Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

Lovely weekend #rockclimbing around Mittagong by train and bike. Sent one of my projects (last picture).

It's a funny contrast bike camping in the land of cars though, and looking out over the sprawl between Mittagong and Bowral from Mt Gibraltar.

on family messages that had arrived overnight, which is quite a nice and efficient use of time.

I liked not getting messages when I was heading to meet people though. None of the 'I'm running late' etc shenanigans... I just had to turn up at the appointed place and time and hope they did the same.

No real conclusion here, was just interesting going 'back to the past'. Overall I prefer the future, if only because I can watch AFLW games on the long train back from climbing in the mountains :)

all the time. Turns out I don't really need to check google/NextThere and find out that a train is leaving in 5 minutes, I can make it if I rush, otherwise it's in 15 minutes, etc.... Most of the time I don't need to be in that much of a rush, I know roughly how to get home, I can just go to the station/stop and take what's there. For unusual/new trips I'd look them up on wifi and take screenshots beforehand.

Main negative was not being able to use my commute (20 minute bus) to catch up ...

Just had a couple of months with mobile data on my phone not working. (Fixed by Apple store guy in 20 seconds, after probably 10 hours on the phone with Boost/Telstra tech support, but that's by the by).

I wasn't too rushed about fixing it because I thought it would be an interesting experiment in living more disconnected. Wondered if I'd become more mindful, remember what life was like before smartphones, etc. But no, not really.

Main positive was breaking the reliance on using maps... (1/)

Your correspondent taking 'walking' holidays at a young age.

(Mum is going through old photo albums).

So, just over 6 weeks to the referendum. My partner's citizenship was approved a few weeks ago, he will get 4 weeks notice of the citizenship ceremony at some undetermined point... what are the chances?

The jam is out of the national doughnut

- best description I've heard of Australia post Wednesday

reviewer 2, please come back to me, reviewer 2, I need you....

(4 months since submitting revisions, one reviewer came back, one has missed the deadline and who knows what's going on. I know this is not even long in the scheme of academia... got to be one of the worst things about it though)

Hadn't been to Burwood for ages, forgot how lively it is, there's about a year's worth of food I want to try on the main street.

But also forgot about these pedestrian fences, or are they new? Such an ugly solution to what should be a positive 'problem' (a popular town centre where lots of people are getting around on foot).

One problem with my new shared bike reparking hobby is the antitheft measures.

Lime bikes lock only the back wheel, so you can roll them on the front wheel.

Beam bikes are light enough to pick up entirely, but they make squawking noises about their antitheft mode being activated. I think this mode turns off again after a while and someone can re-use the bike - but I'm not sure. I don't want to disable the bike by reparking it, that really would make it useless junk.

Anyone know more?

Slowly building the group of friends who are willing to go #climbing by train :)

We get up to Blackheath a little later and theoretically miss out on some of this beautiful winter sunshine... but much more relaxed and enjoying the whole package of the day. And I still climb enough to be exhausted!

Visiting mum - got to be one of the nicest located bus stops in Sydney.

Ofc the bus only comes every half an hour and one of the neighbours has campaigned to remove it because they don't like the noise and hardly anyone gets on here (except mum). The vicious cycle of low frequency. But for now, it exists.

Social norms for new modes will be built gradually, partly by people unconsciously observing thousands of good examples, so I think creating good examples is helpful, in a small way.

That being said, some shared vehicles are badly parked. I've taken to stopping and moving them off the footpath, rather than just complaining/taking a photo/riding past. If a wheelchair user can't easily move a share bike out of the way, all the more reason for an able-bodied person who sees it to move it preemptively. Doesn't mean it has to be tipped over angrily either.

sustainable transport hot take of the day: people seeing any shared bike or scooter parked in public space as ugly litter are just reflecting preconceptions and prejudice against new modes.

Like seeing any graffiti as ugly. Some graffiti is ugly! Some of it's great. My life improved when I dropped those blinkers and started being able to think 'damn the bubble writing on that carriage is amazing' not 'graffiti on the train, just another reminder of the shittiness of humanity'.

Being internet friends with American rockclimbers is very, very fucking jarring as a sustainable transport person. I feel like I'm living on a different planet from people who drive 5+ hours every weekend to go to the best rocks in whatever surrounding state has the best weather at the time. Need to emotionally separate a bit... from my work and from the Americans both, probably