Meh. Long weekend. Or so it seemed So I’ve left home on Friday, cycling along happily and I can feel a rhythmic bumping, over and over. I pull over and there’s something stuck in my tyre. Now, I know from experience not to pull it out there and then in case there’s been a puncture, but there’s also the risk that if there hasn’t been a puncture and you continue cycling on it there will be a puncture later. So I weigh it up and decide to leave it, as puncture or not, there’s no hissing and I’ll probably still make it to work.
Large chunk of nail So I get to work and I yank a huge half inch nail out of my tyre. Which hisses and bubbles at me. They’re self healing innertubes, so have green goo in them that hardens over small punctures and stops the air getting out. However, this hole is far too big and there’s a mess. I wander into work, late, clean up and get on with cleaning up someone else’s mess. Some things never change. I cancel the Orange Team lunch I was meant to be attending so I can go a walking at lunchtime, wander down to Old Street and buy some puncture repair bits from Argos. Sit outside for half an hour trying to find the puncture, which I fail to do. All that green goo appears to have simply vanished. Grr. So, I optimistically pump up the tyre, thinking that perhaps I’ve been incredibly lucky and my self healing tyre has self healed. Go back to work. Bug fixing. Hah! Leave the office at 5:30 and the tyre’s flat. Grr. So I walk in the other direction and find a bike shop on Grays Inn Road where I buy 6 inner tubes (to keep in my desk drawer, in case of emergencies) and then walk back to my bike. Wheel off, replace innertube, eventually on my way home on a very squishy tyre for 6:30. Blurgh. Ah well. Arrived home to find myself in possession of the new B5 script book. Including a treatment for Season 5 of B5 that seems far more interesting than what we actually got, including a mystery man arriving on the station and claiming to be John and Delenn’s son, from the future, warning them to turn back from the road they’re on. And the rangers spreading out over the known universe uniting everyone under their rule and destroying those who do not submit. Which sounded very Dune Messiah. I often wonder if B5 isn’t just a bastard son of Tolkien and Herbert at times...
Pint of chips! Saturday, Mummy came to visit we had planned to walk up to Broadway Market (near London Fields, Hackneyish) and have a bit of lunch and peer about. And for once, the plans worked out ok. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot, not too cold. Perfect for walking. We didn’t get lost at all, and it took about an hour and a quarter or so to get there. Walking along Regents Canal, it’s so pretty. Would love to live on the canal but I suspect it’s way out of my price range Got to the market and tried some cheeses and then decided that eating lunch was the best bet before we bought all of the food on the stalls simply because we’re hungry. Popped into the same pub I went to with Neil when we did his pics here. Ordered a burger and chips each, chips were £2 extra and the barmaid told us that it’d work out cheaper to just order a pint of chips to share. A pint of chips?! Mike’s dream come true! Anyways, we ordered and sat down with drink. I (as usual) forgot not to order diet coke. Bah. Food arrived, burgers were gorgeous, as ever. And lo and behold, the chips did indeed arrive in a pint glass. Class in a glass! We wandered about the rest of the market. Bought some organic fairly traded decaf coffee beans. Behaved and didn’t buy the balsamic vinegar that was gorgeous but very expensive. Tried some chili sauce that blew my tongue off. Didn’t buy any organic meat because I didn’t take any cash out with me. Ah well. Wandered back to the D6 bus stop and trundl