2011 Streak Day 256 (Friday Sept 16th): Seasons

2011 Streak Day 256 (Friday Sept 16^th): Walk 4 miles, Time 1hr 30min, Weather - bright, cloudy, bright, cloudy

Another Cambridge day with a walk back to the Park&Ride. If I had been feeling more chipper I would have done it both ways but I still feel rough and back was enough.

This has been a very strange week. I have been able to keep going up to a point  but there have been no energy reserves. I have done a little and then felt washed out. 

Nevertheless it is always good to come to Cambridge. It is a nice time as the tourists are thinning-out but the students have not yet come back. Not that the place is empty - the city is never empty as there are always visitors, even on bleak winter days (and some winter days can be very bleak). But Cambridge has its seasons with people as well as trees and plants.

Sitting, overlooking the river, I enjoy the signs of autumn. As I have said more than a few times the whole point of this years project is to observe the changing of the seasons.

2011 Streak Day 235 (Wednesday Aug 24th): Dreamlike

2011 Streak Day 235 (Wednesday  Aug 24^th):  Walk - 4.1 miles, Time 1hr 25min, Weather - Scudding clouds, patches of sun, patches of grey, quite warm

In the beginning of the film Michael Clayton George Clooney stops his car in the middle of nowhere and walks towards some horses that have appeared from the dawn mist. As he reaches out there is an explosions and the car he has just left  is a fire ball. The horses run off. There is a strange dreamlike feel to the whole scene and in particular to the horses in the mist.

Nothing dramatic happened to me today. There were definitely no explosions but I had the same dreamlike sensation as I came across this hooded horse, standing peacefully in the wooded fringe of a field, his coat dappled with sunlight. It was ever so slightly weird. I have not seen a blindfolded horse horse before. I assume he had had some sort of treatment but I don't know much about horses and that is only supposition.

It was just odd, I was walking on a footpath, small stream to one side, wood to the other, completely alone. In such places the imagination can have a feast.

Other than that it was a day in Cambridge with my exercise being the walk back to the Trumpington park&ride. I could still feel yesterday  and it was a bit of a slog but I survived by going slow and looking around.

2011 Streak Day 194/365: Tourist season in Cambridge

2011 Streak Day 194/365 (Wed. 13th July): Walk - 5.62 miles, Time 1hr 55min, Weather - showery with bright periods

Another Cambridge day and another use of the Trumpington Park&Ride as a Park&Walk.

It is now the high tourist season in Cambridge and it is difficult to walk at any pace once you are in the centre. The upside is that it is even more fun watching the punting on the river it becomes even more chaotic. I like this spot on the terrace of the Anchor - every so often I can look-up from the conversation to watch inexperienced punters bump into each other.

I am amused by small things.

Juneathon 2011 Day 22: There was some dampness

2011 Streak Day 173/365: Walk - 4.4 miles, Time - 1hr, 25min, Weather - rather wet at times

Another Cambridge day with the opportunity to get my exercise by walking to the park & ride at Trumpington. I didn't do it both ways because it was ever so slightly wet (as can be seen from the photo).

Although I have admitted that I enjoy some types of rain (e.g. a gentle misty rain), heavy downpours are not included. I dislike them and if by mischance I am out when they start, I look for shelter.

However one of the things I have learnt from my 2011 project is that there are very few days when the weather is bad enough to be truly unpleasant. I have so far been out consecutively for 173 days, and although the weather is often a factor in setting the mood and can sometimes cause a change of plan it has never been bad enough to make the exercise a test of endurance. Almost all my difficulties have been due to my mentality rather than external factors.

Even today was not bad. This was a shower. It came and it went, afterwards there were white clouds. The walk back was really quite pleasant.

2011 Streak Day 134: This might not look like a war zone but ...

2011 Streak Day 134: Walk - 6.35miles, Time - 2hrs, Weather - Cloudy and cool but sunny later

There is still a war going on. In 2009 the Cambridge punt wars were reported in the national press but it looks as if they are still not resolved. Last Month The Cambridge Evening News reported more damage It is a cut throat business, even if the image is of a sun dappled river, beautiful surroundings and civilised idleness. Behind the scenes there are touts, fighting and foul play. 

Part of me was surprised to learn that punting in Cambridge is a £2.5 million industry. But it makes perfect sense because there are so very many tourists and a leisurely punt on the sun dappled river is a fondly held image.

The picture was taken from the Anchor - an ideal spot for watching the start and finnish of the trips. By the end most people have got the hang of steering but at the beginning turning the punt round to go under the bridge is usually a challenge.

I have simple pleasures: a beer and watching the world go by and I am happy.

My walking today was the now usual Cambridge exercise of park and walk instead of park and ride. I am not sure how many others do the same - perhaps it needs marketing as a health initiative

2011 Streak 103/365: Comings and goings in Cambridge

2011 Streak 103/365: Walking - 4.85 miles, time - 2hrs, Weather - Cloudy and cool

Another day in Cambridge another use of the park and ride, with walking instead of riding but instead of walking both ways, I just walked back.  Usually I do the obvious thing and follow all the way down the Trumpington Road  but this time I took a slight diversion in search of the Guided Busway.

For those of you who know nothing about guided busways (including myself) the picture shows the track. In its way this is a groundbreaking piece of infrastructure because it will be by far the longest such busway in the world, linking Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge. But it has not had an easy history, my picture might show wonderfully straight lines but that is no metaphor for a project that has been mired in difficulty from the very beginning. 

I am sure that every new piece of infrastructure faces objections but in this case 2,735 were lodged with the public inquiry. Nevertheless it was given the go ahead and work began in 2007, with completion expected in 2009.

As you might guess from the photo things have not quite gone to plan and it is still not open.  It might look completed but the contractor has not yet handed over the project and the latest excuse is that it doesn't have, or has mislaid, the required electrical safety certificates (very strange ). Of course costs have gone up, from an original £116 to £181, and of course there are stories of waste (such as people being employed since 2009 even though there was no service). There is a media archive here of the whole history that details the story.

Almost all infrastructure projects run into to problems, cost more than expected and are delayed (you only have to think of the Channel Tunnel). If they are good projects, after a time the initial difficulties are forgotten and people appreciate facility, which becomes part of their lives. If however the project is not well thought-out and unsuccessful it will always be derided as idiotic by people saying they always knew better.

At the moment you cannot tell what will happen as the concept is still waiting to be proved. All that I know is that at the moment an empty yet complete roadway feels odd and slightly eerie.

If the guided busway was the coming for Cambridge, the going is Fitzbillies.

I Know I am late with this news as it closed in February but it is still worth noting. It is one of those shops that somehow define a city, as Cambridge is a place that ought to have a good traditional cake shop. Something about that idea feels right. Fitzbillies was that shop… but no no more.

It was really famous for was its extremely sticky chelsea buns and so I can think of no finer tribute than this entry from the blog Afternoon Tease, which is a recipe for chelsea buns. 

I think I will give it a go.