Another Sunday deadline has just passed with that terrible whooshing sound that deadlines make. I’m beginning to get a bit worried about the whole novel-writing work ethic. As always, I have excuses at the ready though. One is a good excuse and one is piss-poor really, but kinda cool in a geeky way so stay tuned.
I took this week off from work to try to catch up on the novel-writing as well as a few other non-work commitments. One of these commitments was building the supporting website for a charity cycle ride I’m embarking on in the first week of September from London to Amsterdam. Check it out. It’s lovely: http://www.ibcbikeride.co.uk/. This, then was the first noble excuse and it is tied to the more selfish but arguably cooler second excuse.
Actually, there’s a third excuse, but it’s an excuse for next Sunday, not last Sunday. It’s me and the missus’s 8th wedding anniversary on Friday. Fortunately all three excuses come together as you are about to see. And they come together in three little letters: GPS.
I kind of bought my own anniversary gift, which I admit isn’t a very romantic way to go about things, but hey, it’s better than letting your spouse choose. My poor, long-suffering wife got nothing but a pair of bicycle tires for as her anniversary gift.
Anyway, with the same aforementioned spouse’s approval, I bought myself a little gps receiver that connects via Bluetooth to my phone. There’s quite a variety of free software out there that lets you connect your phone to these types of gps units. The coolest service I’ve found so far though is a free online tracking service. I set this up for the charity ride to Amsterdam but I’m just testing it out in general as well to see how it works.
This is potentially very exciting for you gentle reader as tomorrow the missus and I are cycling from Richmond to Marlow along the Thames, and you’ll be able to follow us in real time! How romantic is that? We both get to put our anniversary gifts to good use.
Just go to http://free.3dtracking.net/home.aspx and login with:
username: bbc2ibc
password: bbc2ibc
Cool or what? The best part is if you have Google Earth installed, you can follow us on Google Earth and the aerial photography google has for the area we’re going through is fantastic. You’ll be able to pretty much ride along with us as we go. Check it out.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we take the train to Richmond and then cycle to the Danesfield House just past Marlow. Friday we lounge around and get all loveydovey. Saturday we cycle home again.
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