Saddle up...
After two and a half weeks of holiday , back to earth with a bump - literally. Got knocked off my bike by a white van deciding to turn left suddenly. The joys of cycling in London. All is well though, no scratches and it's lovely to be back with you today while Ed does Any Questions.
I read Wuthering Heights on holiday. The last time was a million years ago at school. Couldn't put it down - what a rediscovery. Any other good holiday reading recommendations?
Will be back later after we've had our meeting and I've re-educated myself in what I have to do!
sequin
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Sequin....welcome back to and sorry to hear about cycling mishap. When the bruising starts to come out you may need the services of Fabio down on the Beach!
Have 'fun' this evening and whatever advice Eddie gave you........take with a pinch of salt!
Have you read All Quiet on The Orient Express by Magnus Mills? A brilliant piece of dark humorous writing!
DIY
Walden, by H3enry David Thoreau. Like your Bronte, I had been required to read it (and didn't really) for at least two different courses at school. I re-discovered it a decade or so ago, and it's sheer joy!
Welcome back, Sequin
xx
ed
Sequin, welcome back! Sorry to hear about the inconsiderate "bar steward" in a white van. I hope you gave him a piece of your mind!
Good morning, Sequin, and so lovely to have you back in the PM saddle, even if you were unsaddled from your bike (but glad to hear you suffered no injury)
Wuthering Heights - Gosh, haven't read that for yonks! My favourite read, for some time, has been The English Patient - It is truly beautiful, yet engrossing, and I've reread it a number of times, so much have I enjoyed it.
Otherwise, for laughs I go to Wodehouse, Bradbury, or anything by John Mortimer; for mystery/murder I'm a Rendell/Vine person, and for classics it's Trollope every time. Not terribly imaginative, any of this, but the truth is that for a long time now I've had very little time for reading (very unfortunately) so I like to go for something that I'm sure I will enjoy. There will come a time, I keep telling myself, when I'll be able to devote lots more time to reading and then I can experiment again.
Hi Sequin -
Sorry to hear about the cycling stuff, hope they are being gentle with you today!
Summer reads, well have just romped through Kate Atkinsons One Good Turn. Took a while to get into but its not a bad way to pass a few hours!
Welcome Back Sequin!
Obviously, given my name, I will recommend the World's most famous five part trilogy, i.e. all of the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I also enjoyed the original Wombles books by Elizabeth Beresford, no really...
;o) []
strange, is it just me, but Wonko and Womble seems to harmonise!
DIY
Nice to have you back with us Sequin.
Sequin, I thank the Goddess you were unharmed!
I have just discovered Norman Lewis, a great travel writer.
I started with Naples '44 which are his diaries as a field security officer during the invasion of Italy. Beautifully written and stories about an Anglo American occupation force which resonate today.
But it's his obvious affection for Italy and the Italians which shines through...
"Neapolitans take their sex lives very seriously indeed. A woman called Lola, whom I met at the dinner-party given by Signora Gentile, arrived at HQ with some denunciation which went into the waste-paper basket as soon as her back was turned. She then asked if I could help her. It turned out she had taken a lover who is a captain in the RASC, but as he speaks no single word of Italian, communication can only be carried on by signs, and this gives rise to misunderstanding. Would I agree to interpret for them and settle certain basic matters? Captain Frazer turned out to be a tall and handsome man some years Lola’s junior. Having his hands on military supplies, he could keep her happy with unlimited quantities of white bread, which for Neapolitans in general - who have been deprived of decent bread for two years - has come to symbolize all the luxury and abundance of peace. She was also much impressed by his appearance. The Captain was a striking figure. His greatcoat had been specially made for him and it was the most handsome coat I had ever seen. His hat was pushed up in front and straightened with some kind of stiffener. This, although Frazer worked at a desk, made him look like an officer in a crack German SS formation. She wanted to know all about his marital status and he hers, and they lied to each other to their hearts’ content while I kept a straight face and interpreted.
She asked me to mention to him in as tactful a way as possible that comment had been caused among her neighbours because he never called on her during the day. Conjugal visits at midday are de rigeur in Naples. This I explained, and Frazer promised to do better.
When the meeting was over we went off for a drink, and he confided to me that something was worrying him too. On inspecting her buttocks he had found them covered with hundreds of pinpoint marks, some clearly very small scars. What could they be? I put his mind at rest. These were the marks left by iniezione reconstituenti: injections which are given in many pharmacies of Naples and which many middle-class women receive daily to keep their sexual powers at their peak. Frequently the needle is not too clean, hence the scars.
She had made him understand by gestures one could only shudderingly imagine that her late husband - although half-starved, and even when in the early stages of tuberculosis from which he died - never failed to have intercourse with her less than six times a night. She also had a habit, which terrified Frazer, of keeping an eye on the bedside clock while he performed. I recommended him to drink - as the locals did - marsala with the yolks of eggs stirred into it, and to wear a medal of San Rocco, patron of coitus reservatus, which could be had in any religious-supplies shop."
Welcome back Sequin. I hope the bruises fade.
This cycling business...
When I was taught to cycle, back in the mists of time, I was taught to think of the bicycle and its rider as *part of the traffic*, taking up space where the drivers of the cars could see me and stopping in the main carriageway if I had to stop at lights. Now we are taught to ride in a little ghetto at the side, not quite wide enough for a bike to be in comfortably, and called a 'cycle lane'.
It feels desperately unsafe to me, and I find that I wonder whether it prevents accidents at all, or whether in fact it may *cause* them by making the bike into a sort of invisible second-class-citizen. A bit of lane in front of the cars at lights maybe, but being on the blind side of all the cars the rest of the time seems a very bad idea somehow.
If the average speed of traffic is around six miles an hour or something, bikes can certainly keep up, I would have thoughht, and even overtake the cars properly, on their right, if they aren't turning.
(That's not even bothering to start thinking about cars parked in the cycle lane so that the cycle has to dive out into the traffic suddenly! Grrrrrrrrrrrr)
Does anyone else have any views on the way we treat cyclists in cities these days?
Radio 4's saviour returns! I've missed your dulcets and glad to hear that you are OK after your brush with white van man. Reminds me of the old Spike Milligan poem.
'There once was a young lady pig, my God she was a smasher, one day she ran under a van, and now shes a gammon rasher'.
Not that I'm equating you with a ... Carolyn! Oh dear.. pass me a shovel.
On another point, obviously Eddie feels that AQ is more important than PM? He was the same when he got the telly gig!!! Only joking!
On yet another point.. did the techies really not know when Nessun Dorma was ending on 'Today' yesterday? James conducted the fade beautifully.. 'it just coming up to the end now' Tee hee! Keep up the good work you lot! We luv ya!
cycle paths separated from the road. Perhaps more sensible
As someone who works in Central London all I can say is that anyone who cycles in London is far, far braver than me! I feel like I'm taking my life in my hands whenever I cross the road...
Separation of bicycles from other forms of traffic is vital, simply because cyclists are so much more vulnerable - and breakable! - than other traffic. It astounds me that road planners often put buses and bicycles in the same lane! I would seriously consider cycling to work if I thought I could do it safely. We desperately need a proper, legally enforced cycle network.
As for white van drivers... don't get me started on them. Magnetic bumpers so they drive six inches from your rear, continually ignoring speed limits and other road signs, never using their indicators (except the diplomatic immunity, park anywhere hazzard warning lights), speaking on the 'phone while drinking tea with the other hand (seriously!) and generally being impatient with and dismissive of other road users. I once had one lean on his horn at me because I had the temerity to stop at a red light! You may be thinking of accusing me of adhering to a stereotype, to which I can only respond that I have seen multiple cases of all of the above.
;o) []
I have just been 'Bonjour de la part de Sequin'd...but no ice at 5.
What is the world coming to?
DIY
CG (10)....
....Wonko (13) is spot on. To ride a cycle in safety you have to take the cyclists out of traffic and give them their own dedicated routes.
I think this should either be done by the construction of dedicated 'non road' cycle paths or, heaven forbid 'cos it is contentious, close some of the roads to vehicular traffic.
DIY
The trouble is that the cities were built back before cars and bicycles both, and the two sorts of transport are bound to coincide every time a road crosses another road if both are allowed into the centres. Then the bike suffers.
We *must* manage this somehow, without killing or crippling too many people, and giving the cyclists places of their own seems one of the best and most obvious ways to go about it, but it's going to be fiendishly difficult to do. In the meantime we need to make rules about this, and the ones we have at the moment do seem from a fairly external viewpoint (ie I don't dare to ride my bike in town!) to be unfair on the bikes and their riders.
I gather that in some countries any accident involving a bike is *always* deemed to be the fault of the car driver, but I suppose bike riders may be mad or stupid like anyone else; even so, might a bit of a legal move in that direction be a good thing?
I'm not offering answers, I'm looking for them!
As for the white van driver, um, any advance on someone with the phone in one hand, and the other hand being used to make notes on a pad about what is being said on the phone? At about sixty on a road at the edge of town? :-(
Luckily I've got no bruises, though I suspect I might get a kicking from lovers of Crocs because while chatting with Matthew Bannister this evening I said I thought that crocs would give you blisters.
You've got great reading suggestions there. And I hope you've all read Atonement before seeing the movie. A truly wonderful book - I hope the film lives up to expectations.
see you next friday,
sequin
CQ (17)
Sequin....no problemo, we 'Froggers' aim to please!
DIY
I hate to say this Fishers (16), but I have experienced much more bad cycling in percentage terms than car driving, so I think it would be terribly unfair to blame drivers for all accidents involving cyclists. Compulsory cycling tests as well as driving testes perhaps? No, thought not...