| General journal policy |
[01 Nov 2030|01:00pm] |
Note - this journal has a lot of friends-only content. In general, I'll only add you as a friend if I know you off-LJ, or someone I already know vouches for you. I don't expect many people outside those categories to be remotely interested in what I write here (and, to be honest, it's probably deadly dull for many people who do know me). I don't automatically add people who add me as a friend and, for that matter, I don't always notice when people add me.
'Friend' is a very inaccurate term for the list, but then they taught you that in LiveJournal 101, didn't they?
What else? Oh yes...
Hi! I'm David, and apparently I can come across as a bit spiky on-line.
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| Lea Valley Walk this Saturday (later start) |
[16 May 2012|10:50pm] |
Because ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) lizw has an OU tutorial in the morning, this Saturday's Lea Valley walk - from Hatfield to Hertford - will start at 2:30pm, and therefore probably run through to about 7pm. Meet at Hatfield Station, and let one of lizw, yoyoangel or me know that you're coming, so we know not to set off without you.
This section of the walk is around 8-9 miles, and while it has been re-routed away from the Lea for much of its distance and involves a little road walking at the start, it's still one of the more rural sections, and the last before the Lea acquires a towpath and becomes a navigable river.
Hope to see some of you there.
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| Lea Valley Walk 28 April |
[15 Apr 2012|11:33pm] |
In just under a fortnight, lizw, yoyoangel and I will be walking the next section of the Lea Valley walk, from Harpenden to Hatfield. This section is around 8 miles long, and as rural as it gets, being still outside London but well away from Luton.
We'll be starting from Harpenden Station at 11am. Note for those travelling from South London; First Captial Connect appear to be unexpectedly running trains through on the 28th, which should make things a little easier. We'll be finishing at Hatfield, probably around 4pm. Note that Hatfield isn't on the same railway line as Harpenden, so you probably won't be able to get a straightforward return ticket. (There are regular buses from Hatfield to St Albans, which is on the Harpenden line, which may be of use to someone coming from outside London on the Bedford line who doesn't want to go all the way into London to come back out again.)
As with the previous section, we'll be taking a packed lunch and picnicing en route. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome - I look forward to seeing you.
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| June Lea Valley Walk date change |
[12 Apr 2012|06:58am] |
Just a quick note that June's Lea Valley Walk has been shifted forward a week, and will now be on 16 June rather than 23 June. I will go back and edit the date posts accordingly.
Incidentally, the next walk (Harpenden to Hatfield) is in just over a fortnight, on 28 April.
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| Lea Valley Walk - 31 March |
[03 Mar 2012|09:56am] |
The first of our planned Lea Valley walks is just four weeks away. lizw, yoyoangel and I are planning to walk the length of the River Lea (or Lee, spelling is inconsistent) from its source just north of Luton to where it joins the Thames in Docklands. We'll be doing it over several Saturdays this year, and the first is on 31 March.
This section is from Leagrave to Harpenden and (according to the guide) contains some riverside parkland walking and a small lake for the first section, a quick hike through central Luton, and a more rural walk, mostly along an old railway line to Harpenden.
Fellow walkers are very welcome. This section is around 11 miles long, with breaks at stations after four and six miles, making it very suitable for anyone who's not sure they want to do the whole section. For comparison, the next two sections are both eight miles with no convenient break points. We'll be aiming to get to Leagrave station (First Capital Connect - note this is outside Oyster PAYG) at 10:45. If you're coming, please either comment here or text me to let me know so that we know to wait for you.
Unlike on the Loop walks, we're planning to take a picnic with us rather than stop at a pub, in order to keep costs down. Central Luton will almost certainly have places to buy picnic food if you don't want to bring any with you.
Future proposed dates are as follows:
- 28 April: Harpenden to Hatfield (8 miles)
- 19 May: Hatfield to Hertford (8 miles)
- 16 June: Hertford to Broxbourne (8 miles) [Note: date change from 23 June]
- 21 July: Broxbourne to Ponders End (7.5 miles)
- 25 August: Ponders End to Three Mills (8 miles)
- 15 September: Three Mills to Limehouse, East India Dock, and back (7-ish miles)
I look forward to seeing many of you there.
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| Advance planning: Lea Valley walk |
[01 Jan 2012|11:17pm] |
As mentioned a couple of months ago, lizw, yoyoangel and I are planning to do the Lea Valley walk over several Saturdays this year. This starts from Leagrave near Luton, and ends at either Limehouse or East India Dock, depending on whether you choose the navigation or the river. We'll probably do both, just because.
As with the Loop walk, anyone else who wants to come along and join us is welcome. Unlike the Loop walk, we'll probably be picnicking rather than visiting pubs for lunch because (a) a lot of the walk is quite far from any convenient pubs and (b) it's a bit cheaper. Some of the earlier parts of the walk are outside zone six; please don't let that put you off, it really is quite civilised out there. ;-)
Here are the dates that we're thinking of doing the walk, along with roughly which sections we'll be doing. These are subject to change and, indeed, the August one has moved since I last posted, as both yoyoangel and I will be in Edinburgh on the originally proposed date:
- 31 March: Leagrave to Harpenden (10.5 miles)
- 28 April: Harpenden to Hatfield (8 miles)
- 19 May: Hatfield to Hertford (8 miles)
- 16 June: Hertford to Broxbourne (8 miles) [Note: date change from 23 June]
- 21 July: Broxbourne to Ponders End (7.5 miles)
- 25 August: Ponders End to Three Mills (8 miles)
- 15 September: Three Mills to Limehouse, East India Dock, and back (7-ish miles)
Don't take those start and end points as gospel; there's a lot of wriggle room on the later sections where there's a potential stopping point about every two miles.
Look forward to seeing many of you on some or all of the sections.
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| RIP Joan Swift |
[11 Dec 2011|05:26am] |
(message from Laura)
Joan Swift, passed away at 4.15am, Mat and her dad were present. It was very peaceful. Thank you all for your support and help over the past few days.
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| My Twitter feed |
[10 Dec 2011|09:30am] |
For the past few years, day-to-day updates about my life have mostly been made on the djm4 account on Twitter. This has, understandably, left some people on my friends' list who don't use Twitter feeling a bit out of the loop. So I've created a separate account - - specifically for the purpose of crossposting my Twitter stream here and keeping those people in the loop.
Please feel free to follow it if it helps you stay in touch. I will reply to comments on it as to my own journal (which is to say, far less often than I should, but with good intentions to get back to everyone).
Note that I set it up over a week ago but, probably due to the DDoS attack on LJ, it's only just updated for the first time today. And the title and dates aren't in English; I assume that's Russian, but don't know. But it's there if you want it, and means I won't be spamming the rest of my friends' list with Twitter updates they read elsewhere.
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| Good thoughts needed |
[27 Oct 2011|07:23am] |
If you have any good thoughts or equivalent to spare, they would be very welcome by my friends poannie and sweinhodge today, and by those close to them. I'm not sure how public the reason is, so I'll err on the side of caution, but many of you know anyway.
Incidentally, there's still time to sponsor sweinhodge in his year-long beard-grown marathon in aid of the Willow Wood Hospice in Ashton-Under-Lyne. The Hospice has been stellar in helping to support poannie, and Mat's 67% towards his end-of-year target, so a final push in the last two months would be great.
In particular, if anyone who was thinking of getting me a Christmas present this year (which I realise isn't many, but still) could put the money towards Mat's Beardathon instead, it would make me happy.
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| I can't undo the day; it won't go ... won't go under the rug |
[10 Oct 2011|07:34pm] |
(I'm not really back on LJ in any meaningful way, but I think I'm about ready to make this post, and my mood swings are puzzling people who don't know.)
A week last Thursday, my wife lizw broke up with me. I had, through both my actions and my discussion of them, made her feel as though I didn't care about her, and she therefore decided that she no longer felt able to continue as my partner. (I think I've summarised the situation correctly, but if lizw tells you otherwise, listen to her; I don't really want to try to speak for her.)
We're going to continue to live together as a family, just no longer as partners. I may move out once the kids have left home, but I'm committed to staying until then.
I'd like to thank lizw for all her love and support during our marriage. I'm devastated and very sorry that I made her feel the way she did strongly enough to break up with me; she totally doesn't deserve my treating her like that, and besides I do still love her and care about her deeply. For that very reason, though, I'm going to support and respect her decision and work with her (and everyone else) to make the ongoing friendship work.
(I'm leaving comments open, but I can't promise to read them, let alone reply to any. I'm not at all sure whether I'm going to keep this login open for any length of time. I have no emotional dampers at the moment and being here might be unhealthy.)
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| PSA - break from LJ |
[15 Sep 2011|11:32am] |
Taking a voluntary break from LJ/DJ/DW for a while. This is not a result of any one event directly, but is an acknowledgement that I currently simply don't have time/spoons/bandwidth to engage on-line in a consistently constructive or intelligent manner.
I'm randomising my password, so I won't even be able to log-in to reply to comments. Please don't expect me to.
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| PSA |
[11 Aug 2011|07:37am] |
I'm leaving G+. It's not giving me anything worth staying, and their 'real names' policy (a) sucks and (b) isn't even being applied in the way Google say it is. A friend, using her real name, just had her account deleted.
I don't want anything to do with it, basically. I won't be returning unless there are substantial changes. It enforces a level of conformity that I don't support.
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[22 Apr 2011|01:47pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 accomplished |
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Post-script to my post of about a week ago: here are two screenshots from publicwhip.org.uk, one at around 10am this morning and one just now, after the site maintainers had uploaded a bugfix I'd made:
( Screenshots under the cut )
OK, it's not very important in the grand scheme of things, but for an election geek like me it's a big deal.
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| Fancy watching some women's footie? |
[15 Mar 2011|08:06pm] |
Ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup this summer, there's going to be a friendly between the England and USA teams, played at Leyton Orient's stadium on the evening of Saturday 2 April. lizw and I will be going with C and R, but before I buy tickets, I thought I'd ask whether anyone else fancied coming along. Tickets are only a fiver, and you're likely to get to see some good football; the USA have won the World Cup twice, and are currently ranked no 1 in the world.
Please let me know if you're interested.
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| Census meme |
[09 Mar 2011|12:42pm] |
(While I wait for some files to copy...)
1971: three years old, living with my parents in Little Shelford, just south of Cambridge
1981: thirteen, living with my parents and sister in the same house in Little Shelford. Had two pet Canary Island lizards and a goldfish. Spent much of my spare time making my Star Wars action figures act out Doctor Who stories I invented.
1991: twenty three, living in Arbury Road in Cambridge with Greg Hurst and (I think) our friend Katherine. Recovering from a broken pelvis due to having been knocked off my bike by a taxi before Christmas. Getting Pink Floyd: The Wall put on at the ADC Theatre. External Officer at Churchill College. Near the start of an abortive PhD in Materials Science.
2001: thirty three, living by myself in The Paddocks in Cambridge. Just had a 33 ⅓ birthday party. Both partners lolliepopp and lizw live in London, so I do a fair bit of travelling to and from King's Cross and Liverpool Street. Have been working at Sibelius for a year.
2011: forty three, living with lizw, aegidian and their three kids in Leytonstone. Also partnered with thekumquat and yoyoangel. Working at Coffee, Cake and Kink, but am jobhunting as that job finishes in a month.
(Interestingly, that makes it look as though it took me ages to leave Cambridge. In fact, I was living in Derby for most of 1987, and between 1991 and 2001 I lived in Alderley Edge, Offerton, Hemel Hempstead and Dunstable.)
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