It’s been a while since I cycled anything like a long distance in one go – and this weekend I tested my knees, lungs and new bike in aid of getting kids in Uganda through school.

I posted a couple of images while on the road, and will dump a couple more once I can get them off my useless phone.

It was a very rewarding day – a long ride, through some beautiful parts of Southern England. The weather was kind, and we had a lot of fun. As well as burning many calories I’m pretty sure I consumed a fair number due to all the energy bars and drinks I sank – and the pub lunch of course.

Discovery of the day for me was Dark Star Hophead. A delicious beer. Brewed only a few miles from the excellent pub in Wineham where we stopped for lunch.

The route we chose meant that we opted for a climb around Devil’s Dyke rather than Ditchling Beacon. This was chosen in order to make the last section of the ride less daunting – but it was still quite a challenging bit of hill, believe me. I’d definitely do the ride again, and I’d use that route again too – once we were past the M25 it really came into it’s own. Beautiful.

All in all we’ve now raised over £3000 for Action Aid. It definitely makes the sore knees less painful knowing that. Thanks to everyone who pledged support.

In a (possibly vain, given this blog’s readership – or lack thereof) attempt to improve the visibility of the site, I’m following Mia’s advice and linking to an excellent site about London’s Mayor. He’s the worst thing to happen to my city for years, and I’m really rather worried about the next four years. Mia puts it far better than I could.

And I’ve only contemplated murder once during that time. Things that have been taking up my leisure time are Roller Derby, Bicycle maintenance and Eine letters.

London Rollergirls are an awesome evening’s entertainment and I am sure to be back there in December for their next Jam. It was one of those occasions where you manage to bump into loads of people you know, and a great way to spend a Saturday.

I found another space invader this week, right next to work. There are a few more needing photos which I’ll get around to as and when I can.

Space invader, originally uploaded by gwawr247.

On a Soho wall

Radio 4 this morning (Download – 24′20″ in to the hour) has managed to remind me of an amusing discovery I made last year while wandering around the web. It’s just the sort of tangental wander that I wish I had time to make more of, and one of the reasons I love the web.

While working for a great agency, I began discussing the EINE letters with one of the staff who like me, lived in that part of East London scattered with them. He had purchased a poster of the entire alphabet, and though I had seen a lot of them, I realised I had no idea where to find all 26.

So I went surfing. Flickr being an obvious first call I dropped in and hit paydirt almost immediately. Fellow East Londoner Dave Gorman had collected his own load of letters over 3 nights and uploaded the results to his quite popular photostream. And then I noticed the username; “dgbalancesrocks”. It occured to me that the latter part of the username must be fairly significant if it had relegated his name to simply initials.That’s how I found out about rock balancing.

Aside from the fact that I think Dave has a fantastic eye for detail, and takes some really lovely photos of things around and about my area (I’m liking the collection of dscreet owls, many of which cover the same parts of town as the EINE letters), and further afield, he also, it seems, balances rocks. I fear have neither the patience nor the sense of balance required for this most zen of pass-times. From street art to beach art, via Bethnal Green, a journey in a lunchtime remembered.