Wilko Johnson has a year to live...

Legendary Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson has been given under a year to live, having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just before Christmas.

Wilko Johnson today. Pic: mirror.co.uk

There was a very good interview with him in this Saturday's Guardian in which Wilko's childhood friend and Feelgood band member John Martin reminisced, "We used to go out cycling a lot – me, him, his brother Malcolm. The furthest we got was, we tried to cycle to Canterbury one day, and realised by the time we got there we'd need lights. We had to turn back because we hadn't got lights. We got as far as Chatham."

Dr. Feelgood was a great British r&b band.

Construction firms warned to pay more attention to cyclists

Credit: crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com

Saturday's Guardian this week carried an article about the high proportion of accidents involving cyclists and lorries.

Transport for London (TfL) commissioned a study, which discovered that lorries carrying materials to and from building sites are disproportionately responsible for cyclist deaths and that the construction industry is not – so far at any rate – taking the news very seriously.

The study recommends that contractors give drivers 'realistic' delivery times to prevent them rushing, plan safe routes and treat accidents involving trucks as seriously as they do deaths or injuries among building workers.

I wonder how many of the cyclists killed by lorries were labourers on the way to the same site as the lorry?

In London, about half of cyclist deaths involve lorries, which comprise only 5% of the traffic.

Eight miler to Warlingham Green

This isn't the morose-looking self-portrait, but it is of
Warlingham Green, taken a year or two ago

Left the house later than usual, at 0855hrs and decided to head for Warlingham Green – a short eight miler. I was back in the house by 0940hrs meaning the whole journey, including a very brief stop at the Green itself to take a rather morose-looking self-portrait, took only 45 minutes. Not bad going.

It was dry but cold today and I was glad to get home.