Uncle Tom Cobbley and All

Turning onto Kennington Road this morning I found I’d hit one of those mysterious gaps in the traffic (some combination of the congestion charge and traffic light phasing) that meant there was absolutely nothing on the road in either direction as far as the eye could see. Curiously, there were no pedestrians about either – it was just me and my bike. And the little green man. Because, despite the lack of pedestrians, someone had pressed the button and the light on the crossing was red. Mindful of my pledge, I duly stopped and waited and wondered – if a bike stops for red and there’s nobody around, does anybody actually care?

Still, as I pondered this and other philosophical conundra I did have time to notice a curious sensation on my cheek (left upper) – warmth. As in sunshine. As in spring. Which was fortunate because my train was late this evening, giving me an extra six minutes to enjoy the sensation of not getting frostbite while standing outside. This, according to the guard at Kew Bridge, was due to a passenger activating the alarm. By the time we got to Barnes, the story had grown with the telling and it was due to a passenger activating the alarm at Hounslow and a delayed train in front of ours. By Clapham Junction the guard had added the further supplementary excuse that when the passenger alarm is activated they have to go and investigate before they can move off again, and the announcements were now longer than the original delay. Sadly, I got off at Vauxhall before he could add in existential angst, wrong kind of snow or extreme weather conditions to the roll call of excuses. There’s an irritating folk song in there somewhere if only I could be bothered to write it…