More rain

Had a meeting on campus and then took the train into New Street from where I cycled home in increasing rain. The towpath was a succession of puddles through which I splashed - the waveless surface of Birmingham Mainline corrugated and curved by gusting wind and sheeting rain. Back on the road gutters were awash. A motorist swerved from one long brown pond into another throwing up a bow-wave that broke behind me. I and my pannier were waterproofed but for my shoes and socks. Then came thunder. Water fell perpendicular from the overcast, bouncing off the tarmac, squirting from gutterpipes, weighing down trees, soaking foliage so thoroughly it could give no shelter, and increased until I was cycling through curtains of water. I travelled through the unslakeable urban landscape like a spaniel in a marsh - almost happy. It rained like this in Corfu one day last September. Poured for 10 hours as we lived on Summer Song while Corfu Yacht Yard cleaned and painted her hull. * * * e-mail from my friend in the Middle East:

Dear Simon Since I was a secondary school student, I was dreaming of the heavy rain of London. I like rain very much, especially when it mixes with the odour of soil. It reminds me of my childhood, my dreams, and my early mature ideas about the universe, the other sex and the unseen. Rain in London must be special, but so it used to be in Iraq. Now I am afraid that rain is only reminiscent of God's wrath, and the deterioration of the quality of our environment. My heart was beating and my feeling of the approach of the date when Birmingham will send me the offer was mixed with a devastating disappointment by the recent incidents that took place in Glasgow and London. My wife and I condemned the awful attempts of the terrorists to disturb the life in UK even before we were thinking of going there. Now our condemnation must be doubled. I really hate such ungrateful people who bite the hands that extend support, peace and love to them. Islam has nothing to do with those people. Political, cultural or religious positions must find more human and peaceful means to express themselves. Please, accept my apology on behalf of my culture and religion. I am aware that these incidents may complicate matters for me but this is not new to me. When I graduated from the Department of English in 1992, I ranked first among my colleagues. There was a cultural exchange programme running between Iraq and the UK at that time and all first rated students were awarded scholarships to the UK. My name was at the top of the list. But the UK diplomatic relations were suspended with Iraq when Saddam ordered the execution of a UK citizen from an Iranian origin who was accused of being a spy for the UK. The whole programme was cancelled and I lost the chance of studying in the UK. See how I am accustomed to mishaps. Today, I received a welcome note (brochure) sent by Birmingham University. Does this mean any progress in my application? Please, again accept my sincere apology and condemnation of what is happening in the UK these days. Best Regards ****

Dear xxxx I appreciate your generous intentions in offering apologies on behalf of your culture and religion but I simply cannot accept them. I could only consider accepting apologies for what has been happening if I felt there were some measure of blame or culpability that could be attached to you, your culture or your religion. I do not. My only concern was the possibility that the net of suspicion, being cast wider, would hinder your plans to study here after local circumstances have made it impossible, because of present dangers to you and your family, of continuing to serve your countrymen as an educationalist and academic. This is a misfortune that is outside my experience and anything I will continue to do as much as I can to mitigate and ease your transition to an academic position here. I don’t know if the welcome brochure means anything more than that you are in a queue whose existence is known to the university. On that score you should question xx xx. (I will ask him myself as well). Here the rain continues though we hear there is some probability of improvement by the weekend. My 90 year old mother in the Highlands of Scotland is in the middle of moving her possessions to a new house a few miles from the larger house that she decided to sell. I am impressed with the energy she’s bringing to this transition from a home she occupied for 40 years to a smaller bungalow. Luckily she has various loyal helpers to deal with the carrying and the storing and we will be going up to Scotland shortly to visit and see her settling in her new house. Tomorrow we have our annual “Classroom in the Park” http://www.flickr.com/photos/sibadd/336656503/ The above URL is of an earlier event before our local park was improved. Many schools arrive with hundreds of children to perform songs and dances and recitals and I am in charge of a stand which displays a history of the park, available to answer questions from teachers and children. I hope the rain is not too strong! Kind regards, Simon

* * * DEFRA NEWS RELEASE Ref: 201 /07 Date: 2 July 2007

Flood response efforts 'magnificent' says Benn Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, today reiterated the Government’s commitment to supporting communities affected by flooding in many parts of England. In a statement to Parliament Mr Benn paid tribute to the heroic efforts of the emergency services, local authorities, voluntary sector, military, and Environment Agency, describing their collective response as magnificent. With more heavy rain forecast for the coming weekend he encouraged householders and businesses to make use of the Environment Agency’s Floodline telephone number and website for advice. Mr Benn also took the opportunity to confirm an increased flood defence settlement in the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007...

Cycling the towpath - in distinguished company

My rainy route to work Originally uploaded by Sibad.

I can cycle to the University by joining the towpath of the Soho Loop off the Birmingham Mainline Canal where it runs parallel to Clissold Street in Hockley - a mile from home - and following it almost to the top of Farmer's Locks where I cross a bridge and take a right onto the Birmingham and Worcester Canal, passing the edge of the country's greatest waterway intersection, and heading westward to Edgbaston, leaving the canal a hundred yards or so further on from this picture and surfacing via the steps up to Somerset Road.
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Who cycles? Power and influence sometimes work best - for good or evil -when unseen to most of us. Do you know how many ministers, academics,barristers, surgeons, senior civil servants and other establishment figures are navigating our urban streets by bicycle? More than you might imagine. The car is increasingly the chariot of the masses and the object of proletarian desire. It therefore has a powerful resonance in a democracy which makes moves against this sacred artifact something best kept under the radar. Recall too that for a public figure to be associated with walking or cycling is to risk the inference that such ways of getting about are preferable to motoring. In other words to cycle or walk is not simply a choice it is frequently interpreted as a public political gesture. Any public figure who becomes associated with cycling or walking will be transferred within months or less to the ranks of the slightly odd or the amusingly eccentric with every public statement they make thereafter on any subject under the sun prefixed with the words like "the well known 'pedestrian'" or "the '(insert age) year old cycling enthusiast'". Even an obituary headline will contain some similar reminder of their distinctive association with their preferred way of getting from A to B. This is not a call to apathy, just a reminder that power is sometimes most effectively exercised behind the scenes or by quiet example. That said, Jeremy Paxman cycles the capital. "It is easily the quickest way around London, faster than bus, tube or taxi. You can predict precisely how long every journey will take, regardless of traffic jams, tube strikes or leaves on the line. It provides excellent exercise. It does not pollute the atmosphere. It does not clog up the streets." Vivienne Westwood regularly bicycles through the streets of London wearing a mad-looking pair of shoes from Balenciaga and Gilles Tapie's recent book of photographs of the dancer Sylvie Guillem shows she’s an urban cyclist. Eric Clapton collects and rides Italian road bikes while Bea Campbell wrote "In the context of debates about identity politics - are you gay or straight, nationalist or republican, British or English and so on - I would ask, 'Do you ride a bike?' I love everything about the machine - the sensation of the tyres on the road, the mobility - and I love the fact that you have this intimate relationship with the elements, and the landscape." Michelle Pfeiffer cycles. Madonna rides with Guy Ritchie and little Rocco and no doubt a procession of reluctant but well paid heavies. Robin Williams owns lots of road bikes and rides with his friend Lance Armstrong. Ex-Shadow Secretary of State Bernard Jenkin drives to his London home on Sunday evening and cycles the rest of the week: "...everywhere, every day - to Westminster, to meetings in the West End and the City, to the Albert Hall, to the Royal Opera House. Cycling offers a huge financial advantage and it keeps me fit." Des Lynam wrote in the Telegraph: “I decide on the spur of the moment to fly home...I see my loved ones and ride my bicycle in the fresh Sussex air.” Jarvis Cocker cycles in town. Jeff Banks and Paul Smith are avid cyclists and Smith's business has sponsored cycle teams. We may yet see them design proper day clothes for cycling in the city (:)). Sheryl Crow, a singer but also Lance Armstrong's girlfriend,rode close to 70 miles at the recent Ride for the Roses in Austin and speaks of writing a song about cycling. Jon Bon Jovi is a mountain biker sponsoring an MTB team and even though Jeremy Clarkson is rude about cyclists in general he and his wife keep fit on Raleigh Pioneers. "Don't listen to what I say, watch what I'm pedalling (?)" Grateful Dead rent studio space from Marin and their guitarist Bob Weir is a mountain biker, and often rides with mountain bike co-founding father, Gary Fisher. Weir said: "Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls." Sir Rocco Forte took up cycling when his love of endurance sport led him to triathlons. Of all the sports he pursues cycling is "the thing I love best...I am addicted." John Kerry (remember him?) is a keen road cyclist, owning a Serotta Ottrott. God help me, even President Bush took up mountain biking in 2004 "Nothing compares to getting your heart rate up to 170-something, riding hard for an hour-twenty, getting off and not hurting, as opposed to 24 minutes of running, at the end of which I hurt. When you ride a bike and you get your heart rate up and you're out, after 30 or 40 minutes your mind tends to expand; it tends to relax." Yes well. That's one of the most coherent sequence of words I've ever heard from those lips. I've passed Jon Snow on his Dutch city bicycle near Trafalgar Square. He probably persuaded Paxman it was the best way to get around London. I've used Snow's advice about getting cool in the studio after a fast ride. Apply an ice cube to the temples and back of the neck. Snow says his "... whole day is built around meetings that can be achieved around bike rides. My contract actually offers me a free car from my home to my office and back, but I suppose I am addicted to cycling." Alexei Sayle may write about cars in the Independent but he commutes by bicycle and, with Jon Snow, is a customer of Condor Cycles along with Adam Woodyatt, Jill Halfpenny, Mick Jagger, and Chris Tarrant and wife who've bought a tandem. Retired Treasury mandarin Sir Steve Robson always rode to work and still gets off road in the Sussex Downs sometimes. Boris Johnson MP cycles to and from Parliament and has argued for cyclists being able to use mobile phones on the road as they only endanger themselves unlike drivers doing the same thing. The Prime Minister of Belgium, is a cyclist and a fan of cycle-sport. He said: "In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn't enough of those things.” Lee Iacocca ("when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life") former boss at Ford and then GM, invented the the SUV, repented and is now into electric bikes and rides his company's products. He said: "After 50 years in the auto business, I'm bringing you the future of transportation - and it's electric!" Kraftwerk's 1980s Tour de France album is a classic and they do other bicycle things though they are a bit reclusive, which brings me back to my original point. I agree that most of these people are celebs rather than people in government or the professions - but I would be undermining my case if I started on another list here. I though Belgian PM and a Conservative shadow minister would be OK though (:)), though I can't resist my favourite European politician, Romano Prodi, one of Italy's most successful post-war politicians, lives in Bologna and goes to work on his bicycle. In my v.small way, I never ever advocate cycling or walking in the lectures I give around the UK about local government, but in one corner of the room there's always a folding bicycle and when I submit my expenses there's always the reference to "20p a mile for the journeys I've done by cycle", and when I sign into hotels the space for a car number plate remains in-your-face blank, and some may even notice that for a 65 year old I look in rude health cutting quite a figure in the suited self that emerges from my wet wear on a rainy winter morning. My favourite famous cyclist is Emil Zola but he never went on about it. He fought for justice and wrote like an avenging angel - and happened to love cycling.