Port; Storm

It was raining this morning when I left the house and so I made sure to place my (charity shop) soft leather handbag inside my (eco-friendly, compact and fairly water-resistant) shopping bag. I do this anyway to make space in my bicycle's front basket for the gym bag I use for bicycle kit (pump, spare lights etc), but this morning I made a point of tucking it all in neatly to prevent ingress of rain.
I am so glad I did.

The rain was unpleasant, but it wasn't until I had crossed the Medway at Rochester that I began to experience the full force of the wind. Cycling was hard work. I'd got past the frequently terrifying roundabout without incident and was more-or-less on the home straight down Neptune Close when a sudden gust broadsided me so that my front wheel came into immediate contact with an unusually high kerbstone at the junction with Clipper Close (What a fantastically appropriate name!)

Happily, the impact was tangential, and not perpendicular to my front wheel, so no serious damage to the rim.
Also happily, the surface on the non-road side of the kerb is not paved, it is just squashy mud incorporating the largest puddle on the estate. The puddle is easily large enough to accommodate all of me and all of my bicycle, as I found out. It was a soft, if wet, landing. 

No physical harm done to me; contents of front basket reasonably protected, and so I lifted myself and my stuff out of the squelch as swiftly as I could. No apparent lasting damage, though the chain had become detached from the drive shaft. As sure as anything, I wasn't going to squat gloveless in the roadside reassembling it. Easier to walk and push the final furlong to the office.

In the office, sopping muddy hi-vis hung in the shower room (with permission) and drowned socks and cycle-to-work footwear laid along heaters which really work!

When the rain stopped I nipped out to the bike rack to reassemble the chain.
And by tea time my shoes and socks were warm and dry and I felt OK to get back up on the horse.