View From a Hospital Window
This view was taken from my friend’s room in Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
View From Addenbrooke's
Despite the rumours, Cambridgeshire isn’t all flat!
Notice too, the apostrophe!
A Curious and Tragic Fact About Women Cyclists
I just spotted this on the BBC’s web site.
Men do about three times more journeys by bicycle than women, but in accidents causing deaths with lorries in London last year, seven out of the eight victims were women.
I’m writing this in Holland, where I suspect that the ratio of women cyclists to men is not as low as in the UK. I wonder if the Dutch have the same anomaly with their accidents? The figures in Holland would probably shed some light on those for the UK.
I do wonder though, whether a lot of the difference is due to the fact that the average man rides a bicycle much more aggressively than does the average woman. I’m also constantly looking out for traffic on the lanes where I ride around Suffolk and make sure that when I meet a lorry, I either get them to slow down or I time it to meet them in a safe and obvious place. I’m also pretty fit, so I can get out of the saddle to sprint to get out of the way.
But this is only conjecture.
None of the researchers in the article seem to have a clue. And it’s not for want of trying.
Pleasures of NOT Flying
I have come to Utrecht for a weekend away at a wedding.
I did think about flying, but although the drive would take nearly ten hours, I thought it would be the best way to do it. It has its compensations in that I can get the suits I’ll need and the smart jacket in the car without cramming them into a suitcase. And I can get my Brompton in the boot of the Jaguar estate.
I’ve just been for a ride around the city. It seems much like most Dutch cities; water, bicycles and windmills.
Utrecht
As to cost, well because I couldn’t be sure that I’d ever get here, I couldn’t book until a few days ago. Norfolk Line cost me about sixty pounds one way and easyJet would have been over a hundred and twenty because of the late booking and the luggage. So on balance the drive was a little bit more expensive, but it was certainly hassle free and I had the bike.
The only hassle was the difficulty of getting diesel at Total garages on the Belgian motorway. You had to pay first and I think they keep the card. I’m not doing that, because if someone skims it, it’s my fault, as I gave the card to someone else.
The Anonymous Widower 