Meanwhile...
Re: Meanwhile...
You know when the TV and radio have spent the day saying don't travel in the South East?.... That.
Time to break out the Kendal Mint Cake
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Re: Meanwhile...
Spent today meandering through Tel Aviv to Jaffa using the local Boris Bike scheme (called Tel-o-fun). Seven different hops each timed to be less than 30 mins, the cutoff for free trips (though we overran one through getting stuck on the wrong side of a freeway). Incredibly liberating as a mode of transport, but, boy, surprisingly knackering. Those bikes are slow and heavy.
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Re: Meanwhile...
Goodness, your own bike isn't exactly light.JohnToo wrote: ↑5 years agoSpent today meandering through Tel Aviv to Jaffa using the local Boris Bike scheme (called Tel-o-fun). Seven different hops each timed to be less than 30 mins, the cutoff for free trips (though we overran one through getting stuck on the wrong side of a freeway). Incredibly liberating as a mode of transport, but, boy, surprisingly knackering. Those bikes are slow and heavy.
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Re: Meanwhile...
Yeah. Those bikes are indeed heavy but “heavy” in the literal sense isn’t the problem. The problem is, I think, inefficiency. I would guess the tyres eat energy and the gears are inefficient. Plus, analysing today over a glass of wine this evening, we decided that riding position is crucial. Boris bikes at least have graduated seat posts which these bikes don’t, but the faff factor inhibits getting the height exactly right, and you can’t adjust saddle angle or handlebars. It’s made us resolve, for proper tours, to stick to locations where we can take our own bikes.
But the liberation of cycling a bit, docking the bike, then forgetting all about it, is worth some discomfort.
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Re: Meanwhile...
Did you move, or are you trapped in a existential nightmare, forever trapped 5 miles outside Basingstoke?
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Bit late notice, but at 9 tonight on BBC2 they are showing 'They Shall Not Grow Old', Peter Jackson's WWI documentary consisting of colourised original footage. I must admit that when I first heard about it I thought it sounded like an awful and pointless idea, but having seen it I changed my view completely. It not only brings more life somehow to the familiar black and white images we've got immune to, it also brings some understanding of how and why so many young men were so happy to involve themselves in such a terrible disaster. And while parts of it are grim, even gruesome, other parts are funny - just like the real experience would have been.
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Re: Meanwhile...
The guest this week on Desert Island Discs (I know, how sad am I?) was Bob Mortimer. I always thought he was a gem, and my opinion hasn't changed. Sometimes the programme is really fascinating, and this was one of those times for me.
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Stopped in Richmond Park after sunset and moved my light so it actually illuminated the road surface, rather than the foreheads of approaching drivers/cyclists. Watched the International Space Station go by, before heading towards Kingston.
Strangely pleasant way to start a cold winter evening.
Strangely pleasant way to start a cold winter evening.
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Five and a half hours to do three and a half miles. We ended up abandoning the trip to Salisbury and heading home. We got back at 2.30 am, having set off 10 hours before.
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I trust that, having been put off once by the snow in Salisbury, you went back the next day to visit its 130 metre spire.
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