The UniCyclist
The uselessness of mathematics
Often, when I say to people that I'm studying for a mathematics degree with the OU, they tell me how useless maths is, which is nice of them. "I've forgotten all the maths I ever learnt at school but I've never needed it," they say. I'm not sure how they've survived. They'd probably own up to being able to add and subtract, multiply and divide, but almost all of the GCSE/O level syllabus is useful in daily life. For a start, if you want to work out how much...
The end of the road... for now
The End of the Road...for Now This long ride is over for another year. The pedals finally stopped spinning on UniCycle50 2012 after 20 countries, 18 capitals and something like 12,000 kilometres, taking the total up to 34 capitals and around 21,000 kilometres. The timing was perfect. I was ready for a rest. I loved the leg from Istanbul to the end, through Bulgaria, Albania and all the former Yugoslavian countries, but the Balkan cities approached without time to absorb the previous one and I...
Love and hate in Zagreb
I met a clown in a bar. I'd never met a clown before. "I used to paint my entire face but it scared some of the children. Now I just put a red dot on the end of my nose," Fleur said. It was hard to imagine that this beaming, pretty, blonde French-Danish OU student could scare anyone, even if she'd been made up like Papa Lazarou. She works for a charity brightening up the lives of children and the elderly, with big plans for a psychology PhD and moves between Zagreb, France, Germany,...
If you go down to the woods today...
I'm sat in a town nestled in a tree-stuffed valley, the evergreens as verdent as ever, the deciduous just on the turn to amber. Three weeks from now the forest will be a fire of yellows, oranges and reds. Not far from here, just upstream, the forest is already a fire of actual fire. It's burning. But here in town, looking at these terracotta-roofed houses from a distance, I could be in Austria, with the laidback tinkle of the stream merging with the laughter of the...
Sofia, Pristina and Skopje
After four months containing only nine capitals I squeeze another nine in as many weeks. The Balkans has the highest concentration of capitals in the whole of Europe. Since my last blogette I've already seen three of them, a trio of very different places. Bulgaria has to be the surprise star of this year's ride. Italy was gorgeous but I always knew it would be. But for some reason I thought Bulgaria would be a dull, industrial hole. Aside from the first day, trawling...
Istanbul, not Constantinople... nor Turkey
Ah, Istanbul. Never has a city been so at odds with the country that surrounds it. It's usually the capital that feels like this. I've always found Vienna to be staid and stuffy and full of its own self-importance when compared to the rest of lovely, country-bumpkinesque Austria. Even Graz, Austria's second largest city, with a population of a quarter of a million, considers itself quite rightly to be nothing but a big village. And the pumping vivacity of Amsterdam,...
My third degree burns
I've been asked to write about my progress with this year's OU study. There's a good reason I've been so quiet about it. It's all a bit depressing. And I hate to be depressing. Yes, I've already got a BA from the OU and, just a few months ago, an MA from what used to be Lampeter, but I wanted to finish my foray into higher education with a third degree, a banging BSc and not a whimper. Last year's combination of adventure and education couldn't have gone much better. I gained a distinction in...
The heating and eating of Turkey
I have to admit that writing this blog today is a tremendous effort. For one, I'm uncharacteristically sat by a beautiful swimming pool and I have a gin 'n' tonic by my laptop but it's so hot I'm struggling to be bothered to raise the glass to my lips or throw myself in the water. I'm typing this one fingered with sweat trickling down my nose. It's currently around 41C. Pity me, rainy Britain! A couple of days ago I made it to the south of Turkey and caught the ferry across to Cyprus, where I...
The hottest pensioner in Turkey
There are a lot of reasons why cycling in Turkey isn't a good idea. Read any cycling-through-Turkey blog and it'll tell you of awful road surfaces, big hills, mental drivers and, oh, the wild dogs! Within 10 minutes of crossing the border, I'd seen my first dog. Ten minutes later I saw another. Luckily they were both dead at the side of the road. But - dear me! - they looked terrifying. If you want an image of what I saw, simply go and rent American Werewolf in London. Seriously. I assume that...
Acropolis now!
Sorry, aside from the weak pun in that title, there's nothing much to laugh about in this one. This is an interesting time to be cycling around Greece, if it's mostly a depressing time to be Greek. Most conversations with able English speakers, once they've gone past the pleasantries, dive into Greece's financial woes. And they are many. This isn't just a result of the financial crisis we've all suffered. Greece has additional problems on top of those. A few days ago,...
About The UniCyclist
Hi, I'm Steven Primrose-Smith, otherwise known as The UniCyclist – one bloke, two wheels, two degree courses, one portable university and 50 capital cities. Nice to meet you!
I'm 40-year-old full-time student with The Open University and University of Wales, Lampeter. I got my first degree in 2008 in Philosophy and English from the OU and I'm currently planning my dissertation for an MA in philosophy with Lampeter as well as working through the necessary modules at the OU to get a degree in maths and another in physical science. The aim, once all these courses are done, is to be a well-rounded private tutor covering as many subjects as possible. But that's three years away. I might get squashed by a truck before then.
For 15 years I was a technical author and internet software developer, but other jobs that I've been paid for include (in order, from age 14): delivering newspapers, stocking supermarket shelves, working in a video shop cum off licence cum sunbed centre, playing a synthesizer (with one finger) in an awful band called The Slaves of Circumstance, buying electronic components, playing a synthesizer (now with two fingers) in an even worse band called Tuco Talks, graphic design, laying out newspapers, writing computer games, selling software online, knocking up websites, performing comedy, doing voices for radio ads, writing magazine articles, teaching people how to improve their computer skills, writing comedy sketches and, most recently, maths tutoring.
I did my first cycling tour in 1994 when I had a week on very windy Orkney. Shortly afterwards I was working in Austria and only did the occasional weekend tour although I had many a tipsy day-ride with friends out into the vineyards south of Graz. It wasn't until 2007 that I decided to get a bit more serious when I did an 11-day tour of western Andalusia. But the longest ride to date - in 2009 - was from the Isle of Man to the Costa del Sol, through the UK, France and Spain, lasting 32 days and covering 2,688 kilometres. It was that ride that gave me the idea for this one.
Other things I love doing include playing my guitar and keyboard (now with more than two fingers, but still not all of 'em), sailing, walking in the mountains, running, swimming and cooking.
This life is damn short, and it can be snatched away at any given moment. Whatever it is you want to do, just do it. Don't hang around. In other words, literally or metaphorically, get on your bike!
To find out more about the ride, including the rough route I'm planning to follow, or to donate money to the charities I'm cycling for, please have a look at my website at www.UniCycle50.com. And if you have any questions or would like to meet up, please email me at steven@unicycle50.com. See you on the road!
UniCyclist makes the headlines
Follow Steven's progress as he hits the headlines...
- Blood Pressure Association
- Blackburn Citizen
- The National Student
- Lancashire Evening Post
- BBC
- Milton Keynes Citizen
- Lancashire Telegraph
- Action For Animals
- Granada Regional News (video)
