Silly commuting racing

Fireblade96

I'm rather worried about this whole swine flu pandemic thing.....

So I phoned the NHS hotline....
.
.
.
.
.
all I got was a lot of crackling

prawny

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm rather worried about this whole swine flu pandemic thing.....

So I phoned the NHS hotline....
.
.
.
.
.
all I got was a lot of crackling

Nice!

lost_in_thought

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm rather worried about this whole swine flu pandemic thing.....

So I phoned the NHS hotline....
.
.
.
.
.
all I got was a lot of crackling

Like it!

Good commute in today, despite the fact that when I woke up my legs were still sore. I decided to MTFU and ignore them and interestingly enough I was OK!

I also had an entertaining incident with a truck - pulled up next to it when traffic to my left started moving, one car was a petrified-looking learner, so I hunkered over right next to the truck - minimal risk, I know the sequence of these lights and he wasn't going.

However, it didn't stop the truck shifting forward about 3 inches, at which point my hood got caught under the trailer! After a couple of rather exciting seconds I pulled the bike out by the wheel.

Moral: trucks are bad, mmmmmmkay?

Eau Rouge

lost_in_thought wrote:

Moral: trucks are bad, mmmmmmkay?

Very exciting seconds I'd imagine.

I heard one coming along behind me on my country lane commute this morning just before the top of the drag. Cars can follow me down to the next bump and overtake in their own time, but any truck driver stupid enough to be using that road is doing so becuase his Sat-Nav is telling him to, it's not a road suitable for trucks, and I don't really trust them to know not to even think about overtaking as it's far too dangerous. I nipped into the driveway to the farm and let him past then followed him along.
Cue muppet in the car who decides to overtake me on the bump despite the fact there is a great big truck 50 yards in front of her who's having to crawl over the blind crest he is too wide for and facing a steepish downhill in the wet on the other side. What on earth did she think she would gain by this? We both had to slow and wait for the truck by the bottom of the hill anyway....
Just where did she think she was going to go if anything was coming the other way? She would have been ok without the truck, easily out-accelerating me and being able to pull in, but not with a great big truck in front of her.
People just don't think when they drive. We need to force people to think when they drive again.

lost_in_thought

@Eau Rouge - I have to say people overtaking me on the bike when they stand to gain absolutely nothing by doing so is a real irritation of mine.

I try to figure out why they've done it, and whether I could justify doing the same as a driver myself, and it annoys me when I can't work it out.

As you say, some people seem to get tunnel vision in a car and not really think about what they're doing. I try not to be one of those!

I did get an angry glare from a cyclist the other day, in my car in London, cyclist in front of me at a t-junction, me stopped well back waiting. I saw some friends of mine, beeped the horn to get their attention, they didn't look, but the cyclist turned around and gave me an evil glare, so I tried to indicate with hand signals that I wasn't beeping at her.

Thinking I'd got the message across, I beeped again, this time the friends looked and I waved, cyclists stands up bike, walks up to my window and asks what my f**king problem is!

I explained. She was rather sheepish.

jonginge

Heh. It's very difficult to get out of the victim mentality. Sometimes the beeps aren't directed at us. I have given the glare* in that situation... and then apologised


* it may have been more than a glare

benno68

@ Eau Rouge - We've probably all experienced a car or truck nudging up by 2 - 3 feet at traffic lights and invading our space, or overtake near a junction and then hug the pavement so we can't get through - complete thoughtlessness. Maybe if they cycled they'd realise what we have to put up with and change their driving habits.

I drove in today "Boohoo", approaching a queue of traffic I thought for a millisecond - I'll pop down the outside. Then came to my senses that I was actually driving - not on my bike . :oops: - so unfortunately I'm not immune to the odd thoughless moments either.

lost_in_thought

JonGinge wrote:

Heh. It's very difficult to get out of the victim mentality. Sometimes the beeps aren't directed at us. I have given the glare* in that situation... and then apologised


* it may have been more than a glare

Yeah, I try to presume the best in people, for example I don't think that 99% of drivers are actually out to get you on a bike, most of them just don't realise what a worry it is to be passed too close, for example.

However, it doesn't stop me muttering and swearing, or occasionally thumping the sides of buses whose drivers forget they have a left hand wing mirror...

Greg T

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm rather worried about this whole swine flu pandemic thing.....

So I phoned the NHS hotline....
.
.
.
.
.
all I got was a lot of crackling

FB - don't worry, if you do contract it a special sealed vehicle will be sent to take you in safety to the nearest isolation hospital.

It's a hambulance

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm rather worried about this whole swine flu pandemic thing.....

So I phoned the NHS hotline....
.
.
.
.
.
all I got was a lot of crackling

FB - don't worry, if you do contract it a special sealed vehicle will be sent to take you in safety to the nearest isolation hospital.

It's a hambulance

You've been working on these, haven't you? Jotting them down in a little notebook?

biondino

Morning all - off sick today (just a cold, honestly) so that's 4 days with no riding at all. Am beginning to fancy going out on the fixie again...

Greg T

lost_in_thought wrote:

You've been working on these, haven't you? trottering them down in a little notebook?

benno68

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg T wrote:

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm rather worried about this whole swine flu pandemic thing.....

So I phoned the NHS hotline....
.
.
.
.
.
all I got was a lot of crackling

FB - don't worry, if you do contract it a special sealed vehicle will be sent to take you in safety to the nearest isolation hospital.

It's a hambulance

You've been working on these, haven't you? Jotting them down in a little notebook?

Yeah FB, don't worry about it too much, just make sure you keep cycling or you may get a bit porky.

lost_in_thought

biondino wrote:

Morning all - off sick today (just a cold, honestly) so that's 4 days with no riding at all. Am beginning to fancy going out on the fixie again...

Oooooh let's do an RP lap next week! I am determined to get up Dark Hill this time...

Christophe3967

biondino wrote:

Morning all - off sick today (just a cold, honestly) so that's 4 days with no riding at all. Am beginning to fancy going out on the fixie again...

Hmm, how many people called Juan or Emilio do you know? With your track record, you can't be too careful.

cjcp

Benno68 wrote:

I drove in today "Boohoo", approaching a queue of traffic I thought for a millisecond - I'll pop down the outside. Then came to my senses that I was actually driving - not on my bike . :oops: - so unfortunately I'm not immune to the odd thoughless moments either.

The one consolation is this: rush hour traffic in Cardiff is nothing like up here in the Big Smoke (although I prefer cycling up here because I'm used to it).

cjcp

lost_in_thought wrote:

biondino wrote:

Morning all - off sick today (just a cold, honestly) so that's 4 days with no riding at all. Am beginning to fancy going out on the fixie again...

Oooooh let's do an RP lap next week! I am determined to get up Dark Hill this time...

I would get sick just not being on the bike.

cjcp

lost_in_thought wrote:

biondino wrote:

Morning all - off sick today (just a cold, honestly) so that's 4 days with no riding at all. Am beginning to fancy going out on the fixie again...

Oooooh let's do an RP lap next week! I am determined to get up Dark Hill this time...

I will be there tonight. I can crack the whip and shout "mush, mush" if it helps.

biondino

lost_in_thought wrote:

biondino wrote:

Morning all - off sick today (just a cold, honestly) so that's 4 days with no riding at all. Am beginning to fancy going out on the fixie again...

Oooooh let's do an RP lap next week! I am determined to get up Dark Hill this time...

You're on. You may need to push me up some of the hills...

posh_pedaller

I phoned up NHS direct and told them I had swine flu. They had a go at me for telling porkies.

I said 'No, honestly I have it'. They sent me to my doctor, who prescribed an oinkment.

girv73

Regarding Swine Flu, it's important though that we all sty calm. It's still just a snoutbreak, a minor hamergency the health services can contain for now. Nonetheless, U.S. authorities are patrolling their borders with helichopters to stop herds of Mexican citizens from bacon down fences and streakying across to the north. It’s true that swine flu’ is hard to cure and could grow to epigdemic or even hamdemic proportions - an aporkalyptic scenario that could bring about parmageddon - but, for now, society has not bacon down as people realise this isn’t swine-11 and are showing some gammon sense, not behaving rasherly or crackling up.

Thank you.

Anyway.

Belting down with rain in Belfast this morning, again, but surprisingly I encountered two other cyclists on my morning commute. One was a FCN match so we had a bit of a race. Not much competition though as he was only holding ~20mph on the downhill and swerving madly to avoid the gutter floods. After commuting on the road bike for a while, I find that I can do my MTB commutes (almost) entirely in the 44t now, so a quick gear change and spin up and I'm past in good style.

Later on I catch up with a lady shopper at some lights. The lights change and I wait for her to set off. She does so ... very slowly. I'm talking sub-10mph here, just about enough to keep upright. I've a car up my cassette trying to get past us both, so I move out and move on at 25mph. BAM.

girv73

posh_pedaller wrote:

I phoned up NHS direct and told them I had swine flu. They had a go at me for telling porkies.

...and hogging the line?

Fireblade96

I'm going to Reading Beer Festival tonight.

I remember from last year they sold really nice pork scratchings.

Should I risk it ? If I drink enough beer will it keep me immune ?

girv73

Fireblade96 wrote:

If I drink enough beer will it keep me immune ?

No, but you won't care.

DonDaddyD

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm going to Reading Beer Festival tonight.

I remember from last year they sold really nice pork scratchings.

Should I risk it ? If I drink enough beer will it keep me immune ?

FFS!

This Swine Flu situation is ridiculous, its fear mongering beyond all belife. I guess terrorism was last years fear monger vogue!? It wouldn't surprise me if it was ploy by the Pharmaceutical companies to increase profit and survive the recession.

As of yesterday roughly only 7 people have died from swine flu and I think they were all in Mexico, no one else has died yet. The common flu has killed more people in a day than this has ever done. Most of the reported cases elsewhere in the world are, arguably, suspected cases of 'swine flu'.

Have they even said that by eating pork you'll get swine flu? Even if that is the case the pork would have to come from Mexico where the outbreak has originated.

FFS!

Incidentally by simply living in the World at any given time you are subject to many many more dangerous infections, viruses and germs than just swine flu.

girv73

DDD, we're kidding.

Some facts:
- 160 dead in Mexico, 1 dead in US.
- You can't get it from eating pork products.
- The problem with swine flu is that it spreads like ordinary flu but is much more dangerous.

benno68

Fireblade96 wrote:

I'm going to Reading Beer Festival tonight.

I remember from last year they sold really nice pork scratchings.

Should I risk it ? If I drink enough beer will it keep me immune ?

Just go for it, drink the swill and pig out a bit - enjoy!

il_principe

girv73 wrote:

DDD, we're kidding.

Some facts:
- 160 dead in Mexico, 1 dead in US.
- You can't get it from eating pork products.
- The problem with swine flu is that it spreads like ordinary flu but is much more dangerous.

I'm getting tired of everyone trotting out pointless statistics...
There's snout to worry about...

:oops:

jonginge

jashburnham wrote:

girv73 wrote:

DDD, we're kidding.

Some facts:
- 160 dead in Mexico, 1 dead in US.
- You can't get it from eating pork products.
- The problem with swine flu is that it spreads like ordinary flu but is much more dangerous.

I'm getting tired of everyone trotting out pointless statistics...
There's snout to worry about...

:oops:

Getting a bit boared with it?

Fireblade96

DDD, it was a joke!
Pork holds no fear for me.

This, on the other hand.....




is another matter entirely