It is amazing how time flies when you're having fun / getting older there is a lot to be done and a deadline that just can't be moved - Christmas. One minute I was approaching December confident of hitting my cycling target for the year and here I am 6 days into December already wondering how I will get stuff done - let along go cycling. Still there is good news, I have various "meetings" (er actually meeting people for lunch to catch up - Christmas is always a good excuse) which will encourage me to cycle. The Christmas tree has been selected and arrangements made to pick up my son and visit my mother (present pick up and delivery). The Gas Fires have had their annual service, the turkey has been ordered and we have one of the Heston Blumenthal Christmas Puddings with an Orange in it. It turns out that the Pudding has not only done well in the physical world - it is also topping Internet searches as well. We bought ours a while ago - I just liked the look of it, in fact I wanted to try it out and buy another for Christmas if we liked it. It is a good job my wife wouldn't let me, unless of course we don't like it.
Bottom of the priority list is sorting out Bike stuff. I have still not gotten around to fixing my two piece rear mudguard. It broke a few weeks ago when I popped up to King's Lynn. The rear bit bounces around on its stays (which act like springs) whenever I go over bumps. I have replacements, the front mudguard also could do we being replaced, but I might resort to a zip tie in the short-term. The cold is also a bit off-putting, fiddling with nuts and bolts is just not pleasant in the freezing cold.
I have also had to replace batteries in our smoke alarms. We have a few dotted around the house and when one battery goes I replace all of them in one go - it seems safer that way around.
It seems that the "Christmas lights" are also on for the Cambridge Guided Busway (CGB). Apparently there is some testing going on and the CGB Bus stops are being lit up which predictable is causing some people to complain. Although in the general scheme of things it is probably insignificant compared with the overall cost of the CGB. There is also a Christmas Present for toads crossing the "corridor of death" - er make that the CGB. apparently there are 40 tunnels to allow wildlife to cross under the CGB in various places but more need to be built every 50m over a 600m stretch between Cambridge and Histon. Although this will wait until the handover and coincide with the surfacing of the cycle way.
It turns out that here in the Fens you don't need a fishing rod to catch fish - just a shotgun. I can't recall ever seeing that fishing technique on my journeys alongside the Cam and Great Ouse though.
Cyclist accidents seem to get more attention in the Press now, or maybe I am just a bit more sensitive to the news of cycling-related accidents. Two cyclists have been killed in Cumbria and eight cyclists were killed in Italy.
And finally "Blasé Britain: How we're ignoring the endless health and safety warnings" - you only have to see all the "Give-way" and "cyclist dismount signs" on cycle paths to know that most cyclists are not going to hang around when there will be hardly any vehicles to give way for. The problem is a combination of "crying wolf" and I think the human ability to assume that it won't happen to us when say we jump a red light.
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