They say that time appears to accelerate as we get older due to routine: same old same old, day in day out, with little to differentiate each day. So now and then we all need a short, sharp shock -- boo! -- to wake us up.

Breaks run cold and breaks run hot
Some folks got 'em and some have not
But these are the breaks
— Kurtis Blow, The Breaks

Mechanically inept as I am, I dropped the bike into the friendly repair shop this morning (I'd link to his website but it's ghastly and I've stopped pointing this out to him) and asked him to make the brakes better: give me new pads, blocks, discs, chunks of rubber, I said, mano a mano. He nodded.

Picked it up after work, handing over the last of my ready money, and set off past the bowling alley in a light drizzle. Up and over the pedestrian bridge, the ground distinctly shiny under my wheels. Whizzing down the other side, applied my brakes at the usual time at the usual place and very nearly flew off my saddle. It's 5:30pm and suddenly I'm wide awake.