My cycle route to the market in Uppermill on a Wednesday morning avoids main roads, indeed all roads, as much as possible. Fifty years ago I was less cautious. I used to cycle up the main road from Chadderton to the school where I worked in Oldham, unconcerned about the buses and trucks and other traffic. And nobody cycled on the pavement in those days. At the end of the day I got on my bike at the top of the hill and wore my brake pads out on the way down, crossing my fingers that I wasn’t going to have to stop for red traffic lights. Those were the days!
Now I am older and more sensible. And, of course, there was considerably less traffic in those days. So now, en route for the market, I cycle along our main road to the crossroads, take a left turn and an immediate right past the former Delph station, through a smart newish housing estate and onto the Donkey Line bridle path. My only concern there is uncontrolled dogs, of which there are few as most people call their dogs to them when they hear my excellent cycle bell, and the few apparently deaf people who don’t seem to hear my excellent cycle bell until I am almost upon them!
At the end of the Donkey Line I emerge onto a quiet lane which overlooks the canal and Uppermill centre. I usually swoop down the first slope of the lane (swoop is an exaggeration as I do make judicious use of my brakes) ready for the uphill section onto the lane itself. Reaching the lower point of my swoop today, prepared to pedal hard on the upslope, I was confronted by an Ocado delivery van and had to pull over. Well, that was my uphill ride scuppered!
He set off up the slope down which I had just swooped. Then he stopped and reversed a little. A nodding acquaintance, regularly seen at that point, commented with a wry grin, “Never follow satnav!” Mr Ocado set off once more. And then he stopped once more. Then he reversed some more. I pulled my bike over to one side, not wanting to get tangled up in his manoeuvres when he clearly didn’t know what he was really doing. I think he was trying to do a three point turn but the terrain was really not suitable. As he drew parallel to me he told me, “My satnav didn’t tell me that bridge ahead is only 9 feet high. My van is 10 feet tall. I’ll have to reverse all the way back up here. You’d better go first. You’ll be faster than me.” So off I went, uncertain about his confidence that I would be faster than him, but in the event I saw no more of him.
I got to the main road in Uppermill without further incident and got on with my regular shopping. The coop in Uppermill had the lettuce I was unable to buy in Delph yesterday. The difference in available goods in the two branches of the same store is interesting. My preferred marmalade, for example, is only ever available in Uppermill but they never stock grapefruit juice! I assume it’s a question of demand for products. I resisted the temptation to buy cherries at Alimentari Alberti, the Italian greengrocers and went on to the market.
What market!?
On one side of the road, in front of the church, was the usual display of plants and flowers, but in the main market square the stall that sells shoes and slippers stood in splendid isolation. The rest of the square was filling up with parked cars as it does the rest of the week. I stopped to chat to the slipper man; he told me that Jenny the cheese and biscuits lady is visiting family in Slovenia - who knew she had Slovenian forbears? - and reminded me that fishman is on holiday in Portugal - we expressed the hope that he is not suffering from fires over there. As for the rest: no idea! How odd!
As regards fires, they’ve been suffering in London, where the fire service had their busiest day since the second world war. The London mayor warned Londoners not to have BBQs and to take care with bottles in public areas, where grass remains tinder-dry after temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time. The sun shining through glass bottles can create heat and cause a fire. Khan said the fire service would usually expect 500 calls on a busy day, but had received more than 2,600 calls on Tuesday, when more than a dozen fires were raging at the same time. Home have been destroyed! Not quite the Great Fire of London but still worrying?
Today is a lot cooler. Everyone I met this morning was commenting on how nice it was to have a fresh day! The excitement is over for a while but the milkman told me that he has had problems with a few of his cows suffering from the heat - bovine heat stroke! - so we had a little chat about the stuff I wrote about yesterday about cows staying indoors in the daytime. Meanwhile, I have just heard that in Italy some of the rivers have got so hot that they are removing fish to keep them in a cooler place for the time being! Piscine heat stroke!
The struggle for leadership of the Tory party and Premiership of the UK continues. There’s even a possibility that the final vote could be between two female candidates, neither of whom impress me at all. And they’re all about to close down for the summer. We’ll just have to fend for ourselves until they come back to mess things up some more!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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