Day 2

Morning routines.

My morning routines used to be quite simple when I was in school - get away with as much sleep as possible until my mum shouted at me to get up, and then rush my way out of the house in order not to miss the bus, which was always a 50/50 affair.

Now though, well, nothing has changed really, except I only have an alarm clock shouting at me, and I cycle, which means I can never really miss my mode of transport, but it does make me late to lectures more often than not.

The alarm clock always goes off 1 hour before the lectures start. I then spend 45 minutes attempting the task of getting up and getting washed. The remaining minutes go on getting dressed, cramming down a cereal bar and cycling furiously, though not at the same time.

Cycling in Cambridge is quite a lot of fun, especially if you have a bit of a bastard streak in you, and sometimes enjoy making pedestrians jump out of the way in fear (admit it, you do secretly like it!). That's not to say I swerve onto the pavements for the sole purpose of scattering innocent townspeople in my dash to the Engineering Department. Indeed, that would be rather counterproductive to the actual task of getting to lectures. It's just that, for a city where bike usage is so prevalent, pedestrians (even the would-be cyclists) do seem to be blissfully unaware of them most of the time.

One of my friends can attest to this fact, having taken out a fair few of them in his cycling career thus far.

With this in mind, I present the following question.

"If a cyclist, travelling at a speed of Very Fast, is a distance Very Close away from you when you step out into the road, will they be able to stop in time to avoid hitting you?"

Pose that question to anyone, and the answer will of course be a "No". However, people seem to stumble when it comes to actually applying this logic to crossing roads, instead favouring the technique of "If I don't look, then I won't see anything, and if I don't see anything, then it doesn't exist."

The person who invented the green cross code would probably be very cross indeed at the state of affairs in this city.

Anyway, cycling over, I arrive at lectures - usually in a sweaty mess, and that's how my day gets underway.