Transient Updates

Once I've finished Ride Across Britain I'd like a bit more than sore muscles to show for it. Quite aside from being slightly damaged in the head department, I'm also a card-carrying geek, so it's to be expected that I shall be logging and blogging the trip.

My original plan was to take a netbook with me, and spend a bit of R&R time in the evening getting everything checked in, however we've been advised that laptops are a bad idea (the luggage service is going to be bags in trucks, so in all probability delicate electronics will be bashed to death). On top of that we can expect only limited 3G coverage, especially in more northern realms of the country.

As such I've had to start re-working my e-geek strategy. In the absence of a laptop my next communication tool is my Nokia 5800, a fairly basic and robust smartphone. I tend to pick phones that are suitable for beating people to death, and still capable of working afterwards. I can use this to upload to various services and sites via Pixelpipe. I'll use Twitter as my main target, and build a small micro-site based around a twitter feed to a specific tag (something along the lines of #rab10pg), and this can include video, piccies and updates.

Of course, I need some way of capturing the media. I'll have my compact camera, however that will only be really useful at static locations (base camps, pit stops etc). For photos while cycling I don't really want to risk getting a camera out...in pack cycling thats just asking for it. I've been hunting round for a bullet camera, however I've struggled to find one that isn't either stupidly expensive (normally with a remote storage/power supply, or too heavy), or simply rubbish. I also wanted it to be able to take stills and video.

I finally settled on a Swann MDV 450. It's 60 grams, can do video and stills, is robust, and most importantly saves to Micro SD card, which I can put in the Nokia to upload. It also uses the same charger as my Garmin (unfortunately without a PC I don't think I can get stuff off that, as it's integrated memory).

I'll be testing the camera over the next few days, and then spend an evening whipping up a RSS feed page. While it would be handy to have the netbook, without it I get a couple more kilos of other stuff to take with me (weight limit of 15kg's in total)...probably in food form!

Changeover - race season begins

First off, it's now only 32 days to go until I kick off on Ride Across Britain, which is both exhilarating, and terrifying. I go through daily fluctuations between wanting to get on with it, and being utterly feaful that I haven't done nearly enough training. I've been spending evening doing 4-50 mile rides around West Berkshire, and aiming for longer rides at the weekend, however I won't really know if it's been enough until about day 4 of the trip I suspect. For now it's case of keeping on with as much cycling as I can, and looking after myself, as injury now would be heart-breaking.

In other news, I have completed the rush job of getting a new Warhammer 40K army completed. On the last weekend of April I entered an event called SVA at Spiky Club. It was a campaign tournament, so not supposed to be really serious, and I was entered as Tau in a Xenos/Dark Angel domain. We finished mid-table, however my results were distinctly sub-average (1 draw, 4 losses). I've been getting better with Tau on weekly club nights, but they do suffer from a distinct lack of resiliance, which really showed at SVA. Next weekend there is another tournament called Rapid Strike, and this time it's going to be a little more serious. I decided that rather than enter the Tau, which I enjoy playing, but really don't have much confidence in handing out the hurt I would fast-track my new army, the Blood Angels. The last coupld of weeks have been a frantic dash to assemble, paint and finish a 150 point force. I have to finalise the list this saturday, so I'm going to get one game to practice, and one more week after that to realise all my hideous mistakes.

I've gone for a list which is as un-Tau as I can, and it consists almost exclusively of short-range guns and lots of fisticuffs, with the entire force equipped with jump-packs, so hopefully I can counter an absence of long-range offense with maneuverability and brutal assualt.



My other weekends before JOGLE are taken up with Triathlons. I have my first of the season this weekend at Merchant Taylor School, not a million miles from Watford. A fortnight after that I have a second one at Fritton Lake in Norfolk. After a few weeks of wimping out I finally did my first outdoor swim of the season this morning, with water temperatures of 12'C (which ,in case you're not sure, if absolutely brassic). I mananged the 1500m without stopping, and at a comfortable pace, however the last 2-300 metres my hands went numb, and I had trouble keeping my form. It's safe to say that Merchant Taylor is going to be cold (even more so in that it kicks off at crazy o'clock, so there won't even be a bit of sunshine to take off the chill. I won't even mention the complete lack of running training I haven't not done.

To briefly mention politics...I've been following the recent kerfuffle as an interested observer. I can't honestly say I can support any one party over another, however I find the election as a process fascinating, and the various curiosities of how a democratic vote can be run elegantly complex. It looks like we are going to have a co-alition government for the first time in my lifetime, which I don't find overly scary, more intrigued to see if various politicians who historically have been at each other throats can actually find some common ground...I'm aware that this sort of arrangement is the norm in several other countries, and perhaps it will be no bad thing to at least experience it here...