maynardcase.co.uk linkfest

Cycling to work
Decided to bike into work today. The gf has been stealing my bike and cycling to her place of work 2.5 miles away most days, but Wednesday is her day off. As it was a beautiful day, and as I’d been woken up at 5.35am by my pager, I figured I may as well beat the rush and cycle in the 18 miles from Surbiton to Canary Wharf. Got packed up and off by 0630, and navigated the 18.35 miles in one hour, twenty-two minutes and fourteen seconds. Average speed: 13.3 mph.

Not too shabby, I hope. I realise that the cycle couriers amonst us will be scoffing at my pitiful efforts but it’s still faster than the average speed of inner London traffic.

Following trends started a mere three months ago, here is the map of my route:

Surbiton to New Malden Fountain roundabout via the back roads, along Burlington Road to the junction with the A3 where we go left and over the overpass. Whizz along Kingston Road until you get to Merton, when the road eventually branches left at Collier’s Wood station. Up past Tooting, Balham, Clapham Common (wave at the ducks on the pond), Stockwell, Oval, Kennington. Be very careful around the whirling circle of death and uninsured drivers that is Elephant and Castle, following signs for the A3 and on towards London Bridge. Over said bridge (eyes right for the more scenic Tower Bridge) and take a right onto some random City road, which joins the road leading past the Tower of London. Disembark briefly and cycle the wrong way along the pavement of Short Street, then cross at the pedestrian/bike crossing onto the cycle path next to the DLR. Follow this all the way along past interesting street murals and the locks and warehouses of Limehouse. Do yet another dodgy maneuver to get over onto the road leading down to the underground roundabout by Canary Wharf and onwards, then take a left at the traffic light roundabout, and then under Heron Quays to the bike racks round the back of my building.

Bonus points to anyone who steals my bike, as they will have been able to work out where it’s parked. It’s a blue Specialized ex-MTB, secured with one of those locks you can open with a bic biro. Although if you could let me know, so I don’t have to get changed at the end of the day?

Please sponsor me!
The hidden motivation is that I’m doing the London to Brighton bike ride - a pretty hefty 58 mile trip from Clapham Common to Brigton seafront, taking in lots of countryside, the M25 and a couple of pretty unpleasant hills.

The ride is for charideee, specifically the British Heart Foundation, which funds research into heart disease as well as educating people and providing specialist life-saving resuscitation equipment.

So: if you would like to sponsor me, feel free. The site linked uses WorldPay, who I’ve found to be generally fine and non-spammy. If you’re not keen on that but you still want to sponsor me, mail me and we can sort out another form of money transfer.

Working in Canary Wharf doesn’t have many advantages. But the odd car show here or there is a bonus, especially if people like Land Rover decide to take it seriously.

They not only slap hundreds of their latest models throughout Jubilee Gardens…

… and have a rollercoaster-style ramp to show off…

… but they install an obstacle course so that they can give people demos of what one can do in a proper four wheel drive:

View from the porthole of the “Wibbly Wobbly” - possibly the most ridiculously-named pub in London. It’s a boat anchored in a remote dock in Canada Water - tiny place, but good beer and nice views.

Had a wander down from London Bridge over the last long weekend, where I took this classic postcard shot of Tower Bridge (okay, the postcards are usually when you’ve got better weather but hey):

The amazing British Museum was the afternoon’s distraction on Sunday. We covered about another 5% of it in the couple of hours we spent wandering around…

The great spectacle however is the roof of the great court, which elegantly joins the outer walls of the quad to the inner cylinder of the old British Library.

Went on a brief trip to Tate Modern recently, where we were relatively impressed to see that the quality of the street entertainment seems to be radically improving! Most impressive is the “why didn’t I think of that” idea of playing the violin while balancing on a (not-so) tightrope:

If you’re not aware, Zero 7 are the purveyors of the ultimate in chilled out not-quite-jazz melodies. Quite good fun to listen to, which is why I got some tickets to see them live.

The gig was pretty good although it’s never going to be terribly exciting what with the relaxing music and all. But I really like Brixton Academy as it’s a venue with a quality setup and a curvy floor…

New research based on this photo suggests that the pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow is actually located between Raynes Park and Wimbledon train stations. Estate agents were quick to back up this theory.

urghnnhhhh… wake me up at waterloo