Yesterday was a complete, total and utter nightmare.

I had a meeting in Shoreditch in the morning and then had to get to a funeral in Suffolk for the afternoon.

Ah ha, I thought, take the bike ... will get me to both comfortably irrespective of the traffic situation.

However, as I entered Chelsea I felt the familiar 'loose' feeling on the back end which signalled a flat tyre. Bugger ! Oh well, time to call the AA .... oh damn, mobile phone battery is flat.

Walked a way back up the road to buy some tyreweld to get me to the meeting. Tried it .... made it another mile before tyre deflated again .... pushed it a further half mile to Vauxhall and a handy bike tyre shop.

Got taxi to get me to Shoreditch. Took forever and I was sweating heavily in my one-piece leathers. Found I only had Euros in my wallet when I finally arrived, one hour late, at my meeting. Taxi driver, fortunately, took pity on me and accepted payment in Euros !

Business partners looked somewhat askance as red-faced, sweaty and leather-clad individual arrives to discuss serious matters ! Good meeting though ... once they'd finished laughing.

Then, get taxi all the way back to Vauxhall, collect bike, pay for expensive new tyres and head off to funeral. It won't surprise you to learn that I got lost en-route and only just made it in time ....