Golden light

Every once in a while, the sun casts a light over London that's absolutely magnificent - the buildings blazed with gold. I took this from the 8th floor of the building where I work on the Strand. It's a pity that there's no access to the balcony or the picture would have been better - there's slight window glare.

In the photo you can see the Gherkin (shaped like a), Canary Wharf (the building right to the centre of the back row with its top in the clouds), the chimney of Tate Modern to the left of the smaller OXO Tower stack, and to the far right, the Shard, which is being built. You can gain a sense of how tall it's going to be when seen amongst all the others. The bridges are from front to back: Waterloo, Blackfriars road and rail bridges, and you can just see Southwark Bridge.

The streets were so busy today since there was a tube strike in place. There were a lot of bicycles on the road, too. I always feel safer riding in a pack. I was amused and a bit bewildered while going over Waterloo Bridge on the way home when a policeman cycled alongside me. He asked, cryptically, "Do you always choose which red lights you're going to stop at and which you won't?" I gave a puzzled look. He prompted, "Didn't you notice that you went through a red light?" After a couple of revolutions (of both bicycle wheels and brain cogs) it clicked and I explained that I'd walked my bicycle over the pedestrian crossing then got on my bicycle when on the other side. Only then, when sure there wasn't a pedestrian in front me, did I ride my bicycle onto the bridge. It was an easy mistake to make considering there was no traffic, only pedestrians crossing, then me on a bicycle on a traffic-free road because I'd cheated, legally. He didn't say anything, just rode off. An apology would have been nice.

His lust for red-light jumpers was quenched on the other side of the bridge - he'd collared someone there (who had jumped a red light - I saw him do it). The sad thing is that most cyclists do jump the lights and I'm the one sitting there being legal with the white van breathing down my back with its engine growling. There are a couple of junctions where I'd like to see cyclist priority, just in that minute between the red pedestrian man going up and the traffic lights turning amber for traffic. I counted the seconds today and there would have been enough time for a bicycle to travel across the junction in that moment without frustrating the traffic with simultaneous hand-signal gestures and push-pedal acceleration. I've become quite adept at both skills. Next stop - tightrope walker!

Thanks for the well wishes about my eye. The good news is that it's on the mend and it's nothing more than an irritation that I caused by poking around for a lens that wasn't there. The whereabouts of the lens is a mystery, but it's definitely not in my eye, which is the main thing - thank you nice optician fella for checking. I'm on antibiotic eye drops for the pink eye and it's doing its job already.