flaneurs | Entries tagged with challenges

June challenge III.(c), part two: flanage report at my journal again, to a bridge via an Oblique Strategy and a giant raccoon. How could you possibly resist? Enjoy!

spiralsheep

June challenge III.(c): flanage report at my journal, with a list of grey things and links to antique wall art. How could you possibly resist? Enjoy!

Current Location: Living in the past

spiralsheep

Having had to switch days, and towns, due to this year's first attempt being nobbled by balloonists, it will come as no surprise when I reveal that I partially failed again. This time it was due to the new cafe, chosen by the person I was meeting, being closed on Mondays, lol.

Report at my journal.

squirmelia

Hounslow is a place I think of more as somewhere to start an adventure (by getting a tube from there to Heathrow airport), as opposed to somewhere to have an adventure, but for a Flaneurs June challenge, I went to Hounslow. This perhaps isn’t the adventure you’ve been waiting 4 years to read about, but I will tell you about it anyway, and there are highwaymen.

My real motivation for going to Hounslow was because I wanted ice-cream, specifically unusual ice-cream flavours. I chose two fruit flavours - chickoo and custard apple, and ate them as I walked towards the start of the walk from Hounslow Station.

Hounslow has a heath! I found this out from the local council's website, as when I searched for walks, two appeared - Hounslow Heath history hike and Hounslow Heath wild walk. Hounslow Heath walks and trails.

( Read more... )

nou

Challenge II.(a) asks you to walk outwards from a railway terminus for a specific length of time, following the railway line as closely as possible. I’ve been doing a modified version of this in stages for a few years, walking from West Croydon to London Bridge.

Two years ago I reported on an earlier stage of this, and now I have finally finished it. Here’s my map. I find it quite interesting to see how closely I could stick to the line in some places, and how much I had to detour in others.

( A few photos below the cut. )

I also took many many photos of railway bridge identifiers, which I seem to be collecting.

bob

On the 15th of June I did flaneurs challenge III. (d). I started at West Norwood station and ended up in Norbury.
I found an interesting manhole cover

bob

On June 1st I did challenge II(b).
I randomly ended up with page 154 column D of our A-Z. In fact I did pages 136 and page 166 as well.
I think there was one point where I went outside the column but only briefly.

nou

It’s June! Get going on your challenges. (bob has just set off on the first one of his.)

nou

It’s nearly time for the June challenge! I’m hoping to get more of it done this year, since my breathing difficulties seem to be on their way to being fixed.

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

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

Make an attempt during June 2019 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.

Nobody has asked for flaneurs swag for a few years now, but I still have some supplies (stickers, badges, and postcards) if anyone wants some to mark successful completion of a challenge.

squirmelia

My notebooks fell off my shelf and I started looking through them and there were journeys I'd been on by bus written in some of them, that I never got around to writing up. Here is one such journey:

I did June Challenge I.(c) Buses, but which June I did it in, I am unsure now. Maybe I have photos and tracks to accompany it somewhere. Anyway, for this challenge, I got on the first bus that came along, then got off after 9 stops.

( Read more... )

nou

Here's the roundup for this year's June challenge! Below is the list of who did what — please let me know of any errors or omissions.

bob did I.c [post] and II.b [post] in London.
shewhostaples did II.b in Cambridge [post].
nanila did III.a in London [comment].
nou did I.c in London (and a tiny bit in Surrey) [post].
philandstuff did II.c in London [Twitter thread].
secretlondon did I.b [post] and III.a [post] in London.

This means that bob and secretlondon did two themes, while shewhostaples, nanila, nou, and philandstuff all did one theme. Congratulations to all participants, and special congratulations to shewhostaples, nanila, and philandstuff as first-time participants!

flaneurs swag is available to everyone who did at least one theme of the challenge. We have button badges, postcards, and stickers. If you did one theme, you get one thing, if you did two themes, you get two things, and if you did all three themes, you get all three things. Please message or email me (kake@earth.li) with a postal address and your choice(s) of prizes, and I'll get them sent out ASAP.

nou

Like we did in 2016, in 2014, in 2013, and in 2012, bob and I made simultaneous attempts at Theme I: Buses, subtheme (c) (get on the first bus that comes along, stay on for n stops, get off, repeat), starting from the same stop, with me taking n=5 and him taking n=6.

This year we did it from a different stop, since I was fed up of going up and down London Road on buses. We chose Poplar Walk, which is just around the corner from our old stop.

bob went on a very loopy journey which involved going to Purley twice (we coincided on the first visit, and broke for lunch at Cafe Blue) and through West Croydon bus station at least twice. My journey was rather less loopy, and ended up at a featureless roundabout just over the Surrey border.

So my London bus flânage actually extended outside London. It wasn’t enormously exciting, though — the only place it took me that I hadn’t been before was the roundabout at the end, which was quite boring. Hopefully next year will be better!

Here is my map.

nou

Hello Flâneurs! If you have any pending June challenge reports, please get them in ASAP since I’ll be doing a roundup within the next week.

Also a request for feedback. I’ve been wondering for a while whether doing the challenge in a solstice month is a bad idea. June is generally quite hot in London, and last year I backed out on doing one of the challenges because I couldn’t face the heat. Would an equinox month be better? In practice, unless someone else is willing to admin the challenge, this would mean March, since I have a recurring commitment in September that takes up a lot of my time.

So a poll! This is not binding, just to get an idea of opinions. Please feel free to opinionate in comments too or instead.

Poll #20180

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

View Respondents

Should we switch the Flâneurs challenge month from June to March?

View Answers

yes
4 (33.3%)

no
2 (16.7%)

maybe
4 (33.3%)

I like ticking boxes
7 (58.3%)

bob

We did a bus flanage again this year and started from somewhere new but kept our numbers the same.

The map is very loopy

shewhostaples

Last weekend I had a go at challenge II (b):

II. (b)

Get an A-Z map (or similar) of your city - something that has a grid of squares overlaid on the maps. Choose a page at random, then choose a grid column on that page at random. Start in the square at the top of this column, and travel as far as you can down the page without leaving the column.

I couldn't find my A-Z street atlas, so had to use a city centre map. ( Report, with images )

secretlondon

Every year I've done challenge 3a (2014, 2015, 2015b, 2016, 2017). I was worried flaneurs might not happen this year. What should I do? Should I do it anyway? What happens if I break the chain?

III. (a)

Travel to or from your workplace one day using a completely different route to any you've ever used before.

Working in zone 6 is only tolerable as it's 20 minutes by train from Vauxhall to Surbiton. Although I could probably get home by bus in several hours I just didn't have the energy. This was a bit boring so I may come up with something better later on in the month.

I considered the K1 bus to New Malden but felt bored. I walked to a main road and all the buses were boring too. Zzzz.

I ended up walking from Tolworth Hospital to Tolworth itself. It started out as suburbia and became a linear shopping street. Tolworth Tower happened and then a roundabout with underpasses, Elephant and Castle style. It's the 1960s! Walking further I got to the station - 1930s Art Deco like others round here. Unlike Surbiton Station the one in Tolworth needs some love and attention. There are only two trains an hour from here. Going the other way I'd end up at Chessington World of Adventures.
( Photos )

Current Mood: tired

secretlondon

Last year I did two challenges based on small London buses which have letter suffixes - Small buses with letters and The bus of St George. Looking back I've done a few flans with these local little buses which go off the beaten track. In 2013 I did 10 stops of the C10 and I went on the W19 in 2015.

Today was the turn of the K1 - a little bus going from Kingston to New Malden via Surbiton and Tolworth. It also goes past Tolworth Hospital, and in good little bus style it's the only bus that does.

1b is:

Get on the first bus that comes along (and that you're able to get onto).
Stay on the bus until you reach the 10th stop or the end of the route, whichever comes first.
Get off and navigate your way home by a method of your choice.

This was quite a disappointing flan. My current work route is Surbiton Station to Tolworth Hospital and that turns out to be 9 stops worth. Ten stops is just round the corner from Surbiton station. This is very boring.

The other way the bus goes to New Malden. I was going to wait 15 minutes for it when I realised it has a hail and ride section. How do i count stops with that?

Have some photos - Surbiton Station is a lovely Art Deco thing.
( Photos )

Current Mood: tired

bob

As is seemingly customary once again I have done the walking of a column in the A-Z aka II(b).

I did page 162 column A

This tuesday will be bus riding day.

nou

secretlondon reminded me that it’s nearly time for the June challenge! My respiratory health is terrible at the moment and so I’m not certain I’ll be able to participate, but I’ll be eagerly reading other people’s reports regardless.

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

Make an attempt during June 2018 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.

(Swag is currently stickers, badges, and postcards. I would be very grateful to anyone who can volunteer to organise a different type. You don’t have to be able to afford to pay for it — I have that covered — just able to decide what it should be and then make it happen.)

nou

Here's the roundup for this year's June challenge! Below is the list of who did what — please let me know of any errors or omissions.

bob did I.c [post] and III.d [map with photos] in London.
dooriya did I.b [post] and III.d [post].
nou did II.a [post] in London.
secretlondon did I.b [post] and III.a [post] in London.
spiralsheep did II.b [post] in Penzance, II.c [post] in Tewkesbury, and III.d [post] in Torbay.
squirmelia did I.c [comment] in London and III.d [post] in Kraków.

This means that bob, dooriya, secretlondon, spiralsheep, and squirmelia all did two themes, while nou did one theme. Congratulations to all participants, and special congratulations to dooriya as a first-time participant!