horns of wilmington's cow

By anth

Vroom!

Tell me why I don't like Mondays...

Without any punctuation that's what I always thought the Boomtown Rats song was asking, imploring the listener to explain to Geldof why it was that he didn't like Mondays. "Surely you know, why are you asking us?" was my general feeling. Until I found out it was about a 16 year old's shooting spree in San Diego, which killed two people and injured about 10 more, who when asked why she did it replied, "I don't like Mondays, it livens up the day".

"Tell me why," said the cop. "I don't like Mondays," she replied.

Not quite as catchy a line in a song though is it? A decidedly damp start to the day, and to the week, I'd taken a different route on the bike to normal since I hadn't ridden the main straight road in a while. Queue upon queue upon queue of traffic. It's all caused by bikes and buses y'know. Funny how it always gets busier as the weather descends into wintry murk.

I'll stick to the bike though, because it's still more fun than sitting in the car listening to breakfast radio, or sitting on a bus with wet coughing and sneezing fellow passengers (I hate the bus more than the car). And there's an odd side-effect that I like. Work never seems so bad when you first arrive, especially when the weather is awful. You get in out of the cold, out of the precipitous heavens, into the warmth. Dry off, clean dry clothes on, and that first cup of coffee tastes divine. It's only Nescafe bloody instant, but it's like nectar. You don't get that if you've driven or bussed in and sit at your desk in the same clothes as your journeyed. The coffee isn't warming, the room seems cold still. I've destressed getting here, and am less stressed once in. Makes sense to me.

But yesterday on the tv I saw an advert for a new 7 seat Nissan Qashqai, a ridiculous monstrosity of a thing that has been advertised in the past with an odd 'skater boy' type thing (the car being a skateboard) that sits strangely with the target audience: middle-class-keeping-up-with-the-Joneses-I-have-this-because-it-keeps-my-children-safe-the-roads-are-dangerous-with-all-these-cars-on-them-don't-you-know types.

The new advert seemed to suggest that now it seats 7 even more people can join in the fun. I'm not sure how it improves the mindset of someone sat in a queue of traffic. Unless it has an armchair in the back. Because even if I had an Aston Martin (Aha! A link to the photo!) I'd still take the bike.

EDIT: Maybe this shot is better?

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