bike puncture

london 12.23pm tuesday 2015

yesterday, simon came back from work and said he had a puncture in his bike tyre and had to walk with the bike all the way home.

hmm, it made me remember what is awful about a bike, it can get a puncture. i have 3bikes for oh 5yrs, and i never have a puncture, but recently a few days ago when john and i checked the bikes in the bike shed in preparation for the naked bike ride , one of the bikes have a front wheel puncture. and now simon got a puncture.

i am glad i dont cycle anymore. i got a freedom pass now so no need to cycle, when i can get free bus and tubes. i now roam far and wide to buy my groceries, going to far flung budget supermarkets like aldi, where previously they were too far to cycle. though this month i noticed i have only been shopping in tesco. so their fight back to wrest market share from aldi seems to be working, at least with me… they have attracted my custom.

oh that reminds me i am running out of ginger and need to bus to brixton to get them. perhaps i shall do so today, as it is a bright sunny day out there. later, i think, as right now, the traffic across vauxhall bridge is really bad. i just have a taste of it because i took the bus back from the library, and we were long delayed trying to cross the jam. all those road works to improve the bike lanes have created a bad jam practically everyday at certain times of the day.

really my advise to any driver thinking of driving into central london. just forget it. 

i have no idea how to repair a bike puncture. is it difficult? or expensive? well, simon will find out. by rights all those who ride bikes should learn to repair a bike puncture because it must be quite a common thing to happen. though i never had a puncture in all the years i have the bikes until now. and two comes along… 

first iris of the year

london friday 2015 5pm

i was walking past and saw this two irises, such a surprise. they are a bit early to be blooming, at least to my way of thinking, as i associate them with summer plants. 

this private garden square in pimlico has loads of camelias, but as u can see, they are in the background and quite far from the fence. so many different varieties of camelias too.

i got a booklet in the post about the disruptions that will be caused to every road user due to the start of roadworks to build the east-west cycle superhighway. it will be segregated cycle paths all the way. the video in that website gives u a good idea of what it will be like when finished. though funny enough it ends at parliament square, and i lost track of the cycle path. it looks like they are not clear where it goes after that. the space covering st james park and green park has no indication of the cycle path. haha.  

(i noticed one thing about those two way cycle paths. they are narrow and can only take one bike, so if u are a fast racer u will have to go onto the other oncoming lane to overtake and it might be frustrating if that other lane is busy too. in rush hour, one lane will be crowded whilst the other will not, and there will be lots of fast racers overtaking each other. i can foresee lots of bicycle rages and crashes in future. though what might actually happen is that fast racers will just avoid it and make their own way. i can envisage lots, not only fast racers, will make the shortcut from charing cross bridge junction to trafalgar square and through admiralty arch , up the Mall to buckingham palace , by passing having to go through that long detour via parliament square. it will make trafalgar square even more crowded than it is allready, but there u are haha). 

the path starts again at hydepark corner, and that is a real bottle neck, when we had the naked bike ride last year  we were supposed to cross that junction to wellington arch but that junction has so many cars wanting to cross it all at once, in the end, everyone just dispersed into the greenery around there. one wonders how the superduper cycle path will negotiate that bit, without causing a huge backup of traffic. 

more bus delays i guess. and closing of some bus stops, and relocating them further away. that will be how it will affect me who is a bus user, but car drivers will be affected too. ah well, it is part and parcel of living in a big city, i suppose.

everyone wants to use the roads, it is why we have elected officials to run the city, to make sure it is even handed in catering to all these groups of users. but i foresee rows of traffic cones all over the place. haha. 

Volvo Introduces “Life Paint” for Bicycles, But Not Everyone Is Pleased – CityLab

Volvo Introduces “Life Paint” for Bicycles, But Not Everyone Is Pleased – CityLab.

on the face of this , it seems a good thing.

but why not just buy reflective tape and stick them on your outerwear, waterproof vest, and knap sack and on parts of your bike and helmet?  it is cheaper and still as effective.

or buy those high visibility jackets or vests or straps. there is a vest that retails for £1.65 . this is what i would do if i cycle often.

and no need to criticise volvo for coming up with this. the beauty of our way of life in the west is that you can have the choice. the market economy caters to everyone. if not many buys the volvo paint, it will be taken off the market. simples.

it might suit those who dont mind the cost but want the convenience of this reflective spray paint which does not mark their clothing or bike. one point that is crucial, is it waterproof? visibility is more important when it rains.  

living in london pt 18

london

 i enjoy the weather here in london, no matter whether it is winter or summer. i know lots of people like summer, and this weather we are having now is ideal. and many must feel they have to make full use of it, go out even though they would much rather have a nap instead.

Because i like whatever the weather brings, whether rain, or shine or cold , I am not fearful of losing out and not experiencing this warm weather. To me, who suffer from hayfever i would rather be indoors now. 

I think the fear of losing out (FOLO) or fear of missing out (FOMO) affects a lot of people especially if they live in a happening place like london where there are many people wanting to make a business and so they organise functions designed to entice a lot of people to the place as the more footfalls there are , the better the chance that people will buy things and the businesses there will benefit.

Take for eg yesterday, when it is the longest day. Regent st was having its london bus event, and trafalgar square was reserved for the westend live stage show, featuring many of the musicals and theatre now on in the westend. And there was some kind of remembrance of the first world war in the cenotaph memorial in whitehall which means that stretch of road is blocked and the buses hve to be diverted. it causes mayhem with the buses and many confused tourists 

All in all, it makes for a very crowded central london. i went early at about 11am to the charing cross library, as it is the only one open so early on sunday and allready there was a long queue forming  to get into trafalgar square for the westend live shows. it starts at 12pm.

I can remember it used to be at leicester square and it was not very popular then, (or it was on its 2nd year i think and so not well known)and there was no queue; i was even able to win a prize in the draw that takes place every hour,  since i got there at about 10.30am that hour has less people registering for the draw. the price was £50 worth of products from some body shop in neals yard. now you know why we oldies always say the good ol days. haha.

Nowadays everything is so popular it is always crowded so that you have to get there early and still have to queue to get in. Though having said that i dont remember queueing to get into the opera nights in june at the trafalgar square . So maybe i am wrong about that. that is the danger of generalising. i think it is a bit of luck whether some place is crowded or not. 

I go to the library to charge up my chrome book, and i found a book to borrow. ‘the city of devi’ by manil suri.

After the library, i decided to buy some stuff in chinatown. surprisingly the grocery shops there were not busy and there was no queue to pay for them.

i bought sesame oil, £1.68 for 150ml. vermicelli noodles98p and flat noodles £1.05. and frozen fish balls 200mg £1.65.(fresh cost £2.20) malaysian curry250mg £1.35.  

Simon tells me he wants to cycle to work now. so we went to the bicycle shed where i keep the 3bikes that i found and he chosed one and we brought it up to the flat and put it in the spare bedroom. it is easier for him to get it than to go to the bike shed. it is summer so cycling is a nice experience but i found out by a casual mention he made about his fitness test coming along that it is his way of getting fit instead of going to the gym. he used to walk up and down the stairs but cycling would be a far better way of getting fit i think. He finds the bike quite strenous to use, as they have thick tyres. he said he tried out the ones with thin tyres and they are so light he can carry the whole bike easily. I have a feeling he has a hankering for those light , thin tyres bike.

When i was a kid, we have bikes like that. and they have only 3gears and they are really very easy to ride, as the tyres are large.  I have often wondered why in london everyone used mountain bikes with their thick tyres and their 22 gears.

after all, we live in london, there are paved roads there is no need for mountain bikes, but i guess it is the same mentality that favours cars with 4-wheel drives in the narrow streets of london. haha