Surgery; Tollcross; and pigeons

Weekly surgery this evening - quiet tonight: possibly down to the school holidays? - and thereafter attended a meeting of Tollcross Community Centre, along with a couple of elected colleagues. Funding, and staffing, issues dominated the discussions.

Don't laugh too much at this --- but in the usual rush home (just prior to attending the above meetings) --- I was merrily cycling along the union canal; there was a slight drizzle so the canal path was wet but not that bad; rang my bell (as I always do!) when I approached one of the canal bridges; gently pulled the brakes to avoid any oncoming pedestrians; and promptly went into a huge skid on the cobbles that line the sections of path underneath each bridge; came flying off the bike and ground to a halt centimetres (and I'm not exaggerating) from the edge of the canal :-(

No serious damage done (other than to my pride) and absolutely no one else around --- thankfully really --- to witness my downfall.

All due to --- wait for it --- excessive pigeon sh*te on the cobbles :-((

I feel a strongly-worded letter to British Waterways in the making!

This all had nothing whatsoever to do with heavy braking on my part, of course --- and I simply refuse to blame London for their rumoured reductions to British Waterways funding ;-)