This morning, on my journey into work I saw something – or someone – that I was least expecting to see. From the upstairs window of the bus, I could see a pirate cycling up Headington Hill.
Now, some might think that I was seeing things again. There was the infamous ‘badger on a bicycle’ incident from years ago (rumoured to actually be one of those lie-down tricycles that was coming off the A34 of all places at the North Abingdon slip-road). There was also the jousting knight on a moped that I saw on a country road in Oxfordshire, and most recently of course, earlier this year the medieval blacksmith on the bus. In fairness, although I don’t know whether he was a blacksmith, he was unshaven, wild-haired, and wearing a medieval-like tunic who had made some of his own attire (because I heard him tell this to the 21st century girl he was sat next to).
However, if you see a man – albeit wearing high-vis jacket and riding a bike – flying the Jolly Roger from his “vessel” then the man is clearly a pirate. It seems immaterial to me that his vessel might be the more unconventional bicycle.