London's Burning

The day started reasonably normal. There'd been riots in a few parts of town, but that's not really too unusual. however, things were to get very weird. I cycled home fairly oblivious to most of the events. It was only after arriving home in the evening that it became clear that the riots were taking place all over London.
There were rumours of rioting going through peckham and Camberwell. Immediately I was concerned about S. I sent her an email to check she was safe. We kept up the exchange of emails throughout the night.
I thought I was well out of danger, virtually in Kent. But then news came of a marauding mob heading up from Lewisham and catford towards Bromley; and another heading towards Eltham.
In the end there were fires and smashed windows in woolwich but nothing near me in Bexley or Welling.

The Chutzpah of Israeli Tent Protests | Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

Read this Blog for stories about Palestinians. Stories you won't see on the News or in your newspaper.

The Chutzpah of Israeli Tent Protests | Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

I set off from Plymouth around 11.00 stopping to pick up breakfast (above) and headed towards Dartmoor on the Plym Valley Sustrans path (below):

First time I ever headed into this tunnel there were no lights. It's pitch dark in the middle and I freaked out, panicked and headed back towards the light. It was over 20 years ago and I was on foot, walking my dog.
These days there are lights, but be ready for wet drips to land on you as you pass through the middle.

On Dartmoor - a plant:

After reaching Okehampton, and erecting the tent, I headed back up to Dartmoor, with a massively lighter load on the bike, gave a myself a preview of the morning's ride. Looking back at north of Okehampton:

Looking north - heading south:

Looking south:

Warning:

unfriendly local:

Arrived in Plymouth

I spent an enjoyable evening on the Barbican eating fish n chips and drinking cold beer.

Rebecca Watson: The Religious Right vs. Every Woman on Earth | CFI Leadership Conference 2011

New Stuff

I have a new gimmick on my sidebar - it's a set of thumbnails from Twitpic and maybe a way of directly posting photos to this Blog.

I Made This

Last week dreamt I was on rat killing duty and my former boss was really angry and shouting orders at me.
I also dreamt, yesterday, that I was at school in inappropriate clothing but nobody noticed. The clothing became more inappropriate as time went on, though I quite enjoyed it.

Dream: gigs going on in town. Bands played in shopfronts. I was doing something with S which concerned the bands but then missing their performances. Stopped to see a band in window with bare wood behind them and saw S going off into distance. I never saw her again. From then I was young punk in audience watching all new Stranglers performing a dramatic piece about war which involved dialogue such as: moans: "oh when will this war end". Big hairy biker bloke standing next to me asked if I was a virgin. I said no and laughed. He looked doubtful. Then asked if I was a student. No, I work. He walked off. Crowd disappeared. Band had gone. I was left alone.

A Baby Touched Me!!!!!

Fuck!! i was touched by a baby. Now I have get home, take all my clothes off and burn them, and shower, and shower, and scrub, and disinfect. This baby had sticky wet hands and kept touching my leg. The mother didn't try to stop it. It's nappy was yellow stained and it started screaming and shaking its arms around for the last two stops on DLR.
Thankfully it got off one stop before the end of the journey so I had time to recover.

At one point she kicked me.

Just before I got on the DLR and ended up sitting next to a baby, i saw a man with a kitten on the central Line. The kitten looked cute but I know it's just a matter of time before it did a fairly nasty liquid poo and/or vomited.

Stour Valley to London

I woke up earlier this morning to the sound of many many children trying to shower, get dressed, have breakfast and pack.
As I had the dorm to myself I took my time, eventually getting up just as the 3 black single-mother families from London were on their way out of the door. They all said 'bye' before they left even the one I thought didn't like me and i was left with an empty kitchen. It was after 9.00 so I had to rush a bit. Made breakfast - toast and coffee - while i packed, emptied room, got everything out onto veranda area and managed to have enjoyable leisurley breakfast. Caroline turned up with young assistant at 10.00 and I quietly slipped away at about quarter past.
Decided to take a new route and headed to East Bergholt, wandering briefly onto the A12 where I beeped by the traffic within seconds of arriving, as if i had much choice, its the only fecking main road that every other road seems to join up with.
After about 10 minutes was back on a country lane. Managed to listen to most of part two of Dawkins' "Greatest Show On Earth" which is a great book Dawkins' scathing account of creationist arguments and their refutations are the best bits. Noone does scathing like Dawkins, no wonder they hate him. His description of the evidence is also pretty good - this is an essential book for anyone who ever takes on those religious nuts who think evolution is some sort of superstitious belief system.
I thought I was fully recovered but as time went on I floundered somewhat. The wind picked up. I ended up on quite big roads (no choice!) and it all just got a bit too much. Decided to bail out at Braintree after 10 miles of quite unpeasent cycling, and knowing it just wasn't going to get any better as I got nearer to London.

Back in London

end of the line: Braintree station

A carving from times before the invention of trousers

this is the most mental village sign i've ever seen

fresh roadside bunny