Bikes are fun, but they can also cause a great deal of pain, and no need for a crash to experience it.

Three flat tyres this weekend.

First was at the bottom of a hill as a cycled down the road to a supermarket on Saturday morning. This was a really loud BANG! and my front wheel went soft. So I wheeled the bike back home (luckily only about ten minutes) and fixed it with a new inner tube I had spare. Painful as usual getting the tyre back on the wheel.

Folded the bike and put in my hallway. An hour later ... BANG! again. This is with the bike unused, folded.

So, strange - off to the bike shop round the corner (two minutes) and bought a couple of new Schwalbe inner tubes and a new Schwalbe London Marathon tyre. I managed to (just) get the tube and tyre on and pumped it up. Tested in the afternoon and all seemed well. Folded overnight.

Sunday morning, as I got the bike to go out and felt the front tyre, it was flat. I'm about ready to bash my head on the wall now ...

Got the tyre off and checking the tube. Tube seems fine - just flat. Checked with a bowl of water and see no air escaping. Checked again. Tyre seems fine, nothing stuck in it, no tears. So, decide to put the tube and tyre back on the wheel - and had a nightmare getting it in place. Skinned my palm in the process but finally managed it after almost giving up. Once on, I took the wheel round to the bike shop again and let them do a sanity check on it themselves (i.e. leak test, inspection etc.). An hour later I returned and they reported it all looked fine. Not sure what to make of it.

So, we'll see. how things go. I used the bike this afternoon again and it's been okay. At least I got this trouble at the weekend as I hate getting punctures on the way to or from work during the week.

It's been an eventful weekend in other ways as well. Saturday evening dinner preparation involved chopping up some red bird's eye chillies. I've had some bad experience with chilli's in the past so am usually careful about washing my hands afterwards. I did wash my hands but obviously not enough because after rubbing an eye, then (somehow) the other eye, I ended up on my couch unable to open either for about fifteeen minutes as my eyes were closed and burning ...