To say ‘going to the Flicks’ has changed over the years is a bit of an understatement I guess, but to put records straight, this isn’t in any way detrimental to any Cinema Companies - you’re all doing a grand job for the people of this time and most important, giving people employment.

So, for the first time in 15 years, I went to the Cinema two days ago. First impression was that it was like going into a Shopping Centre, about 4 Outlets, preseumably franchised, over run with Customers.

The cost of it all has left me with some shock I have to admit. Fair enough it’s one of the new all singing and dancing IMAX Theatre’s with what seemed Octogonal surround sound, some of which seemed to come from under the seats and 3D curved widescreen.

The family of four ticket was £42.00. Add to that 3 Drinks, 22 individual candies and a packet of Peanuts came to £17.20, so approximately two and a half hours entertainment equals just about £60 !!

My experience of going to the Cinema about 200 years ago was firstly the musty carpet smell as you walked in, getting the tickets from the little Booth with the ever watchful Lady Assistant who glared at you if it were an ‘A’ movie and you were only 12.
After that walking up the steps to the Auditorium where another Lady with a torch would show you vacant seats etc.

First of all would be a few Advertising films, then trailers, then the infamous ‘B’ Movie which starred all those ‘almost made it’ Actors.
After a short Interval where you’d join the queue for your treat Ice Cream Tub, you’d settle down to the biggie, the one you’d really wanted to see since you heard about it on the School Playground.

The only bad part about the picture quality was the smoke from about 400 people sitting in front of you!

So now we go in, queue an eternity for food, usually sold in extremely noisy bags which are going to efficiently disturb those sitting in front of you, then go through the outer gate where some bloke dishes out the 3D Glasses from a Cardboard Box which I noticed those coming out had chucked them in, great for effective virus spreading!

Then we are subjected to 25 minutes of advertising and trailers.
One thing which hasn’t changed are the Trailers. How often have we seen an amazingly funny trailer, gone to see the film only to find that the only really funny bits were those in the Trailer itself!!

The movie begins and to be fair, I think I was the only person in the Theatre who actually dozed off twice. Afterwards, the kids were happy, the parents were happy because the kids were (or too ashamed to say they really enjoyed a Movie aimed at 12 year olds).

For the modern man, this is a good afternoon out, so be it and I guess that if you compare it to going to watch a Premiership football match and paying £40 a seat for the privilege, it could be about right.

For me, I don’t go for the experience, I go for the film. If I don’t, it’s an expensive afternoon nap !

I only go to the Town Centre once a fortnight or so and every time I go there, at least one more Shop has closed.

It use to be just the smaller private Shops where they’d either been squeezed out by the larger Chain’s prices or simply not got their Business Plans right. Now it seems to have spread to the larger Retailers; Peacocks being just one of them.

A sad loss - Peacocks dating back to 1884 finally succombs to Banking pressures

I guess there are two main reasons for this; 1. Out of Town Business Parks with their easily accessible Car Parks, larger floor space making more variety and 2. The Internet, where prices can be even lower and you don’t have to face parking, noise and general chaos!

It seems the vast majority of those seen strolling around town are either those who have travelled in by Bus or youngsters because that’s where the cheaper Drinking Establishments are.
Of course, what doesn’t help is if you live in a Town where there isn’t something of some Touristy interest.

Once the Nation of Shopkeepers, we are now the Nation of Consumers. I don’t think that’s wrong, far from it, you want to get the best deal after all, but it does make you wonder what our Towns are going to be like in another 20 - 30 years.
The age of the Village has already gone by in most areas; the Butchers, The Bakers, the Post Offices all closing in places where other shops selling the same things are within driving distance.

Can a Town Centre survive on just Banks, Building Societies, a few Pubs and a General Post Office for long. Even Banking is now very much Internet based, it’s a rare event I go into mine. Everything is paid to me by Direct Debit of Electronic Fund Transfer. All I need is a hole in the Wall and I haven’t used a Cheque Book for 8 or 9 years now.

The Human side of it

But the people I feel most sorry for are the Employee’s of these Shops, the last of the ‘Counter types’ if you like to call them that; a Shop where you take your Goods to the Counter and not just a Check Out.

This week I noticed the ‘Game’ shop had closed down. For quite a number of years I’ve been going in there with my Son and since the year dot, there’s been a young Lady working there who obviously joined after she left School - now, she’s gone.
She was a good Sales Person, friendly and polite. Let’s hope she’s found something else, but in this economical climate who know’s!

I don’t like getting older and I guess it’s what a lot of people of my age would say no matter when they lived, but I’m glad to have been around to see the Villages, the converstaions of the locals, when shopping was a community gathering, an event rather than just a quick drive down to a Business Park, trying to find someone who knows what they’re talking about and just going home with the goods and not the memory of a pleasant shopping experience.

So be it!

Relative pages on Website - Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s - Ashford in Kent

1967 it was, the Beatles released ‘When I’m 64′ and it seemed that all us teenagers were actually asking each other ‘what will I be doing when I’m 64!

Yesterday I became 64 and needless to say it got me thinking about both past and present, indded, future as well.
When the record (note the word ‘record’!) was released I was 19, so an age of in-between, I’d gone through the first girlfriend stages, was going to Rock Concerts, working but still single and wondering about the future which seemed to be changing almost day by day.

Embracing the ‘now’!!

The early to mid 1960’s had seen much change, the once black and white world of post WW2 was slowly vanishing and we were entering an age for the young, the rebellious and desperately searching for a new look.

I recall very well having a conversation with a friend about where and what we may be doing when we reach 64, in some things it’s pretty much what I imagined and in other ways completely different, looking back I tend to see the things I had hoped for not coming to fruition, yet substituted by things which make up for that.

One thing we did decide was that we should make ourselves some event to achieve at 64. For years I didn’t know what I should do, then last year I decided that after many a younger year being spent admiring those who cycle from John O’Groats to Land’s End, I would do that - which I did!

The only difference is that I did it at 63. Weighing it all up and putting the dream around various things I thought it best to do it then. You never know what’s around the corner and if you feel up for it - do it then and not wait. Anyway I was in my 64th year, so I reckon it counts as ‘job done’!

Sadly, my friend with whom I had the conversation with passed away just a few weeks before I did the ride, at the age of 63.
So the ride was for you as well Chris.

I guess back then we saw marriage, kids, steady career job and retire, but life does not go by the book.
I’ve had two marriages which although I’m glad to say have ended with us all remaining friends,is still sad in some ways.
I’ve had three children, but my eldest daughter Louise was lost to us through a motor bike accident some 13 years ago.
I now have two Grandchildren by my daughter Vicky and my son Leo at 22 is still life learning and settling down into his own comfort zone.

As far as work goes, I never had the career; I spent time in Advertising, Marketing, Retail and Railway Management, all good jobs and maybe secure, but I always found that it was like going up an open plan staircase in an Office. I’d get to seeing the next floor up and not sure if I wanted to be there.

After quite a few years I gave up the staircase theory and just left the building altogether, downshifted and had the time of my life ever since all be it a struggle at times.

As for 1967 - Black and white TV with 3 Channels, no mobile phones, computers, internet, only half of us owning cars to a world which is different out of all proportion to what we imagined.

It’s all too easy to write ‘those were the days’, ‘the good old days’; they were, but we have to embrace the changes, adapt to them, memories are great to have, but one second after an event that is a memory etc.

I’m glad to have been born when I was, I’ve seen so much change and like to think I’ve gone along with most of it, I don’t understand half of it, but that in many ways makes it even more fun!

I don’t say I wouldn’t change anything, I would, boy would I just, but overall, it’s been good and the outlook isn’t that bad either.

I’ve set up a life plan for the next year for ‘when I’m 65′ but I don’t count on even one year going to plan let alone 64.

Every decade of your age has something but it’s different in your 60’s; first you’re 60 along with free Prescriptions, Bus Pass, Eye Tests and concessions here and there, then you’re 64, then at 65 it’s an ‘old age pension’, then 70 if you play your cards right.

The clock will never go backwards, nor must we!!

See my ‘Growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s’ pages

Warm days at the end of Winter

Isn’t it amazing after month’s of cold, wet, snow and ice, what a difference a few warm sunny day’s make!

Two weeks ago down the Lane, the grass and Lane couldn’t be seen because a 6″ blanket of snow lay accross it, yet this week it’s like a different world, all be it probably a short lived one.

Suddenly out of nowhere come’s inspiration to get off the butt and do the more physical outdoor stuff.
In two good days this week I’ve prepared my Vegetable Patch and looking in my Diary tells me I’m more than three weeks ahead of the previous early date for doing this!
It’s not so much the want to do the actual work, it’s the want to be out there, feel a bit of warmth on your back, be forced to take the jumper off because you’re too hot and to generally feel that you’ve nearly survived another Winter in one piece!

Not only does it bring about outdoor motivation, but it seems to spur you up in all directions. Besides the gardening work, I’ve written five new web pages, got my Accounts in order and even tidied up the Bedroom, not that I’m in it much anyway!

Needless to say this brings out a big false sense of security for everyone, I drove past the Garden Centre earlier today and it was packed, dare the Centre to display a sign saying “Don’t buy it and plant it yet” !!
The weather even brought out the 16 year old bloke who thinks he has a body like Mr.Universe but actually looks a total Prat as he walks down the Road with the T-Shirt off and strewn accross his shoulder. Enjoy your Pneumonia Mate!

For us Brits there is no greater discussion than one about the weather and how it affects us.
We are a nation that closes down at a snow depth of one inch, a nation that moans because it’s too hot, a nation which has Newspapers with headlines like “32 degrees, thousands will perish”.
Stand at any Bus Stop with a complete bunch of Strangers and you’ll either start talking about the poor Transport Service or the Weather, or in most cases they are linked anyway!

The weather is like how we should treat life maybe, grasp it whilst it’s there, it’s not the same for evermore, so enjoy it now!

I’m off to fetch some more kindling wood!

“Television programmes start in 15 minutes, better switch on the TV” was the near enough request from husband to wife when I were a wee lad back in the early, mid 1950’s.
It was nearing 6pm and the hour and a half Intermission was nearly at an end, that being the hour and a half when kids were kids, if it was dry you’d be in the Garden playing Cowboys and if it were wet, you’d be inside playing with your Meccano Set or Hornby Railway.
To avoid bad PC., I shall interject and say the girls would be outside playing Prams and inside with their Doll’s Houses!

But I digress, the meaning of this little moan is how technology has raced on with great infection, but maybe a little too quickly.

When my home first had a TV (to watch the Coronation in 1953), the reason for the 15 minutes was for the TV to warm up enough for you to see anything! On it would go, after about three minutes a star of light appeared in the middle of the screen and if you were lucky, this would suddenly expand to full size, all be it somewhat mis-shaped for a while.

Once every few weeks, nothing would happen, or you’d be half way through that live production of Tonight with Cliff Michelmore, there’d be a ‘phud’, a spark and possibly some smoke from somewhere amidst the enormity of the carcase (the screen was about 10″ wide and the cabinet about about 30″ wide, 36″ tall and20″ deep).
This was time for the TV Man to be called. Looking remarkably like Michael Palin in Monty Python’s ‘Bicycle Repair Man’, he would turn up with his Leather case full of tools when only one was needed and after said inspection would tell you what you already knew that one of the Valves had blown. Off he’d go to his Ford Prefect Van, return and repair. “See you in two weeks” was the usual sarcastic comment as he waved bye bye.

So you’d think that after 60 years or so TV’s would be pretty much sorted out. It seemed for quite a few years that they had, but along came digital and in the usual mad frantic rush to get something out as fast as possible, we seem to have fallen short on actually ensuring that most days the bloomin things actually work.

60 years on and here we are with lost pixels, automatic up-dates which put three new Channels on but seem to lose the other 469, poor reception because the Smith family at No.37 won’t cut back their Leylandi and the for no reason at all, no TV at all!

Then there’s the Broadband!

This can of course usually be rectified without having to call out TV Repair Man, we can now find a website on the Internet which is sure to help, better that than phoning and speaking to 8 recorded Robot messages before speaking to the human who more times than one is in the wrong department.

Even then, technology seems to have gone too quick. We’re half way through out Internet Search and the Broadband goes down. After the usual reboot of the Router, we can’t find where we were and because you turned the Router off, you’re only getting half the speed you were an hour ago.

So, are there any winners out of our torment with these modern ways? Yes, the Radio - I’ve rather grown into the Archers of late, but even Dale Farm has a facebook and twitter account now!

All in all I’m happy with the age I’ve lived in, I have much more than my Parents and Grandparents did in the way of material, I have the ease to get around more, see the world, greater opportunities to learn and not have my younger best years of a life interfered with by two World Conflicts - Even so, wish they’d sort out the TV !!

A very fine substitute for day time television is either looking out to the garden from a room indoors or sitting quietly in the garden itself.
No matter where you look, you’ll find some creature or other showing us mere human’s what survival is really about, plus of course, the characteristics they bring with that.

The Squirel is a fine example, disliked by some, seen as a pest, but a small animal which know’s it’s way around just about anywhere and can get there by all sort’s of means.

Last year the Squirrels found great pleasure in devising way’s wo get to the Wild Bird Feeder, never a moment went by where I didn’t look out and saw one hanging on it, biting it or concorting it’s body into an impossible position to get even the tiniest piece of fat ball.

It came about that between them, they made a bit of a mess of the feeder itself, so I brought it around the back of the house, into the Kitchen and set about repairing it.
Now, small a Squirrel may be, but this one certainly had a brain which could work that one out and whilst sitting at the table, glanced up to find him gazing at me through the window with an inquisitive look on his face!

This year, to avoid total annihilation of the Feder, I’ve acquired a load of too small to eat Chestnuts from over the Lane and heaped them up in the corner of the front garden.
Worked a treat, except they obviously didn’t appreciate the way I’d done it and have now made countless holes in the Lawn to bury them in!

As far as Robins go, I wonder why we assume it’s always the same one which is following us around the Garden fleeting from Wheelbarrow to gate to branch to the ground not far away from you.
It seems they’re not really hungry, just want to know what’s going on for future reference.

Magpies are another nuisance and seem to be the Hoodies of the bird world. Ginger the Cat was once stalking one, slowly edging forward with that sliht swaying of the body ready to pounce.
Mr. Magpie it seems, knew exactly what was going on, waited until the Cat was no more than 3 metres away and swooped in on him.
I have to say, I’ve seen Ginger run, but not seen what must have been a three feet high jump into the air before heading off somewhere to sulk !

We’re lucky down the Lane, beside the usual Finches, Blackbirds, Sparrows etc. we have Wren’s which are usually too quick to see in detail nesting just above the window where they balance on the TV Cable before going into the Nest, Herons, Woodpeckers and the occasional Sparrowhawk and Kingfisher.

Then there’s the Foxes of course!

But all the observations just make up for one good entertaining day and a masterclass of learning.
They don’t need Supermarkets, a work place or central heating, they just need their own little bird brains !!

Long may they continue and long may we not interfere with their ways, they were after all, here before us !

Do you remember the days when a trip to the Town Centre Shops was a reasonaably nice experience? You’d walk around in your own time, do a bit of Window Shopping, sit on a Bench maybe and watch the world go by.

Nowadays it seem’s that any Shopping trip ends up with you running the gauntlet between smiley wiley Sale’s Persons trying to get you to sign up for something, usually I’m sad to say, Charities.

I give to Charities as and when I can and fully appreciate they have to market their ‘product’. Guess it’s the old you have to spend money to make money, But I totally reject having my privacy invaded when doing something somewhere where I should be free to look round and make my own decisions.

I have a great sympathy for the youngster’s who do this work and respect they are trying to earn some money and unlike many, have made an effort to do so, but it’s hard sell and I feel sorry for them.

So you find yourself at the town centre and have to zig zag your way through like some Rugby Star going for a try.
I can get on with the Stall and the bit of Concession space within the Centre’s themselves, as long as they don’t suddenly walk out in front of me (it’s handy to have an Ice Cream in your hand when they do so).

First rant over!!

My next rant for the day is when you go to the DIY Superstores. You see them at the exit door as you walk in, the likelihood being they are either selling Double Glazing or other Insulation Products.

Why should we not be allowed to walk freely wherever we want and not have to be interfered with by people put there by large Company Managers after an extra bob or two on their retail mark ups?

Personally, if they put a donation box in the exit doorway saying ‘Please keep our Company afloat’, I’d probably put a bit of loose change in!

But, it’s not so bad as the Town Centre’s. At least with the DIY Franchise you can say ‘Sorry, I live in rented accommodation’ or ‘Oh deary me, I’ve just had mine done’.

I recall the days well when I got the phone calls at home. A good one was really going along with the Gas Company about why I should change to them, allowing them to tell me every detail of their never to be beaten offer.
“Oh yes, I’d be really interested to sign up” I’d say and get the enthusiastic “Great” from the other end obviously spoken with his fists punching the air with delight.
Then I’d come out with “So when are you laying the gas pipes down the Lane then”.

Again I’d say that I have a sympathy for those who do this work and to be honest, the one’s I’ve spoken to who do have done similar work have always said they disliked it and / or it was the only work going.

I apologize to those who do and when you see the 63 year old bloke doing a well trained run past all five of you in Ashford Town Centre, it’s probably me!

I guess it’s only natural that six month’s after completing my John O’Groats to Land’s End Cycle ride (six months and two days ago!) say “Got over your bike ride yet then Dickie?”.
Well, the answer I give is always the same….”No”, but this isn’t a no in the sense of being physically exhausted, it’s a no in so far as it has changed me in many ways.

It wasn’t so much the sense of achievement I got through the the mileage; at the end of the day, you wake up, have breakfast, get on your bike, pedal and see where you are six hours later! It was about other things…

I think the main thing and it sticks out above the rest, is it gave me hope. Hope not only for myself but passing that hope onto others who may feel that life is all downhill after you get to 60 or so.
I met so many people in their 60’s and 70’s going around on Cycles, Motorbikes, in Camper Vans, even Barges, simply enjoying themselves. Few had an actual plan, they’d just said ‘let’s go somewhere’ and they did just that, no return dates firmly fixed, just doing their own thing at their own pace.

Before I left for Scotland on that late June morning, I was seriously and foolishly thinking 1. I couldn’t do it and 2. It would probably be my last big challenge in life.
How wrong I was!
I’m already planning for 2013 when I hope to either cycle round the whole coast of Scotland (40 days or so) or taking a package Trekking holiday to the foothills of Mount Everest, a mountain which has captured my heart since, at the age of five, I saw the picture of Hilary and Tensing standing on top of it.
Whichever I don’t do in 2013, I hope to do that one in 2014.

Back to the cycle ride. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t go to Google Earth street level and re-live a few miles, stopping to pan round and thinking ‘I remember that’ and ‘where’s that strange house I saw on the lane between Kendal and Lancaster’ etc.

It really is a bit like being a child again, I go to bed and if I’ve had a stressful day, lay there and remember the people I met on the way, how much they inspired me and made me laugh; the Down the Lane Forum Members I met and had a good time with.

Most of all and apologies if I sound like I’m preaching, one should never say ‘I’ll never get around to doing that’. The moment, the dream has not gone by and even if health has intervened in an unwanted way, there are variations of that dream. If you can’t cycle that journey, do it by car or some other means. But follow that dream and face the challenges of it.

Finally, when I stood at the signpost at Land’s End and I’d felt this quite a few days previous to that, I had not felt fitter for years, I had positiveness written all over my head, I had a sense of taking a journey. It was the best thing I had done for years and I like to think it rubbed off on to other people who may have felt I was starting to graze a tad!

It did change me, I lived out a dream and since then, I’ve dreamt up a few others. It’s not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’!

John O’Groats to Land’s End by Bike - Follow the whole ride day by day with Garmin Route Maps (view on Google at Street Level) and loads of Photo’s.

..and why never to go again

Oh joy, another trip to the Supermarket today, full of the usual calamities, annoyances with a bit of a laugh thrown in between.

It all started well until I came to the M20 Roundabout. I was correctly positioned in the third from left Lane for where I wanted to go. The lights went green and the chap on my right had obviously thought it a great idea to skip from his Lane to the far left Lane for the M20 itself.
Luckily those cars to the left and myself were on the button and stopped just in time to let the fellow accross to the tune of various manufacturer’s car horns!

I parked in a fairly quiet spot within the Car Park, away from the maddening crowd and sheltered from the Sun.
After sifting through the Trolley’s to find the one which wasn’t going to take me down Aisle 4 rather than Aisle 3, I steered gracefully in and out of the Halloween Shelving which had been put there for all the kids coming in the Store and blocking the gangways for proper shoppers like most others and myself.
“No, you can’t have that” is the usual form of discussion along this part.

Off to the Cat Foods to find the one they do like on the odd occasion isn’t on Special Offer, so you weigh up the pro’s and con’s of buying another Brand and if the wastage is cost effective or not; on to the Denture Adhesive section where you get your piece of paper out and say aloud “Now, which one does Dad have, oh, must be this one”, making as sure as you can be not to whistle as you’re saying it and get sussed out.

Then you’re getting cold and once again remember what you say before every Shop, ‘take a Fleece’.

It’s about this time you think you should buy something a bit healthy looking; Cat Food, Denture Adhesive, Chocolate Digestives and Coffee don’t really tell the picture of you do they?! Anything will do, so you buy a small bag of potatoes (the posh one’s) and some Sprouts - things are looking better.

You’re also wondering by now as to why it is that 3 other people want to stand for 10 minutes staring at the things you want to look at and no matter what hints you make, they don’t move. I believe an electric shock in the floor set to 20 seconds of someone standing still would do the trick.

To the Tills! Oh, we all do it, arrive at the long Mall by the Tills and carefully calculate which queue is going to be the quickest. You see one with only three people to it, walk at a brisk pace only to find one of them appears to have a family of 15 at home and stocking up for 6 weeks.
Back you go and always come to the conclusion ‘why did I do that, by the time I’ve found one’, the long queue would have finished by then.

The queue itself can sometimes be quite interesting, especially seeing what everyone else is buying, but you get annoyed when you find the person in front of you has sent their other half off to buy the remaining four items and it’s 5 to 4 on they’re not going to get them before they come to the supposed end of the transaction. However, hearing about the Lady who lives 4 doors down’s Hospital Visit is quite informative plus the person who’s picked up the only un-marked item in the place and you have to wait for someone to get the price answering 12 other queries on the way.

It’s either that, or it’s the person who’s paying cash and will spend five minutes searching either for the exact money, or change to make it easier for the Cashier.

Have to say though, the service is extremely good. I have six items and they ask me if I need assistance with the packing. I’m always tempted to say yes and can they take it to the car for me.

Back to the car. This is when you’re expecting to find someone has parked next to you and some spoilt little Brat has swung the door open of their car and there’s a nice little dent in your door.
Today that didn’t happen, just someone who’d simply seen the space next to mine, swung accross and stopped making my reverse to the left more difficult.
That was enough. I had a Marker Pen in the car and wrote a note, sticking it to their Windscreen Wiper saying “My 7 year old Grand daughter could make a better job of parking than you”
Fearing the owner of the said car returned and happened to be a seven feet tall All-In Wrestler, I left rapidly.

Oh joy, I got home and it was time to relax, that is after I cleaned the Cat’s stomach deposit from the second and third stair’s. At least I saw it before walking on it I guess.

Oh well, soldier on.

(Disclaimer to Retailer - If you can tell which Supermarket it is - please don’t be upset, it’s not your fault!!)

In ‘Rules for Cyclists’ in the Highway Code, No.64 reads ‘You must not cycle on the pavement’.

After cycling quite a bit this year around Town, the County and then John O’Groats to Land’s End, I’ve made quite a few observations where it’s the Council’s who seem to ‘change the rule through proper sources for the safety of their Public’.

It seems to me that a Town has a cycling policy and most have made a genuine effort in making the place a better, safer and more environmentally friendly place by making space for Cyclists on busy roads where space permits, new Housing Estates usually having good Cycle Paths and making paths going accross Parks into shared space networks etc.

A fine example of ‘exception to the rule’ is the photo above. About 100 meters back from the photo and 300 meters ahead of it are proper Cycle Paths running alongside the busy Road.
It appears that when the Council found out they didn’t have sufficient space for this stretch, they simply put a Cyclists sign up for you to ride along the Pavement - certainly looks good on the Map, one continuous Path for about 3 miles.

Now, call me old fashioned, can you see the concealed driveways along this stretch, surely this makes it completely unsafe and a danger to any children who are feeling secure in the fact they are somewhere out of harms way.
For a car to get out of a driveway, the Driver has to edge onto the pavement to see what’s coming. If this happens just as little Joey or Susie are having a Sunday cycle ride with Mum and Dad, it put’s them in a very unsafe position.

Likewise, someone could be walking out their House and get run over by little Joey or Susie.

Local Councils are very keen and fall over themselves to show off a good caring environmental policy and in the main they are doing quite well considering the old infrastructure of our roads, but maybe they should also read the Highway Code before they simply send some chap around putting Cyclist signs up which could have some quite serious consequences.

I don’t like the old saying ‘We’ll have to have a Meeting about this’, but before some of these policies are put into action, maybe it’s worth asking a few keener Cyclists along to review the situation and give some feedback.

The ironic thing is that I’ve been ticked off for cycling on an almost empty pavement which was about 15 feet wide, yet I can cycle down the above pavement within the law and it’s about 4 feet wide!

Cycling has increased four fold over the last 15 or so years, so let’s make sure the roads are as safe as safe can be.