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It’s a weird day in Aberdeen today. (Nothing new there then some of you might say!) One minute it’s brilliant sunshine, then next it’s bucketin’ doon. Last night the rain was so bad that Paul and I stayed behind at work after the show as it was too wet to go out…. Wouldn’t want you to think we were pampered media types or anything!

In my defence, I have started cycling to work, so the weather makes a huge difference to quality of life.

When I was in Paris, I was hugely impressed by the new bike hire initiative that’s been enthusiastically embraced by Parisians. The cycle system was launched earlier this year and aims to have 20,000 people on their bikes by the end of the year.

Its brilliantly simple. You purchase a card, take a bike out of one the Velib stations, ride around the city doing your business then return it to another station at your destination. The first 30 minutes are free, and after that there’s a charge of one Euro for your next thirty minutes.

The bikes are everywhere and at times it felt like the whole city had gone cycling mad. The fact that so many commuters are using them has led to a bit of shift in attitude, particularly in the way drivers treat cyclists.

That’s something we could do with here. Maybe the two wee neds who stepped out in front of my bike on Union Street yesterday and threw their fast food carton at me could do with a visit to Paris.

If there are 20,000 cyclists on the streets, you’d need to be a pretty brave soul to chuck le Big Mac carton at one of them…