Big bus, big tree

Its good to know that some things never change.  From when I was a child, I have always enjoyed being on the top deck of double-decker buses, listening to the tree branches brush across the tops of the buses.  This ranks above rain drops on windows.  Today on the bus, I was enjoying the branches doing their thing as we approached a bus stop that was shadowed by a large tree.  The tree attacked the bus with a whoosh and the children at the bus stop whooped with excitement.  This was followed by the gaggling of children trying to speak over each other, and then kids running to the upper deck saying 'I want to sit in the front, I want to sit in the front!'  The simple pleasures in life! 

So much to read, so little time on the train

There has been a lot on the news lately and, unbelievable as it may seem, just as I was about to lose all hope, politics is interesting again.  For a long time its been same ol' same ol'; one could hardly tell the difference from one party to the next.  All of a sudden we have differences in opinions and people are vocal about issues again.  I have mixed feelings about the coalition government but its presence has reignited society's fervour to argue, to discuss, to present alternative views.  For that alone I am certain I am glad they exist.  I am not so sure about everything else.  I don't know if I agree or disagree with them, most of the time things change so quickly there isn't enough time to adequately consider things to come to some sort of conclusion.  However, I am not even sure that is bad.  Taking heed of people saying you've made a mistake and changing tack is not necessarily a bad thing.  Do it too much though and it becomes worrying that it may just be because you don't think anything through at all.  Its good that people are kept interested, on their toes because they're not sure what's going to happen next, but perhaps a tad exhausting in the long run.  Sometimes we would just like to be able to trust someone to do the job without having to worry about it.  We have our own living to earn.

On more than one occasion last week I was so engrossed with reading the news that I forgot to get off at my tube stop for the interchange and ended up having to take a roundabout route to my destination.  To start with there were the reforms to the NHS, and then the aftermath of the programme 'Poor Kids' when welfare reforms were hotly debated.  And then this week it seems it will be the discussion on assisted suicide instigated by Terry Pratchett's documentary.  I wish my commute was longer so I could actually read everything and think things through.

Accident

A friend of mine was knocked off his bike while he was cycling home one night.  Fortunately he was fine and got away with just a broken collar bone.  He had always insisted that cycling was perfectly safe and that one should not be worried about using a bike in London.  He stands by that opinion despite having suffered an accident himself and stopping to help out at another cycling accident in the past.

The policeman that attended the scene said there was nothing much my friend could have done to prevent the accident; it was the driver's fault.  My friend said he felt lucky he was a bit of a slow-poke on his bike- just a fraction faster and he would have been hit side on by the car.  As it was, his front wheel was badly damaged and he was just slightly damaged.  He also said that the sound of another oncoming car made him get up from the ground, on to which he was thrown, very quickly in case he got run over by another vehicle.  It caused his family, particularly his four year old son, much worry.  The female passenger in the vehicle that hit him was a little bit worse for wear as well: they narrowly missed hitting a tree before the car finally stopped.

Cyclists beware; there are careless drivers out there.