Anyway, the class was great fun, pretty intense in terms of new tricks, but I can already see a fair number of what we did last night in the routine in the video above (only without fire - we basically just swing tennis balls on strings with tails on them to make them colourful. I managed to pretty much do all but one of the building blocks in the class, but struggled with one, so today I've worked on getting consistency on the basic ones and working towards the one I really struggled most with called the shoulder reel. Not that I was a million miles away from it last night, but in terms of executing it I only managed about one out of twenty and that was more down to luck. A lot of it is to do with timing and angles and I think I was just a bit out. Anyway, today I've absolutely nailed it with my right hand on its own but the left hand is struggling. Then I need to put the two together. I have made a lot of progress and I'm confident I'll have it for next week's session.
Anyway, as a Londoner I've always been fascinated by the tube. All those tunnels linking up, knowing where to interchange (at least on the limited number of routes I did frequently), and also by the history. Some stations have been renamed (Charing Cross was Originally caslled Trafalgar Square), some have been shut down. For instance, the Metropolitan line used to go way beyond the already way out (zone 9 - who knew there was a zone 9) end point of Amersham.
Well, all this tube pontificating led me to a new bucket list item - I want to visit every one of the current stations (270). This started out as a general objective but then I remembered a group from uni (first time round, back in the 1980s) attempting to do the feat in 24 hours. In reality there's slightly under 20 hours when the tube network is operating, so the stations won't be open outside of that.The research started! The more I read the more fascinated I've become, and then I found out that there was a world record for it, with teams competing to be the fastest to visit all 270 stations using public transport, taking a tube either in and/or out of the station. I.e. you can't just drive station to station.
The best route is a tricky problem to crack (I remember from my maths and computing days that it's the travelling salesman problem) and for the mathematicians amongst you, it's NP-hard. Now, I could link here to a large body of maths, but jkust take it from me that that means it's f**king hard. In short, you can't just feed all the data into a computer, stand back for a few weeks and get the optimum route.
Further research unearthed how secretive the protagonists are - maybe at best revealing the start at finish stations for their routes, not wanting to give away secrets that others might use to beat their time. Plus it's quite fun to work out better and better solutions to problems. For starters, going all the way up and down the outshoots of the centre (like routes to Cockfosters, High Barnet etc) and then back in again is wasting a load of time, althoguh quite acceptable if you don't mind spreading your trip over a couple of days. You need to be aware of the concept of "topological equivalence", which I learnt in maths aged twelve, and have never used in any other context. Basically, the physical layout of the tube stations is not necessarily the same as the map. i.e. it's not just a scaled down version. Sure, the stations stay in the same order (it'd be sod all use as a map otherwise) and you can interchange at the same places, but other than that you can't rely on much. So - two stations that look near on the map may be quite a way apart, as can be seen on this geographical representation (which doesn't cover some far out bits). The map, incidentally, is produced by one of teh previous tube record holders. It also shows how it might be quite easy to run between the end of two lines - e.g. Cockfosters and High Barnet, meaning that you could go out on the Picalilli line (say to Cockfosters) and then back in on the Northern, saving going out and back in on the same line, wasting loads of time. At a quick glance you could also easily swap between the District Line to Wimbledon to the Northern at South Wimbledon (although I already know this since it's fairly local). Sure, you have to nip down to Morden to "collect" that scalp, but it's a lot better than doing the whole of each line in both directions. I'm rambling, but it's already becoming an obsession!
Funnily enough, one group of former record holders went to my old school (I know this as they commented on their former art teacher being at Morden when they finished. Now, having used Morden myself, unless it's a massive coincidence, I've seen my former art teacher working there too. Ok, I guess it's the same person, but they could have gone to an alternative school and he worked there as well as at mine. Not that it matters. Anyway - no record attempts just yet, but...
In the process of all this, I discovered that a group from the Tube Challenge (as it is known) Forum are doing a trip around all 270 stations on Friday 18th for Children in Need. It's not being done for speed (my running isn't up to it now), but will mean a decent route (the people organising it are all former or current record holders) which saves me a lot of planning and I'll be sure of getting a decent chance of completing thiss bucket list item in one day. Not that anything's guaranteed, signal failures etc can always scupper prospects, but it's a real gift horse so I'm going for it unless they want a super fit runner. One of the most recent record holders runs marathons at 3 hour pace, which is fast,and gives him an advantage as he may make trains that slightly slower runners may miss. Remember that the runs are often at the ends of lines, where train services are less frequent, and two minutes difference in run speed can lead to a ten minute delay.
Right, so all being well, my bucket list gets an item crossed off, as well as what should be a great (but tiring) day out.
