The Commuting Gods show their wrath

[Mike I]

I once left everything at home, including my wallet - ruling out an emergency shopping-spree. I just had to ride back again and collect it all.

I've reduced the risk of that happening again by having my shirts done at the dry-cleaner's as well.

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote="Andrew G"]Does this mean you are in news reader mode at your desk then Jon and can't get up .

Leave a suit and some ties at work and just bring in clean shirts and undies, makes life much easier. The jacket hardly gets worn and just need to get the trousers dry cleaned when they start walking on their own .

[Andrew G]

Shoes left at work too, not lost off the back of a rack on the way in PVT.

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="Mike I"]having my shirts done at the dry-cleaner's as well.

[Mike I]

The Shirt Keeper Poursuivant tells me that £7.99 for 5 will get the job done. And since they only get worn between 9 and 5 I find I can usually two days out of them. Worth every penny.

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="Mike I"]The Shirt Keeper Poursuivant tells me that £7.99 for 5 will get the job done. And since they only get worn between 9 and 5 I find I can usually two days out of them. Worth every penny.

[Jon H]

I'm being taken to the cleaners! It's £8.99 for 5 shirts here in the manor of Holborn. I must tell Jeeves to do some shopping around when he's finished polishing my shoes and ironing the newspaper.

[Andrew G]

You'd do better to make sure he packs your trousers Jon .

Hadn't realised it was such good value, will have to have a shufty around these parts and save myself the ironing to boot.

[adrian]

[url=http://www.jeevesofbelgravia.co.uk]Jeeves of Belgravia[/url] are the industry-recognised daddies/guvnors when it comes to laundry. They deliver as well. At £6 or so per shirt you won't want to be taking your weekday workhorses there - but they really know what they're doing and your stuff really does come back good as new. Better, even.

[Jon H]

My local shirt-cleaning emporium has recently changed hands. Imagine my surprise when I went to collect the latest batch and was chraged £9.99. This, I discovered, was a "special offer".

[adrian]

That's still unreassuringly cheap if you ask me, Jon (and I know you didn't). When you consider how long it takes to iron a shirt correctly, they're either slaveowners or getting seriously industrial on your shirts.

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="adrian"]getting seriously industrial on your shirts.

[Alex S]

basically, tyres are generally EITHER slash proof (like from glass) or puncture proof (i mean like from a needle or thorn), depending on the TPI(threads per inch) of the tyre. vectran is supposed to be this amazing fibrey stuff that protects against both, supposed to be an improved version of "Aramid" which is quite popular in MTB tyres. So its pretty hardcore. "better than kevlar".

EDIT: wow, ok, topic has moved on, didnt read most of it

[Andrew G]

Tyres are tyres Alex, sartorial elegance however is a far more complicated matter.

[Mike I]

Well, the commuting gods managed to smite me not once, not twice, but three times this evening.

Ping, twang! Broken spoke just by Tower Bridge. I managed to tweak a few spokes so it wobbled between the brake blocks and carried on, but without putting too much power through the back wheel.

Screech, whack, thump! A Mercedes turns right across my path by Clapham North, bringing me down in an impressive heap in front of the early evening drinkers at the Falcon. A few scars, but nothing broken on me, a fairly mangled front wheel on the bike. But who should be following said motorist down the road, but PC Plod on the way to an 'incident'. Saw it all, they did, took details, suggested I get a no-win, no-fee lawyer to grab me a couple of grand (yeah, right, I had to break my shoulder last time to get that much) and told me 'If his insurers muck you about, let us know and we'll do him for driving without due.' I'm still in two minds as to whether I should be concerned or reassured by this display of summary justice.

Anyway, the driver offers to take me home, but doesn't have room for my bike. The police have some serious policing to do, so can't give me a lift in their van, so I call Mrs I, as my front wheel is now stuck fast. While I'm putting the bike in the car though, it seems a major fire has broken out on Kings Avenue - more police, fire engines, billowing smoke, the lot. Including road closures. Diversions, traffic and what should have been the last 10 minutes meant that it took another 30 to get home.

After that little lot, I reckon commuting should be pretty much plain sailing for the next 14 years or so.