Blogging and Commuting

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I have now been a blogger for some time. In the past I managed about three to four posts per week, as my working hours were pretty much nine to five, with a commute home that would literally take 4 minutes to home. That would give me plenty of time to contemplate the pressing issues of the day. Or just a zip around teh intarwebs to find something blogworthy.

Since I have joined the ca 6 million daily commuters travelling into London every morning and leaving the moloch in the evening, blogging has become more difficult. This has two main reasons:

1: Time constraints. I now get up at 06:15 and return from work ca 19:30. This has reduced the time that was available for myself by 4 hours: two in the morning, two in the evening. As I have to stand in the train, blogging during the commute is not really feasible, and blogging on the bike is probably quite dangerous and certainly not legal. It would also be immensely antisocial and certainly not very nice if I would use the remaining hours prior to bedtime to blog my heart out and in turn ignore my wonderful partner,  who really deserves every minute of my waking hours.

2. Knackeredness.  After thirteen hours away from home, the sofa becomes a very tempting place to plant my bottom on. There is also The Guardian to read, Radio4 to listen to and the odd (but fortunately rare) TV-show to watch. And of course chat to my darling partner, so the Macbook and the various other digital household items have become much less a focus in my life.

I ask my regular readership: How do YOU battle post commuting fatigue and keep your shiny blog updated and your readership happy? Do you ignore your significant other? Blog at work? had a divorce?

Let me know. And the others.

Dahon Speed D7

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Behold, my mighty new folding bike.

As I have recently moved to South East England and restarted to work in London, I decided to finally do something for my ever expanding waistline and save some serious money.

A win-win situation? You bet!

So, how was I able to accomplish this amazing feat? I bought a Dahon Speed D7 folding bike. Before making the acquisition, I checked out the numerous cycling forums (of which there are literally thousands), compared prices (from 100 pounds to 2000 pounds) and models (and if you think that nerds could be easily drawn into fisticuffs discussing Windows, OpenBSD and Linux then you should see the level of passion that users of Bromptons, Dahons and Birdies can get themselves into). Have a look at the folding society’s homepage, and you know what I mean.

With other words, it’s not easy being a first time folding bike buyer.

After pondering the issue for 2 months I decided on the Dahon Speed D7. The bike offered the best mixture of price, compactness, weight, quality and accessories. I will not bore you with any meaningless technical specifications that I don’t understand either, but the most interesting bits are:

  • Weight 11.7kg
  • Folded size 33 x 64 x 81 cm
  • 7 Gears

According to the manufacturer it’s the most popular folding bike in the world according to their sales numbers, and who am I to doubt them. So, how is the ride? Well, it’s exhilarating. I haven’t had as much fun going to work since living next to a penguin colony in New Zealand. Due to its tiny wheels (tire size is a meagre 20″ x 1.5″) its very, very easy to manoeuvre, thanks to its seven gears it hums along at a decent speed. With me having to cycle to the train and cycle from the destination station to work, I manage a daily round trip of 13 km. According to my calculations this will set me back 2000 calories a week, which should result in a weightloss of 1 kg in a month. That’s not bad at all, and it’s incredible fun.

And, because I don’t have to take the tube for the last 5 km, I save a cool 6 pounds every day, meaning the bike has already paid for itself after 2 1/2 months.

So, thumbs up for the Dahon Speed D7. If enough of us would ride these babies, London would be a more pleasant, cleaner and healthier place.

Comet McNaught

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I remember vividly what a delight it was to drive home january 2007: not only is driving home from work per se a delight, but at that time Comet McNaught was lighting up the southern sky, and the twilight over North Otago made it an especially beautiful experience.

This amazing picture was shot by the extremely talented Tony Travaglia (a nice gallery of his pictures is here), member of the RASNZ and all around good guy.

Don’t anybody tell me that astronmy is boring.

The Steel City Tour 2008

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I have just acquired two tickets for one of the most exciting events this year (if you’re over forty): three of my perennial favourites of electronic music are doing a short tour of the UK, celebrating not only their timeless music, but also their hometown, Sheffield. ABC, Heaven 17 and the Human League are certainly not the purveryors of groundbreaking electronica that they once used to be (although THL has had more successful comebacks than you can shake a stick at and ABC just released a new album -“Traffic” – which isn’t half bad), but for me these three still have enormous pulling power.

Penthouse and Pavement was the first song that confronted me with the concept of Electrofunk, and I was fascinated. Just as danceable as the embarassing disco that was around at that time but with much better lyrics (and the coolest album cover ever, mocking the new neo-capitalist thatcherite city drones populating London at that time. Nothing has changed much. These days they’re just getting more drunk) and with a political statement, Heaven 17 was the ultracool dancefloor choice for every discerning DJ, and I played it incessantly on my first Sony Walkman (borrowed from a close associate, as I couldn’t afford one for myself).

My love for ABC has been thoroughly documented over the years. No other album has ever fascinated me as much as The Lexicon of Love, and no other album has been played that ofen on the various incarnations of music players I owned. Trevor Horns production (using his revolutionary fairlight sampler) Anne Dudley’s strings, Fry’s lyrics and the excellent music were such a revelation that for some time I toyed with the idea to buy a gold lamee suit. Having seen them numerous times live (in varying outfits) Martin Fry continues to be an excellent show man, and the strength of the songs hasn’t diminished over the decades (26 years. bloody hell).

Last, but not least another chameleon of electronic music. Just like ABC, the Human League have reinvented their sound again and again. From sparse electronica to stadium rock (with ‘The Lebanon’ on Hysteria), Minneapolis soul  to house they probably ahad the longest and most successful run of those three sheffieldian bands. I still have an impressive collection of THL 12″ vinyl lying around, with the latest probably being ‘Heart like a wheel’. I always heard they were rubbish live (mainly due to the fact that none of the vocalists can hold a tune), but when I saw them in Glasgow some years ago, they were absolutely riveting.

So, the big unknown will be Heaven 17. Will Glen Gregory and his mates be able to live up to the same standards as the other Sheffieldians?

Actually, I don’t care. They could play the singles of these acts back to back on abig ghettoblaster and  I’d be jumping up and own the isles.

It’s going to be a good night.