jack

I cycled to St Ives and swam across the Ouse!

It was actually a useful part of the walk, as I started where the busway crosses the river, then walked through St Ives, and through The Thicket paths. Then there's no bridge yet before Houghton, but I found a place that was easy to get into the water from both sides (almost opposite but not quite).

Changed under big magically thin towel. Everything into dry bag and plunge in. The water was incredibly lovely, I didn't want to get out.

Then walk back through the meadows on the South side of the Ouse, just outside St Ives.

I also stopped at a lovely Terrace restaurant right over the river, and stopped in the Norris museum which was really nice and sold me some small pretty notebooks.

"Sherlock, but Make Him Likable and Also a not-quite-fallen Angel" I stole that from a review on Tor.

The book does an AMAZING job at showing the relationship between Doyle (based on Watson) and Crow. From Watson's point of view, it is at least as much about him, even though insightful but at right-angles to humanity Crow is the most distinctive character.

It does a great job remixing the original setting to a world where angels (of buildings), werewolf communities, seances, rogue demons in the Afghanistan war etc are a normal part of life. The remixed mysteries are all familiar, but MAKE SENSE with the rules of the world.

It also does a good job of showing different sorts of people (different nationalities, different ethnicities, different genders, different cistransness) who existed in society without replicating Victorian prejudices, but mostly successfully expressed through non-anachronistic viewpoints.

The only other thing I wanted was more of it: not character, more setting. The framing story about Jack the Ripper is a good hook but isn't as interesting as the individual episodes, and I was impatient for More.

1) What are you wearing right now?

Answering for yesterday, black T-shirt with small astronaut carrying a string of planets floating like balloons down the side, which was new yesterday. See: https://img.ltwebstatic.com/images3_pi/2022/06/28/1656392751d37bde3e5d9b53fafacb1a3d20c344c3.webp

I made an effort to branch out from "plain black tshirts" and "black tshirts with slogans on" to find something that would fill the same niche of being convenient and suitable for most of my day to day without a lot of thought, but also look "well put together" in a way I find hard to describe. So T-shirts with more artistic but less sprawling designs were my thought, including some with more "decoration" than "logo".

Also jogging bottoms which are my go-to for sitting around the house.

2) What would you rather be wearing right now?

That was exactly what I wanted!

In general, it would be nice to wear nicer looking clothes without needing too much effort in it. I suppose that's always a trade-off.

3) What is your favorite outfit of clothing that you currently own and wear?

I'm not sure. The black t-shirt with the colourful dice (present from Mx 13) is one that always makes me happy.

I really like wearing a suit occasionally, but haven't actually done for a while, I'm not sure I have one that fits any more.

I really liked the fedora hat. It suited so many different situations. But eventually I lost it, and fedoras got a reputation as beloved of creepy internet guys so I shied away from getting another the same.

4) What is your favorite outfit of clothing that you have ever worn?

The most lovely is my wedding suit. It was an AMAZING garment: blue frock coat, blue brocade waistcoat with black and gold lining. Unfortunately, I was very busy with organising wedding and didn't quite know what I wanted, so although the overall outfit is amazing, it wasn't easy to wear in other situations, and my weight has gone down and up several times since then, so I've not found occasions to wear it as I'd hoped. Possibly I could get it adapted now, since I would still really like to.

5) What was the last new or new-to-you garment you bought or acquired?

That T-shirt, plus several others.

Also some shoelaces I sought something black but with a purple highlight, and found something similar but not quite, so I think I'll end up with black laces on my day to day black shoes, but coloured laces on my trainers. And a couple of "pull tight" toggles of different designs, I want to see if it's more convenient than tying.

I went open water swimming! It was incredibly nice.

I cycled down to Grantchester meadows again, in swimming trunks and t-shirt I could whip off, and walked along to one of the new slips. I just walked right in, the water is so warm I barely needed any acclimitisation at all, it was so nice in the water I found it hard to leave.

I was bold and tried swimming from that slip up to the top of the meadows where Grantchester starts, and walked back, and it went sufficiently well that I then swam down to the *other* slip and walked back from that as well.

I wasn't sure about swimming along: most of the way it wouldn't be easy to get out, so even though it wasn't far, I was committed. And the bottom of the river is inconsistent: some places it's easy to stand up, some places it's deep mud, some places it's deep, and some places it's rather overgrown with ominously grasping plants with big leaves. But I knew that I could swim a fair distance in a managed pool, and in fact it was totally fine. Even a couple of field lengths felt a long way when you didn't quite know what to expect, but it was really satisfying.

It was about 500m between the two swims, which was short compared to what I normally do, but doing it all continuously was harder work too.

It turns out, when you're swimming outside, that breaks the magical barrier of talking to strangers, and also makes you look like like a really interesting person! A few people spoke to me, including four who'd brought a little table, table cloth, and little teaparty.

And I got talking to two: One, an engine driver who was out with his canoe (not on strike, on holiday), who attracted a set of ducks onto his canoe. One a retail worker from Duxford who'd come to swim and sunbathe in Grantchester for the day and helped me re-sunscreen after swimming.

I felt incredibly refreshed for a couple of hours not needing to do a lot of things.

I remembered the temporary ban on swimming, and I'm really glad there seems to have been some sort of compromise which makes it actually easier.

And I also keep meaning to tempt other people to come swim with me, but it's almost always something I do at short notice so it's hard to arrange.

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/110472.html

1. What kind of bugs do you see outside this time of year?

I really don't pay enough attention to recognise what comes out when. But I have enjoyed seeing more butterflies around generally, either because of more meadows nearby, or me paying more attention, or a recovery in populations. It's lovely to see them flitting around the garden. And others too, but I can't remember what.

2. What's your favorite food to eat outside?

Anything, in a way -- I quite like eating at an outside table even when conditions are perfect.

But specific outside food, I guess that mostly means picnic food: nice, fresh, sandwiches, nice crisps, veg, maybe dips, cold refreshing drinks. Especially after a trek. Or BBQ. Or spontaneous ice-cream.

3. How much rain is too much rain?

A light rain, I'll happily just accept, since I started carrying a baseball cap, and not wearing clothes pristine enough for it to make a difference. A torrential (for england) downpour is nice if you can watch from safety. It's not as much, how heavy, as when it goes on for too long

4. What are you celebrating this month?

My belated birthday celebration. Maybe making progress on healthcare admin. Getting some plans into place at work. Regular outside swimming. Improved productivity techniques. I need to do some more FUN things though.

Swimming outside at Jesus Green Lido was so lovely.

My very-old-now prescription goggles are doing great service, and swimming underwater still feels magical, seeing the sparkling dapples of sunlight rippling across the top and bottom of the water, and any leaves hanging stationary suspended in infinity.

I swam 16 lengths (nearly 1mi), and pushed myself to actually go faster enough that my heart was racing and I felt tired out, even if it wasn't very fast in actual speed. That was mostly breaststroke but I also practiced crawl, and managed about half a length before running out of puff.

And just sitting in the sun is glorious.

The water temperature was 17c, and it was noticeably colder for longer after I got in than 18c, but I had got better at getting in without cursing, and by half way through the first length it felt lovely. And feeling the sun on my skin felt lovely.

Trying to expand my cycling as a source of serious exercise while I avoid running and maybe even long walks until I'm confident my knees are ok, yesterday I aimed for a 40 miles cycle, the longest ever for me.

I made a loop up to Huntingdon parallel to the A14, then back through St Ives and the busway.

I start off along King's Hedges Road, then along the heavily fenced cycle path between Histon Rd and Huntingdon Rd. Then dodge up to Girton, and slip out the bottom end onto the cycle path which runs parallel to the A14 all the way to Fenstanton. That path is the opposite of some -- well paved, lots of space, but not especially nice scenery. But because it's easy to just GO, it's quite a nice way to start. And I like seeing the random bits of untended scrubland around.

That passes Bar Hill and Cambridge Services if you need a stop, although I didn't.

Through Fenstanton, then onto a passable A-road (or narrow on-pavement path if you prefer) round to Hemingford Grey. Now we reach villages just off the Ouse, oozing picturesque. I stopped on a bench here for lunch. Then along to Hemingford Abbots which is equally picturesque but with much bigger houses.

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The Thicket: 13/10, perfect place.
St Ives: 9/10, nice place, easy to cycle, only occasional cars
Busway: 10/10, easy cycling, familiar, passes through nice places, WCs conveniently at Northstowe

Retrospective:

It was a nice day. I'd previously done 30+ miles and felt like I could do more if I just stayed out a little bit longer so I was fairly sure 40 miles would be ok, but I also felt like Huntingdon was a long way away and perhaps I was kidding myself. But it was about right: enough to push me a bit, but not enough to end up with a long painful slog home in the dusk. Hopefully I will keep it up.

I'm used enough to following the routes I didn't have much worry whether I'd find my way through. National Cycle Route 51 which I've followed E of Cambridge also comes this way, up the busway, and then at St Ives cutting across a bridge to join the route I took through Hemingfords and the signs were often helpful.

I feel achy today but in a mostly good way, my knees aren't sure but don't seem to have got worse.

I stopped at a lot of nice places for a bit of a read, if anything I want to make sure to keep that up, maybe even fit in more of it. I found a lot of nice places on the way.

I'm still not going very actually fast, but faster than I used to. I guess I hadn't dived into proper cycling gear, and I still have panniers for lunch and jumper etc, so I'm not as efficient as I could be, although at least my new bike is better for this than my old bike.

The internet says that they made low beam bike lights sometimes (maybe from germany). Any experience having a bike light which is bright enough to cycle on completely unlit roads/paths without having to slow down a lot, without dazzling oncomers? Is any decent bike light likely to do it or do I need to look for something specific?

I've slowly expanded my comfort zone cycling, but it would open more options if I could reliably cycle on dark ways. I used to have a decent light but it was a bit of a trade-off between "being able to see far enough" and "not dazzling people", and now I have a cheap light that's suffices for urban cycling but doesn't light things up much.

I might have asked this before, I can't remember.

1. Do you have a yearly, or monthly, clothing budget? Do you stick to it?

No, I'm fortunate to have enough slack that I don't need a strict limit. Or unfortunate, that as with many other things, perhaps I need a budget TO get me to spend ENOUGH. I'll always have clean, un-holed clothes. And have slowly developed a few I actually like, like smart but interesting socks, and fresh, well fitting T-shirts and jeans.

But I have very few clothes I especially like, and it would be nice for me to have SOME.

I have been trying to piece together how to buy better looking clothes, without just buying more expensive clothes that fit equally mediocrely. I think basically I need to have clothes that fit well. And maybe replace them when they're fraying a bit, before they're fraying a lot.

I guess my weight changing hasn't helped.

2. Do you buy trendy clothes, or classic pieces that can be worn for years?

I have no idea HOW to buy fashionable clothes. I could barely RECOGNISE fashionable clothes. But I'm not sure my clothes would be described as "fashionable". Or as "pieces". No, that's not quite fair. As someone else said, I do have a "recognisable aesthetic" as it were.

3. Is there a current fashion trend that you hate?

Whatever I personally notice is usually eclipsed when I see a friend trying to buy women's clothes and discover there's some new fundamental part of clothing which they've decided to spent a few years selling clothing without. "Hey, here's trousers, without the end of the legs." "Hey, want a jumper that doesn't keep you warm?" "We've changed our sizes again. Now sizes below this threshold are all labelled as '2' and sizes above this threshold are all labelled as 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXL'. Good luck."

I often am a little grumpy at something silly, but I can't remember any right now

4. Have you had clothing altered to fit you better?

Apparently this is easy and useful (and cheap by the standards of buying clothes), so that would be very good, but I haven't actually managed it before.

5. Is there a piece of clothing, or accessory, that you covet?

There's not a thing. But I do wish I could look, I don't know, well dressed. Like some people seem to manage, or man people manage in the photos photography friends post.

I reread Gideon the Ninth and half way through Harrow the Ninth. I posted a lot of recap and musings on Facebook:

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10104135617416710&id=36912084

Should be public to everyone, but you can always comment here if you don't use Facebook