Tuesday 24 July 2012

Early morning on a Brompton

One of the joys of living in London and having a bit of free time is that you can (if you are mad or that way inclined) head in to the centre of London and see a very different side. Better still, if you have a Brompton Bicycle you can see even more.

In the early hours of this morning I headed into London on my beloved Orange Brompton. It was quite warm and despite being 4:00 a.m there were quite a lot of people about. Strangely for a Tuesday morning there were all manner of people coming out of clubs. Don't they have jobs to go to? (They might have been asking the same question of me of course).

There was one particular club, quite well known I suppose, caught my attention at 4:30 in the a.m! I have not had a particularly sheltered life (well by some standards, I probably have) but nothing in life prepared me for the sights I saw. A large number of scantily clad maidens exited said club and started to have a fight. It was a strange fight and went in waves. One minute one faction would win, then the other would gain ground and turn the tables. It reminded me of Napoleon's first Italian Campaign. A bitter struggle to win. I tutted and cycled along. At this point one of the ladies shouted out and pointing in my general direction asked me at the top of her rather vulgar voice, 'why are you riding that BMX?' At this I puffed myself up as far as my M-type handlebars would allow and cycled past without comment. Once I was past the feuding hordes, I could hear the battle resuming.

The reason for me venturing out at this ungodly hour was of course as a training exercise for the BWC. I headed towards the City which I am happy to report was almost empty. I headed back and ended up circling Regents Park. With few cars this was brilliant. I was joined by a few Lycra clad cyclists. My beloved Brompton (and my legs of course) were able to keep up with them for quite a while.

Passing London Zoo I could see the heads of giraffes peaking out of their exclusive abode. At Regents Park Mosque I saw a couple of the faithful on prayer mats outside partaking in perhaps the first call to prayer of the day. The circuit around Regents Park is a pretty good one and I will definitely be back for further training.

With the sun starting to put in a full appearance things started to get much busier and the hustle and bustle that is central London resumed as it always does. I folded my Brompton and bought a cup of tea and sat watching the world go by for a bit. The people coming out of Oxford Circus Tube Station seemed to be almost ant like. They all seemed purposeful and eager to go about their business as quickly as possible. I must say that the vast majority looked fairly miserable. Perhaps they weren't looking forward to going to work? There was one exception as I sipped my tea. An older gentleman with a red M3R. He unfolded and appeared quite jocular as he headed off in to the distance. Perhaps he was just a naturally happy chap? Maybe, just maybe he had been looking forward to peddling away on his Brompton?



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