The Bugle | Blast 432


Friday 3rd April 2020
Zoom Edition

 
 
 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK


"Sometimes the fluffy bunny of incredulity zooms around the bend so rapidly that the greyhound of language is left, agog, in the starting cage" - David Mitchell
 
(Anybody who can explain what that means deserves a prize)




BICYCLIST Of THE WEEK
Anerley star George Olley was the last man to break the Lands End to John O'Groats record on a fixed gear in 1907 and went on to break the 1,000 mile record by 8 hours with a time of 4 days, 9 hours and 3 minutes.

More on George here: https://anerleybc.org/the-life-of-an-edwardian-racing-cyclist-g-a-olley/


 

BICYCLE OF THE WEEK

Capt'n Mark has sent me a whole raft of great 'Safety Bicycle' photos. I'll roll them out gently for your delectation over our lockdown interlude.

Above is a light blue path racer of 1900. It has a 100 tooth chainring and was ridden by John Albert Townsend around Cambridge to promote his bike shop founded in 1895. It's still in business:
https://www.townsends-lb.co.uk/


 

RIDING TO THE FRONTLINE
Back in the 50s this was the way many in the NHS used to travel. Nowadays with long anti-social shifts, less public transport and the importance of keeping 2m away from fellow travellers is an issue if you don't have a car - and many cannot afford one.

Riding to the frontline is an attractive option for many of our nurses and other supporting staff. Great that Brompton bikes is looking to expand its hire scheme to deliver over 1,000 new folding bikes to key workers in the NHS. Frontline staff will receiving free bike loans. Currently over 500 NHS staff have registered to receive a bike, and more are expected to do so.

Your chance to help by making a donation and get some recognition and perks too: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wheelsforheroes

£100,000 donated so far ....


 

CLUB ZOOM-MEET 1
Monday night was our first Lockdown Club Meeting. Using Zoom about a dozen of us met up to chat for an hour. We went to 'Flight from Chile' to 'Hell in Helsinki'. Sue D won the prize for the most attractive flower arrangement and Tom V for artistic arrangement.

The important decision was to hold another one next Monday night at 8pm. So if you are not too busy at a virtual Opera, Theatre or Concert - do drop in. It's open to all members and you can use your smartphone, tablet or PC. It's best using the Zoom app but you will also be able to access through an ordinary browser.

Members will get a reminder email with joining instructions about 30 minutes beforehand. If you haven't downloaded the app - now would be a good time and an opportunity to try it out with friends and family beforehand.

Above is how it looks on my computer screen. Below is from Vince - so I guess wehat it looks like on a Galaxy Note.
 


 

CLUB ZOOM-MEET 2

This guy didn't turn up at our meeting - but we could turn up at his Zoom session. That is a Coranavirus COBRA briefing. Weird to know that our leaders are using a basically insecure system to try and plan the UK's way out of its biggest crisis since World War 2.

Boris put a picture on Twitter revealing the meeting number. Anybody with that and guessing the password could have joined in. Pretty frightening.

I gather GCHQ were not impressed. Story here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/zoom_spotlight/

 

FINALLY


Bit short of stuff this week. Please come along Monday night with a few ideas. Meanwhile I hope you all had a good clap for those on the frontline last night. Please remember the Riding to The Front appeal from Brompton. Here's how they signed soldiers up to do it in 1914:




Happy - whatever!