Livre d'Or

Many thanks for this! I think it's pretty unanimous that I need Audacity; I feel like a bit of a dinosaur that I've never recorded my voice, so it's really helpful to get suggestions. And ok, I'll see if I can dig out my old USB mic, and if not I'll buy a new one, I don't want to make this recording into a huge enterprise but I don't want to come out with something completely rubbish in quality.

Thank you for good suggestions about bikes. I do wear skirts most of the time so I think step-through is the way forward. And yes, I need a rack to attach panniers, that's a really good point. I hadn't thought of getting a loop as well as a D-lock, so that's really good advice. People steal bikes all the time in the English Cambridge too, and part of me thinks that I just have to accept my bike will have a lifetime. But also some of my friends have said that they've gone years without a bike getting stolen if they use a D-lock, so that seems a good investment.

I'm sorry you had such a horrible accident, and glad that you were protected by your helmet. The evidence is really clear that in accidents where riders hit their heads, helmets have an important protective effect. However given that riders without helmets have fewer accidents, it's not a straightforward calculation, and I'm reasonably convinced that without helmet is better. I'm also not cycling in US cities which have considerably worse car-centric infrastructure than British ones, and that changes the balance of risk too.