An average car, sat idling, can produce exhaust emissions to fill 150 balloons. That's a lot of balloons to imagine puffing away out of the cars idling outside a school for a pickup, say. Other tests have found (pdf) that for any time over 10s fuel use and emissions are always greater when idling than turning off the engine and restarting. Spread the word.

Of course, if you have an electric car this won't apply.

I did draw 150 balloons, but a few of them didn't fit on the page.

Idling

“Just remember that finishing lines are good, but their most important role is to get you over the start line in the first place.”

This little piece of wisdom is from Stevie Smith (not the poet). Stevie embarked on a human-powered journey around the world — Expedition 360 — and reached Hawaii under pedal power*. I learned about him from a little chapter in One Man and His Bike by Mike Carter. The chapter where he speaks with Stevie I immediately reread as soon as I finished it.

Mike also shared this deeper and more poetic version of the same insight:

“Happiness is the acceptance of the journey as it is now, not the promise of the other shore”

*Stevie’s companion Jason Lewis completed the circumnavigation of the world 13 years after they began.

Finishing lines

I first had a santo libre in Belize and, given how popular cuba libres are, I was surprised I’d never heard of it. Basically, it’s rum + Sprite or lemonade + a little lime juice. I am hereby spreading the word of this excellent drink.

Santo libre, cuba libre

I think it would be interesting if we could see the real shape of your favourite crossing marked on the road. It’d probably help more people cross and traffic get stopped less. And, hopefully, no casualties.

Our senses are built to take in information at human pace

The real shape of a crossing

Last weekend I teamed with Rob Bell and took part in Otillo’s UK swimrun in the Isles of Scilly. Swimrun is basically navigating from one place to the end over water and land with no bikes, and carrying any small non-powered gear you need. What you start with you have to finish with. The gear in the sketch is just illustrative, you don’t have to have any. You run it in pairs staying within 10m of each other at all times including the swims. Many run it tethered to each other. The Scilly event was a swimrun paradise. Check out the course, and the amazing event photos. The place is gorgeous, go visit sometime. And get into swimrun it’s awesome!

For those in London you might try The Swimmer for a casual affair. Also see, Love Swimrun.

Swimrun.

Sadly it turns out that there is not reliable evidence for this derivation of the word POSH, but it’s so nice I’d finished the sketchplanation before I knew it. The story went that if you were travelling by boat from Western Europe to India and the Far East by boat back in the day the rich people naturally took the best cabins. And the best cabins on the way Out, were on the Port side so you got a great view of the coast all the way around Africa. And on the way back on the Starboard site to enjoy the view once more. Et voila POSH as a synonym for rich. After much digging I had to conclude that the story was apocryphal, but it’s nice nonetheless.

POSH: Port Out Starboard Home (apocryphal)

Learning and using kind words first when travelling will take you further than others. Before I enter a country with a new language I write a list of these words and find out how to say them.

Learn kind words first in new countries

One of the best things we did when on a significant traveling trip was to make our journal as a mindmap. There are all sorts of reasons why we found it better and more enjoyable to do at the time and better and more enjoyable once returned. Get a better idea than this sketchplanation by flicking through our mindmap travel journal

Try a mindmap travel journal

Sure the big city is worse than the country. But the reality is back streets in a big city are significantly better than the busy streets in a big city, and air pollution changes massively even for small children down at the height of exhausts versus adults standing higher. So if you’re not about to move to the country you could help yourself a lot nonetheless by taking the back streets (I read this premise in Focus magazine, but can’t find an online link to reference).

Pollution is highly localized: take the back streets

I believe I first heard this on a Radiolab episode, but I can’t remember for sure. Since hearing it, I’ve reflected on it many times and can’t help but think there’s some truth in it. For me it’s kind of why we’re just not that good at processing the scenery whizzing by from a car or train, and why cycling and walking are just about the best ways of getting around. Alain de Boton, in The Art of Travel, has some great observations about why trains are so great for thinking which I think has a lot to do with this - we have time to think, with a helpful intermission of the  semi-connected landscape and houses passing by that we can only process for so long before we turn back to our thoughts. I love trains.

Spent many battles with the London bikes before learning this simple trick.

Release Boris Bikes with ease by pulling up on the saddle

Having been on the other side of this countless times, those small moments of generosity and openness from locals can literally transform your perceptions of the world. We are all ambassadors.

Be nice to tourists

The data vary, but for a medium-sized adult you can probably expect half of the caffeine from that 3pm cup of coffee to still be doing half of its thing about 7pm, 4 hours later. Apparently smokers deal with caffeine quicker and caffeine sticks around in children much longer.

You can expect about 10 minutes before it first kicks-in which, I suppose, is why if you’re feeling tired while driving it’s a decent plan to take a break and drink a coffee, then have a 15 minute nap. See tiredness can kill sketchplanation. Once it starts to kick-in you might hit peak caffeine any time from 45 minutes to 2 hours later.

Caveat: that chart visualisation is extrapolated from reported data, so the shape is approximate only.

Some references say longer, and some say, from 3-9 hours or so. My source which seemed pretty comprehensive was:

Bertil B. Fredholm, Karl Bättig, Janet Holmén, Astrid Nehlig and Edwin E. Zvartau, Actions of Caffeine in the Brain with Special Reference to Factors That Contribute to Its Widespread Use, Pharmacological Reviews March 1999, 51 (1) 83-133;

Tiredness can kill. Take a break

Enjoy your hotel room more

Sometimes see the good in what you have come to resent.

Sketchplanations tagged with travel