I have just seen a cyclist do perhaps the most stupidest thing (not exactly the most stupid, but its high up there!).

Location: City Centre Leeds, outside the Cornish Pasty Shop and the bus station near the train station. You have a layby with a large shelter for passengers. You have a set of traffic signals just down the road from the layby, and two lanes of traffic. One of which is ALWAYS full of taxis. Bus waiting to go straight, and a bus in the layby. 1m width between them. So what does this stupid idiot do? CYCLES IN BETWEEN THEM!

And it gets worse. The bus in the layby begins to pull out.

Now, imagine your handlebars on an average bike. 0.7 to 0.8m in width. You can guess what happened. He got stuck. So, these two buses are stuck. The drivers both see the cyclist, now stuck between the buses(admittedly the driver of the bus in the layby must not have correctly looked where he was pulling out and I imagine he pulled out so that he could get his front wheels in the right orientation to pull out when the traffic signal changed).

Does the cyclist stop? Nope. He gets off. And moves forward between the buses, where the gap is narrower rather than cutting his losses and moving backwards to where the gap is bigger.

I continued to watch, as the cyclist continued, got out in front of the bus in the layby, and the bus waiting, mounted the kerb at the lights, and continued going at full whack on the road.

No wonder drivers hate me so much, they must all think that I am this pillock! Never in my life had I wanted to apologise so much for being associated with such a person (not associated directly, but I too am a cyclist). It really made me sick.

 

Tomorrow I leave for France. Its going to be a “holiday”. Specifically, its going to be a “working holiday”. In my bag i have been instructed to bring:

• Jeans I don’t mind getting ruined
• Laptop with 2D modelling and planning software (AutoCAD)
• My Big Book of British Standards (read: Smiles)
• T-shirts (lots)
• Warm socks (stone floors and no central heating means cold toesies)
• Sleeping bag (did i mention i am sleeping on a futon)
• CHOCOLATE COVERED COFFEE BEANS - For the extremely long drive from Leeds > Mur De Bretagne (908 miles) in 24 hours. 5pm Wednesday > 5pm Thursday.
• Nintendo DS (for my sanity)

 

My task this “holiday”is to assist my father in renovating his 150 year old pair of French farm houses, turning them from two separate single floor domiciles into a single, 2 floor French Chateau!

Should be amusing at least. I do get to have fun with 1m long drill bits and a sledgehammer!

Your response: