I think I should just give up cycling...

For only the second time this year I popped out for a ride kinda just for the hell of it (though I'm back into trying to up the mileage). And for the second time I found myself walking home (from almost the exact same spot, just half a mile apart).

The first time I was left in the lurch by not realising the pump I'd taken was knackered and I got a puncture; tonight I was prepared. Pity the crappy self-adhesive patches, which can just about usually do the job, weren't up to the four big holes in the tube which, I presume, were caused by the flinty grit that's used in these here parts when it starts to get chilly. Slightly shorter walk than last time. Only 3 miles.

My rides just seem to have a habit of this... Okay, that's maybe an exaggeration, but the Bealach Na Ba falling apart halfway through, and I remember a couple of years back riding out to the East Lothian Airshow and only being able to do so when a kindly old cyclist gave me a spare tube after mine hadn't just punctured, but exploded. Seriously. Exploded, leaving a 6 inch tear that no patch was going to sort.

It was suggested to me on the joy that is Facebook that maybe I should think about changing tyres, but these are tyres that have stood up to stand-in commuting the last couple of weeks, and which I had a version of on the previous stolen bike, and they'd never punctured. And my malaise of rides stretches over multiple bikes, with completely different tyres (in terms of size and purpose and allsorts). So I've come to the only logical conclusion that I'm cursed.

Well, it seems logical after someone today defended the verity of astrology to me by reading out about 12 traits for their star sign from an internet site, got to the last one, and declared that that one, that last trait, was her to a tee. Which proved astrology. That one trait. Versus the 11 that weren't. Proved.

Oh, the other car thing from the ride... I was passing the Lamborghini garage at Kinnaird and stopped to take a picture of the couple of cars there as well. I was actually expecting a security guard or something, but clearly they didn't want their tea going cold - instead I got a tannoy announcement that I was being watched and recorded on live CCTV. I gave the tannoy a big thumbs up and carried on.