kerblammo!

I was planning on making this - a humorous, silly but also somewhat serious and pertinent little sign - for a wee while, just for fun, but then something happened a few weeks ago that sped up the process.  I was having a ride up on the South Downs to pick blackberries, close to Devil's Dyke, and left my bike, complete with lights, water bottle and pannier, next to a path.  As is the way of such things, I went further and further away from it as I delved further and further into the bushes, but always peered back to check on it.  At one point I emerged from deep within a bramble to see across the field a fellow cyclist standing next to it, and assumed he was just checking it out to see what was going on; we stood looking at each other for a short while, I still in my helmet, sharing what I assumed was an understanding.  However, when I returned to my trusty steed I found all my stuff scattered about it, my pencil case and smaller sketchbook bag opened and rifled-through and my water bottle and a light taken off the bike frame.  The other light had been swiped.  The bastard!  And a fellow cyclist!  I was seething - a light's easy to replace but I was so annoyed that some people see fit to do that kind of thing, and out on the downs in the middle of the countryside!  Still, just goes to show that there are indeed cunts out there (and not just the robbing kind), even atop the Downs, and it's wise to be careful.  However I am still firmly of the opinion that such care and caution should be subject to restraint, and that it's very important to be largely trusting of people and to stay relaxed: a world of suspicion and paranoia is not a world I want to live in.  Anyway, it felt good to make this (I'm a big fan of swearing as well as catharsis) and I will no doubt do more with it in the near future, perhaps a sticker or a bookmark (book thieves are the worst, after all).  My haul of blackberries was also underwhelming, but I made some reasonable jam from it and gathering them is always such a great pleasure, no matter what happens.