Lunchtime spins

I couldn't resist nipping into town at Thursday lunchtime. I wanted to see the daytime view from the top of this:

The previous evening the ride had been full, but this time it was just me. As a result my weight unbalanced the freely rotating chair, so that while riders were loaded onto the far end I was eight storeys up, facing downwards. This is substantially more unnerving than the balanced, upright position! I was held in by a heavy shoulder harness, which supported my weight entirely, and would have preferred at least a belt as backup. I spent about a minute up there, thoughts alternating between "if the harness gives way I don't think I'd be able to hold onto it" and "I wonder if I can get to my cameraphone." I decided against the latter on the basis that any unintended movements might result in splatty death.

A few people on the ground spotted me and pointed, so I waved. One woman was terribly embarrassed by this I figured it was a funny thing to do, so waved to anybody obviously watching. A guy gave me a very strange look and kept staring, and I was glad he'd have walked away by the time I was back on the ground. Of course the ride promptly stopped, so we were just two people in a rather weird situation. Ho hum.

Better than your average lunchtime, though