spark67

My Partners stuck on a train just outside London bridge right now, been stuck there nearly two hours so far no one can get off, they have been told there's been a fire somewhere thats affected the power supply. he has no idea when it's going to get moving :(

Just back from a weekend in Rome, And was thinking "god I'm glad I don't cycle here" Then noticed the array of sectioned off cycle lanes, and shared cycle pavement/spaces, where pedestrians and cyclists were quite polite to each other, no one seemed to be bothered about the shared space and each gave way accordingly. also most traffic lights had cycle lights too. And it appeared that at crossings with lights, the rule seemed to be cars and bikes could go if there were no pedestrians crossing, obviously they all had to slow to approach. I thought it was just that neither could be bothered to stop, but our friend who has lived there 18yrs said it was how its worked for years. After hearing about aggressive roman driving i was quite suprised :)

Some good points about headphones...from people who wear them of course. I am speaking from my own experience coming across cyclists wearing headphones....one case of one not hearing my shouting and bell ringing as they pulled out of a junction without noticing me feet away on my bike, causing me to break suddenly and my back wheel to swerve outward ....of course they could've been choosing to ignore me. as a partially deaf cyclists ( my left ear many) I tend to concentrate more on listening, I just think if I had headphones on It would distract from my concentration...it does when I'm walking as a recent lampost would agree :) And Ps I do notice a lot of good cyclist btw too, and see more stopping at lights then I do going through them, just the ones who don't who stand out.

I second the bit about the good drivers, I come across more good drivers then bad which I'm relieved to say. & need to remind myself that. I think the bad ones in the minority just stand out in your mind more when you have a scary brush with one.

I see from the standard this evening that the police are going to be out in force monday at key junctions to stop law breaking drivers and cyclists, be interesting to see what the results of this will be. I for one will be glad to see a crack down on cyclists wearing headphones..as a cyclists I often come across one or two totally oblivious to me coming up behind them, or breaking suddenly without checking or noticing other cyclists or traffic..I mean how can you hear a lorry or bus thundering up behind you ? It's totally irresponsible, it's illegal for drivers for the same reasons.

Burbage Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > spark67 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I don't go with the idea that drivers do not > give > > a wider berth to cyclists with helmets on > > Here you go: http://opus.bath.ac.uk/9332/ Thanks for the info ...interesting reading, but still hold by my statement, I see no difference in drivers behavior, as a cyclist myself on `London's road for over 15 years, and as driver it makes no odds to me, I give a wide berth what ever, helmet or no helmet...long or short hair, I can only speak from my own personal experience, maybe i'm in a minority ;)

It doesn't take much to cause serious damage to the brain, the height from a fall off a bike can cause bleeding, especially if hit on the temples, as happened to my sisters friend, he had to have 3 blood clots removed from his brain after banging the side of his head after a minor tumble off his bike, a helmet would have cushioned the vulnerable parts of the head, I have been told by a friend who is a reconstruction surgeon, that it makes him shiver when he sees cyclists without Helmets as he has seen the damage that can be done to an unprotected head. I don't go with the idea that drivers do not give a wider berth to cyclists with helmets on, I've been driving for 30 years and give a wide berth regardless what they are wearing as I see another person on a bike, makes no difference if I see them without a helmet or not. And have not noticed any difference to drivers attitudes to me before and after I started wearing one (the accident that I mentioned above changed my mind)

That's why I have my mirror, just gives a bit of extra safety I do look behind when turning, but I can't keep looking behind every time i pass a junction entrance, to see if I'm going to be overtaken by a car turning left, i'll never be looking in front

Ive fitted a mirror to my right hand handle bar now... it may not look "cool" but a quick glance as I approach the entrance to a junction and i can see if anyone is coming up behind me looking like they are going to try and cut in front to turn left.

The turning into Kinsale road is a nightmare for cyclists, Twice I have been overtaken and cut up by cars speeding past and turning into Kinsale road from peckham rye as I pass it, one of those time I had to turn sharply into the road with the car to avoid being knocked off. Have passed a cyclist being treated by an ambulance in the road at this junction too, though do not know the circumstances of that accident. If the driver in this case didn't stop, then thats outrageous, you couldn't miss knocking someone off their bike, you should check their ok regardless of fault, its the human thing to do at least. This sounds more like a hit and run ! Glad you were not seriously hurt. As most cycle lanes are on the inside of cars, then I doubt if its illegal to undertake cars this way, especially in slow traffic. Checking wing mirrors does the trick I find when driving and turning into a junction, Especially if you notice a cycle lane beside you. We should all be looking out for each other when cyling or driving, sadly this isn't the case all the time from both sides. (edited to replace Nigel road with Kinsale road, rubbish at road names me)

We had our neighbors in our flat and pooled all our sweets of sweets, had a few well behaved treaters, when it suddenly stopped I went out to see if the candle had gone out in the pumpkin only to find it and the lantern our neighbor put out had been booted across the front garden. Makes me not want to bother next year.

My bed linen was flapping in an horrific way earlier, the fire brigade have been alerted.

I'll just leave this here. *coughs,runs away* ;) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24629300

We tend to go just up the road to Canvas and cream in forest hill, I know it's not ED, But you can find a quiet corner and the staff are rather pleasant, It has a nice relaxed feel too. On a saturday in ED it's very hard to find a place not rammed tbh, unless it's August and everyones away :)

Was walking along Langton rise by the cemetery wednesday this week and a rat appeared and ran along side me along the fence, was a bigun ! It was trying to get away from me, looking for away to get through the fence, I started walking faster this scared it more and it started screeching in an alarming way before climbing up the ivy on the fence and jumping over, I guess the cemetery has a few of them. Foxes seem to sort them out in our garden, found half of one once on the lawn *shudders*

We must have just posted at same time :)

Just heard on the radio that no trains are stopping there this morning, they didn't say why, have checked my train app all trains apart form one or two overground seem to be cancelled from there. ( though majority of overground are cancelled ) they are stopping at denmark though, and I assume Nunhead . So best anyone traveling from P Rye should check before they leave this morning.

I just came on the forum as our water pressure has dropped dramatically,& thought i might find out on here why, and it seems I have ! we are on underhill road near belvoir rd, our water has been fine up until now, hence we didn't know about what has happened to the streets around us..it appears the problem is spreading. the two flats above us have no water at all & one of them has two toddlers !

I just witnessed our two cats (brother and sister) stalk a large fox in our garden, I saw them and was worried it might attack them so went outside..what I didn't expect was our cats to turn on the fox and give it a good hiding then they chased it out of the garden..I could only watch with bemusement as it rushed past me squealing with one of my cats digging a claw in its backside. So thats answered the cat/fox question, in my garden anyway.. who knew.

The guy that owns The cheese block ( & SMBS I think) Who I assume owns the lease, Was there, he was wandering around checking the premises & chatting to the Business owner that night. But its definitely a new business by all accounts according to the guy from Sicily I chatted to.

Basically the tables and chairs, layout etc are the same ones used when it was chopsticks, which I remember as it was first place I ate on my first night in ED When I bought my first flat here in 2003 :) It was used by indian Mischief & now the new place ( Though the guy I spoke to saturday said he had to fit the kitchen out from scratch to suit an Italian restaurant) Now thats what i call recycling :)

Walked past it tonight...had a look in and decided to try, nice simple pasta/pizza place, there is a really nice terrace at the back, perfect for this weather that has been there through all the restaurants that have been there over the past few years that I didn't know existed ! Upshot is it was very pleasant, staff were lovely & got chatting to owner who is from sicily who was charming and explained all the chefs were from italy and they make the pasta and breads in house. We decided it was a nice place to pop into for a glass of wine with pizza or pasta, menu was devoid of the usual lasagna, spaghetti, and over sauced concoctions you get in the usual bulk standard italians in london, and was mainly fish and vegetable dishes. It's called Sorsi & Morsi (think I got that the right way around) & nice addition to the lane I feel & I like the way it just opened without any fuss or social media fanfare :)

We've got a bumble bee nest under a few rocks at the back of our house, they do not nest in large numbers and you don't see many at a time, they just lazily come and go, I sit at the garden table with a mug of tea and watch them for a little while land like planes on an aircraft carrier in exactly the same place all the time following the same flight path..before they scurry under the rocks,quite relaxing when I get home form work..who needs 3D TV :)

Ps I second the recommendation for garlic chives, I have grown them for the past couple of years in a window box in the back garden and it has a wonderful flavour, and as an added bonus produces beautiful flowers in the late summer :)

I have seen a lot of people in the mornings picking Elderflowers along surrey canal walk, peckham, as I cycle through early in the morning. It seems the new craze. It's gone from not seeing anyone to seeing large groups snapping and branches and breaking of the flowers willy nilly. When a fad like this catches on and people do it in large numbers it can cause a lot of ecological damage to local wildlife, as well as damaging the plants themselves, those flowers are food for pollinating insects ( remember the bee and butterfly population is in sharp decline ) and also the berries are an important source of food for birds and other wild life in the winter. Us humans have a lot of food at hand here in the uk, and do not need to pillage the countryside as well. I can understand people wanting to try their hand at foraging after all the press it has been getting and getting a feel of being connected with nature, but when it becomes a national fad it can do more harm then good.