Where's the duck?

She's on leave and will be back soon :) But why did she decide to go away for a few weeks?



I recently switched from Zen to O2 broadband, which in hindsight was a mistake. Yes, the connection to the exchange was superquick (7mbits down/1mbit up) compared to my current 3mbit connection, however I found O2's dns servers sluggish, their re-branded Thomson router flaky (and non-configurable, dns-wise), their pings high and their provision of service poor. I had always thought people were joking when they said that the internet slows down in the evenings and on wet Sunday afternoons. I've never noticed this on Zen. O2 it was plainly obvious.

However, I did not know this at the time, and so for half a month I was with O2, enjoying being able to watch HD iPlayer. The laggy Battlefield 2 had me worrying, but the occasional loss of DNS (and the lack of response from O2) forced me to decide between a more expensive, capped, yet high-uptime service or a cheap, unlimited but untrustworthy one. I chose to go back to Zen. They're expensive, but reliable. Think John Lewis.

My duck lived on Zen webspace, and so I took a backup of her (and everything else) before I switched provider. Once I'm back from my course next week, I'll put her back in her Zen garden.

The Business of Busyness

Lately I’ve been really busy. Yet I’ve never been so bored.

Work keeps me focused during the day. Uni keeps me busy for a few hours in the evening, but early mornings, the rest of the evenings and weekends feel empty.

I took part in a charity cycle-ride, which was great fun, but obviously has no continuation. Brighton was nice enough, but quiet.

I need something to keep my brain engaged, preferably doing something useful and most importantly, away from the computer. Answer? Not a clue. There’s a great big world out there, but the grinding monotony of everyday long commutes* means I have no idea what to do with it as I’m so tired when I get home.

It is so dull that I seriously considered walking part-way down my 2-mile walk/cycle into work to where there’s a load of fly-tipped rubbish in the ditch and fishing it out for the sake of the wildlife there (It’s quite a rural area so we have badgers, foxes, bunnies etc snufflesnuffling by each day), until I realised that the local authority would probably arrest me for being mental or breaking some forsaken bylaw**.

On the plus side, at least I haven’t turned to drink.

* I despair at the tube, busses and car-drivers. The same thing day in, day out. The only variety is finding out which particular bits of the network are broken, which particular driver will try to kill me on my bike and which obnoxious passenger will make my journey even more of a misery.

** I’d already written to the county council asking them to clear it up, but it has been a month since I contacted them and nothing has happened… apart from the carcass of the badger resting next to a fly-tipped tyre being slowly eaten away.

Thank You Westfield

Here is a brief list of things to thank Westfield for in the UK:

• Comfy chairs and sofas for mall users. (Good for sitting on)
  
• Food courts (Good to keep the grumps away),
  
• Er, waterless urinals (Good for the environment); and,
  
• Ample parking and reasonable rates (Good for avoiding the hot & sweaty tube on hot & sweaty days).

Now, all it needs is a massive cinema and were done... oh, hold on a second!

Brighton!

Hooray! Brighton has finally arrived! We started at Clapham Junction at roughly 8:45am and with 56 miles, 2 pubs and 3 other stops in-between, crossed the finishing line at just before 6pm.

Chris had to take the bus back to London yesterday, so I mooched around Brighton, inspected the pier, bought honeycomb and had dinner.

Today has mostly been filled with wandering around Waterstone's, snoozing on the beach and taking a power knap after lunch.

Based on my experiences so far, Brighton is 30% Fish&Chips, 30% Drunken Chav, 20% Smooching Couples and 20% Confused Tourists.

Tomorrow I head back to Nodnol where the water is properly chewable, thus allowing for a decent cup of tea.

London To Brighton

Check out the updates on flickr!

Our start time is 9:00am on Sunday 21st June 2009. Look out for rider 21559 on my Brompton of Awesome.

Watch our progression with the aid of Google Latitude! For Big and Updating, click here! Alternatively, if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or other latitude-ready device, call me for details of how to track directly in latitude.

To interact live with this programme, Press Red call me on the usual number*.

Finally, don't forget that we're not doing this for our health. It's all in aid of the British Heart Foundation, who would really love your sponsorship - as would we! :D




* Calls are charged at standard mobile rates. Heavy breathing on all calls is a result of cycling, officer :)

Coming up...

On Sunday 21st June 2009:

Check out Flickr, Latitude and this blog for a fully interactive, submersive web 2.0, community-driven all-you-can-eat social-media pull-VOD-based Follow-through of my progression on the British Heart Foundation's London to Brighton cycle ride!

Details to follow, but you'll be amazed. Critics say:

'It deserves an Emmy or Bafta, or realistically Both'


"Five Stars!"


" You'll laugh, you'll cry"


"Unbelievable!"

The Last Few Days Before Brighton

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Life has rudely been getting in the way!

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored Chris and me for Sunday’s ride. I finally started getting into the training habit, er, yesterday when I cycled home from White City to back to Bucks.

It wasn’t too bad; I didn’t stop to rest (apart from before traffic lights at which I was compelled) and arrived home slightly sweaty but without too much shakiness.

This morning I had a bit of a back-ache and when I rode to the cycle shop to buy a front bag for my Brompton my bum hurt something awful. No more extended cycling until the big day methinks! :D

It’s not too late to sponsor me! Just follow the link on the right :)