Philobiblon

The boo is for whatever body is responsible for staffing the lifts on the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, which it was my misfortune to use today (the latter because the Wollwich ferry wasn’t running). It was Boxing Day, so particularly the former was thronging with people – of course nice stroll by the river is, quite predictably, what a lot of Londoners and tourists are going to do.

But were the lifts operating? Of course not. So I was one of many cyclists wrestling their bicycles up and down the 100-plus stairs each way. Normally it is a minor inconvenience, but when you are trying to do it through a non-stop stream of tottering grannies and small children running down looking at their feet and not where they are going, it is a positive hazard.

The hiss is for the fact that the lovely old traditional pie and mash shop in Greenwich is now a “Gourmet burger” place.

And the second hiss for me is a reminder that I really must get out and do some more miles on the bicycle more often. I did a nice loop through the City, Limehouse, and Greenwich, past the Dome (waving to Tutenkhamen), then along the Greenway and the canal home. But the last few miles were done in a very low gear – if you saw a cyclist in Bloomsbury about 5pm going very slowly that was probably me- and the lactic acid will drain from the thighs eventually, I’m sure.