A brilliant evening all round: thrash up on the bike, play in the traffic around the Blackwall Tunnel, a SUPERB talk from Austin, and home again on deserted motorways... And all a matter of yards from where I used to work when I wore a (very much cheaper) suit.
It was a touch chilly on the way home, but out of respect and admiration for those intrepid trans-Siberian adventurers, I only put my heated grips and seats on level one. Push the boundaries...
The only other minor negative point on the evening was the discovery when I got home of a nasty cross-threading incident on a half-drunk bottle of Oasis (Citrus Punch, noen of that Summer Fruits shit) in my top-box. See, you don't have to travel across thousands of miles of wilderness to experience biking-related heartache.
I didn't really know much about Austin Vince, and also didn't know quite what to expect from his talk. But I haven't laughed so much in a long, long time. An extremely entertaing chap. (And he is very definitely a chap, as well.)
Thanks for arranging this, Charlie.