Dr Bike

A chaotic start to the day in which my heavy-duty bike lock gently slithered off the top of the wheelie bin (don't ask), fell to the floor and smashed into several pieces. On the scale of things it's just annoying and meant I had to nip in to see Dr Bike, a bike sale and repair co-op based on campus, to get a new lock on my way in. They only deal in cash and for some strange reason I had to visit three cash points until I found one which was dispensing. Again, on the scale of things it wasn't that important and I wasn't too late in to work.

I made the chap at Dr Bike smile as I acknowledged his slight raise of eyebrows when he saw me by saying 'Yes, it is me again. Come to buy my third heavy duty bike lock from you this year. £21 if I remember correctly?'

The chap we see here is who I call DrBiketheElder, on his lunch break. He has two colleagues who I refer to as DrBiketheNewOne and DrJoBike as she is the only one whose name I know. From a distance DrBiketheElder reminded me of J, who has a hat like this and when he would wear it with a rather stylish mac he looked like he was about to go off on a mission to arrange the exchange of spies or something. J is an accomplished linguist who, amongst other languages, speaks Russian so I wouldn't have been surprised if he had at some point been involved in something a bit mysterious.

I had a lovely visit with him at the hospice after work, and a couple of our other friends were there too. He was really pleased to be there and was full of praise for the care he was receiving and for the staff and volunteers. His wit is as sharp as ever and his contempt for Thatcher, Cameron and his cronies remains strong. He said that he would rather like to live long enough to be able to cast his vote in the General Election but wasn't too bothered about staying around long enough to hear the result.

He also said that he would like to spend a few days at home, with his cats. This was something that he had raised with the staff at the hospice and had been told that it could certainly be looked at as a possibility.