Lurgified

Ill for two days now, after Mel had first fallen ill on Wednesday. Combined we actually have all the symptoms of swine flu between us. Thankfully neither of us have given in to the media driven hysteria, otherwise I'd be writing a will just now. It could, of course, just be a bad cold, or the beginnings of normal flu. But a 3/4 of a mile walk to the shops this morning (where I saw this chap), and wheeling a bike out to have a look over it (since I didn't feel up to riding it unfortunately) completely took it out of me.

So instead there was some time sitting in the sun indulging in a nostalgic childhood pastime that I will likely blip in the future (if you can contain your excitement), and flipping between the highlights of Le Tour and the Ashes, followed by another trip into the known past with a rented DVD of Pretty in Pink.

Today's rejects:
Pigeon Totem
Spidey Shadow
I See A Bee Laden

You may remember that early last week I managed to give my head a whack in the garden, well as you may or may not know I don't wear a helmet for cycle commuting (though I do for mountain biking). I'm not anti-helmet, but having read up on helmets I've made what I consider to be an informed 'choice'. I'm also well aware that anyone else could read the exact same stuff, and their informed choice would be the opposite of mine. That's what choice is all about, and I'll never tell someone that they shouldn't be wearing a helmet, despite making that choice myself, all that I will do is explain why I don't wear one.

But the amount of times I have people telling me I should be wearing a helmet, based on no more evidence and research than, 'Well it's safer innit?' is many and often (and I expect will happen again here). The fact I've actually done some reading and made a decision means nothing because it is counter-intuitive (and we live in a society where we don't seem to recognise that people don't have to be spoon-fed what makes them safe).

I was having a wee gander at RoSPA's website, and some of their injury stats (done in conjunction with some other organisation) make interesting reading.

Stats can be brought up by selecting a number of fields for types of injuries and activities and so on. So I've looked at head injuries, and numbers of head injuries related to each activity. The last year they have available is 2002, and for the UK it looked like this:

Bus - 3,895
Bike (adult) - 9,574
Car - 16,482
Dog - 22,919
Football - 28,598
Pedestrian - 57,585
Garden - 72,714

Now I do a lot of cycling, but I probably spend even more time in the garden, so maybe I should be wearing a helmet to do that. Equally I think I might walk more (in terms of time), and over a whole year might spend the same amount of time driving as cycling. Why then are we told it is an imperative to wear a helmet to cycle, but not to walk, drive, walk the dog, play football or do the gardening?

Well because wearing a helmet to do any of those things would be silly, wouldn't it.