For the second time in my life, I popped a tyre at speed on the M25. In retrospect I think I heard it go; there was a spang kind of noise - as of a stone hitting the inside of the wheel arch, which is what I though it was at the time. But then things became progressively more wobbly and I switched the radio off and things didn't sound good at all. Fortunately, I was near the turn-off to the A127, so I trundled down there and parked just prior to the roundabout. Not the best place to change a wheel really, but I was rather out of options. It's possible I was in more danger of some drunken idiot ploughing into me down the slip road than when I was barrelling along at 80 with a rapidly deflating rear tyre.

After I got the spare tyre on - which is one of those mini-spares they always seem to supply - I slowly finished the journey. Today I splashed some cash on an entire new set of tyres. Before I took the old one in, I took a snap of the damage.