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Walking Through A City You Are Leaving For A Bit.

Byrichard

During a shoot a few years ago a person was speaking about human development and how an expert from an economically more developed country wanted to teach the person from an economically less developed country about the topic. The local told the economist “you want to teach me about the economy but whilst you took five steps to make it to this table I took two”. One thing you may take away from such a comment is that you’ve got to find more efficient methods by which to do daily tasks.

Now, I wonder, how many of you take the bus two or three stops rather than walking. There are times when the distances are massive and walking would take six to seven times as much time but there are other times when walking is a great way of getting from one location to another. I was in Central London today and wanted to walk properly therefore those half strider surrounding me were impeding the pleasure to be had from a nice walk. I walked towards Green Park but soon turned left and down towards the Thames. The streets were empty and my legs could reach their full potential.

I was relaxed and decided to go through many of the smaller side streets. As a result of this I saw some historic buildings where famous lawyers lived, where pubs are named after poets and where a disaffected tube station can be seen.  I also found some hidden parks and such.

It was a nice walk because whilst the main street has masses of people and traffic just one side street down the path is clear and the small passages are interesting. It is through the smaller hidden away places that you see the character of a city and I want to get to know this one better.

I’m in the usual pre-trip mood. I’m happy to be going back to Switzerland to get my new laptop but I’m disappointed that I may miss the Finsbury Park Festival and a house party on Sunday, therefore, I may fly back. The reason it’s a “might” rather than a “will” is the price of tickets when you book them late. I’ll decide according to how things go in Switzerland.

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Singapore Is the Fastest Walking City

Byrichard

I just noticed that I’d love living in Singapore because that’s the city where people walk the fastest. Copenhaguen is a city I’ve walked in but I didn’t notice it being particularly fast. Berliners walk faster than New Yorkers and Londoners walk slower than all of the above.

I wonder how I’d compare to all these people and how I’d affect the averages. It’ just the type of news story I enjoy. Out of all these cities Malawi is the slowest. It’s 20 seconds slower than the rest.

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On walking more than five minutes

Byrichard

person “you walk fast”

me “I like to walk”

person “I thought you were rushing somewhere”

me “nope, just stride as I walk”

On average every step I take is two and a half times longer than most people therefore I cover distances in half the time it takes others to do the same. That’s because I love walking. I used to walk an hour a day after high school and the distances expanded over time. One day I wanted to create a gps track to see what it looked like so I walked nine kilometers within the space of an hour. I wasen’t even tired at the end.

Last night I went to a house warming party and the night finished around 2 or three in the morning and walked with a friend to the bus stop. I waited, and waited until I got bored. A bus came but when I asked whether he was going my way he told me “look at the front of the bus”. His arrogance made my mind up. I’d walk from Aldgate east, via Bank and temple to Traf. Square before catching the night bus I wanted to catch and going home.

It’s a long walk. At moments I ran, then I walked. I was listening to music so that was fine. At one point an accounting student asked me the way to where he was going so I chatted with him for a while. He was walking too slowly and it’s too late at night to hang around chatting so I told him which landmarks to use for navigation and started walking at my cruising speed again.

I covered big distances. I saw St Paul’s, I saw the Tate Modern tower and I saw the London Eye, quite far, I thought. Didn’t deter me. I walked past the club boat and people were standing on the pavement whilst others were making the way home. Caught up with them within thirty seconds. They turned right away from the bank but I continued.

The London eye was getting bigger. I passed the Savoy where I saw a few police cars and some people chatting. I don’t know what it was about. I  passed the royal horse guard hotel, good memories of two nights spent there before a flight to New York.

I turned and started to head from the river towards Trafalgar Square and spotted the N18 in the distance. Great. I ran, with big strides that conserve energy by covering a lot of ground. I got to the bus and saw whether he could let me in before the bus stop. No luck.

I started to run. I ran across the roads of Traf Square, watching out for traffic of course, and got the the bus stop. I was slightly out of breath but I had run fast enough so that I was waiting for the bus. Conventionally other people  have to run to keep the bus from running. I got on. Sat down at the front and looked at London as it slid beside me, one bus floor below mine. Cars were around, drunks were waiting for their respective buses and heading home as well. Time to daydream.

I arrived at Sudbury as the sun was rising. 7 minutes till the next bus, ah well, that’s not so bad. Finally I got home, decided to have some crisps before going to sleep for a few hours.

That was a nice walk. I really needed it. Hardly any traffic, no slow movers in front and no people to avoid. Just the way I like my walks to be.