Tube Dodger

As part of my diet and exercise kick I've started walking the four miles back to Waterloo three times a week instead of taking the tube. Now this of course has it's positives and negatives as does anything.

The biggest positive, and the reason I'm doing it really, is the exercise side of it. It means that I'm now walking between three and seven miles a day, five days a week. Great exercise and hopefully good for losing weight, oh and toning up your legs!

Negative side, cyclists in Hyde Park are even worse than commuters on the tube! There's nothing much that ranks higher on the embarrassment scale in these circumstances than having to say you were "run over by a Boris bike"... Though I'm pretty sure the people who rent them actually think of them as dodgems. As in they cycle however and wherever they want and you have to dodge 'em..!

Then you have the serious cyclists who spend too much time looking condescendingly at the Boris bike riders and not enough looking where they're going. Seriously they're a bunch of menaces, especially the ones who seem to think nothing of cycling full tilt across a busy pedestrian crossing, because they being cyclists (in their minds) rule supreme and us lowly ambulating heathens should part like the Red Sea before Moses to grant them unimpeded passage. Across the PEDESTRIAN crossing.... from the Latin "pedester"... meaning ON FOOT!!

Then you also have the horses. Now the sheer amount of horseshit in Hyde Park is stunning in it's enormity, but then I see things like these and it just puts a smile on my face!

A high up crossing signal just for horses, genius!

I have to admit, now I'm getting into it I am really enjoying the walk. It's not just the exercise but it reminds me what a beautiful city this is. It's so easy to forget with the craziness and the rush, but it is an amazing place. The architecture alone is just stunning, not even considering the river and the suprisingly large amount of greenery there is.

Plus, I'd miss out on so much entertainment by not being here and doing this walk! As we approached Embankment last week we were confronted by a mini protest, nothing major and barely held us up as it was just the end.

But as we stood waiting to be able to cross Whitehall I heard someone say "Oh I hate it when they do this!!" and turned to find myself confronted by a tall, slim man with floral shorts, wearing an aliceband and a huge amount of blusher... I would love to be able to share a photo but I was so shocked by his appearance I just sort of forgot I have a camera phone and just stared as he stormed into the middle of the road, stuck two fingers up at a police van before stropping off down the street.

Now really, how many places can you watch a tranny having a hissy fit at a van full of coppers in makeup that bright...?!

I love this city!