After I had reached the 21 days stage I decided to take a wangle cab from a local garage in Bethnal Green. I popped in to see the owner and even though he put his arm over my shoulder and told me he would ‘look after me’ I suspected he was picking my pocket with the other hand. My initial thoughts proved to be correct he was no benevolent uncle, my new wangle cab was ancient, I’m sure it only missed out on the dalek like roof indicators by a couple of weeks. The doors didn’t shut properly and one morning the nearside door opened as I made my way up Queensbridge Road, I realised because the temperature suddenly dropped, I had to look over my shoulder because the nearside mirror kept spinning around. I got out and grumpily slammed it shut so hard it refused to open again.
I decided to park it up and use the moped to mop up a few points in Bethnal Green. It was a lovely sunny day as I weaved along the backstreets without a care in the world, I think I was whistling a song as I rounded a bend near Barnet Grove.
Our eyes met, the biggest Rottweiler I had ever seen had just noticed me, it must have been eight stone and looked affronted that I had dared to try to approach it on my moped, although my lips were in whistle mode the tune had dried up and I let out an expletive beginning with S. The dog, that had been sitting on a doorstep lifted its head and fixed me with his gaze, I slowed down and tried to act cool just as it stood up and gave me that ‘I’m going to eat you alive’ look. I tried a smooth U turn but the front wheel wobbled, I tried to correct it and just about stayed up. I looked over my shoulder as the dog began trotting towards me, I accelerated and gave the little moped full throttle but nothing happened it just chugged along at about walking pace. He was gaining on me I didn’t feel ready to die in a Bethnal Green back street, I hadn’t even finished the knowledge yet. The bike was in third gear and I had a dilemma, should I take time to change gear or should I hope the bike suddenly takes off ?
I could almost smell it’s nasty, slobbery, dog food breath as it closed the gap, my mind raced.. I thought about calling for help but this was Bethnal Green in the eighties, a crowd would have gathered and they would have placed bets on how quickly the hulking brute could devour me. Just as I gave up all hope and was about about to scream my little moped leapt into life and took off, I was so relieved I could have hugged a cyclist, I looked back and tried to give the dog a little grin but my lips were too dry to move…………. I had been seen off by a dog…