Not many people, I suppose, would go to the trouble of coating their bicycle handlebars with anti-climbing paint. Yet that's what I did this morning, albeit not willingly, or particularly deliberately.

As usual, I pushed my bike aboard the 0808 train to Nottingham at Spondon railway station this morning. Unfortunately a few moments after I did so, my sunglasses slipped from my head and dived into the narrow gap between the open train doors and the platform. I stared down at them for a moment, briefly contemplating the probability that they would still be there on my return visit to Spondon station this evening. It didn't seem very high.

So, not really wanting to part with my oldest pair of Ray Bans^TM, a cynical gift offered as an enticement to purchase computer equipment from a particular supplier during my early days as a system administrator at Rolls-Royce fifteen years ago, I hurriedly left the train with my bike so that I could retrieve them.

Once the train had left, I determined that it was safe to descend onto the track. The level crossing 50 metres further up the track was allowing traffic across, and there's no live rail. I jumped down, and picked up my sunglasses. By the way - jamesgibbon.com doesn't condone or recommend this sort of thing, which is illegal, and potentially highly dangerous.

The platform is slightly lower than waist height. Or at least it is when you're standing down on the track; normally it's slightly lower than shoe-sole height. I pushed down firmly on the edge of the platform to propel myself upward to safety, and that's when I found out that those attractive white lines which decorate its edge are composed of anti-climbing paint, some of which now adorned the palms of my hands.

The next train due to condescend to pick up passengers at Spondon wouldn't arrive for another hour and ten minutes, so I set off to cycle to Derby railway station, about three miles away.

And that's why my handlebars are presently equipped to deter unwanted climbers.

I have to say that anti-climbing paint seems a perverse choice for a railway platform. I can well understand a need to deter people from jumping down onto the tracks, but it doesn't do that. It only deters people from climbing back onto the platform again. Not really what you want.