The Other Place

[j4]

Hello Cambridge!

All being well, we will be in Cambridge THIS SATURDAY ie 28th January. There are two purposes to the trip: 1) try out more bikes at The School Run Centre, and 2) say hello to as many people as possible in a short space of time.

We'll be getting there in time for lunch>, and I'm thinking it would make sense to go to The Carlton Arms because I know it's nice & they don't mind kids & you lot all know where it is & can hopefully get there. I reckon we should be able get there by about 12:30, which will give us time to have lunch, talk to people, & still be able to get to Hope Street Yard to the bike shop & try bikes out before it gets dark.

Please comment here if you think you're likely to be able to join us (& let me know if you want me to keep in touch with you by txt if we're going to be late etc). Also, please let me know if there's some reason why we shouldn't go to the Carlton (e.g. fire, flood, plagues of frogs) or if you can think of somewhere equally lovely & reasonably baby-friendly (with parking!) nearer Hope Street Yard.

rmc28, did you say you wanted our spare moses basket? If so, we can bring it.

claerwen, did you say we could park at yours for Hope Street Yard? Would be very grateful if so -- I can't work out from the bike shop's website if there is any parking nearby otherwise...

Comments

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

The nearest car park to Hope Street, as far as I know, is on Gwydir Street, and it has quite a short time limit on it. There are side streets where you can sometimes park as well.

We should be able to make lunch at the Carlton on Saturday, I can cycle that far but not to Mill Road.

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

Hiya. I'd like to pop over!

[uitlander]

If the cold has gone I shall come and see you all.

[rmc28]

We will see you at the pub on Saturday. We can even bring a bakfiets for you to try :-)

YES PLEASE for moses basket. We will cart it home in aforementioned bakfiets.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Cool! I should warn you that the Moses basket has a big non-collapsible stand, so getting it home on the bike may be a bit of a squeeze (though we can drop it off in the car if necessary). Looking forward to seeing you & your bike :)

[sparrowsion]

I saw an electric Bakfiets trundling around as I was leaving Cambridge yesterday. Dread to think how much that costs.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Electric Bakfiets: Add £1100 to the price of a normal Bakfiets (http://dutchbike.co.uk/Family1.htm), apparently.

They're expensive, but they're effectively a replacement for a car, & they're not even the same order of magnitude cost as any car you could buy!

[claerwen.livejournal.com]

Yes and if you let me know where to send some kind of private message such that you will see it, I will send you our address :)

[j4.livejournal.com]

You can email me at janetmck at gmail dot com (or DM me on Twitter, whichever's easiest :-) Thanks again! Hope we will be able to pop in & say hello too, rather than just stealing your parking space :-)

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

/Park?/ Oh, Jan. Smh.

[j4.livejournal.com]

"Smh"? Sorry, can't figure that one out...

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

Requires a deepest Louisiana (pron. "loozey-anna") accent: "shake mah haid". May be followed by "mm-MM" or even in extremis, "mm-mm, Lawd".

My friends Col and Sally manage to get their tandem on any train known to humanity. ( But they also live off their immense back garden and Are Virtuous That Way. I was just idly wondering about Bakfiets and trains; would t'other cargobike be better/worse/same/irrelevant?

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'm still not entirely sure what you're shaking your head at, but from the snark about parking and the comment about how your virtuous friends take the train, it sounds like you're criticising me for driving.

FWIW, I'm borrowing a friend's car, & it's only the second time in about 6 years that I've used a car. In an ideal world I'd take the train for this journey. In an ideal world the train wouldn't cost twice as much and take more than twice as long as the car (making it difficult to do in a day trip); but then, in an ideal world, things wouldn't be set up to privilege the selfish & screw everybody else.

We're not going to be buying the bike on the spot and bringing it back (it wouldn't fit in the car anyway!), but carrying a baby and a large moses basket with a non-collapsible stand (which we're delivering to rmc28) on the train and across London on the tube would be pretty difficult. Perhaps I should have asked your virtuous friends to cycle from Oxford to Cambridge with it, and us, on their tandem.

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

No, not criticising or "snarking" at you. I am genuinely in awe of Col and Sally, whom I've known for donkey's years, and I do admire your stand, too: except for the times you categorise your fellow human beings as "cagers" who *all* drive and always drive because they're selfish bastards who screw everybody else and for no other reason. I don't criticise anybody for their mode of transport because I don't have a magic moral insight into why they do what they do. And having in my time used everything short of regular horse-riding as a mode of transport, it makes perfect sense to use a car to get to Cambridge with your daughter, your husband, a moses basket, and a static stand. But if you habitually call people who drive derogatory names, then a gentle, gentle ribbing about becoming One of Them yourself might be expected - even from people who think you're great, which, dammit, I do.

I am truly sorry to have offended you - I didn't think for a minute you would take it at all seriously.

And I did *genuinely* wonder about *eventually* using trains + a cargo bike because it's the kind of thing I used to think about when I was considering a bike-only set of choices. As it happened, that wasn't the choice I made, but DSFDF. One might consider it, or not.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I think you're great too (damnit) but your comments did make me really angry. However, thinking about why they got me so angry (and ranting a lot in my head...) was possibly a useful exercise, & I intend to convert the angry ranting that went on in my head into a more considered LJ post.

FWIW, though, "cagers" != "drivers". You don't have to be a cager if you drive a car, any more than you have to be a murderer if you own a gun.

[lnr]

Tandems aren't actually permitted on most trains are they? Certainly not on the ones between London and Cambridge which don't have a goods van. But I can think of a couple of friends who might be interested if your friends can provide more info on that!

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I hope to be there.

[lnr]

Mike will sadly probably miss you (a pre-arranged date with a football match) but I shall try to come along!

[rmc28]

Update for anyone following comments - McKnights will be more like 13:30 at the pub. I will try to contact individuals who've mentioned here that they are coming.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Have finally noticed this post; would like to come along if I may.