in a puddle?

And while I'm on - as it were - I'm never quite sure what to do when you have no option but to go through an enormous puddle. This one is not from these parts (New Zealand in fact) but gives the idea:

I supect the only thing to do is:

- slow down

- try to keep your feet as far away from the water as possible (so your peddles are parallel with the ground)

- go back to being a kid and stick your feet out in front of you

- or just get wet

Of course the big extra danger here is that if you haven't got a rear mudguard, the water will go all over your back and your bags, if you have them. The answer? Sadly inevitable - get a rear mudguard. Although I've singularly failed to take my own advice so far.

Depressed by cycling ...

Cycling adds time on to my journey, not least because I have to shower and change when I get to work. I don't spend enough time at work, I don't spend enough time at home. Sometimes I worry that cycling is the only thing with any flexibility and I should stop, or decrease. Two hours a day... too much? Can anyone give me a pep talk?

New discoveries going East along the Regent's Canal

My last blog post turns out to be a bit erroneous - in fact yesterday (Sunday) was the nicest cycling day of the year. My eldest has suddenly become a huge cycling fan (nothing to do with me guv, honest) and we celebrated by taking the bikes East - from the easterly tip of Victoria Park, through the Hackney Marshes and beyond. We got pleasantly lost around the Lea Valley river/canal area but stopped for a picnic in Springfield Park which in itself turned out to be a bit of a revelation. With the sun shining, exploring a new part of London we fancied ourselves to be in a different country altogether - the outlandish graffitti art merely adding to the effect. This was the kind of day which cycling was invented for.

Karma rating: *****

Particularly liked this croc, just opposite the site of the main new Olympic stadium ...

Couple of odd observations from this morning's ride ... bird noises and invisibility

A bird-bike

There is a bird which produces exactly the same noise as my bike makes when it's a bit unhappy about changing gears. Kind of grinding, whirring, whining, rasping, shrilling, scraping. I noticed a bird making the identical sound. In Notting Hill Gate somewhere. Spooky.

Assume invisibility

Thought it would be worth writing a longer piece ("Oh God", I hear you cry, "No") about how to start cycling in London and keep safe. My first rule would be to assume that you're wearing a kind of Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak. Assume no-one can see you, even if you're wearing two dozen lights, a full body suit of luminous lycra and you're sounding every horn and bell at once. It's safer that way. I wonder if anyone else has a "top rule" which I could shamelessly steal and add to this blog?

Isle of Wight Cycling

I regret to say that despite spending a week on the Isle of Wight, I failed to spend a single moment on a bicycle. Having said that, I had a damn good holiday. But I got a good feel of what it's like to cycle on the island - and it certainly seemed like a cycling paradise. (BTW - this picture is not anything to do with me, but thought it gave an impression of what it's like).

For a start, the speed limit is almost everywhere limited to 40 mph, so you don't feel quite as threatened on the big roads. Drivers are generally much more polite and thoughtful than on the mainland. But here's the really exciting thing:

There's a "secret" network of cycle lanes all over the island.

For example, we were staying in Cowes. It turns out that you can follow the route of the old steam railway all the way from Cowes to Sandown on the other side of the island. While I was in the car, I kept seeing cyclists disappearing down little leafy alleyways.

This site seems to list many of the good rides, for those interested:

http://www.cycle-route.com/routes/Isle_of_Wight-Routes-83.html

Anyway - it's not strictly about London cycling, this post, but it's worth thinking about a cycling holiday on the Isle of Wight.

And ...

There's a big cycling festival coming up there in September ... any more excuse to get out of London needed?

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/recreation/article/rec20090515-Event:-Isle-of-Wight-Cycling-Festival-0

The Cycle of Karma

When you're cycling around 100 miles a week through London, you develop some strange notions. The one I can't get out of my head is that you build up karma - good and bad - depending on how you cycle. So - if you stop at red lights, wait politely for pedestrians, smile at cars, you get rewarded - the next light turns green for you straight away, someone smiles back at you - you get the picture. Of course this doesn't always work, but it works often enough for me to try to cycle by those rules. Most of the time.