bikes and things

Emma and I have recently discovered the joys of the South London Gallery which is 5 mins cycle from us. They do a fantastic breakfast and the coffee is top notch. They’re housed in a beautifully refurbished and extended building by 6a Architects. They have a superb bookshop and the staff are all seem to be super friendly and helpful.

We recently went and saw the “Pursuit of perfection: The politics of sport“, the most interesting bit was this installation by Aleksandra Mir named Triumph. It consisted of 2529 trophies bathed in glorious sunlight in this amazing space. Some of the trophies were completely bonkers and so over the top. Others consisted of ridiculous figurines doing all sorts of sports. The nicest thing was that when I asked to take a picture there was no problem. It kind of threw me a bit at first but was great to be able to record the space without resorting to secret snapshots with the phone.

The space in which it was presented was superb and my eye was quickly drawn to the chunky original door ironmongery on the door at the end of the room.

Hard to get a sense of scale from this but it was massive and still worked perfectly well. So many nice little features to discover in this place. Will probably be there again next weekend drinking coffee and enjoying the atmosphere.

Love the autumn light. Just caught this before the moment went last night.

Unfortunately I’d left the camera on 1600 ISO so a little bit of noise in there. I grabbed another shot a few seconds later the light had gone.

Lovely little video clip visualising the journeys taken by Boris bike users. Worth reading the full article which accompanies it over at New Scientist.

Via @RichardBattye.

Not such a shocking revelation when you think about it but great to see a picture from London illustrate this so succinctly. Still want a Bullit Cargo bike as pictured in the image. Just think how many cars would be needed to for that many people!

Image © Carlton Reid.

#bikeboom pic negates almost every wonky stereotype about people who ride bikes in London

27 folks on bikes: some in helmets, most not; some in hi-vis, most not; some on fixies, most not. None on the pavement, none going through the red light. Two ‘cycle chic’ women; otherwise mostly men, but not one in Lycra. A pair of sandals but not worn by the only hippie. Perhaps oddly there’s not one folding bike to be seen, and no Boris bikes either. (And why is cycling so white?)

Along with this is the fantastic image from 1991 commissioned by Münster City Planning Department (interestingly my sister was born here) which has done the rounds again. They showed three images which showed the space required to transport 72 people by various modes of transport. The image speaks for itself really.

Another shot of the Shard I’m afraid. There’s the potential for yet more to come.

Ever since getting the 70-200 I have been looking out of the window each evening waiting for a lovely sunset. Not as good as hoped but the light on the South West face was just too good to miss. Looks a bit sci-fi to me with all the red lights – a bit Blade Runner even.

Love seeing things like this and wondering what the story behind it is. Bomb damage? Other side demolished and these guys held out?

I had the pleasure of seeing Grimes last night at Heaven with Emma, Janey and Kasha. We arrived for the main act but it was kind of all very strange from the start. It all felt a little Nathan Barley at first mainly due to he presence of a pole dancer behind her along with a man waving glowing sticks in the air next to her. Other parts felt more like something the KLF might have done.

Couple of great tunes in there from her latest album but was pretty underwhelmed by the rest. I guess one of the reasons is that you couldn’t actually tell what she was singing and what was sample due to her being in total darkness. Regardless we had a great time, the venue was decent, bar service quick and even the bouncers friendly. Also managed to get a quick trip to Herman Ze German in before.

You see all sorts of bad examples of driving each day when commuting but this video clip just terrifies me. It wasn’t until I viewed it again that I realised it was from a section of my ride back from work. Fortunately I take the left hand bus lane.

It’s hard to give people the benefit of doubt when you see examples like this. There’s still something that stops recording my commutes even though I have a GoPro which I could use.

Managed to get a ride in today with Matt. Rather than the usual trip to the Surrey Hills we gave the Lordship Loop pump track a go up near Tottenham. Good fun but knackering really. Would be great to have this on your doorstep to play on when you had a spare five mins. Incredibly hard to pump all the way round and feel it should have had a shorter figure of eight and then a longer section for those who had the first bit dialled. Anyway, still good fun. Beer and pizza for after and a snooze too.

Image © Matt Noble

I completely understand people’s choice to wear a helmet or not. Personally I do but don’t look down at others who don’t – unless you’re at a trail centre where it’s just dumb not to. But I’ve still never understood the “helmet clipped to bag” or “helmet hung from handlebars approach”. If you’ve gone to the bother of buying one, taking it out of the house then why not wear it?

And a great response from Richard on Twitter.