The good and the bad.

Yesterday at 8:36am I realised an ambition that has quietly been growing for a number of months...I am now a cycling grandfather!  A quick ride up to Sidcup and voilà! (Mother, father and granddaughter are all exhausted but fine.)

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And at pretty much the same time this morning, a cyclist ended up under the wheels of a rush-hour construction HGV at the junction of Deptford Bridge and Deptford Church Street.

Mercifully, it was not a fatality.  The woman was admitted to hospital with ''leg injuries'' - I couldn't get any more information out of the WPC I spoke to.  There's a lethal combination that repeats itself: London, drag-sweeps, construction lorries in rush-hour traffic and a disproportionate number of women cyclists. 

No one is ever in such a rush to get there - stay behind.  Always.

Cycling grandfather (1)

So, a couple of days ago, my daughter phoned me up.   Yesterday this arrived on my doorstep:

This little thingummybob is a 58mm Marmoset Minor, or Marmoset III, if you prefer.  Early days yet, of course.  But if all goes smoothly, I'll be a grandfather in 6 months time.  This in fact is his/her very first appearance on a public forum so you'll have to pardon the back-to-the-camera shyness.

How do I feel?  I think ''eekstatic'' describes the mixture of panic and joy.  But I may turn out to be one of the pioneers of cycling grandfather blogs - fairly unsurprisingly there don't seem to be many at all.  Cue puns about the cycle of life....

A little while later....