Leaving Hook

Johnnys gaff to Hook train station. 1.4 miles

Alarm goes off. Good morning Hook! It was a place where I knew someone, who could plug me into the social pipeline but from now on I'd be on my own. Clothes on. Down Weetabix. Grab horrible bike and out the side gate. No way! ‘Johnny come quick it’s a miracle.’ There they were out on the street in all their glory, my glow in the dark gloves. Hope. No time to think about it, have a train to catch. Have my other gloves on so stick the glowies in my pocket. Hit the pedals. Rip my jeans. Roll them up. No time to put on my light so had to cycle on the path. Came up to a roundabout and needed to cross the path to the little island and then the other side. Saw a car coming around the far side of the roundabout. Was he going to keep going or turn towards me or go the whole way back around? Shit, don’t want to stop, want to keep going. Going dead slow but almost at the road, almost too late to stop. Yep just like every other motorist in England he doesn’t know what an indicator is and goes right by me. Did you ever hear the concept of OTHER PEOPLE? I go to put my foot down but it’s too late, killer boots man, it’s happening, I’m falling. I can’t stop once it’s started. It was a graceful fall though, I didn’t flap about or make a weird noise or anything and landed nicely into a soft patch of grass. Bonus point - my foot clicked out as I landed so I didn’t have to shimmy about like a wounded gazelle.

No time for patting myself on the back, onwards. Flew around to the station and put my bank card in the machine. Booking reference? Balls. Train coming in 4 minutes. Get out my phone, turn on internet, come on, come on. Gimme the God damn number. Check mails. I remember they sent me two mails but in my panic I can only see one. Click into it. No reference. Shite. Try to get onto the website but its taking ages and there’s a guy beside me jumping on the spot so I let him go ahead. Too late, have to get on the train. Great now I don’t even have my invalid ticket.