The obligatory intro post from WP. This is the place I want to host.my hiking & cycling posts. As of yet, I don’t know how to extract the relevant tagged posts from my initial site and import them here.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
With time to kill and shopping to do, I needed a break after an hour. Remember how much I detest clothes shopping? Since it was early, the staff in PC World were happy to give a demo of virtual reality gaming.
Using a Sony PS4, and a sci-fi racing game and the headset (pictured) we went ahead. I know there is always a process of setting up and customising kit as there were problems to overcome. Here is a list with starting with the least significant:
I think the game was called Wipeout. What a ridiculous cartoon game for children. I had to stop before the round was over with my head spinning and stressed. The fault may lie with the game, a flight simulator usually has a clear horizon line. In Wipeout, the banked track as the bit that made me dizzy.
I’d better not be too dismissive until I’ve tried a proper flight simulator. From what the staff said, it sounds like the focus on this console is arcade games. That’s not encouraging for me.
More interesting would be a similar setup that enables players to explore virtual worlds. Surely, it must be possible with current technology to generate a procedural planet and populate it with user content. Better still, one that we players can create scenes, buildings, vehicles and objects.
There would be a way to get back into 3DS Max and build a world, maybe with the Unity engine. What fun to make a familiar building but with hidden secrets.
18°C, showers, slow moving.
We gathered the kids for a debrief. Chris, Carl and I took turns. The theme was poor husbandry, especially kit.
I started with: “I had a good night’s sleep last night. I was warm, comfortable, and dry. I have no bites and no midges got in my tent last night.
If you look after your kit, it will look after you.
You all know that these last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster. I felt very proud of the things you have done, then minutes later I sank low. Yesterday, I walked behind a group across the moors, through 4 gates. Each one had litter, which can only be yours. Two of those gates were left open.
The expedition was characterised by am emotional roller-coaster. I felt break high when I saw girls urging their groups on, making quality navigation decisions and developing their confidence.
One badly erected tent, and one yet right boot, left out for the night.
For staff, we spent the whole week on this project. Not just the whole week, we totalled a 74.5 hour week of contact time. It was both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. I have no hesitation to do it again. As it happens, that’s just what we’re going to do. Twice.
13°C, sunny with easterly breeze.
Drawing: put something, anything between work and bed in the evening.
Tiny A6 sketchbook with a cheap propelling pencil. The paper isn’t really this sallow.
I rode Paddy fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 54.6mi, time: 03:24:45, pace: 3:45min/mi, speed: 15.99mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1058575075
Unremarkable in some ways. I used a familiar route in reverse and climbed Dalton from the north. It was easier than I anticipated.
Passed this Spitfire parked at Woodvale. It could the Battle Of Britain machine, though it’s a late version, perhaps a Mark XIV.
18°C, breezy, grey and some light rain.
Rode The Jake to work for the return by canal.
This morning’s ride saw 4 drivers using mobiles and 2 more who jumped red lights. But the funny bit:
Small women have trouble getting a good driving position in their car. Often they can barely see over the steering wheel and their elbows almost touch the wheel. But today, another one had a position like that. This one though, her boobs almost touched the wheel. It is certain that each time she broke the car, they would contact the steering wheel more definitely.
12°C, brisk W. Sunny.
Took a tour of the garden this evening. There is plenty going on, digitalis, laburnum and lupins in flower. One of the lupins is broken, so I staked the others. Recent wind will have caught them.
Animal life: my neighbour tells me he found newts which can only have come from my garden. There are no other ponds nearby. For this, I am thrilled!
Fennel is growing faster this year, and one is especially interesting.
Foliage spiders have formed a nursery
They panic and rush apart if you prod them. It takes ten minutes for calm to return and they regroup. Delightful.
6°C, grey cloud, dry so far.
Gardening is easy. Two winters ago, I collected bags of leaves from work. The caretaker collects them in the autumn and fills a skip. I then, bag up warm handfuls of slowly decaying leaf litter. I can drive about five bags each time.
Now I have rich, nutty smelling compost to scatter into my top soil. The plants will be grateful.
This is a clump of Spanish bluebells. I don’t even remember planting them, so perhaps they have taken care of themselves.
May is the best month.
I rode Fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 50.1mi, time: 03:08:57, pace: 3:46min/mi, speed: 15.9mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/949380413
Cold dry start with light breeze from the north. Quite a contrast with yesterday’s blazing sunshine. I ducked out of Bannister Hill but went up Dalton instead.
Decent ride overall but sad to see roadkill hares. Both were males, probably full of young enthusiasm for the spring. Oh, the needless destruction. I despair.
Yesterday’s sunset on Formby beach. That sky was clear right down to the horizon. Breathtaking.
I rode Fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 51.9mi, time: 03:15:43, pace: 3:46min/mi, speed: 15.9mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/930567699
Started this ride in sprightly fashion and zipped along, often at 20mph. The climb up to Dalton was fine too, though I avoided Bannister Hill later.
While much of England basked in sunshine, here is misty under thick cloud.
As the sun burnt through, an interesting effect was visible in brown fields. Only the ploughed dark fields had a duvet of white mist up to about 6ft above. In places it rolled over hedges or gathered into conical convection structures.
Mist near Hesketh Bank.
Micycle 