Thinking on two wheels

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11.10.2024

Tim Veater shared a memory.

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Shared with Public

I am also a cyclist and a driver. I do about the same number of miles (only 1500) on each, the only difference being that the Government charges me four hundred pounds, plus most of the fuel cost, for the latter privilege. The roads have become modern jungle trail, where all the animals fight for access and supremacy. We all take the dry level surface for granted, though of course this is a wholly artificial state of affairs, resulting from human ingenuity and application.

How humans from previous centuries would have been amazed not only by the sophistication of the system of roads and motorways, but also at the number and speeds of the mechanical contraptions travelling over them, often in long, frustrating, time-wasting queues, with all their attendant noise and fumes, far removed from the more 'natural' ones of an horse-drawn era.

We have become accustomed to physical speed - every one seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere other than where they are. This is likely to have had a profound psychological effect on the human species, encouraging dissatisfaction and impatience. Irritability seems to be the underlying emotion of all drivers, everyone thinking they are 'primus inter pares', having right of way and god help those who frustrate it.

Cyclists it must be said, often find themselves at the receiving end of these frustrations, as unavoidably they take up space on the road and travel at a speed determined by legs rather than engine. Unlike the driver who expends almost no energy to go faster or slower, to change direction, to go up or down or even to remain upright and fixed to the road, the cyclist works hard to do all of these.

Despite the former ease, it is amazing how reluctant drivers can be to turn the steering wheel or apply the brakes, and when forced to do so, often resulting in loud objection from horn or voice box. There is in every motorist it seems, an angry devil only too willing and eager to get out.

The last hundred years has been the epoch of the motorised vehicle. It has shrunk distance, encouraged travel and thus altered almost every aspect of social interaction, paradoxically actually making it worse.

People in metal boxes at speed do not relate so intimately with either fellow travellers or with the environment through which they pass. It is an introverted and selfish experience, focused not on a journey but on the destination, missing all that comes between. In going further and faster, the here and now is jettisoned for the there and then, which takes just as long in coming, if it ever does.

Better to travel less far, preferably on two wheels, and see and breathe the moment.

Motor Vehicle Red Lights 

See: https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/search?q=cars

5.11.2024: I wonder what the day holds? More of the same but different I guess. It started with a mad search for my reading glasses that disappeared from the bedside table. As reading is my chief pursuit this was a major set-back. There followed the mental inquest and search party of all the possible locations, without result. I'm ashamed to say, the use of bad language was a feature of it. It made me think how paltry a loss it really was, when others in the world have lost everything, not to mention their lives, from natural and man-made disasters and how lucky I am in the scheme of things. I eventually located the glasses under my pillow to much relief, although the stress of the loss and search had spoiled the enjoyment of my cup of tea! The mechanics of how they got there beats me. Perhaps it was during the argument with Pat Smith at Pensford Bridge, with which I had been engaged? (In my phrenetic dreams of course!)

Obviously no writer's cramp today and lots of memory lane. You and your fraudulent 'book club' now you have given the game away. It's just a front for a women's meet-up and chin-wag with nice views. ha ha. For what it's worth, as no one will be the slightest bit interested (does anybody read this verbal scribble?) I've just ordered some more books on the Internet. Oxfam is quite a good place to find intersting ones. I have to admit I was tempted by a volume of Somerset Maugham's (and by the way realising it was not 'Maughan' as I had previously) thought. I settled for a cheap version of 'The Moon and a Sixpence' that made his name and rather fits in with your Cinema memories doesn't it? Also ordered Samuel Smiles' famous book 'Self Help' as I know about it but have never read it and 'Spy Catcher' by Peter Wright that caused such a storm in the '80's when Margaret Thatcher tried desperately to ban it and failed. It's biggest achievehment was to add "economical...with the actualité" (in place of 'lying') to the lexicon!

GUY FAWKES' DAY! After all these years I've recently read '1066 and All That' for the first time. It came out in 1933 and was then reprinted multiple times because it was so successful. In a way some of the earliest, modern, political satire. It's all about 'good things', 'bad things' and 'memorable or forgettable things', although of course the latter arn't covered. One thing that rather surprised me right at the beginning - it uses Malapropisms throughout - it suggests for 'hostages' read 'sausages'. Perhaps that's where Starmer got his famous fauxpas from. The book ends 'history' with a . (i.e. full stop) What will Starmer end with or be remembered for - other than a stammer?

9.11.2024: I suppose to be fair - as we all wish to be - the 'royals' have only 'partly' chosen their role. In Shakespeare's fine prose, they have had 'greatness THRUST upon them' and subsequently have to live up to it. Nor are they responsible for the fame and adulation that accompanies them or the questions the press like to pose. They are reported on from birth and their lives and opinions sell papers. If they didn't the press interest and questions would dry up. When asked, they have to respond with something - hence the quotes. The Royal Family serves a purpose for the nation, practically and theatrically. People flock to the shows and watch them via television in their millions. Whether in the long run, in this post colonial age in which they have been re-modelled - not as Emperors but as 'caring role-models', they are worth the money and attention expended on them, is another matter. There is no doubt they could be dispensed with but what would be the alternative? We are provided with ample examples around the world. Are they really any better or preferable, except to assauge the rather empty and cosmetic appeal to 'equality'. It seems we are faced with the choice between elected dictatorship or unelected impotence.