Driving - It’s Rubbish

I had a breakfast meeting today at the Copthorne Hotel in central Newcastle. But when I got up, it was blowing a gale and raining (the sort of weather where you can hear Norwegian voices on the wind), so I decided to go for the soft option and drive.

Big mistake.

I think everyone else must have had the same idea - the traffic was awful, and it took me 1hr 50mins to do the 11 miles to the centre of town. OK, so I probably drove further than that, in my quest to find some road, any road that wasn’t gridlocked. But all the same, I averaged somewhere around 7mph.

And I can comfortably run faster than that!

Fortunately the client I was meeting had got wind of the traffic conditions, and was suitably forgiving of my discourtesy in being late. But in future, I’m sticking to something that I know works - I’ll be cycling.

So on the way home, I stopped off at the Edinburgh Bike Coop to check out waterproof trousers & over-shoes, and came away with a pair of waterproof socks. The trousers, I’ll probably get from Wiggle, as they work out quite a bit cheaper at the moment . . . I’ll just have to wait a few days to get my hands on them. Dare I risk the wait, and end up driving again though?

Filed under: Cycling, Newcastle, Where I Shop, Wind