Wind like the farts of God

Holy mackeral, it was windy yesterday. Riding through town is always a bit hairy on windy days because of the unpredictability of the gusts. You'll be riding head on into a howler one moment, then blasted sideways by a firehose of air when you pass a side street. At the next side street, the gust will come the other way. You spend the entire trip wobbling from side to side like a drunk staggering between bars.

I met this bloke struggling up the ramp onto the ANZAC Bridge. Typical of these bikes with fat tyres, he was making a meal of going up this ascent. Sure, it's fairly steep, and the wind was howling, but I didn't see the need to stand up and grind it out in low gear. What frustrated the hell out of me is that he could not keep a consistent line, so I was unable to pass him until we made it onto the bridge proper.

Once I got past him, he tucked in tight behind me and used me as a wind shield (which was smart).... until he ran out of puff and dropped off my tail. Bugger me with a fire hydrant - that wind was strong. I got home, ate and flaked out on the couch. I was in bed at 2230 - an early hour for me.

I was not the only one suffering from the howling gale - I heard a crashing sound, and noticed a small stack of sheets of that clear corrugated plastic that is used for pergola roofing was lying on the road - a truck had lost part of its load. The car in this photo had collected one of these sheets - it had wrapped itself around the front of the car, and wasn't letting go. The driver was sensible enough to not want to stop on the bridge, but that meant crawling across until it was safe to pull over and remove the sheet. Traffic was starting to bank up as I watched.

I caught up with this lady at a set of lights further down the road. She was huffing and puffing (like me) and exclaimed a short comment about "this wind" before running out of breath. I was unable to respond - I was totally blown by then.

Can you spot our correspondent in this photo?