Tonight’s Critical Mass ride meets, as always, at 6p.m. on the South Bank, just under Waterloo Bridge, outside the National Film Theatre. Departing around 7pm, the ride normally lasts about 2 hours but, with this weather, tonight’s ride might just be longer and if we’re lucky, we may get a repeat of the beautiful sunset we were treated to on Greenwich Cyclists’ Afterworker Ride last night.
Yesterday’s sunset over the Isle Of Dogs
Check out Le Bar � Chiens, a most excellent photograph by fellow blogger, Anders Jacobsen.
BBC – Radio – Download and Podcast Trial
“As part of a trial we’re offering some programmes and programme highlights as downloads and podcasts. The trial runs from May to December 2005 and programmes started appearing on Monday 16 May.”
The choice isn’t extensive – at least not what you’d expect of such a broadcasting giant – but it’s a start.
Tonight, or to be more exact tomorrow morning at 0200hrs, I will be joining a few hundred of London’s cyclists to observe a modern day Midsummer ritual.
Commuter folk, couriers, Critical Mass riders and ordinary everyday bike folk will cycle from local meeting points to converge upon a succession of beigel bakeries, all-night cafes and coffee shops before riding en mass to Primrose Hill.
Here, we’ll all chat, talk bikes and before watching the sun come up as the longest day of the year begins at 0423hrs.
Afterwards, we’ll no doubt head off for a full English breakfast and pints of coffee in an effort to charge our batteries for what will certainly feel like the longest day at work. If you fancy joining the ride, those north of the Thames can join Tower Hamlets Wheelers feeder ride, those ‘sarf’ of the river can hook up with Southwark Cyclists.
All photographs: Owen Pearson – Tower Hamlets Wheelers
my lo-fi ears are listening to Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m/Stevie Wonder/Song Review – A Greatest Hits
Dilbert so knows what is going on in my company right now.
Whilst not quite in the same league as being slashdotted, I have been 43 Foldered – which is smaller, friendlier and involves more discerning folk. Merlin Mann dug out an old wiki scrap I wrote (GtD Rescue Plan or how to break the cycle of implementation) and posted his take on it (Fractal Implementation, or, On the Dangers of David Allen’s Finger) to his increasingly popular GTD – Mac – lifehack blog, 43 Folders. It is fun to see a few lines I wrote months ago picked up, picked over and provoking further debate. Meanwhile, I have emailed my good friend and host, Chuck, who is standing by with a bucket of iced water, ready to cool off my webserver.
Sixty days is a significant period of time. Wars are won, fortunes lost, regimes toppled and new hope raised in less time. All of which is my way of acknowledging that a lot of water has passed under the bridge since I last wrote here. In the intervening time, my attention has been almost entirely taken up with the mundane and the humdrum, the ins and outs of everyday life. That said, thoughts of a new life and emigration have always been there, surfacing into conscious thought when time and space have allowed.
One of the key reasons behind the lack of updates was the fact that my blog became more widely known in my workplace than I was comfortable with. For this reason, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and allowed things to cool off for fear of causing problems for myself. Whilst I am keen to resume regular blogging here, I am not quite ready for ‘no holds barred’ posting just yet. Suffice to say, we have been making steady progress with our plans, working away at the myriad tasks and to-dos that need to be attended to in order to even think about moving to the other side of the world.
More, more regularly, soon.
More often than not, when it comes to the maillists, forums and chatrooms, we only hear about the darker side of human nature. This being the case, I just wanted to post something in mitigation.
As detailed in the post below, I have had my trusty commuting bike stolen and, despite trawling the local flea markets and back alley traders, I am no closer to finding it. This morning, I wrote a brief email describing my efforts to recover the bike. I then posted it to a thread on the Brompton Talk Yahoo group concerning the possible sale of stolen bikes on eBay which has been a recurring theme there for some time. Within a couple of hours of the post, I received two unbidden mails off-list from fellow Brompton owners offering the loan or sale of their spare or surplus bikes.
In the grand scheme of things, not earth-shattering acts but for me, an indication that, despite scaremongering to the contrary, the Internet can be a conduit through which the hand of friendship and good citizenship can reach out and make a difference.
my lo-fi ears are listening to All For Self/Fun Lovin’ Criminals/100% Colombian
Sadly, I became just another crime statistic a couple of hours ago when my Brompton folding bike was stolen in Spitalfields. It was taken from a group of three bikes locked together by the zebra crossing railings at the corner of Commercial and Fournier Streets, London E1 (http://snipurl.com/esgy) It was taken in the 20 minute period between 18.40 and 1900hrs and, whilst not particularly disctinctive, it has a number of non standard details.
It has been reported to the Police via their online Non-Emergency Minor Crime Notification, so if you see a green Brompton on your travels, these photos of the bike and the distinctive skate wheels might help you work out if it’s mine. If you see it, please report it to the nearest police station, quoting Crime No: 4214303/05.
