{"id":271,"date":"2006-12-17T14:51:48","date_gmt":"2006-12-17T13:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/?p=271"},"modified":"2006-12-17T14:51:48","modified_gmt":"2006-12-17T13:51:48","slug":"an-ode-to-slow-post-office-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/?p=271","title":{"rendered":"An ode to Slow Post Office Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A story on BBC News entitled <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/magazine\/6176235.stm\">Intimate Strangers<\/a> discusses the rather unusual encounters we have with people we see routinely, every day, but never talk to.<\/p>\n<p>When cycling to work, I tend to see the same collection of people: particularly other cyclists.  As the article indicates, one often comes up with special names for these people.  I do this myself and strongly suspected that I wasn&#8217;t the only one who did!  The other cyclists on my route are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Slow Post Office Man<\/strong>: for the last ten years or more I&#8217;ve seen him.  His name arises from the fact that when I first saw him he wore a Royal Mail fluorescent jacket.  He also cycles at the most incredibly slow pace: he must have terrific balance to avoid falling off at that speed.  Because of our speed differential, I&#8217;ve never spoken to him, apart from once: I&#8217;d had an accident (my chain jammed) and was by the side of the road.  He asked cheerfully &#8220;Anything broken, Squire?&#8221; and then went on his way after I assured him that I had only a few cuts and bruises.  Slow Post Office Man may not be the fastest cyclist around, but he is hardy: continuing even in the harshest weather conditions<\/li>\n<li><strong>Girl Who Talks About My Shorts<\/strong>: Someone about the same age as me, another regular commuter: for a few years, we talked occasionally, the topic of conversation being my legs or my shorts.  Usually, this was because she couldn&#8217;t believe that I was still wearing shorts even though the weather was cold and windy.  Heading home one evening, after &#8216;knowing&#8217; each other for many years, we actually had a longer conversation: she is really called Louise and told me where she works.  Our commuting hours have been out-of-sync recently, so it&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve seen her.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Striped Legs<\/strong>: Another regular commuter and another who doesn&#8217;t let the odd shower of rain put her off.  So-called because she is always seen wearing brightly coloured, striped leggings while cycling.  Also seems to have a unflinching smile at all times.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Slightly Mad Woman Who Talks To Herself<\/strong>: Hasn&#8217;t been seen for a while, but used to see her most days.  A middle-aged lady on an old-fashioned bicycle who used to talk to herself extremely loudly.  Not a fast cyclist, so the first time I overtook her and suddenly heard her shouting at &#8220;me&#8221;, I nearly fell off; of course, she was just wittering away to herself.  I was more prepared for this though, during all future overtaking manoeuvres.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of the above people\/names have been in my mind for many years and I can&#8217;t help wondering whether any of <em>them<\/em> have names for <em>me<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A story on BBC News entitled Intimate Strangers discusses the rather unusual encounters we have with people we see routinely, every day, but never talk to. When cycling to work, I tend to see the same collection of people: particularly other cyclists. As the article indicates, one often comes up with special names for these&#8230;&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/?p=271\">read more<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}