Magpies & beetles

It was -2 first thing this morning and my feet are perched on a hot water bottle as I type.

So I was playing Scrabble last night with a young lady (we hooked up via the wonderful experience that is Couchsurfing) and she told me about her time living in Melbourne. She gave me lots of tips, such as which mobile phone company to go with (Telstra) and how some cyclists have big eyes painted on their helmets to keep magpies at bay. This sounds like a joke, but I've just googled 'Magpie attack' and seen a whole host of injuries, including a girl who lost her sight. There were other images of cyclists with spikes coming out of their helmets and one with a fake bird atop his. A pet eagle would be a good solution. Josephine, my Scrabble partner said they didn't look like our neatly coloured magpies, but as if they had been haphazardly splattered with paint.

Yesterday I bought insurance and I hope I am covered for avian mishaps. This reminds me I need to look into bird flu, which according to my Dad is a danger down under. I phoned up Direct Insurance and they said it ws 38% extra for cycle tourism. I phoned again and someone else said it was an extra 50%. It's cynical cyclism is what it is.

Talking of creatures, I hope not to be hit by a kangaroo bounding across the road either (Josepine said the only roos she saw were roadkill) but don't mind insects alighting on me, as long as they don't bite of course. I like insects very much, especially beetles and will be stopping every time I see a new one. Here in a Glasgow winter there is very little coleoptera beetling about. The only ones I get to see are the size of a pin head and seem to like my toilet paper.