Miscellany

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The bike share businesses currently being operated in Sydney (and other Oz locations) have drawn flak for various reasons: 

· no docking facilities 

· unsightliness 

· bikes being thrown into waterways, placed up trees etc 

· lack of helmets as a result of theft. 

Spare a thought, then, for the citizens and authorities of China, who are also experiencing problems after bike sharing began in 2017. Dozens of bike-share companies flooded city streets with millions of brightly coloured rental bicycles, with the same problems as those described above but on a much larger scale. Bicycles, many damaged, were left in inappropriate locations, blocking already-crowded streets and pathways. Not only is there a problem with impounded bikes, the authorities also have had to deal with the supplies of operators who have left the scene or gone broke. 

Bike sharing remains very popular in China, and will likely continue to grow, as no doubt will the graveyards of collected and impounded bikes: 

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From Tas S: 

The lady who invented fairy bread died last week. At her funeral yesterday hundreds an thousands turned up. 

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On my way into the city this morning and stopped in traffic on Enmore Road near the Enmore Theatre, I looked at the signage on the shopfront next to me and saw an under awing sign that read simply “The Stinking Bishops”. There was nothing to indicate what the establishment housed or what the sign meant. 

Having now looked it up, I can comment as follows: 

• Stinking Bishop is a washed-rind cheese produced since 1972 by Charles Martell and Son at Hunts Court Farm, Dymock, Gloucestershire, in the south west of England. It is made from the milk of Gloucester cattle. 

 

• The distinctive odour of the cheese comes from the process with which the cheese is washed during its ripening; it is immersed in perry (an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears), made from the local Stinking Bishop pear from which the cheese gets its name. 

• The establishment in Newtown is a restaurant and cheese bar, apparently with a wall of cheese. 

Mystery solved. 

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