I went to Stratford yesterday, mostly just to look around, but also to get my own copy of The Hobbit. It all went quite smoothly, and I decided to walk back from North Greenwich rather than take the bus. On the way, coming past some houses around a square, something suddenly whizzed by me. It looked like a mobility scooter, the lightweight type I usually disdain, but it was making a noise like a motorbike. Intrigued, I followed it round a corner, and found the lads who were piloting it. Someone had obviously taken a bog standard mobility scooter and attached something like a lawnmower engine onto it. I asked how fast it could go, and the lads said about ten miles an hour – probably about right, given the rate at which it zoomed past me. I was impressed, and part of me longed to ask to have a go, but I thought I better not. It looked like a very nice piece of engineering by whoever had made it. I usually hate scooters, but I’d be prepared to make an exception or that one.