Saturday, October 3rd 2020 – What was I saying about bad days and beauty? As if to challenge me, a truly foul day when the rain and wind barely ceased.
I busied myself with work, domestic tasks and a little bike maintenance, shooting out after dark to get a takeaway in.
As I came back from Walsall Wood, I realised the roads were empty, and there was something eerily stark about the Coppice Road Junction.
Here’s hoping for a better Sunday!
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September 30th – The first commute in darkness and bad weather of the autumn is always a shock, and this one was dreadful.
The Suck – the name for the gradually darkening, dangerous and unpleasant evening commutes up until Christmas – is a harrowing time.
A combination of bad weather, drivers unused to otherwise familiar journeys now in darkness and lack of patience make for a psychologically and physically difficult time to be on a bike.
It had taken a good ten minutes longer to grind home – and I was still a good way away. I was wet, cold and had a number of very close passes despite lights and hi-vis.
If I could just fast forward to Christmas when the light creeps back and people have settled down, that would be great cheers.
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November 21st – I’ve not known a day’s weather so consistently, unrelentingly bad for a long, long time. It rained continuously from before I awoke, through my 7am commute, right up until around 6pm.
Riding to work was a battle. Despite waterproofs, a ride rendered 50 minutes rather than the usual 35-40 left me wet in places. I was miserable, cold and grumpy.
In Darlaston at teatime, the rain slowed, so I made a bolt for it. Mostly, the rain held back during my journey home, on flooded, waterlogged roads through a glistening, dripping, wet and cold town.
Drivers were behaving in that terrifyingly single minded, selfish way they always do in bad weather; either travelling at ridiculously inappropriate speeds, or crawling. The spray was penetrating.
Thankfully, by the time I reached the Coppice Road junction on the Brownhills/Walsall Wood border, there was little traffic around.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to get home, have a shower, and a mug of tea. I so hope tomorrow is better.
February 9th – At the junction of Coppice Road and Brownhills Road in Walsall Wood, the junction is being remodelled for the new leisure centre, now nearing completion. It’ll be interesting to see what the finished road layout looks like, and how it functions. This is a horrid junction for pedestrians, cyclists and small vehicles, and it seems a bad one for corner cutting and being cut off from the right – particularly when turning left into Brownhills Road.
I’m watching this one with interest. I hate this junction and I hope the changes improve it as much as possible.
December 27th – A cruise around Brownhills in the dark of a damp but moonlit night was odd. It didn’t feel like Sunday, in what must be considered the perineum of the year, this netherworld between Christmas and the return of normality at the turn of the new year. It felt like nowhere – there were no people about, the factories and homes were quiet. Only the pubs showed life, and the open, but deserted takeaways on the High Street.
This time of the year can either be really enjoyable, or purgatory. It’s never middling.
June 19th – Scooting late through Walsall Wood, I caught the sunset.
I haven’t caught a good one for ages – I’m just not usually about when they happen at the moment, which is sad.
I was glad to see this one. I must make more of an effort – some of the recent ones have been spectacular.
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