From day to day we move ourselves from one place to another.  Sometimes we engage with our environment, sometimes we go for a ride with our thoughts, and sometimes we engage with others by text messaging or talking to them.  Either way, we are connected when we are wandering along from one place to another.  Photography has taught me something I now cherish.  It has taught me to be present in my environment, to really look at the street I am walking down and all its little gems, be it a historical building looking grand or a shop window radiating colour.

Moving from one place to another is no longer wasted time – it is time to cherish, time to really see my environment, smell its smells, hear its sounds, watch its people.  From wandering on foot, I took this to my bicycle after some homework from my study class.  We had to notice something on our journey to work that we had not noticed before.  All of a sudden I am not arriving at work wondering how I got there, despite my lungs and legs telling me I had indeed ridden there.  Instead I could recall the morning sun’s warmth on my skin, the number of green lights I got to zip through, and signs for houses to let all along the way.   This engagement is incredibly freeing from the round about of thoughts that can repeat themselves 900 times over in a 30-minute cycle commute.  Instead I arrive home free of work and feel more connected with the city I live in.

]]> http://snippetsofeverything.com/2010/07/03/connected-presence/feed/ 1 ames NQ shop window waiting for coffee Shude Hill http://snippetsofeverything.com/2010/05/25/bike-spotting/ http://snippetsofeverything.com/2010/05/25/bike-spotting/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 17:14:48 +0000 ames http://snippetsofeverything.com/?p=2028 ]]>

Ten years ago Barcelona was not a city you would ride a bicycle around.  Fast forward to now and Bicing bicycles are all over the city and a part of the public transport network.  For a mere 30 euros a year residents can become members, much like a gym membership and use the thousands of bicycles placed around the city.  Using a swipe card the bikes are released from a magnetic lock and if their members return them within 15-minutes there is no extra charge, just the annual fee.  With so many placed around the city this is quite easy to do.  Those unlucky to not meet the time cut are only charged a small fee per quarter of an hour, so there is motivation to return the bike quickly.

This is a brilliant system which would be great in Manchester, Auckland… where ever!  Manchester is a good cycling city.  It is entirely flat yet not many people commute by bicycle despite the infrastructure such as cycle lanes everywhere.  At my work alone, which is a temporary building for us, there are six showers on the ground floor and one shower on every other floor and this building was built for an IT company.  Facilities are ready and waiting to be engaged when habits are overcome.

]]> http://snippetsofeverything.com/2010/04/29/bicing-barcelona/feed/ 0 ames bicing barcelona bicing barcelona http://snippetsofeverything.com/2010/03/26/positive-action/ http://snippetsofeverything.com/2010/03/26/positive-action/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:32:52 +0000 ames http://snippetsofeverything.com/?p=1820 ]]> The success of the Kiwi team at the World Track Cycling Championships this week has been remarkable, but this success is also over shadowed by yet another death of a cyclist this week.

Dr Johann Edge was killed on Thursday night riding home from work through Pakuranga, Auckland.  Known as Han’s to his friends, he was best-man at my good friends Joy and Vini’s wedding.  Han’s was 36, and left behind 3 young children – the youngest only 4-months.  Han’s is another unfortunate statistic that did not need to happen.

Cycling is not dangerous, and neither is driving.  But unskilful cycling and unskilful driving is.   We can sit back and moan, and wait for ourselves, our children or our friends to become a statistic or we can take positive action to change the culture of sharing the road.    So how do we do this?

• Be visible by doing your best to dress up like a Christmas tree, unfashionably out of season.  One light is not enough – just in case the batteries run out, always have two, and wear bright clothing.  Riding with others also helps visibly and presence on the road.

• Educate every person you know at work, and within your circle of family and friends about how to safely share the road driving, and cycling.  The more people that know how to, and know the consequences of 2-seconds of impatience, the safer our roads will be.  Take, and make every opportunity to educate.

• Have presence by avoiding riding in the gutter.  It is safer to ride 1-metre out  as cars can seen you and have to drive around you.  If they come close, you then have 1-metre leeway to move to the left.  If you are in the gutter, and they side swipe you, you have nowhere to go.

• Take action if someone does something inappropriate.  Be it another cyclist or a driver, and educate them.  Likewise, if any roads are particularly unsafe contact your local council and help come up with solutions.  Be a part of the solution, and don’t sit back and expect solutions to happen of out inaction.  If you are driving in your car be mindful of cyclists, and if you see someone driving unsafely around cyclists take their number plate details and report it.  As a driver, advocate for cyclists.

• Learn how to ride by taking cycling classes.  There are techniques you can learn to make cycling with others and in traffic safer for you and for cars.

• Do not react with anger if a driver is throwing their fist at you. Think of the next cyclist they will encounter and the consequences of your actions.  Instead of reacting, smile, because if they are throwing their fist at you, this means they have seen you!  If their actions were dangerous take their number plate and lodge a complaint.

• Stick to the road rules and do not deviate from them.  It is all too easy to skip a red light, or be influenced by others doing so.  But think of those watching.  You never know if a child is watching you do this from a car or from the side of the road.  Likewise what if you are riding in a bunch that does this, and you reinforce it, while a 13-year old rider is also on that bunch, and then does it while riding alone, and gets hit.  Think of what you are implicitly teaching those around you.

I was guilty of doing this until I was driving on Auckland’s Remuera road and on automatic pilot I stopped at a red light, looked to see if anything was coming and then continued through the red light in the trance of habit.  Halfway across the intersection I woke up and realised I was not on my bike, but in my car!  We have road rules for a reason.  Don’t make deviations from them otherwise it instils unsafe habits.  I am damn lucky nothing happened and I was given another chance to change my habit.

We cannot blame unskilful drivers and completely put all responsibility on them to make the road safer.  We also need to take responsibility to create the environment that is safe for us by taking positive action.

“The idea that you’re too small or too powerless to create change is the biggest reason for inaction. And it’s probably the weakest excuse ever.”

- Jonathan Mead

You may not believe it is possible to change the culture of sharing the road, nor that you can do anything to make a difference, but you can.  Think of Nelson Mandala, or Martin Luther King.  One person can make an enormous difference.  Each day, do something to make cycling safer for yourself, your friends, and your family, and slowly the culture of sharing the road will improve: one day at a time.

On the weekend I had one mission: clean my poor fixie of its 2-3 months of dirt and grime from commuting. The basement carpark of my building is home to many bikes. In the darkness I found this Bianchi Pista. I am not sure if it abandoned. Even though it is the size of a gate, I am hoping it is abandoned so I can restore it to fixie greatness.  Next stop is the caretaker to find out if it is indeed a homeless gem.

Huddersfield canal

The UK was hit by a snow siege in early January. This included up to 10-inches of snow in some places, and Greater Manchester turning into a winter wonderland. One weekend KC and I headed 30-minutes east of Manchester up into the hills to Saddleworth. Saddleworth is dissected with the huddersfield canal, built in the early 1800′s.

Many of the canals in Manchester city have precarious foot prints dissecting their flanks, which frankly scared me, no matter how curious I am about how thick the frozen over canals are.

“Do you have snow chains?”  I asked KC when the snow started to regularly fall.
“Oh no! We don’t need them!”  Ominous words as gradually the snow piled up and Manchester public transport ground to a halt. So much so we even had a snow day off work.

Snow patrol

When it is -14 degrees it is important to dress warm! At least 6-layers, two pairs of socks and boots are essential! I’ve never lived anywhere it gets that cold.   One morning the bus driver told me it had been -15 over night in Manchester. Weirdly enough -10, or -14 does not feel that much different to -2.  There must be a threshold from which we don’t feel any difference any more?

While I haven’t been able to ride my bike, or run having a white Christmas and a snowy winter is well worth it.  Much fun.

The winter wonderland view from my work back to Manchester city

I miss my bike!  I say that to myself as I see a group of fixie riders cruise down my street pulling manuals – one handed.  My reservation to ‘snow ride’ on my fixie with 23mm tyres is fence sitting.  Shall I, shall I not?  Just as I type this I look out the window and see it is snowing again!

Florence (Firenze), Italy

The Italian’s love there bicycles which of course I am completely in favour of.  More to report soon.

I’ve always had a few little green streaks running through me but not enough to overcome laziness.  90% of the time I buy organic, free range, everything that needs to be organic, or free range but again there was a twist to that – I don’t want to eat chemicals, and don’t agree with penning up animals.  Coming to the UK has been interesting in that respect.  I have watched a lot of documentaries (in NZ) about the awful farming methods of how various chains produce “cheap” meat in the UK.  Consequently from the day I got here I have not eaten anything that does not have “free range/organic” on it.   A number of chains have distinguished themselves having products that are locally made, fairtrade, free range and organic food stuffs which is splendid, nonetheless I rarely eat meat now because getting both free range + organic is quite difficult.  The gradual decline in fear of eating a penned up chicken has gone to another level recently with more involvement in Buddhism.  One Buddhist ethic, or precept is “to refrain from causing harm to other living beings.”

Even the Dalai Lama chews on meat so it isn’t exactly a must do as a Buddhist to be a vegetarian, but with growing concerns in this world of how we produce things, and how little knowledge we, the end consumer have on how we get that cheap thing I do not want to add to animals suffering, or create demand for products made by some poor bugger who lives in a cardboard box and works 100-hours a week.  A poet  (a vegan poet no less!) did a great performance at the Sangha Festival.  He did a coming out poem, like a coming out story, but as a vegan.  He made a very good point – that eating meat is conditioning.  We can live without it.  That compassion for animals is a choice.

… but still …. I like bacon.  And that is where I struggle.  In talking to my work mate about this, he told me a great story.

“I always thought my wife didn’t like coffee.  She never drank it, until one day I walked into her house and I could smell a really nice coffee brewing.  I said to her, I thought you didn’t like coffee!  As I love it.  She replied oh no, I love coffee.  I just wanted to see how long I could go without it.”

It had been 2.5 years.  Now that is self-mastery.

Likes and dislikes can become a habit, just like eating, or riding, or driving or taking the bus.  I disliked mushrooms for many years, now I love them.  I caught the bus to work for 6-weeks thoroughly engrained in my bus ride, enjoying my podcasts each day while my bicycle wondered when I would use it to get to work.

And then we moved offices.

With an office move a mere 3-miles north we crossed bus territory.  That meant bus fares almost doubled and since then I have ridden everyday.  I am shamed to admit that money got me cycle commuting to work, not the environment.  Nonetheless now I love my ride in.  It’s flat, a consistent head wind to work, and a zippy tail wind home as if the wind is as keen as I am to get me home.  It’s funny the things that shake us out of our habits, but overall I know that while I have had good intentions the reality is that other influences have shaken me out of laziness, out of conditioning, out of my habits.  But still I ponder, and wonder if I can do without butter chicken?