Bike Routes
Posted: Fri 22 April, 2005 Filed under: Health, Travel, Weirdness 5 Comments »
Over the last week, it’s occurred to me that the majority of bike routes (or cycle paths) in this area are, frankly, shite.
There’s one just round the corner from the house which is supposed to allow cyclists to avoid the chicane “road calming” methodology. That’d be great, except there’s some silly old bastard (not ageist, he’s about 70, and definitely a silly bastard) who parks his fucking metro right in the cycle-path. I’m considering talking to the local plod and seeing if they can do something about it. The alternative is writing up a couple of A4 sheets with “Thanks for parking like a cunt”, and supergluing them to his windscreen. That’ll learn him.
Going through Bracknell you get to see subways that bikes aren’t allowed through. You also get to see “cycle paths” that have full-height kerbstones at every junction, so you only use ’em at risk of buckling the bike wheels. There’s even junctions on the cycle paths where to turn left you have to bounce up a full-height kerb.
It’s actually kind of interesting too to see how drivers attitudes have changed. In fairness, a lot of the time drivers are now far more aware of cyclists, and some even let you out when the alternative is to face-plant a parked car. But most of them appear to see cyclists, then ignore them utterly. Leaving the office at half-five is as close to “dicing with death” as I’ve been in a while. There’s no chance – the drivers all rub against the kerb, and it’s nose to tail. The “safest” place is to ride down the middle of the bloody road. Or walk. Which kind of defeats the theory of cycling.
Overheard
Posted: Mon 11 April, 2005 Filed under: Travel, Weirdness 3 Comments »Ah, knew I’d forgotten to write about something. (Actually, there’s a couple of things I’ve failed to write about, despite repeatedly thinking “Must do that”, but well, maybe I need a d4d™ to-do list as well!)
Anyway – while sat on the train to the DCD gig last week, I heard the most brilliant conversation…
Her (on mobile phone) : [blah, blah] and what time is ER on E4 tonight?
Him : [must’ve said 9pm, as that’s when it was]
Her : Oh, OK. I don’t think I’ll be back by then. What time does it start on E4+1?
This was said entirely straight-faced.
(For foreign readers, or those without satellite, I should point out that E4+1’s programmes start exactly one hour after E4’s hence the +1 in the name)
Weekend Break
Posted: Sun 3 April, 2005 Filed under: Animals, Photography, Thoughts, Travel 4 Comments »Well, we’re back. The weekend was fantastic, although it was altogether far too short. Then again, weekends always are.
We stayed in West Quantoxhead (also known as St. Audries, for reasons unknown to me) close to Minehead. But not too close – probably 10-15 miles away from Minehead, which is just fine with me. I used to go to north Somerset with my family years ago, to the same kind of area, but we worked out that I hadn’t actually been back for at least twenty years. And it’s amazing how little has actually changed.
Saturday dawned – for me – bloody early. In fact, at dawn. The site had a pheasant that insisted on squawking it’s way through the morning loudly. So by half six I was dressed and awake. As The Hound was also awake and perky, we went down to the beach, leaving Herself to sleep more. Besides, I’d got my camera, which has been woefully underused so far this year, so it’s time to recitfy that. Sixty photos later, yeah, it’s back to being well used. I’ve got some thoughts on cameras and so on which I’ll probably write up for tomorrow, but for now it’s safe to say that some of the stuff was stunning – including finally figuring out for myself how to take successful shots of waterfalls with that shutter speed that makes the water look like mist. It’s a photographic cliché, I know – but it was a shot I’d tried to take on several occasions before, and failed abysmally. But now I’ve got a few – OK, I’ve got a lot – but they work, and I’m well pleased with them as a result.
For most of the day we went over Porlock Hill and Countisbury Hill to Lynton and Lynmouth, which was fantastic. We spent a large proportion of time knackering The Hound, spending at least two hours on the beach playing catch, and getting her to dive into rockpools in order to retrieve the tennis ball. For some reason this also gained us a bit of an audience, but there we go. We also travelled up to Lynton on the funicular railway, a water counter-balanced system which is ace, if rickety as hell.
Travelling back, we then ended up spending another hour on the beach, wandering along and getting yet more photos I’m really pleased with, and a couple that are going to get printed out at A4 size and mounted/framed properly, we’re so chuffed with them.
Today has involved a trip to Watchet, which is still nothing special, and driving home. Knackered – utterly, utterly knackered. But also ultimately happy – it’s been lovely to have a truly relaxing weekend, even if it has involved about 120 photos, all told. But it’s been great.
Away again
Posted: Sat 2 April, 2005 Filed under: Animals, General, Travel Leave a comment »This weekend we’re away down in Somerset, and this time we’re taking The Hound, which should make life interesting. Walks along the beach, Hound chasing seagulls into the sea, all that kind of thing.
Of course, what this also means is that there won’t be many updates over the weekend. I’ve left a couple to go up at various times, but no, it’s going to be quiet for the weekend.
Have a good one!
Ireland Beware!
Posted: Wed 16 February, 2005 Filed under: General, Travel 7 Comments »Advance Warning for inhabitants of the Republic of Ireland – it looks like we’re going to be visiting Dublin, Kilkenny, and a few other places in early June. Be afraid, be very afraid.
London Thoughts – part 1
Posted: Tue 8 February, 2005 Filed under: General, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 4 Comments »Well, I made it unscathed. It’s a lot easier getting to London from Bracknell than it is from Manchester, that’s for sure. It’s a sod-load cheaper too!
London still strikes me as a strange place though. I suppose that a lot of it is to do with being a city, and having all types/genres of people in a fairly small space. Seeing homeless people outside the ultra-expensive stores like Liberty and Aquascutum always leaves me fairly sad, particularly after the work I did with the homeless charity in Manchester. But it’s more than that – for a city where everyone always seems to be in a rush (while sat at Waterloo it was quite comical seeing all the people running for trains etc.) the pedestrians on Oxford Street and the like seem to have some of the slowest walking speeds known to man.
Also, people seem to be so security unconscious. Travelling on the tube,I could easily see who was listening to an iPod – and if I were of that mindset, I’d probably aim for iPod users as those who’d be likely to have other gadgets and high-cost small-size items on their person. Disposable income, and all that jazz. But there’s the other things too – seeing people with laptop bags slung over one shoulder, dead easy for someone to run past and snatch it without even stopping. And an amazing number of people with bags slung over shoulders and pocket flaps open etc. – just open targets for pickpockets, particularly in busy and crowded environments like Waterloo. People are strange.