For the second time in just over a fortnight, I have been on the wrong end of some petty criminality. Today the front wheel of my bike was stolen from just outside the offices where I work close to Victoria railway station in London. Someone whipped off the old wheel and had the cheek to put an old, wonky, twisted one in its place! Plus at £50 to get it fixed, the new wheel cost 1/3 of the price that the bike had itself cost when I bought it a year or so ago at Decathlon.

This follows on from the Chevrolet Kalos break-in a couple of weeks ago while on holiday in France. We had hired the Chevrolet in Spain, and had parked it at the Oppidum d’Ensérune and climed up to the top of the Oppidum for a picnic. Turns out that the car has absolutely lousy security (as well as being generally lousy!); the ease with which the lock was screwdrivered is remarkable – see the picture. That time only some suntan creme was taken from the car, but plenty more time was spent reporting the theft to the Gendarmerie at Capestang. As the friendly gendarme said with a shrug ca, c’est la qualité d’un chevrolet…