{"id":634,"date":"2007-08-29T16:56:26","date_gmt":"2007-08-29T21:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/?p=634"},"modified":"2007-08-29T11:57:15","modified_gmt":"2007-08-29T16:57:15","slug":"were-officially-on-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/08\/29\/were-officially-on-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re officially on foot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nicmcphee\/121653642\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/52\/121653642_6d4c3385d6.jpg?w=450\" vspace='10' alt=\"It's important to concentrate when you're driving\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI drove to Ipswich this morning to return our rental car, so we&#8217;re officially sans auto from here on out (barring renting one now and then for trips yonder).  From here on out it&#8217;s walking, buses, and\/or biking, and I can assure you that we&#8217;re not really in shape for it.  You&#8217;d think that will all the walking we do at home this would be easier, but we&#8217;re all quite tired after several hours of walking in to town for errands, etc., but we&#8217;ll all walk into shape soon enough now that we don&#8217;t have any choice.  I&#8217;ll presumably start walking in to the office at least some this week, and Sub-Evil Boy (pictured above at the Reykjavik Family Park and Zoo at the start of our 00-01 sabbatical) starts school next week.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never been to Ipswich before, so I was originally planning on checking out a museum or two while I was there.  University of Chicago geneticist <a href=\"http:\/\/molbio.uchicago.edu\/Faculty_and_Research\/01_Faculty_Alphabetically.php?faculty_id=152\">James Shapiro<\/a> came up from London today, though, to talk to Riccardo (Poli), Bill (Langdon), and I about evolution and genetic programming, which sounded cooler, so I bailed on Ipswich and had a nice geeky day talking about evolution.<\/p>\n<p>The big question mark for me is whether to buy a bike or not.  There is an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.colchester-cycling.org.uk\/\">active cycling group in Colchester<\/a> and plenty of bike shops.  These busy, narrow roads creep me out, though, especially when I think ahead to the short, wet days of winter.  I found some plausible route options on a little exploratory walk yesterday, however, and I have yet to actually walk all the way to\/from the office.  Going home tonight is entirely on foot, though, so we&#8217;ll see how that goes.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s very sad to see how car-oriented Britain has become, even in the two decades that I&#8217;ve been spending time here.  The congestion on the roads and contention for parking is just insane, and the cost of buses and trains certainly doesn&#8217;t help.  This could be a really bicycle friendly part of the world (and probably was, many years ago), but that&#8217;s definitely less and less true.<\/p>\nNo tag for this post.\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li>No related posts.<\/li>\n\t<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I drove to Ipswich this morning to return our rental car, so we&#8217;re officially sans auto from here on out (barring renting one now and then for trips yonder). From here on out it&#8217;s walking, buses, and\/or biking, and I can assure you that we&#8217;re not really in shape for it. You&#8217;d think that will &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/08\/29\/were-officially-on-foot\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;We&#8217;re officially on foot&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[25,27,19],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-ae","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":650,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/09\/15\/gosh-but-i-love-trains\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":0},"title":"Gosh, but I love trains","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"15 Sep 07","format":false,"excerpt":"I really do love riding on trains. I also really like city buses, especially double deckers - I'm a sucker for sitting in the front up top and gawking at the world. For longer trips, though, trains just rule. The space, comfort, and ability to get up and move around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":848,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/06\/19\/riding-out-of-spain-back-to-the-uk-and-then-off-to-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":1},"title":"Riding out of Spain (Back to the UK, and then off to home)","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"19 Jun 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night we went on an very nice night-time (started at 9:30pm) guided walking tour of Cordoba. Our two hours of walking through the old part of the city included two bits where an actor appeared in the dress of local figures: first the 20th century painter Julio Romero de\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":694,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/11\/17\/unrelenting-the-seasons-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":2},"title":"Unrelenting, the seasons change","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"17 Nov 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently they've had snow back in Morris, but we're not likely to see any of the white stuff here in Colchester. The leaves are turning with enthusiasm, however, and it's definitely crisp when Sub-Evil and I walk in together in the mornings. We've even seen a little frost. Hats and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":835,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/04\/26\/the-end-of-an-era\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":3},"title":"The end of an era","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"26 Apr 08","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been lucky enough to have a very nice chippy up the road. Peggottys was a neat family operation, one of that dwindling pool of old-school independent shops. We've gone there roughly once a week all year and gotten to know the folks there, so we were sad to learn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":733,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/12\/01\/off-to-dublin-soon\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":4},"title":"Off to Dublin soon","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"1 Dec 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday morning (4 Dec 07) I set off from our happy home for a few days in Dublin. To quote myself (how pathetic is that?) At the kind invitation of Michael O'Neill, I am going to the University of Dublin to give a talk in early December, which will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1206,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2010\/02\/14\/i-love-my-cool-family\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":5},"title":"I love my cool family!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"14 Feb 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to Valentine's Day, that annoyingly commercialized annual reminder that we're actually supposed to care about the special people in our life. As Cory nicely put it Proving you really care about someone is an achievement that takes effort everyday. Chocolate and flowers on a single day won't do. All\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"It's a shame they don't get along :-)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4048\/4356834260_76a5c734a4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}