North Pole

In the early days of the Bullingdon system, I had ambitions to reach all four poles of the system, that is to say the most easterly, southerly, westerly and northerly stands of the system, making some proper allowance for its changes in coverage, whatever that might be. Without checking further than reference 1, my recollection is that I made the West Pole and the South Pole and nearly made the East Pole, but never really attempted the North Pole. This has now been sorted out.

A damp and dull start to the day, but bright and clear by the time I ventured out at 1100 or so, having dealt with cutting my right hand index finger on a sharp bit of brown bread crust. Always a pain these sorts of cuts.

No working Bullingdons on the ramp at Waterloo at midday, which I thought was a bit poor, but I was able to get one from Concert Hall Approach 2, and made it to Drury Lane in 8 minutes and 37 seconds. Having engaged on the way with a lady, riding what seemed a lot lower than me, but with handlebars equipped with a gadget to hold her mobile phone in navigation mode. With the route to follow being superimposed on a street map. Sadly, not all fine and dandy for those of us who do need reading classes but who don't wear varifocals.

Nipped into the cheese shop in Shorts Gardens for my usual supply of Poacher, where the chap who served me was not exactly a master with the cheese wire. Nevertheless, he claimed that breaking a wire was more or less unheard of, so perhaps this specialist cheese shop buys better quality wire than the people at Waitrose, where breakages were common, at least in Epsom, back in the good old days when they sold loose cheese rather than ready meals.

Then back to Drury Lane to pull a second Bullingdon to take me to Castlehaven Road in Camden Town in 22 minutes and 25 seconds. A regular memory lane job, taking in Southampton Row, Eversholt Street and Camden Town, all places I have known well and frequently cycled at various points in the rather distant past. All rather different, but all very busy. Both diverse and vibrant, with the Camden Lock Market area being a lot busier than I expected on a weekday (Thursday) lunchtime. With the North Pole being just by Camden Lock railway station, with the picnic park snapped (aka Castlehaven Open Space), just to hand.

Rewarded by a rare sighting of a regular goods train, quite long, heading north. And commuter trains, quite like the ones I use, but coming with pantographs, not something we see south of the river.

Back into town, with due allowance for the one way systems en-route. Another memory lane job, with it being part of the route I used to cycle from Wood Green to Aldwych in the late 1970's. Plus a Greek Orthodox Cathedral in a decommissioned church. Plus a fancy looking gothic revival church somewhere in Somers Town, but it was not convenient to stop. Plus a lady down at a junction, with various people in attendance. Plus she was smiling, so not necessary to stop. There seemed to be lots of blue lighting going in, all three services, but not down to her.

Back down Holborn and what seemed like a very easy glide across Waterloo Bridge, compared with the pull the other way a few hours previously. Back up the ramp to take the pole position, after moving the competing vehicle illustrated. Let's hope our mayor gets around to revoking their license: we don't need several bike hire systems cluttering up our already cluttered streets, particularly since these new ones have no control over where bikes are left and maintenance arrangements which are probably feeble compared with the Rolls Royce Bullingdon operation. Notwithstanding which, I had had a few issues with my key during the day, so I hope that it is not wearing out.

I made the journey back in 30 minutes and 49 seconds, which I had thought was 49 seconds inside the supplementary charge zone. Maybe it only clicks in when you hit the 31 minutes. Maybe I get frequent rider concessions.

Conditions must have been better at Clapham Junction this time, at 1400 or so, than last time (reference 2). An instant two followed by a couple of good fours. Plus a big, low flying moon, around half grown, to the east. Not much more than 90 degrees round from the sun, which did not seem enough, but the unaided brain couldn't cope with the geometry involved, couldn't compute. Plus two train spotters. I thought about, but did not get around to trying to convert them from trains to aeroplanes.

PS: talk of low flying reminds me that I ought to start taking my sun glasses on trips like this, with the sun having been troublesome at a couple of big junctions.

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=west+pole.

Reference 2: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/chopin-preludes.html.