Cycling around London certainly requires vigilance: one always has to be aware of the possibility of someone opening a car door without looking or turning into a side road and not thinking once, thinking twice, let alone thinking bike (I was nearly hit by a police van on Saturday who was being allowed to turn by a stationary car, but who only saw me at the last minute). Luckily I have my cycle helmet on so nothing can harm me.
Today returning from the gym I was heading up Hammersmith Grove. There's a confusing bit at the Hammersmith end where the last ten metres becomes one way, but the stretch out of the car-park is two way traffic. Often drivers queuing there don't realise that they're still on the two way stretch. I had just got on my bike and was cycling up the two way bit, when another cyclist overtook me doing the same thing. But at the same instant a motorcyclist chose to try and dart out of the queueing traffic and get on to the one way section. He hadn't looked at all (I suspect thinking that he was on a one way bit) and the other bike was directly in his path. Luckily he wasn't going too fast and spotted the danger immediately and slid to a halt, with his motorbike falling over in the process. A collision was avoided by inches. I was a safer three or four feet from the danger. But there for the grace of God went I. Had I just been a little to my right then that could have been me not being hit by a motocycle. As it was I was far enough away to just keep cycling. No harm had been done, except maybe a slightly bruised bottom and ego for the motorcyclist who had been 100% in the wrong, but had his instincts been less sharp there would have been a bit of a smash. If his instincts had been better he wouldn't have swerved out of traffic without looking, but at least only he ended up with a scratched bike, because my fellow cyclists machine would have come off a lot worse in any collision.
I closed tonight at the Fortnight Club after a remarkably high standard of new material from the other acts. As I'd been writing my Channel 4 script I hadn't had much chance to prepare anything, but had a crack at telling my stories about
The Hot Dog and the
Give Me Head T-shirts. Though I missed plenty of stuff out recalling the incidents from memory they both went pretty well. I have been trying to get to the point with stand up where I can just go on and chat about stuff and I'm certainly getting closer to my goal. But it was more of a relief to have held my own (hot dog) on a night where the standard was so high. It's a definite reccommend and as the host Ronnie Rigsby pointed out at the end there is a clue in the title as to when the next one is on. I will miss that one as I'll be in Africa, but hopefully will be able to do the rest of them this year. So if you're within spitting distance of the Angel on every other Monday do try and pop along and see it. The highlights for me were the effortless Tony Law and the increasingly inventive Milton Jones, who is doing his show "Caught in a Rabbit's Headlights" (very funny picture on the poster) at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden from the 3rd-7th October at 7.30pm. I hope he's doing the bit about being a giant that he did tonight. You should definitely go and see him.
