This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Waterlink Way

which bit?

Pretty much all of it- Beckenham to Deptford, and then across to Old St. Might get off it at Lewisham next time for a slightly more direct route.

nice! @Klar showed me a little hack around lower sydenham last weekend. I love waterlink way.

Yeah, it's nice, relaxing. Was just starting to lose my mojo with my regular route - looking forward to commuting again for the first time in a a while.

Also passed this (on foot) this morning.
Police were in the middle of a multi-million point turn to try to get it back on one side of the road or the other
I absolutely cannot get my head around how they could have got into that position in the first place though (either they were heading towards Brixton on the wrong side of the road or decided that junction was a decent spot to try to turn around, both of which are utterly bonkers)

I saw a heron down the Waterlink Way once <3

It seems to be a Continental lorry, so there may perhaps have been an issue with which side to of the carriageway to drive on. Our right turn is their left turn, and perhaps the driver prepared to make a wide left turn before realising that wasn't too clever. That said, I have no idea why they would have wanted to drive down Loughborough Road.

Satnav will take them that way for anything near Coldharbour Lane as it's no left turn off Brixton High Street and some satnavs won't understand going around the church to make a right turn instead.

Checked twitter for anything when I got in to work and could only see a couple of people talking about it. Was suggested on there that the lorry was trying to make a u-turn at the lights and just took one out instead. Not sure if that's just complete speculation though.

Can't stop thinking about this, it's baffling
Current best guess is that they came out of Robsart Street, ignoring the no right turn there, aiming down Loughborough but made Oliver's left/right mistake and pulled onto the wrong carriageway then either panicked or just biffed the left turn and ran wide and got stuck
In any event that's some serious lack of attention/experience/ability to be driving a vehicle that big in that kind of environment

There is a heronry in Kelsey Park in Beckenham. Green corridors like this are amazing for birdlife - living along the railway we seem to get an amazing variety of birds for surburban London. Love lying in bed listening to owls hooting.

me on my commute this morning: I’m flying, goddam I must have fresh legs, this is the fastest ever, I’m like a god

me going the other way 4 hours later into a massive headwind: oh

Just heard the reason for more police in Hyde Park this morning - man's body found in Serpentine. Very sad business.

(won't link citation, as it's Sk* N*ws)

In any event that's some serious lack of attention/experience/ability to be driving a vehicle that big in that kind of environment

This is London, my friend.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-probe-unexplained-death-after-body-pulled-from-serpentine-in-hyde-park-a4100461.html

Cheers. Sad. RIP unknown dude.

Going downhill: Huh rear wheel feels strange.
Check quickrelease...it's closed.
Arrive at gym: Nope, it's open. Oh...better tighten that.

Did not die/10

Cyclist down (or pedestrian possibly) at the junction of Clerkenwell Rd and Farringdon Rd, in front of a van? Couldn't see much as a lot of persons were already around him/her assisting. I hope it's nothing too serious...

They only tend to come out if you get SickAir™ on your commute.

The potholes are not yet that bad that this is required ;)

You should ride the Chilterns. The whole area is like a tarmac MTB course.

Spent 3 days cycling in Amsterdam and surrounding areas on hired Dutch 3-speed bikes that are so upright you can lean back on them.

Getting back into London rush-hour traffic this morning on my very aggressively set-up fixed gear felt like the most scary thing I've ever done.

There are a good number of juveniles to be seen at walthamstow wetlands at the moment!

/heron thread

I’ve had a heron, praps a Ravensbourne wanderer, stop by my garden pond for frog catching a while back. Not seen it for ages, made me really happy though (we have too many frogs!)

Can concur