half remembered faces - the dead C & a stupid tale

watching the dead C perform last night in kilburn i found myself fantasising that i was on stage at such a gig (the support) and in my mind i started improvising lyrics that i was performing there & then...

i wrote the lyrics down when i got home and today, half remembered faces is becoming a song...

more on the mighty dead C later...

so the stupid tale...:

this is yesterday morning and i hope i tell it right...

i left the house to go to londonbridgework wearing my small coat, i've been wearing the big coat more and more now it's getting colder - even cycling - however work days, cycling longer distances is the smaller coat...

but being a two coat individual these days i forgot to transfer my keys and my travelcard (wallet) into the small coat, a fact i discover a couple of minutes into the journey... i decided not to go back for them, just going to work, i had enough money...

so i'm cycling along and i reach the point near angel about half way through my journey and i get a flat tire...

it's been awhile since i've had a puncture and i'm not at all in the habit of carrying around the doings to fix them these days...

so i think alright, that's ok, i'm near enough to angel tube i'll lock up the bike there and get the northern line in...

so i'm walking my limping bicycle along to the tube, trying to ring work to no avail to get a message to my students that i'll be late, they're not answering the phone, i'm getting worked up by this now, a simple phonecall to let them know where i am would ease my mind and i can't get through...

i try the two students whose numbers i have, i try my friend M who is on the staff, she's on holiday, i try the main work number again and again...

by this time i've reached the tube - where i'm aware i won't be able to make the phonecall and i'm accepting the fact that i'll be 10 - 15 minutes late and i won' t be able to let them know...

so i reach into my pocket to get the keys to lock the bike and only then do i remember that i've left my keys at home...

so i cannot lock up my bike...

this was huge... my brain just couldn't take it in for a minute or so... i had a puncture, no repair kit, too far to walk home or to work...

i remembered once i was with felinity and i'd forgotten my keys and we were going to the cinema (also another time - in camden... who was i with?) and both times i found a way to hide the bike, or actually in camden the staff took it behind their counter...

so with this in mind i went into the station and asked someone what i should do and instead of saying, alright, just put it in here, come back later, as i was hoping (foolishly) a man in there suggested i take it to a police station, there's one a few streets away from the tube...

which i did, the police station turning out to be right where i got the puncture, i waited in there a good 20 minutes and then was told that no, sir, that's not something we do here...

so i walk out of the police station, really not knowing what i should do...

and then i hit upon the notion that i should have thought of all along which was to find a bike shop... leave it there... or better still, get them to fix it, go on my way...

i ring spski who thinks for a moment and then tells me the name of a bike shop on essex road... (amazing mind that man) and i trundle over to mosquito, by now i've walked 1 & a half miles with my limping bicycle, mosquito charge me a little more than normal to fix the puncture i cycle on my way...

i arrive at work over an hour late...

the dead C deserve their own post... all that stupidity has taken up too much space... later on x