adventures on bicycles - la pro

as an aside, i just took la pro to kingscross thameslink, put him on a train to gatwick... having no book with me i turned on my ipod and put it in random, exactly the same song came on as i'd heard immediately after putting fellow catalan E on a train on monday... the same station, the same song, although having had much more sleep this time my imagination was not so wayward...

so la pro... another friend of spanish M (well, catalan M), very comic man, knows catalan E, came for the party, as i was taking him today to the train he was singing me the sad catalan song that E told me about... i will miss your smile...

but first yesterdays bicycle adventures:

i went out into the world last night to go to the cinema with felinity... we saw the fantastic 4 which was absolutely rubbish, maybe the worst film we've seen... i can't even be bothered to link it like i would other films i've seen it's so bad...

on the way into town i was going a different route to normal, i turned into a cycle lane around somerstown and thinking that the cycle lane was stretching out in front of me, no cars or other bikes around, i looked at my map... whilst moving...

only the cycle lane was not stretching out in front of me, it was quite short and it ended in a raised concrete edge, that curved to the right sharply...

i was not going very fast, but i came a cropper on that concrete edge.

i have a leaf shaped graze on my chest that must have been the handle bar, a small bruise on my knee and a smaller one on my hip...

i was lying in the road and a very nice woman helped me out... an overwhelming feeling of stupidity had me in it's grip...

not too badly injured though so i soldiered on, was a little late meeting felinity whereupon i discovered that i didn't have my keys with me (they were at home, though at the time i thought they might have fallen out of my pocket when i fell off), which meant that i couldn't lock up my bike... we were going to the cinema, where would i put my bike?

we were in leicester square, we asked two policemen, they suggested that we try charing cross police station but they weren't sure they would take it... in the end we stashed it behind some railing in a back street by a church... slight risk of losing it was the only exciting thing about the film...

we ate in chi and then went to see this rubbish film, and the evening was saved because me & felinity always have a nice time, and the possible disapearance of my bike lent some intrigue...

the last film we saw together was the wedding crashers which was so good that we could even see another bad film and still come out on top i think... just as well...

so to today's bicycle adventure...

la pro, just before he leaves the city he wants to go on a bicycle ride, me & edge decide to go with him, we borrow spski's bike without asking him, which is asking for trouble, but we're not going far, what can happen?

at first i ask edge to be on spski's bike, la pro on edge's, me on mine (one gear, hard work), but we swap a few times before we get it right, the best way was la pro on mine, edge on his and me on spski's, but there is a hill at one point and la pro struggles with the one gear so i swap back, him on spski's, me on mine, & this was just before the big downhill...

i'm concerned by the big downhill, i'm holding back on the speed... trying to communicate with la pro about braking... then i see edge swooping past us digging the hill... a moment later i hear a bang and i look back...

la pro on the ground... spski's bike beside him...

his flight 4 hours away...

afew different residents came out and helped us, in particular one guy who got us a bowl of warm water and a cloth and a first aid kit... we called for an ambulance but decided against it before completing the call, edge got on his bike to get his car, i comforted la pro and patched him up as best i could, (which is not too good)...

terrible thing to happen...

the decision to go get him checked out at the hospital and change his filght, or to catch the plane..? but in the end he goes to the airport, as i said i took him to the train...

spski's bike not too badly injured but he won't be happy,

but la pro by the time he was on the train with his arm in the improvised sling we did for him was in high spirits again... like i said he sang me the sad catalan song, we joked, he returns to barcelona with his mobile phone gone (he lost it yesterday, his glasses broken (@ the party, we mended them) his arm in a sling and a huge bruise on his leg, a cut on his chin, scratches in a few places...

yesterday i was not moving fast when i fell off... today la pro was moving at quite some speed when he fell off...

ouch..

and i still haven't told you about the twins... or indeed the high heeled shoes...

x