Saturday, 28th April, 2007

A Grand Tour

travel

The Grand Tour was a European travel itinerary that flourished from about 1660 until the arrival of mass rail transit in the 1820s. It was popular amongst young British upper-class men and served as an educational rite of passage for the wealthy. Similar trips were made by the wealthy of other Northern European nations. Its primary value lay in the exposure both to the cultural artifacts of antiquity and the Renaissance and to the aristocratic and fashionable society of the European continent. A grand tour could last from several months to several years.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_tour)

When I was a young boy girl, my parents would drag me, my brother, and my sister every summer on a "holiday" that involved endless hours of being crammed in the back of an orange Allegro, listening to Boney M on a tape player, and visiting every single person they knew in England.

We'd start off at Stranraer, then go on a big loop of the whole mainland taking in St Helens (my Nan) and Brighton (my Gran), with stops along the way at places like Aylesbury and Oxford to see people they were at college with.

God it was tedious — not least for the fact that the A74 didn't have its lovely bypasses in those days, so the journey down from Scotland was full of twisty turns and little villages, nor for the fact that my parents don't share my love of pushing the needle as far to the right of the speed limit as their car (or their nerves) will let them.

But hey — I guess it was educational to some extent. And at least I now have the entire lyrics to Ra-Ra Rasputin burned into my psyche.

It ocurred to me though last night, that there is — perhaps — some remnant of those summers left in my 'instinct'. A desire — maybe — to recreate those epic journeys, and squeeze in as many people as I know.

You see, I'm always left with the same niggling frustration whenever I go on a jaunt around the country — Lancaster is so far away from anything, that once I've driven (say) two hundred miles to see someone, it seems a shame not to travel another fifty to see someone else.

And every time I do make the trip to London (which is where I've been for the past few days), I always feel guilty for not seeing everyone I know there.

(For the record, I've been at a conference — I'm not sure I mentioned that earlier. It was 'interesting', and I might write a couple of things about it later)

So anyway. Sat in Stafford Services last night, forcing a cappuccino down my neck becuase I was fucking tired, I got to thinking that it would be quite fun to spend a week some time in June (maybe — at least, preferably before I move) going on a Grand Tour of Britain, packing as many people in as I could.

And then I thought that it might be quite fun to use some Web-Two-Point-Noughty™ tools to plan that tour — perhaps maybe a Wiki¹ with an itinerary on it so that someone could say to themselves "Hmm, Curran is passing near me on that day. I'll put her up for the night"

(Or perhaps, more accurately: "Hmm, Curran is passing near me that day. I'd best go to the Lake District, or somewhere else far away, until she leaves")

But, using the rather nifty "Add a destination" function of Google Maps's directions thingumy, and the cunning way you can drag destinations around to reorder them (/me likes), I thought that might be a more fun and visually stimulating way of doing it.

So, here's a link to Siobhan's Childhood Holiday 2.0. I've chucked in a few destinations — the few that popped into my head in a "bleary Saturday morning, needing more coffee" kinda way², and you can see there are some big gaps that could do with filling.

So, if you're up for having a "crossdressing drunkard" (which is, apparently, how I'm now known within the Second Life artists' community) descend on you at some point in June, then add your destination to the map and shuffle it around (so I don't end up driving in stupid directions), and email me the link to the new map.

(Or leave it as a comment if you don't mind everyone knowing where you live )

¹ I sodding hate that word

² Hence, a caveat in case I've offended someone by completely forgetting them

Posting And You

link forums funny

Something to say? Shut up and go outside you forum whore — (via NRT )

Er, Biscuit?

photo

...you're kinda in the way there

Oooh. Cool I'll make burgers...

What's s/he looking at

It looks like she's looking at the map, and wondering if I'm going to be away for a long time again

hugin — Panorama photo stitcher

"an easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging toolchain based on Panorama Tools" — found via Kim whilst looking for the "Baby emo goth" comments she just twittered about