Resident HQ here. Alive and reporting for duty. I’ll be keeping a blog while I’m here at Spread the Word. Little notes on my writing and some pictures too. From my phone. I like photos, particularly on the phone. The frame is different. Spy hole style. I’ll also be collecting words while I’m here – some of which I hope will be posted by you. If you have any you’ve finished with, or some you never even started with, feel free to fling them this way. Definitions – real and imagined – also welcome.

Who needs suicide bombers when you have white van man?

My first day of the residency and I decided to cycle in to Spread the Word this morning, not because I was too scared to get the 159 from Streatham Hill to Lambeth North – oh no, spirit of the Blitz and all that – but because the sun was shining and I felt like it. As usual Dr Blog was way ahead and I was pedalling like a demon trying to catch up. That said, the fact that the white van at the corner of Bedford Road turned into oncoming traffic – ie me – was NOT MY FAULT. Yes, I’m shouting now and was shouting then. Result: a grazed elbow, aching wrist and a suitably earbashed and abashed white van man.

Despite the unexpected delay to my journey I arrived at the office early. With fifteen minutes to kill I perused the local shops and businesses on Lambeth Walk. I suppose I should have been glad that the London office of Cycle Training UK is only two doors away: clearly it’s an organisation I should be aware of. But as a sign – and of course it IS a sign, a big, pink, neon, ‘WHO’S THAT TWAT THAT CAN’T EVEN RIDE A BIKE?’ kind of sign, it was not particularly comforting.

All this reminded me of an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme earlier this week. An eminent professor who could do maths was there to discuss the difference between real and perceived risk. Bike sales have soared after the bombings as people abandon public transport in a bid to get to work in one piece. Of course, statistically speaking, it is safer to take the bus. I now have my own empirical evidence to confirm this fact.

This was brought home all too vividly the next day when a good friend had a serious accident on his bike and ended up in casualty with his teeth in a glass of milk. This wasn’t the little prang I had experienced – it was a much closer shave than that. Thankfully, said teeth are now back where they should be and he is live and well. It made me think twice about being so flippant though. Life is so much more fragile thank we think.