Bicycle bells are important when you live in a city like Bristol. Well, I think so, though it seems that lots of people think they are uncool. Hmm. Getting splatted by a car or having a pedestrian step in front of you? That's uncool. Sorry if it's confusing.
I even had an air horn for a while, which caused jaywalkers to leap into the air in a pretty gratifying way, let me tell you. But it was a bit of a faff pumping it up again.
I have had a big Chinese bell that goes DING DONG, and another one that whizzes round and goes RINGARINGARINGARINGA for just as long as you want to keep pressing the lever. Long ago, I had a fork-mounted bell that you operated with a Bowden cable, causing it to rub against the wheel and ring like fury. That was good fun.
Latest bell to adorn my handlebar is this neat Japanese job, with a clear ring to it and a very long sustain. It somehow manages to sound Japanese. It came from the nice folk at the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative.
And that's about it for today. Except that we got a glossy magazine through the door yesterday, which is nothing particularly unusual in the Leafy Suburb, but I'd not seen this one before. It's called School House, and it's basically a big brochure for private schools. There are advertisements with pictures of well-groomed children in Ralph Lauren clothes, or studying Harrods shoes. There are articles like Leader Or Follower? Why the first day really matters. There are statements like "having a child with extra-curricular talent feels like having a hand of cards with one sensational ace in the hole". Gosh. To me, having a daughter who does stuff and is good at it feels like having a daughter. I guess maybe it's a Two Nations thing.
The brochure has been put together by Penny, Fiona, Petra, Camilla, Melissa, Sophy, Lulu, Sophie and Tom. The small print explains that the magazine is delivered to 'AB homes'.
Got it wrong here, then. Crikey, those school fees are more than I've ever earned in a year.
Guess they're desperate for business.
In France every bike sold must have a bell and lights. Unfortunately they are usually cheap and tacky. Rob has a horn to honk which he enjoys using to make people jump. I didn't realise that there were so many forms of bicycle bell.
ReplyDeleteI bet as they get older their "extra curricular talents " take on a whole new, er, meaning. I can just picture Penny, Fiona et al. I've been listening to the comedy series about school; "The Pickerskill Reports", once a top school, eventually turning into a state comprehensive accepting (horrors!) girls.
Rob went to a top school and look who he ended up marrying, a sec. mod.
Hey! Nice bell..!
ReplyDeleteNeed to get a bell and a couple of lights for my push bike. I don't use it much her,e but it will be my main form of local transport once I move back to civilisation, so i shall need the legal bits...
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chrissie
xxxx
Apparently bikes must have bells (or at least, 'audible warning devices') when they are sold, Anji; I guess that people take them off... I know a few people who went to posh schools, and some are v nice and some are a strange combination of posh and seediness with a big dollop of immorality; of the latter, I have heard them refer to people who went to state schools as 'oiks'. I'm glad I wasn't at school with them.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at some state-of-the-art bike lights, Chrissie, and some of them actually cost rather more than my bike cost me. My present flashing headlight cost nigh on £30, but it is bright enough to persuade oncoming cars to dip their headlights, which a lot of car drivers seem surprisingly reluctant to do for cyclists or pedestrians... so you're getting on with the practicalities of moving, then? Good luck
I heard this weekend that my cousin's daughter, who was sent to private school in Cambridge and is 10, is nervous about going camp this year because there will be "children from comprehensives" there. This, despite the fact that both her parents went to comps (as did I, naturellement).
ReplyDeleteSeems strange to pay to have your child's mind narrowed, doesn't it?
I wish it did seem strange. Remember that song in "South Pacific"? "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught"?
ReplyDeleteMind you, speaking as a grammar school oik, we were incentivised to pass the 11 Plus with horror stories about the secondary modern...