# Unusual things seen on your commute



## 4F (8 May 2008)

Last night about 6pm heard / spotted a chap playing the bagpipes in the middle of a field in the suffolk countryside.

Not the usual thing seen in these parts


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## magnatom (8 May 2008)

FatFellaFromFelixstowe said:


> Last night about 6pm heard / spotted a chap playing the bagpipes in the middle of a field in the suffolk countryside.
> 
> Not the usual thing seen in these parts



Och, I see that all the time. Was it a field of nettles and was he wearing a kilt....


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## 4F (8 May 2008)

No Kilt in sight, baseball cap, shorts and T shirt.


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## swee'pea99 (8 May 2008)

Coming down Roseberry Avenue this morning, a gaggle of, must have been at least 30, maybe 40 traffic wardens waiting at the bus stop. Not usually a herd animal...


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## Tharg2007 (8 May 2008)

FatFellaFromFelixstowe said:


> No Kilt in sight, baseball cap, shorts and T shirt.



OMG!!! any sign of nessie or did the nettles cover him up?


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## Ivan Ardon (8 May 2008)

Not all that unusual, but noticable by their reoccurrance over the last week or so, there has been a massive increase in the number of fit girlies (both cycling and jogging/walking) I pass in my commute each day.

I'm all in favour of global warming if this is the effect of a bit of warmer weather.


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## 4F (8 May 2008)

Tharg2007 said:


> OMG!!! any sign of nessie or did the nettles cover him up?



No, as I said he was wearing shorts not a kilt.


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## Kirst (8 May 2008)

Last June I saw a group of people hula-hooping and one was wearing Hammerpants. Had it been August I wouldn't have given it a second thought, but it was 2 months too early.


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## ianrauk (8 May 2008)

What are hammerpants?


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## MERV (8 May 2008)

Car on fire (twice).

A sofa and lamp driving towards Waterloo.(Southwark Street)
A tank driving from waterloo.(Southwark Street)
A car hitting another car and sort of bouncing off.(Southwark Street)

Peds lying in the road after being hit by vehicle.(Nr Leyton Tube and just past Mile End.)


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## ianrauk (8 May 2008)

> Or these-
> 
> http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/aais/EMI/media/mchammer/0094631039058.jpg



Doh  Of course..how could I forget those trousers, and that really silly dance


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## ianrauk (8 May 2008)

MERV said:


> Car on fire (twice).



Last saturday on a ride in Gravesend, saw a burnt out car, not too strange, however it was also bent up double...how it ended like that I don't know.


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## MERV (8 May 2008)

Well I saw a car on fire at Leyton and another at Mile End with smoke coming from the engine when it was going along.When the driver stopped all hell broke loose.


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## the reluctant cyclist (9 May 2008)

I too have seen a bagpipe playing man! 

Not to odd I suppose but this was on the canal - at lunchtime in the middle of Birmingham - oh and he was smoking a pipe! 

I'm more used to seeing drug addicts and/or people off "Skint" along the canal usually!!!


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## small fish (9 May 2008)

A few years ago - pulled up at some traffic lights behind a private ambulance. As the lights changed the van pulled away sharply, the back doors burst open and a coffin flew out and smashed on the road.

I didn't hang around to see what was in it (but it was caught on CCTV from a nearby business and sent to the local paper - coffin was empty!)


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## 4F (9 May 2008)

ianrauk said:


> What are hammerpants?



I believe they are parachute trousers as worn by MC Hammer


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## Kirst (9 May 2008)

ianrauk said:


> What are hammerpants?


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## palinurus (9 May 2008)

I saw a guy on a bike being towed by a husky.


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## palinurus (9 May 2008)

I've never seen anything else interesting tho'


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## Joe24 (9 May 2008)

Last week there was a man lieing face down on a grass patch with a person with a bullet proof vest on, a cyclist and 2 other people standing round him. 
A black women standing at the side of the road shouting about something, it was busy and no-one was around her.
A horse and cart that was going really really fast. Amazing thing to see, it was going towards town aswell.


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## goo_mason (10 May 2008)

One hot afternoon last year, a chavvy-looking old boiler and her tattooed, scarred man, sitting in deckchairs around a drink-laden picnic table and a barbecue on the cyclepath.

It was almost as if they'd sought-out the most vile, dingy spot they could find. Maybe they've been on holiday and it was their barbecue beneath the bridge on Mr Paul's route ? Or perhaps there's a sub-culture of dingy barbecue-ers that enjoy that kind of thing ?


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## bof (10 May 2008)

the reluctant cyclist said:


> I too have seen a bagpipe playing man!
> 
> Not to odd I suppose but this was on the canal - at lunchtime in the middle of Birmingham - oh and he was smoking a pipe!
> 
> I'm more used to seeing drug addicts and/or people off "Skint" along the canal usually!!!



There is a club called the Canal Pipers - I have seen another member on the Union Canal path in Brentford. Also I have heard bagpipes being played in the grounds of Buck House at about 8.15 am on a cold winters morning. Greek Phil giving his knackers a quick airing in a kilt?


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## Reckless Eric (10 May 2008)

I sometimes get to see penguins and porpoises on my daily commute. Somehow makes getting up to go to the office worthwhile.


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## Fnaar (12 May 2008)

I saw a bunch of about 10 women (very fit-looking, might I add) jogging along. Nowt strange about that, except they were wearing these, and bouncing along! Weird!


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## Maz (12 May 2008)

On my commute, I saw a bloke parked up in his car getting a blow job. This was in broad daylight.


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## Maz (12 May 2008)

The other weird thing I saw was a fella on those kangaroo-style bouncy stilt things. He was about 10ft tall in them. Said 'hello' to him, as you do.


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## domtyler (12 May 2008)

User said:


> The Buckingham Palace piper is the Queen's alarm clock. He plays every day when she is in residence.



Don't tell me you've shagged the queen?


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## MERV (12 May 2008)

Accident today coming up from Stratford to Leyton from the railway bridge and the road that goes up to the Wheelers pub Leyton and the ex- railwaysidings on that side some cyclist lying on the deck with a load of motorists around him.More than one car but he was conscious although lying on the deck.May have a bit on film.


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## Tynan (16 May 2008)

I might squeeze through a van/bus gap if I knew I had time to do so before the lights changed


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## spindrift (16 May 2008)

That's near my house Merv.


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## MERV (16 May 2008)

Tynan said:


> I might squeeze through a van/bus gap if I knew I had time to do so before the lights changed



I do it on a regular basis.Does that make me a bad person?


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## Tynan (10 Jun 2008)

this reminds me of advice of tackling pretty girls

when behind them say clearly and thoughtfully 'superb arse'

and when they look round, say all innocently and apologetically 'did I say that out loud?'

erm, I rolled off the forecourt this morning, it's all of 50 feet to the end of my road to the T junction with the main road, hardly worth clipping in, I wobbled towards the stop line in position to turn right, heard a car revving behind me and thought 'what on earth is that in aid of?', a car then tried to pass me on the right and got level with me as I arrived at the stop line, leaving them on the wrong side of the road

I politely asked the lady driver what on earth she thought she was doing and got a gesture suggesting I was going too slow, she then tore away up the main road with my howl of abuse chasing her, she stopped and seemed to be waiting for me, suits me just fine I thought, but away she sped after a moment

being harassed and bullied within ten feet of leaving the house is a new one on me that I didn't expect to ever happen


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## Maz (10 Jun 2008)

Tynan said:


> being harassed and bullied within ten feet of leaving the house is a new one on me that I didn't expect to ever happen


Yeah, but did she comment on your arse?


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## Maz (10 Jun 2008)

User1314 said:


> And absolutely BELLOWED into the ear of a South Korean mum as she navigated her way past me up a narrow New Malden back-street, in a merc with two kids in the back with a mobile plastered to her ear.
> 
> THAT felt good.


How did you know she was S.Korean? Do you know the lingo or was there a "I Love South Korea" sticker in the back window?


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## Robster (10 Jun 2008)

I have noticed this week that a field I go past every day contains what looks like a cow/horse cross. A horse with black and white markings the same as a cow! Very odd, who knows what goes on in the countryside eh?


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## Disgruntled Goat (10 Jun 2008)

Those bloody great bolts that you see at the side of the road.

Where do they all come from?


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## Absinthe Minded (10 Jun 2008)

A huge (10 inch), lizard with red and black markings, climbing up the kerb. Couldn't have been real but I was going too fast to get a good look.


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## walker (10 Jun 2008)

FatFellaFromFelixstowe said:


> No Kilt in sight, baseball cap, shorts and T shirt.




The bagpipes is actaully traditionally american not Scottish, so I guess thats right then


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## Riding in Circles (10 Jun 2008)

If you see a female cyclist and she has a nice arse, it's rude not to say so.

I was out last Wednesday and was stopped at a red light when such a young lady sped past, the light changed and I continued on my way, caught up with her a few hundred yards on and said "naughty person going through a red light" she chuckled and I said "nice bum by the way", she went red and thanked me.


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## monnet (12 Jun 2008)

I've recently started a new commute (new job, new area etc) which is about 50% country lanes. It's a pretty good route. The one thing that I've noticed (previously commuting exclusively through urban areas) is the amount of roadkill. Nothing I've not seen before on longer weekend rides in the country but today I saw a dead badger. 

Rigamortis had set in. It was lying on its back, legs up stiff as can be. I'd been reading something about China before I set off and as I approached it all I could see were the stripes across the snout and the legs and my first thought was....BLOODY HELL! A PANDA! I soon corrected my ridiculous fuzzy morning head and the fact that I'd thought of something so ridiculous kept me smiling all the way to work. And entertained the office too.


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## Ranger (13 Jun 2008)

Seen yesterday. Chap cycling over the Forth Road Bridge, on the main carrigeway

They had to stop all the traffic at the old toll booths, so I can't imagine he was very popular


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## HLaB (13 Jun 2008)

Ranger said:


> Seen yesterday. Chap cycling over the Forth Road Bridge, on the main carrigeway
> 
> They had to stop all the traffic at the old toll booths, so I can't imagine he was very popular


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## Riding in Circles (13 Jun 2008)

HLaB said:


>



Was that you?


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## byegad (13 Jun 2008)

FatFellaFromFelixstowe said:


> Last night about 6pm heard / spotted a chap playing the bagpipes in the middle of a field in the suffolk countryside.
> 
> Not the usual thing seen in these parts



It is well said that the bagpipes are best heard when played north of the border.

Suffolk sounds about right for hearing them though!!!!


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## the original metalhead (13 Jun 2008)

I moved out to the sticks over 18 months ago, and am lucky to have a predominantly nice route to work on country lanes. There is one particular cottage occupied by (I think) an single lady, probably in her 80s or thereabouts. I quite often see her out fairly early either hanging out washing or gardening.
We're getting closer to the strange bit......and it's the gardening that's the strange bit....... 
There are 2 very large beds (c. 30x30ft each) cut into an immaculate lawn. The beds themselves are also immaculate: Always totally weed free, and raked to perfection, flat as anything with lovely straight rake-lines. However, in over 18 months of going past this place there has never been a single thing growing in either of these beds. Nothing. Is it just me or is that quite strange?
Answers on a postcard please...........or even on this forum.


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## goo_mason (13 Jun 2008)

the original metalhead said:


> I moved out to the sticks over 18 months ago, and am lucky to have a predominantly nice route to work on country lanes. There is one particular cottage occupied by (I think) an single lady, probably in her 80s or thereabouts. I quite often see her out fairly early either hanging out washing or gardening.
> We're getting closer to the strange bit......and it's the gardening that's the strange bit.......
> There are 2 very large beds (c. 30x30ft each) cut into an immaculate lawn. The beds themselves are also immaculate: Always totally weed free, and raked to perfection, flat as anything with lovely straight rake-lines. However, in over 18 months of going past this place there has never been a single thing growing in either of these beds. Nothing. Is it just me or is that quite strange?
> Answers on a postcard please...........or even on this forum.



That's where she and her son Norman (who are actually one and the same person) are burying the passing cyclists that they bump off when no-one's looking....


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## PrettyboyTim (13 Jun 2008)

As I was cycling home tonight I saw a man about to cross a zebra crossing ahead so I slowed down to stop to let him pass.

As he crossed the road, he started loudly singing opera. I don't know which opera it was, but he had a beautiful voice!


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## Night Train (14 Jun 2008)

User1314 said:


> On the stretch between Claphan South and Clapham North. About 500 metres long.
> 
> I'm doing about 18 mph.
> 
> ...


I think I've seen the same bloke pedaling furiously up the hard shoulder of the M66 in Bury on my morning commute last week.
Most mornings recently I also get to see a fit looking woman at the bus stop dancing while wearing shades and earphones.


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## mr_cellophane (14 Jun 2008)

Night Train said:


> I think I've seen the same bloke pedaling furiously up the hard shoulder of the M66 in Bury on my morning commute last week.
> Most mornings recently I also get to see a fit looking woman at the bus stop dancing while wearing shades and earphones.



And you still prefer bike to catching the bus ?


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## Ludwig (14 Jun 2008)

I've seen various convoys living as I do in in a pretty part of Wales. ie Suberu Imprezas, Morris Minors, old Austin Sevens, souped up Land Rovers, old Ferarris and Porches etc. Their is something wonderfully eccentric and British about this need to travel in a convoy. Also see a few foxes, buzzards etc


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## liambauckham (28 Jun 2008)

glastonbury festival, thats what i saw today on my commute


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## Night Train (29 Jun 2008)

mr_cellophane said:


> And you still prefer bike to catching the bus ?


Sadly, I am driving, my commute is via 18 miles of motorway before I get to see her. She is also far too young for me, I'm probably nearly old enough to be her Dad.


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## Batzman (21 Jul 2008)

A double-decker bus stuck under a bridge in staines... I think the traffic is gonna be backed up there until tomorrow...


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## catwoman (21 Jul 2008)

A little while back I saw a big pink rubber model of (how to put it delicately) male genitalia.  :?: It was in the gutter by a bus stop with some people waiting there for their bus. It had gone the next morning.


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## palinurus (30 Apr 2010)

I was riding along a lane yesterday and I saw, dumped in a passing place, a wicker wastepaper basket with waste paper spilling out of it.

That's one committed flytipper.


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## jonny jeez (30 Apr 2010)

Whilst we are re-visiting this thread...I saw the "Mystery Machine" in Bromley last week...all painted up in scooby-doo artwork!, missed it on the head cam (along with 2 really bad bits of driving) as I forgot to switch it on .....!!!!


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## Molecule Man (30 Apr 2010)

jonny jeez said:


> Whilst we are re-visiting this thread...I saw the "Mystery Machine" in Bromley last week...all painted up in scooby-doo artwork!, missed it on the head cam (along with 2 really bad bits of driving) as I forgot to switch it on .....!!!!



I think I've seen that as well!
I expect my fellow South Londoners will have seen at least one of these vans, a regular sight on my various commuting routes:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moleculeman/430355952/

And another thing, the other day I witnessed a robbery!



A bike messenger blatantly stole some packets of sugar from one of the tables outside the Pancake Cafe on Museum Street.


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## adds21 (30 Apr 2010)

I saw a "Bike on a bike" (for want of a better description) the other day. I didn't get much of a chance to look as I went past, but it looked like one bike frame welded ontop of another frame. It was (obviously) pretty high, I have no idea what the rider does when they want to stop. Looked fun though.

[EDIT: A bit like this one, only a bit bigger]


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## ianrauk (30 Apr 2010)

Cheese..

I saw a block of cheese in the road by Bromley North station couple of days ago.


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## martint235 (30 Apr 2010)

Molecule Man said:


> I think I've seen that as well!
> I expect my fellow South Londoners will have seen at least one of these vans, a regular sight on my various commuting routes:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/moleculeman/430355952/



I know a guy who runs a small fleet (i'd say 7 or 8) of these in the Lewisham area.


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## Molecule Man (30 Apr 2010)

martint235 said:


> I know a guy who runs a small fleet (i'd say 7 or 8) of these in the Lewisham area.



Apparently there are at least 13 of these red ones, sneakily parked in various locations as a form of free advertising. I started trying to collect sightings of them a couple of years ago, but didn't get very far before getting bored of it.


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## Christopher (12 Jul 2011)

Yesterday morining, three separate little piles of feathers on the cyclepath. All looked like from pigeons and were both down and flight feathers but nothing else. Perhaps a raptor has moved into the neighbourhood...


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## SquareDaff (12 Jul 2011)

Ivan Ardon said:


> Not all that unusual, but noticable by their reoccurrance over the last week or so, there has been a massive increase in the number of fit girlies (both cycling and jogging/walking) I pass in my commute each day.
> 
> I'm all in favour of global warming if this is the effect of a bit of warmer weather.


I'd suspect it's the "last minte training for Race for Life" effect - altho the warm weather probably helped too!


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## Molecule Man (12 Jul 2011)

Nice to see this old thread back.

A couple of things I've seen along Southwark Street recently:

First, a woman cycling along with a life-size plaster head-and-torso strapped to her back.

Second, a couple of times now, what looks like a mobile bar powered by the drinkers pedalling along together.


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## biggs682 (12 Jul 2011)

i watched a lady walk off into the bushes last night with 2 blokes whilst a third bloke was shouting very rude lady of the night kind of comments at her , i just kept on riding


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## akb (13 Jul 2011)

My commute takes me through a set of wooded hills. 
Very surprise at seeing this at 5.30 in the afternoon! 
Parked at the side of the tow path, halfway on my descent was a blue fiesta, steamed up windows with a lot of nakedness, commotion and noise coming from the inside. I had a chuckle, gave them a ring of my bell and continued my descent!


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## abo (13 Jul 2011)

akb said:


> My commute takes me through a set of wooded hills.
> Very surprise at seeing this at 5.30 in the afternoon!
> Parked at the side of the tow path, halfway on my descent was a blue fiesta, steamed up windows with a lot of nakedness, commotion and noise coming from the inside. I had a chuckle, gave them a ring of my bell and continued my descent!



Not bike related, and about 20 years ago... Me and a couple of my mates would head down to the dinosaur park in Middlesbrough in my Escort, at night, lights off. There'd usually be a couple of parked cars near the bottom so we'd creep up, then switch the lights on: quad Cibie super oscars, triple airhorns blaring, side exhaust blarting.

Dickheads we were  still, beats getting so pissed you get carted to hospital as seems to be the sport these days


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## ACS (13 Jul 2011)

akb said:


> My commute takes me through a set of wooded hills.
> Very surprise at seeing this at 5.30 in the afternoon!
> Parked at the side of the tow path, halfway on my descent was a blue fiesta, steamed up windows with a lot of nakedness, commotion and noise coming from the inside. I had a chuckle, gave them a ring of my bell and continued my descent!



Similar to the above except the person in the passengers seat appeared to be bobbing for apples


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## Brains (13 Jul 2011)

abo said:


> Not bike related, and about 20 years ago... Me and a couple of my mates would head down to the dinosaur park in Middlesbrough in my Escort, at night, lights off. There'd usually be a couple of parked cars near the bottom so we'd creep up, then switch the lights on: quad Cibie super oscars, triple airhorns blaring, side exhaust blarting.
> 
> Dickheads we were  still, beats getting so pissed you get carted to hospital as seems to be the sport these days



As Venture Scouts we used to do the same in the public car park behind the Scout Hut, it was apparently a well known 'dogging' place (years before we had ever heard of dogging)
It was always hilarious until the night a vast man leapt out of the back of a van an lamped the first Scout he could see who happened to be a 6'3" 20 year old prop forward. He went down like a tree. 
We didn't do it after that, but a while later one of the red tops then ran a large article about dogging where most of the story had come from that car park


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## abo (14 Jul 2011)

Brains said:


> As Venture Scouts we used to do the same in the public car park behind the Scout Hut, it was apparently a well known 'dogging' place (years before we had ever heard of dogging)
> It was always hilarious until the night a vast man leapt out of the back of a van an lamped the first Scout he could see who happened to be a 6'3" 20 year old prop forward. He went down like a tree.
> We didn't do it after that, but a while later one of the red tops then ran a large article about dogging where most of the story had come from that car park



Lol yeah it's always fun till someone gets hurt  we did it one time and got chased, properly chased by some guy in an Escort Mexico, he was going through red lights after us so we knew he was pretty serious. Luckily I managed to get onto the A66 and started to pull away from him, I had nearly a full tank and remember thinking 'I'm going to the fkin Lake District to get away' but he gave up when he realised my car was a bit faster and the dual carriageway was nearly empty.

Like you, we calmed it down after that one...


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## Molecule Man (14 Jul 2011)

This evening, on the way home, a narrow cul-de-sac with several houses at the end was almost completely blocked by a large (~1 metre high, ~5 metre across) pile of earth.


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## Twizit (14 Jul 2011)

The guy on the full downhill spec mountain bike I've seen the last two days near Oxford Street.

I know the potholes around London are bad, but I did think this was taking things a little far


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## 2Loose (14 Jul 2011)

Two women swimming down the River Trent at 7.15am. Certainly not a usual sight, but apprently they are training for a cross channel swim.


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## headcoat (14 Jul 2011)

A dinosaur on the back of a flat bed truck, suffice to say it wasn't real, but was life size


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## Molecule Man (14 Jul 2011)

headcoat said:


> A dinosaur on the back of a flat bed truck, suffice to say it wasn't real, but was life size



Like this one?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075016/


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## Molecule Man (14 Jul 2011)

I saw a briliantly customised bike a few days ago on my way home, just an ordinary mountainbike, but completely repainted in yellow, green and black, with several little Jamaican flags attached, and the owner was wearing a yellow and green tracksuit too.


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## beanzontoast (14 Jul 2011)

A first for me anyway - as I was biking through Derby the other afternoon I and a good few dozen peds saw a very slow moving van collide neatly with a traffic light while trying to maneuver off the road and onto the pedestrianised area. It so nearly made it too.

The poor traffic light kind of screwed round about 90 degrees until it was facing sideways.


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## BrumJim (14 Jul 2011)

[QUOTE 245003"]
...two Japanese businessmen, in suits, playing ping pong in Centenary Square at 7am.
[/quote]

BrumAlison says that there is a table tennis table outside the QE.

New sport? Extreme Urban ping-pong?


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## jefmcg (14 Jul 2011)

Ping pong tables were all over paris last summer. 

Glad to see they are moving to London.

The upright pianos are back again: it's wonderful to see people just playing for the joy of it


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## TheDoctor (14 Jul 2011)

I've seen a unicyclist on my way to work a few times.
Mind you, he works where I do, so that's perhaps not all that surprising.
What was surprising was that he carries an ice hockey stick.
There isn't an ice rink for *miles*.


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## abo (15 Jul 2011)

TheDoctor said:


> I've seen a unicyclist on my way to work a few times.
> Mind you, he works where I do, so that's perhaps not all that surprising.
> What was surprising was that he carries an ice hockey stick.
> There isn't an ice rink for *miles*.



I used to see one when I got the train back from work, from Newcastle->Thornaby on a Friday evening. He used to get on at Sunderland, and off at Hartlepool IIRC, he'd just get off the train, hop on the thing and cycle away.

Certainly didn't take up much train space


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