Let it roll

I could have done with some of these this morning - not to chew, but to help me to roll effortlessly past the miles of static metal that confronted me on the roads.

All summer, it has taken me little more than 20 minutes to get from my house to the station by car.

As it is now term time, I allow 50 minutes to make the same journey.

But today, it took so long to get through the congestion, I had to give up aiming for the train, do a u-turn, and drive all the way to Bristol on the motorway instead.

I don't want to make myself unpopular here by savaging parents who take their kids to school by car when there are buses, trains and legs that do the same job just as well. I appreciate that for some families, using their vehicle is unavoidable.

But I do know of people who use a car to ferry their children literally 100 metres to school from home and I think that, overall, the school run causes some problems that need addressing.

Anyway, I'd better stop the politics there. When I arrived in Bristol, I was - ironically - early for work. So I had a sit down in the gleaming new Cabot Circus shopping centre, finding myself in front of these machines.

The question is, will I be stuck rooted to the spot tomorrow, like an old shoe held down by chewed-up old gum, or will I roll like a Cola Rola Ball? We'll soon find out.

PS. For camera techies, the ISO was a schoolboy error!