June challenge: 2014 version

[nou]

It's nearly June! Let's do the June challenge again.

Here are the themes: theme I: buses, theme II: lines, theme III: doing something different. Here are reports from previous years: I.(a), I.(c), I.(d), II.(a), II.(b), II.(c), II.(d), III.(a), III.(b), III.(c), III.(d).

To complete the challenge, all you need to do is:

• Make an attempt during June 2014 to follow at least one set of instructions from at least one theme.
• Report back to the community, either via a complete trip report or simply by leaving a comment on this post stating what you did and how it went.

As before, various bits of flaneurs swag will be offered to everyone who completes the challenge. The more themes you try, the more swag you get.

Who's in?

Comments

[nou]

I will once again be doing I.(c) with bob, starting from the same stop, with me taking n=5 and him taking n=6. We did this last year and the year before. If anyone else would like to join in and take a different n, the stop in question is just opposite West Croydon Station, South London, and we're doing it on Saturday 7 June, probably starting around 10am.

[spiralsheep]

It's nearly June!

NOOOOOO! IT'S ONLY JUST MAY!!

That aside, ;-P I shall no doubt succumb to the siren call of the June challenge again. Hopefully in at least one new city and possibly in a new country! Newport or Cardiff? Gloucester? Coventry? The 'burbs of Brum? Hmm....

[nou]

OK OK, it's only just May. It's just that I've been looking forward to a repeat of my bus flânage for months now!

Suspect I will be boring and do all mine in London.

[spiralsheep]

London is rarely if ever boring! I'd love to join you for massed bus flanage but it can't be done. Maybe one day. :-)

[nou]

Hopefully I will be doing this every June for the rest of my life :) (Never moving house again if I can help it.) So there is plenty of time for mass flânage from Croydon. Actually I may email a few local friends and see if they're up for it.

[spiralsheep]

I love you for both your planned annual habitual behaviour and your desire to grow roots, heh. ♥

[nou]

Heh <3

Can't remember if I mentioned this anywhere, but I worked out the other week that if I carry on my local history stuff at the current rate of once every three weeks, I should get to the end of it just before my 74th birthday. I'm rather pleased to have such a long-reaching plan.

[tim]

I will rise to the challenge, seeing as I'll be spending June in a place that's literally 4.6 miles (7.4 km) from the nearest bus stop!

[nou]

Heh, that sounds like actually the middle of nowhere to me, though I'm sure there are plenty of places where it's quite common. I look forward to your reports!

[mummimamma]

I'm in! Not quite sure what I'll do (or where I'll go) yet.

[nou]

Hurrah! There is plenty of time to decide.

[ridicully]

It's not nearly June yet and nothing you say will convince me otherwise.

But once it *is* June, I will definitely do some of the challenges. A few bus one's from Finsbury Park maybe. And at least something walking based when I am in Prague...

[nou]

OK OK, I'm just looking forward to the challenges TOO MUCH :)

Hurrah for participation!

[cxcvi]

I want to do this again, I think, but my stamina for walking has flatlined over the last 3 years.

Also, I've come up with a variant of the beer glass walk, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to document or test it any time soon.

(Also, I need to e-mail you about something, but am crap at initiating e-mail...)

[nou]

A small walk with plenty of sitting down is better than none! I'd love to hear about your beer glass walk variant.

(Would it help if I emailed you first? Same address as before?)

[cxcvi]

Ok. This might warrant a post of its own, but here's the general idea:

String Walk

You will need:
A city to walk in
A map of said city
Some string
A way of cutting said string
A way of measuring said string might be useful as well?
A pencil

Method:
1: Decide how long a walk you want to do.
2: Using the scale of your map, decide how long that would be on the map that you are using.
3: Cut a piece of string that is about twice that length.
4: Open the map up to roughly the area that you want to walk in.
5: Toss the string into the air so that it lands on the map. This may take a few attempts, depending on all of the usual factors.
6: Use the pencil to trace along one edge of the string, to mark the walking route.
7: Determine a suitable start (and end) point for your walk, based on all of the usual factors.
8: Walk!

Note that I haven't been able to test this yet, but hopefully I'll be able to at some point.

(Hopefully. Yes. We could also talk in IRC.)

[nou]

Ooh, interesting! Why is the string twice the length of the walk? Are you supposed to ignore loops?

(I'm not on IRC much at the moment, so I have emailed you.)

[squirmelia]

I thought I commented before, but perhaps I didn't.. anyway, I shall be attempting challenges! Looking forward to it.

[nou]

Yay!

[squirmelia]

I'm not going to write them all up by the end of the month, but this is just a note to say I also did a beer glass walk yesterday, and a take the long way home challenge on Friday.

[spiralsheep]

\o/

It’s going to take me at least a couple of weeks to report but I also confess to challenge II. (c) a local council walk (my first attempt at this challenge!), and yesterday I managed an epic version of I. (a) "investigate interesting thing seen from bus", both in Birmingham.