I have taken a new position in the BBC. It’s a great job working with some brilliant people on some very cool stuff. I’m not really supposed to talk about what we’re working on, but if the BBC ever builds a gadget that you can carry in your pocket and, with one drop of a newt’s cerebral fluid, turn it into a fully functioning inter-stellar space-ship, well, I’ll be proud to take the credit for that baby.
The one small wrinkle is that the job is based in Manchester and I live on the edges of London. Some have suggested this is too far to commute by bicycle. I say this is nonsense! If Boris Johnson can commute every day to the Mayor’s building from where he lives in Cloud Cuckoo-land, I can surely cycle from Watford Junction to Salford. So to prove everyone wrong, I’m going to give it a go.
This won’t be easy. It will be an accomplishment akin to a quadriplegic ferret climbing Mount Everest without oxygen. It would be utter madness not to leverage this effort and create some goodness out of it, so I’ve joined up with a bunch of like-minded souls to turn the first exploratory commute into a charity ride. I am asking you, my dear dear friends, to stump up some cash to demonstrate your support for this grand adventure and, indeed, the very concept of commuting by bicycle. If you fail to do so, you demonstrate to all mankind that you are an Earth-hating petrol-head who is doomed to suffer eternity in the fiery hell of Jeremy Clarkson’s personal library.
As a bonus, the funds you donate will go to the BBC’s charity Children in Need which helps disadvantaged children across the United Kingdom. Surely, that’s a better use of your money than that second gold-plated bidet you’re thinking about getting for your motor home.
Pleas go to http://www.justgiving.com/PedalForPudsey2011 and donate now. Your soul will thank you for it.
