Hope you have a good break.

See you when you get back.

Mike, Jan, and Jamie.

xoxox

Yes, interesting in an unexpected way.

The presentations and talks were very informative, and I learnt a lot, which is always a good thing. I have to thank my fellow question time participants and fellow code surgeons for our sections.

There has already been talk of next year’s WordCamp and I can’t wait.

The rest of the house slept through it, including the dog!

Of course, for old timers on this blog, this isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned earthquakes

All the best.

I was working on the laptop when I heard a loud noise outside, clearly close to the house. I work in the cellar and only have a narrow glass brick view to outside. I looked up and saw an orange glow through the glass. I rushed up stairs to see a large fire at the back of the house.

At first glance I thought it was my car! I second later I realised it wasn’t, but that the car that was burning was only feet away from mine.

I grabbed the car keys and dashed out of the house. I managed to dial 999 on my mobile phone whilst opening and getting in to the car. As the emergency service answered the call, I got the car started. At that point two police cars arrived. I tried to explain to the operator, what had happened, that the police were on the scene, at the same time as I tried to move the car away to safety without first reversing into the burning car!

I managed to get the car moved, having put my phone down. I didn’t get to move it far as the fire service had arrived and parked across the road. I got back on the phone and explained to the operator (now inexplicably from the ambulance service) that the police were on the scene and I didn’t need an ambulance.

The firemen were very efficient and had the fire out in less than 5 minutes. I had noticed that all this time there was a cameraman on the scene. At first I assumed he was from the police (he arrived with them), but he explained that he was from the BBC. He was filming for a program that sounded like “Car wars” about car crime in Britain. I gave him a very short interview. I have no idea if or when it will appear on TV.

Having got the OK from one of the firemen to put my car back, he spotted that my number plate on the back of the car had started to melt. We examined the back of the car and apart from a little bubbling on a piece of trim above the number plate, there was no other damage. It looks like I just moved the car in time.

I didn’t have the wherewithal to grab my camera when it all started happening, but I took a couple of picture afterwards.

This is all that’s left of the car. It looks like it was an old Rover mini metro.

The bonnet blew open at one point.

You can see how close it was to the wall at the back of the house. The bush over the wall used to have leaves. They are now all shrivelled and burnt.

Within an hour, a guy came to tow the burnt shell away.

More expense on the car! The white on the number plate is not over exposure from the flash, the plastic has turned white and started to bubble!

Update: I should point out that throughout all this Jan, Jamie, and all the neighbours but one slept on peacefully!

Mike

xoxox

I wish you all the best.

We’re the Cack-Handed Kings, we’re the LEFTIES
You right-handers just haven’t got a clue
‘Cos if you’d been through what we’ve been through
Then maybe you would feel superior too!

1. Wear a helmet.
2. Know the rules of the road and stick to them
3. Concentrate.

and more, each with a good explanation why. I’d like to add a couple more points:

Look after your bike. In the past I have found that a combination of worn brake blocks, stretched cables, and wet rims meant that I suddenly found nothing was going to slow me down!

Don’t run red lights. This is really part of Adrian’s number two item, but I suspect the single most annoying thing cyclists do to city motorists is ignore red lights. Or rather, not ignore them, but go through them anyway. I know it annoys me when I’m driving, and I never do it when I’m cycling. Just remember that those drivers you’ve just left at the lights will be passing you in a minute. Only now they’re annoyed with you. When you need to swerve to avoid that pothole, they’ll be much less inclined to give you the room you need.

Adrian also has a great discussion, “Never, ever get into a fight with a ‘bike-hater.’” in the same post. I couldn’t agree more. I sometimes shock myself when I react badly to a car ‘buzzing’ me, or to a beeped horn because someone thinks I shouldn’t be on the road. It’s easy to want to be aggressive when you are ‘bullied’ by a car, but as Adrian says…

Let’s be clear about this: you might be in the right, but your antagonist has over a ton of metal at his disposal. When a cyclist mixes it up with a motorist, the cyclist will always lose. Just let the motorist go.

Don’t let us put you off though. Cycling to and from work is a great way to get fit. My trip home takes pretty much the same time as public transport, so I’m not taking more time out of my day. Because it serves a purpose (getting me home) it’s much easier to stick with it than, say, going to the gym. When I had a gym membership it was easy to say to myself “I’ll leave it tonight and go tomorrow… or next week”.

Give it a try. Get that bike out of the shed and try riding to work a couple of days a week.