Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hewas,ashehadsaid,arelativeofRichardandDavidAttenborough,andhadbeenone
of Bath's best-loved buskers. His funeral took place at Bath Abbey and was attended by
over 1000 people.
Ben reminded me that I had promised him that we could call into the police station to
see if they had any bikes. Despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise, we made our
way towards the main police station in the town centre.
'Hello,' said Ben to the clerk behind the glass in the reception area, 'Do you happen to
have any lost or stolen bikes that you are trying to get rid of?'
I lurked in the background, cringing at Ben's audacity.
'Yes, we do have bikes, but any that are unclaimed are shipped off to Africa. If you can
hold on a minute I will get the Lost-Property Officer to come and speak to you.'
I stood there open-mouthed. Not just because I had been proven wrong, but because
there was such thing as a Lost-Property Officer. It was a job that had all the glamour of
being a policeman, but without the hassle and danger of real criminals; just a collection of
other people's possessions to keep an eye on. If I was a policeman, I would want to be a
Lost Property Officer. I'm not sure there is much scope for promotion, though. Lost Prop-
erty Inspector? Lost Property Commander? Chief of Lost Property?
TheLostPropertyOfficer'snamewasKevin.Hewasalovely,smilingman,whowould
not have looked out of place in a cartoon. He explained that, yes, they did have bikes, but
that they were all shipped off by a charity to Africa if they were unclaimed.
'Unfortunately we can't just give bikes away to the general public as the charity will
lose out,' he added.
'Of course, we completely understand,' said Ben, and I turned to leave assuming that
Ben would follow. He had other ideas however.
'But what about if we were to give you our bikes instead, and that way the people in
Africa would still get their bikes, and everyone would be happy.'
Kevin looked confused.
'If you already have bikes, then why do you want different bikes?' he asked.
'Good question,' I said.
'We're cycling to John O'Groats and we only have a pink girl's mountain bike and a
child's racer. We were hoping to upgrade them to something more substantial.'
'Well,Isupposethatcouldwork.Ican'tseeitbeingaproblem.Haveyougotyourbikes
here? Wheel them in and we'll go and see what we can find.'
We had been impressed by the expanse of Roger Badcock's bicycle grotto, but this was
onacompletely differentscale.Roger'sbarnhadbeenfilledmostlywithbicycleparts,and
those bicycles that were intact were fairly basic looking; as both Pinky and The Falcon
were testaments to.
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