The new job - drive around South London collecting swabs from a cross section of the population for statistical purposes. Sometimes you need to arrange to visit up to 8 different households a day to collect the swabs. Oh, and you need to drop them off with a courier so they are taken to the lab within a tight timeframe. Seeing as the drop point is way down the A20 in Sidcup, the other side of that traffic hellhole Lewisham, a motorbike is the only way to keep your work days down to a reasonable amount of hours. To get from Peckham to Sidcup - a grand total of 7.5miles - regularly takes an hour. On the first rainy rush hour evening, the traffic was stationary the entire way from New Cross. To glide passed in the bus lane was pure joy - for those on two wheels. Muggins decided he had enough time and didnt fancy getting wet...I got there with 5 minutes to spare; the last 45 minutes being spent in an increasing lather of cursing, hating Steve Wright even more than I did in the 80s, and a pounding heart rate that took a while to calm. I vowed not to make that mistake again, get some wet weather gear and do it on the bike.
I started in September. My first week on the bike went well, until I arrived at Greenwich Park, only to find my phone was no longer in the holder. One of those mechanisms that grip each side, it was too easy for the phone to slide out. I went back on myself and sure enough, there it was at the side of the road, the screen crushed, but still insisting I turn left in 200 metres time. I'll say this for Huawei phones, getting run over by a few taxis doesnt faze them any. Luckily my gf - aka JK - had not bothered to activate a new Samsung I had ordered for her 10 days prior. Naturally I grabbed it back, inserted sim and memory cards, and had a phone again within the hour. A new phone holder was priority #1 so I could follow the sat nav. Or else it was back to the 80's and regular stops to scrutinise a heavily thumbed and greasy A to Z. Gulp, what next, a Kawasaki GT550? Members of the Hornets Nest advised a Quad or a Ram. I went for a cheaper option, made by ENONEO ( £15.99 from amazon) which bounces around on the move, but has worked great. And it kept the phone dry in the drenching I took on the M25 - more of which later. Only complaint - there was no clamp supplied, so I had to find a way of securing the holder to the handlebars. Not easy.
First week in October I took a proper drenching. I had to go from the drop point in Sidcup to Caterham, south of Purley, which is south of Croydon. So far south that the sat nav took me south - where else? - down the A20 to the M25, and then round London via Brighton - over 10 miles on the motorway. Well - it felt like via Brighton. The rain had started while I was at the drop point so I donned my waterproof trousers, zipped everything up and set forth. Then it tipped it down, not to stop until I left the M25 about 30 minutes later.
The wet feeling started around my crotch area just as the road split into A21 to Sevenoaks, and M25 on westward. It proceeded to collect in the area of my unmentionables, and then spread down my legs and up to my stomach. When I got off and examined the extent of the wet patch, I realised I was soaked through from my navel to my ankles. My feet were dry, thanks to my excellent BKS boots. But the £150 Spada jacket, and £7.99 waterproof trousers had both failed miserably. Waterproof ? Yea, like a sponge.
Priority #2, new and properly "waterproof" trousers and jacket. If the weather forecasts are accurate, and its flooded on Queens Rd, Peckham as I write , the new kit is going to get tested. Lets see if my unmentionables get a mention next weekend, when i regale you with more adventures on the roads of south east London.
