Learning at Work Day is a well-intentioned initiative probably not peculiar to the civil service. I'm sure the private sector have extra-curricular activities, too.
I am aware of such things because, for reasons unknown to me, I receive e-mails from some 'consultancy/business advisers/gurus' from time to time and the latest invited me- at heaven knows what cost - to attend a day at which the keynote speaker was Nick Leeson.
I thought, look, mate, I can go to Ascot and blow a fortune as competently as anybody should I put my mind to it. I'd be surprised if he was charging anything towards the bottom end of five figures for his thoughts so I'm in the clear, adding to the cultural richness of the nation by holding half a dozen (it was five, actually) interested attendees spellbound with my captivating exegesis on What is Poetry, followed by poems by Edward Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Larkin, Wislawa Symborska and W. H. Auden.
An hour simply flies by.
However, while the perceived success of that session was entirely forseeable, I wasn't expecting to return to cycle sport after the hiatus of 22 years that had long been assumed a permanent state of affairs. It must be 8 years since I lsast sat on a bike.
There was a turbo trainer set up by a gym, inviting all-comers to have a go at The Minute. I had nothing to lose and only the possibility of inducing a heart attack to gain.
586 metres in the minute, something like 21 mph, most of which, it had to be said, was achieved in the first 40 seconds, seemed to put me in third place out of maybe a dozen competitors. Somebody had done just over 1000 which was strange because I didn't see Bradley Wiggins there.
You put it all in, wonder if it's nearly over yet and see you've only done 25 seconds. D'oh.
Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of either the poetry session or the cycling but it happened alright.
The Legend.