I've come to realise that my perception of traffic is significantly influenced by my mood. This morning, for example, traffic was rushing around as you would expect but my tolerance of cars overtaking close to me (too many to count!) or travelling too fast - lots - was low and I found myself shouting at them, not that they would have heard of course cocooned in their metal boxes. What was worse was that it reduced my enjoyment of the ride (sometimes you wouldn't believe I could enjoy it based on what I write here!). So I made a conscious effort to relax which improved matters a little.

I see lots of bad driving each day (you guessed?), well it is a 13 mile commute through the city -each way, but sometimes I see equally bad examples of cycling. Today a man (probably midlle aged) was riding a 'traditional roadster' with panniers on the wrong side of the road for about 100m, he then rode on to the pavement and continued for around 200m. At least no cars swerved past him and no pedestrians were on the footpath, pity I was there to witness it really.

Ride home on Tuesday evening was fairly uneventful but spotted the results of two car crashes (both minor) on the way home.

I've observed that when the wind blows so car driver behaviour becomes more erratic (faster speed, more braking) and so it was this morning. Relatively quiet roads but travelling faster and generally quite impatient.

No accidents.

The boots have disappeared ! perhaps they've found a new home.

Gears this morning, feeling tired and a lot of 'colds' & coughs around, hope I've not succumed. That's the good thing about gears rather than fixed, if the going gets tough, the wind blows hard or you're just knackered, there's usually a lower gear!

Saw, or rather heard, an accident on the way home last night. A single decker bus was turning right towards the fire station from Aston Science Park and appeared to have swerved to avoid a pedestrian(?) hitting a car coming in the opposite direction. The 'ped' appeared to be lying on the pavement with a few people around him (her?). The car wasn't too damaged, front wing only.

Can't decide what's worse, cars turning right immediately in front of me, exceeding the speed limit or driving too fast for the conditions. Lots of examples of both this morning. Do the 'right turn' brigade have any sense at all or is it suspended when they get behind the wheel, it appears they take risks (with my safety) for the sake of a few miliseconds progress.

I'm suprised by what I see sometimes. Near the climbing centre on the central reservation of a dual carriageway there's a discarded pair of good quality well cared for walking boots, the kind that have been broken in over many miles but have been looked after. They've been there for a couple of days at least. How did they get there? Why were they left behind?

Broken cloud this morning but a comfortable temperature. A little cooler than last week possibly, weather forcast indicates colder weather by mid-week.

Traffic was suprisingly light compared to the last few [riding] days but that just gives car drivers an opportunity to travel faster than the speed limit.

I like the autumn, varied colours, cooler temperatures without being frozen and the smell of bonfires.