What’s below loosely qualifies as London blogging, but don’t forget that no one does that better than Diamond Geezer.
The Pandemic. Remember that? Remember what you got up to?
Firstly, The Pandemic never ended. We’re still in it. It might officially no longer be a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" (PHEIC), but Covid still hospitalises and kills.
Now that’s out of the way, I remember what I got up to when movement was restricted. It’s easy to remember because I still do it to this day, if I have the time.
I toured the world. Not literally, of course, but thanks to the virtual experience provided by the incredible Directions Map (with Animated Street View) from Map Channels - since superseded by Street View Animator from TripGeo Maps.
To quote Hank Snow/Lucky Starr (Geoff Mack), I’ve been everywhere, man. I won’t list the places, but my touring takes in most of your standard European city break locations, Tokyo and a load of America - particularly New York City. And currently, I’m back in the UK capital.
I don’t live in London, you’ll understand, and I haven’t for 15 years. But I used to “IRL” visit and explore with the assistance of a 1994 edition of Andrew Duncan’s Walking London, which was thrown back into action eventually in 2021.
I did every walk in there, virtually, and then took my walking on the spot - unsophisticated, but it still counts - to “following” the football teams I support on their televised domestic and European trips, mainly, and then imagined long-haul flights to take in places even further afield.
But London has my heart, and now, with my TripGeo-powered experience upgraded to the incorporation of a static bike, I’m visiting every - this I will list, so I’ll take a deep breath - Decathlon, snooker hall, Sports Direct, Lidl, Catholic church, golf course, blue plaque, basketball court, gym (both indoor and outdoor) and tennis court within the M25 boundary. These are a few of my favourite things and I’ll be dropping in thanks to an anticlockwise-bound spiral that started at Kings Langley Railway Station and now sees me in Addlestone after taking in, amongst other things, Ali G-land Staines et al and Thorpe Park.
The “every” I mention might be a stretch - I’ve been limited to 2,000 tennis courts on my Google My Maps map, for example (which seems a lot for a mostly working-class city) - but I may play the odd round of Wii Sports golf, or a game of Wii Sports tennis, or a game of Wii Sports Resort basketball, or do an EA Sports Active workout… should a stage end at an associated venue.
So far, in my execution of a project I’ve fantasised about embarking on for several years, I’ve noted that west “London”, if we’re going to indulge my loose interpretation, has some lovely golf courses - with Denham Golf Club having a dedicated railway station! - and some crop fields, which is jarring, and the legend that is Uy Hoang has very much added waterways in that area to Google Street View, to invaluably supplement what the Street View Drivers and Trekkers have provided.
The added benefit is that I’m losing weight, as is very much intended and required. I do about ten miles in half an hour - I don’t mess about - with undulations I can discern being reflected in the resistance, and while my particular favourite TripGeo product may actually now be the mindblowing and dangerously addictive Travel Cat, that won’t help me fit into my jeans and it drains the time I have to do the work I advertise below.
No, I also have Worldle to improve upon my international geographical knowledge and my knowledge of London’s geography is ameliorated by The Spiral, with my waistline benefitting too. I have no idea when (if?) I’ll get it finished, and I’ll likely do some biking across New York State and the USA at large - Route 66, baby - as a transatlantic parallel, but there are worse ways to spend one’s time, right?
If you enjoyed this article, you can donate here. Donations increase the likelihood of more articles being produced, as more time can be dedicated to the site.
If you are interested in the writer contributing to your website or business in a very cheap guesting or ghostwriting capacity, this can be explored here. If you are impressed with the spelling and grammar and you would like the writer to proofread and edit your own content, click here for that very reasonably priced service.
Comments (0)