Tuesday 20 December 2011

Collective noun for policemen on bikes

Jim and I had an interesting discussion with 3 policemen on bicycles today.  I saw them cycling slowly through Perth town centre, and idly wondered what the collective noun for policemen on bikes would be.  They were not busy, so I went up and asked them.  They suggested a flock, but when I suggested a "pedal of bike police" they thought this was quite appropriate.  I was pleasantly surprised they knew what a collective noun was!  We had an enlightening discussion about their bikes (Jim's specialist subject) and were surprised to learn that each PC does not have his own bike.  They just take one from the pool.  The bikes took heavy wear, and wore out - when arresting people, the bikes tend to be thrown on the ground in the activity of the moment, and generally get quite well thrown about.  The bikes were certainly well scratched, although when Jim looked at the rear derailleurs, they had very little wear compared to Jim's bike.  The policemen said they only did about 15k per day, whereas Jim has crossed the USA twice on his bike.  The bikes get changed about every 9 years, and the police were anxiously waiting for new ones.  New bikes had been promised back in July, then delayed until Christmas, and now they were waiting until the New Year.  The police said we had given them the most interesting question that morning, and the "pedal of bike police" went on their way.

I've spent a happy day or so, developing my pomegranate theme in my sketchbook.  I can thoroughly recommend the Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Diary.  The pages have a lovely heavy weight, with a nice texture.  I've used water on the inktense pencils, and the pages don't cockle.  I was thinking about layering pattern and had a very contented day playing with the art materials and concepts from my previous sketchbook.






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