Beware - Killer Chip Bags!

We had some lovely weather in Old London Town last evening. Despite being promised the start of an Indian Summer with sunshine and high temperatures all week, it had actually been pretty grey and dismal all day - then, at about 17.30, the sky really blackened and it started raining....and it rained....and it rained..... At one point I fully expected to see an Ark floating down Whitehall, with the animals coming in two by two! There was no point in attampting to go out in it as any biking gear would have been soaked through in minutes (let alone my flimsy textile jacket), so, horror upon horrors, I had to stay at work in the hope that it subsided a bit.

And eventually (about an hour later) it did.

So what's so special about that you might ask? After all, Britain has slightly more than a passing reputation for rain! Well, this little story is about the consequences of the rain. Riding home it was apparent that others had also delayed their journeys so the traffic was quite sticky in places. I ride all year round so wet roads hold no real concern for me - unless of course one comes across something unexpected. So it was last night. In an attempt to make some progress through the traffic, I decided to take a short cut down a couple of residential side streets.

Obviously, in autumn, there are various hazards around on wet roads - white lines, overbanding, manhole covers, wet leaves etc - and so riding a bit defensively is often a good idea, especially on roads that you don't really know very well. And so it proved. Last night I came across a new hazard - rounding a corner, with cars parked on either side, my bike's front wheel hit the greasy paper of a discarded bag of chip shop chips! Panic! Actually, panic is the last thing you should do in these situations - fortunately, I wasn't caning it and so tentatively applying some back brake (not front!) slowed the bike sufficiently to allow me to steer through the remnants of the portion of chips, without dropping the bike. On a wet road this was a very close call but ultimately there was a feeling of relief!

I stopped to regain a bit of composure (and to pick the remaining potato out of the tyre tread!), and it dawned on me that these days you cannot let your guard down anywhere - even in a quiet side street. Quite why anybody would discard half a bag of chips in the middle of the road on a bend is anyone's guess. Apart from the hazard it causes, it's not very community spirited to just drop litter wherever one feels like it. I know I sound like a miserable, moaning old fart but these little things really bloody annoy me. Noone really cares what they do anymore it seems - and hang the consequences.

Anyway, now you know - you can add killer chip bags to the list of road hazards we have to deal with!