16 September 2010

Last post: It's goodbye

This is my last post here. Possibly for a few months, possibly for ever. I'm leaving London and going walkabout.

There may be occasional posts from exotic places round the world - Argentina, Stevenage, Japan, Hull Job Centre, who knows? Life is what you make of it. Except usually the instructions are missing, and the screws are the wrong size.

I'll miss this a lot: 717 posts, at least one per day, since 11 January 2009. I'll miss having the excuse for cycling round London and nosing around taking pictures and talking to people. I'll miss your comments. I'll miss you other bloggers. I'll miss the sheer exhilaration of living in a city where everything happens, everything and everyone comes to you, and it's all only a bike ride away.

I won't miss the psycho bus drivers, arrogant taxis and lawless minicabs. Or the Elephant and Castle roundabouts.

It's been a remarkable year, with the advent of the hire scheme and the Cycle Superhighways. London is certainly enjoying a cycling boom in terms of bike culture, buzz and PR; for the adventurous urbanite, there's no more exciting place in the world to explore by bike.

One day I hope to be back in London, and I also hope it's a better place to cycle. A place not just for wasp-men in sun-yellow jackets, wraparound shades, helmets and road bikes jumping lights, but for real cyclists: people in normal clothes simply going from A to B, where A and B might be shops, school, work, pub, home, friends', or even undefined, because it's just fun.

But a lot will have to change. Facilities remain patchy at best, and usually non-existent or positively dangerous. We're not even as far as the O of Copenhagen.

So now it's up to you. See you. Safe cycling everyone.

60 comments:

  1. Have been reading your blog, been entertained and informed for a while, good luck on your walkabout and look forward to maybe the occasional update

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  2. Bye!

    After reading your blog for a while and enjoying your writing style I bought your book. I've just started to visit the various sights in my area (Rutland Water was a couple of weekends ago). Thanks for all the good writing, encouragement of cycling, and recounting of tales.

    Best of luck to you and your bike.

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  3. Go Rob! Will greatly miss the blog.

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  4. Hey Rob, no! Are you serious? Bon voyage, and may your path be blessed. Let me know when you're in Stevenage and maybe we can meet up. I've always fancied seeing how they designed all the old cycleways.

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  5. Sorry to hear. All the best on your travels.

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  6. so long and thanks for all the fish

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  7. Thank you for 712 interesting and entertaining posts! I can only imagine the time and effort involved in making sure the rest of us had something to look forward to reading each day, usually when we were supposed to be doing something else. Good luck!

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  8. I will miss the daily post, thanks for them all, and best wishes for the walkabout. Oh, and nice stuff in Cycling Plus this month btw.

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  9. Rob, in departing you are leaving a great big gaping in hole in the London cycling blogging scene. Your keen observational humour and acerbic wit will be missed indeed. What adventures lay ahead I wonder, and will we hear about them hear?

    Congratulations on a terrific blog and such prolific output - I'll miss your wry take on the goings on around the development of cycling in London.

    Whatever lays ahead may it be fun, safe, smooth and crazy-taxi-driver free!

    Bonne chance & chapeau!

    Mark

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  10. Thanks for the blog, always cheery and entertaining, and all the best where ever you wander.
    Mark Garrett

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  11. I'll miss your posts; good luck on your walkabout :-)

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  12. Thanks so much for all the enjoyment I've had reading your posts for the past year or so, and the very best of luck for whatever it is you do next :) Cheers!!

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  13. You will be greatly missed.

    Keep us all up-to-date with your travels.
    I do hope "walkabout" actually means "cycleabout"

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  14. This is the worst post I have ever seen on this blog.

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  15. Oh no! The curse of my blogroll strikes again. I'm sure we'd all like to hear of your adventures on the road. And, really, walkabout? Not pedalabout?

    Anyway best of luck with it and I'll be checking back periodically for any new posts

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  16. Rob! Nooo! Don't leave us?!

    I hope your walkabout is a good adventure. Your fellow cycling blog has kept me well informed and entertained for so long. Will also miss your Cycling Plus updates if your packing that in for a while. Take it easy and come back to us soon!

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  17. @Andreas - I hope I'm still doing the Cycling Plus columns - I need the money!

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  18. I've really enjoyed your blog. Thanks for all the effort you've put in, I hope things go well for you. I'm keeping the feed though just in case!

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  19. Rob, all the best. Take care. What will I do with my extra two spare minutes every lunchtime?

    I wonder which of the 5 posts out of the 717 Nigel failed to find interesting or entertaining. Oh well, you can't please everyone!

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  20. I shall miss this Blog keeping me up to date on the Happenings in London and elsewhere like the Mountains of Scotland.

    I wish you well on your Journey and hope you can relate the odd snippet of interesting Traveling News whether on the Bicycle or on Foot.

    Best of luck for the Future.

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  21. Don't forget to fill in the London Assembly Transport Committee survey on cycle hire and superhighway schemes before you leave. We're conduictinjg an early progress check and looking at what needs to be done to improve and expand them. It would be great to get your thoughts and those of everyone who reads your blog.
    More details at www.london.gov.uk/assembly/cycling
    Thanks and bon voyage
    London Assembly

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  22. @Dave N - According to the "Blog Archive" on the left this blog contains 300 postings from 2010 (as of now) and 412 postings from 2009. If Rob can tell me where the other five entries are (The "Lost Posts") I look forward to reading them!

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  23. Rum - on my 'dashboard' it claims there have been 717 posts.

    Archivists of the future will be distraught - five whole works of genius lost in the ether.

    It'll be like Sibelius's Eighth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan, Shakespeare's Cardenio, Ovid's Getic Poetry, all those Vermeers...

    Sniff.

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  24. Perhaps they're posts you saved in Blogger but never published. Does this mean that there are some half-finished gems still waiting for a final polish?

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  25. You made me smile every morning for the last year. I will miss your blog a lot. Feel a bit choked actually.
    Jane

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  26. Gutted. Not sure what the worst cycle-related happening is in London this year: the end of this blog, or the start of the Superhighways.

    Have a good break and please don't hesitate if you ever wanted to start blogging again.

    Owen

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  27. Oh. :¬( I'll miss this blog-it's been fun and interesting.

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  28. I am scandalised that no one will be left to take pics of roads being closed off by the police so that TfL can film actresses and actors pedalling along narrow strips of blue paint with big smiles on their faces.

    But you have bequeathed one phrase to the English language: 'cycle superficial highways'.

    Have fun. (I won't. I'll still be cycling in London.)

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  29. Oh forgot to say, you might one of these useful on your travels (to Stevenage especially): Camper Bikes

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  30. We'll hope against hope that you re-emerge in blogland after a few months, like a pheonix from the flames of your adventure... missing you already! :0)

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  31. Ahh, you'll be missed, - fantastic blog, have enjoyed it daily!

    All the best on walkabout!

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  32. Goodness! One of my favourite work distractions gone!

    On the other hand ... the blog form has a problem with endings and, on reflection, I see that this is just your natural sense of form asserting itself again. Nice to see Real Cycling wrapped up as a finished 'thing' - what else would one expect from a maths-and-music-head?

    (Pretentious? Moi?)

    All the best.

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  33. Yours is the one blog I check every day over breakfast! Brilliant turn of phrase and always brightened my day. Have fun with what you are doing, sounds exciting, but do check back once in a while! I am sure you might want to tell us what is going on!

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  34. Rob, thank you.

    Do come back at some stage and happy bicycling! I think I see the first light of a new dawn in a healthy bicycle culture in English speaking countries... there is a lot to learn and more to build.

    Warm regards from the colony.

    Dr Paul Martin
    Brisbane, Australia

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  35. I'm a fairly new reader of your blog. Timing is everything, eh? lol
    This was a very good blog you had here and I've enjoyed my visits here.
    I will keep it in my reader as I have a lot of catching up to do and will look forward to any updates should you feel inspired to write.

    Best of everything to you! Happy travels!

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  36. Nooooo! this news is like being hit with a baseball bat

    C'est la vie- bon voyage et bonne chance

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  37. Shame you're going - I found your blog a couple of months ago and loved it.

    See you up the road.

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  38. Thanks for all your efforts and good luck with the travelling... Must buy your book now to fill the void.

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  39. Really enjoyed following your blog - it's inspired me to start cycling to work again instead of taking the tube. Will keep your blog feed on my list - have an amazing time on your travels, will miss your posts

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  40. I am really going to miss your posts. Have a
    nice walkabout and please come back to blogging here someday.

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  41. Awww, yours is one of my favourite blogs! Enjoy your travels, it'll be good to read you if and when you start up again.

    Does this also mean an end to your pieces in Cycling Plus?

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  42. Sorry to see you go - I enjoyed your blog a lot. Thanks.

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  43. Have a good time - I'll miss the blog

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  44. Have fun on your travels. Do keep posting! Please?!

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  45. It's been emotional! Be great to hear about your cycling experiences around the world. I suspect London may not look too bad in comparison to some...

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  46. Rob - thanks for the laughs, information, thought provoking moments and for the knowledge that there are kindred spirits out there.

    Good luck and you'll be welcome back anytime.

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  47. I never knew the man but have followed your blog on and off, for the last 6 months, you and other cycling bloggers inspired me to start my own blog.

    Have a good journey pal and remember a bike is for life and not just summer :-)

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  48. i've quite often enjoyed posts on this blog, but i still find it really irritating that he has to crap on about 'real' cycling and being negative about helmets and high viz cycling jackets! it's so elitist and exclusive (the opposite of inclusive), why do you want to constantly have a dig at fellow cyclists?
    at least now i can move on to another blog without getting wound up!

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  49. Ben, 'real cycling' was a hook, a gimmick, whatever - not something to get het up about. And Rob is very much in favour of high-viz - I had the odd dig at him about that!

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  50. hmmm, maybe. too many sarcy comments about helmets for my liking though. each to their own i suppose, but that's my point really, why be negative about the choice to wear a helmet etc?

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  51. I've often quite enjoyed Ben's comments, but now I find he is getting rather repetitive, always banging on about helmets... ;)

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  52. Tut, Tim. How do you know he isn't posting from the Nullabor Plain with a camera crew in tow? Eh? ;¬)

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  53. I have enjoyed reading your blog when I've had the chance. I'll miss your posts.

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  54. Go forth and pedal. Looking forward to lots of end to end stories from around the world and Hull.

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  55. I'm not from London Rob, but have thoroughly enjoyed popping by here to read your posts, so thanks for all the time you have put in :>)

    All the very best!

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  56. You what? Now I know what Wayne felt like when Jim Morrison just left him in the desert in Wayne's World 2 and he said "Thanks a pantload, Chet."

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  57. One of the most entertaining blogs (ever). Although I'm from the racer and wrap around shades community I still loved it. Good luck Rob.

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  58. I hope you have a good adventure my friend, good luck to you

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