May, the bike to work month

Posted on 5/31/20115/31/2011 by boj Posted in Bike

I managed to bike to work three times this spring. Considering the torrential downpours, humidex warnings, tendency to get up too late and the week of stomach flu, this is pretty good.

It takes me about 45 min to drop the kids off and get to work. This is about 15 to 20 minutes longer than if I was driving, so I don’t see myself biking every day. I can’t spare 40 minutes daily, though three out of the five days would be a really nice average.

I attended a meeting about sustainable suburbs and making Kanata more wakeable/bikeable. It is a concept very dear to my heart, but there is a lot about the subject that I don’t really understand, even when it comes to my own habits. I think I will examine my transport choices to see what causes me to walk, bike or take the car.

Daycare

Posted on 5/25/2011 by boj Posted in Baby2 Comments

Moms love to fuss and make a big deal out of nothing. Daycare is one of those things.

Right off the start, I hate the concept of kindergarden. I am sure it was a great idea in the stone age where most moms stayed at home and dropping their kids off for three hours in the middle off the day was handy thing to do. Today, with only 30% of stay-at-home rate, it is not very helpful for the other 70% of parents. The option is now to either keep the kids in daycare centres (which have kindergarten programs) and skipping the public school until grade 1 or to find a home daycare within bussing distance of the school and have the daycare provider walk your kid to school or a bus stop.

Ironically enough I will be at home during next year because I will be on mat leave. Theoretically I will be able to walk Trev to his three hours of kindergarden and keep him home for the rest of the day. As this is essentially free, financially wise, it is the best choice. However, he is a picky eater at home but eats everything at the daycare. Also, he is very introverted and I am not sure how healthy would it be for him to spend most of his day with an exhausted adult and a baby instead of kids his own age. Sure, I have some friends with kids his age at home, and I could make a point of taking him to city playgroups, but this is not something I can really rely on for every day of the week.

The daycare center Trev is at now is fantastic, but they only take kids between ages of 2 and 5. This means that even if I keep Trev in the center next year, I will have to find a home daycare within bussing distance for the year after. I will definitely have to find a home care for him once he starts elementary school. The home care Owen is in now is good, but it is not in the bussing range. I have a couple of names, but I am still a bit weary of switching home cares, especially after the bad experience we’ve had last time we tried to find daycare in our neighbourhood (The morning we were about to take Trev to daycare, the lady called us to tell us that she had changed her mind and will not take him). Because I will not be requiring home daycare for another year, it is too early to start interviewing people and while finding after school home daycare should not be a big problem, very few home daycares will take babies as they are not profitable. To muddy the water, we just got an e-mail from a daycare centre near my work saying that they have a space for Trev for next year.

So in summary:

Options for 2011/2012 school year
1. Keep all three kids at home – cheap and insane
2. Trev stays in local daycare center, Owen goes to current home daycare part time until a space opens for him in the local daycare centre, we take Trev out of the centre at the beginning of summer – pricey but doable
3. Put Trev in the other daycare centre, Owen should get in soon afterwards, under siblings rule. Keep Trev there until he is ready for elementary school – convenient but very expensive, also I would have to drive them there rather than walk or bike as it is quite far

Options for 2012/2013 school year
1. Hope I can find a good home daycare in the neighbourhood for both Trev and the baby, Owen goes to local daycare centre once he turns 2 and a half, or he already has a spot at 2 years old if Trev was there when Owen turned 2
2. Trev and Owen go to the far daycare centre, baby goes to our current home daycare until there is a spot for him with his brothers (at 18 months)
3. If I can’t find care for the baby in the neighbourhood, baby stays at far home daycare, Trev goes to local home daycare and Owen goes to local daycare centre. This will mean that I will have three different spots to drop the kids off every day.

Frankly, if I was running the world (or Ontario, anyway), I would cancel all kindergarden programs that are housed in elementary schools. If you are going to implement pre-elementary school education, than do it as a part of a full service, 9 hours per day, full lunch cooked from scrap on premisses, two hour nap and enclosed playground daycare centre that takes in kids between 1 and 6 years old. You could even have special hours where stay-at-home moms could drop their kids off for instruction free of charge. This whole patchwork care we have currently is driving me crazy.

Bike review – Kona Africa

Posted on 5/17/20116/1/2011 by boj Posted in Bike, General8 Comments

I’ve had Kona Africa for a little bit over a year now, it is probably a good time for a review.

I’ve got this bicycle for express purpose of kid transport. Essentially, it is a compact cargo bike. I’ve had two bobike seats installed at the shop. The front seat interfered with the basket that came with the bike so it was replaced with a different (larger) basket. The rest of the bike is original.

I have never used an internal hub before, but I really like it on this bike as I can shift any time, not just when I am moving. Coaster breaks are something that I had the hardest time leaving behind when I moved from riding minibikes to hybrids. I am so happy to break with my foot instead of hand again. Installed rear wheel lock is another thing that I had on my childhood bike and am excited to have again. Admittedly, on my childhood bike, the wheel lock was loose and not actually installed. The bike mechanic refused to install it because he said I was going to break my spokes, but I think he was just being lazy and giving excuses. Africa comes with the installed wheel lock, so there is no fear of lazy bike mechanics. Besides, bike mechanics at Tall Tree Cycles, where I got the bike, are very nice and not lazy at all.

The bobike child seats fit well on the bike, though I had to order an extra part for the larger seat due to the non standard rear rack. The kids love riding and the bike is quite stable even with both of them on. Owen loves ringing the bell and while I think it is cute, I am not sure if that is a good thing. I suppose I can always move his hand away if we are in a situation where random bell ringing might be confusing to the rest of the traffic.

In terms of performance, this bike is the happiest when it is fully loaded. With both kids on, it rides like a charm, even going up smaller hills is a non issue. I have not tried any steep hills, and I am not sure if I would.

I do have two complaints about the bike. The first is that my thighs are too long so the horizontal distance between the seat and the pedals is uncomfortable. Interestingly enough, this is not an issue with both boys on the bike, it is a little bit of an issue with only one of them and it is a big issue when I ride alone. I don’t have a good explanation as to why. Maybe the bike stretches under weight? The second complaint is that the bike is slow. It might be possible to get it to be faster by replacing the standard heavy duty puncture proof tires with slicker ones, but I am not ready for that at this point.

The cost of the bike is at the lower end of what you would pay at a bike shop, usually a bit above $400. The child seats set me back about $300. Given that the cheapest kid carrying cargo bike for sale in Ottawa is $1500 (it was not available when I was looking two years ago though I could have gotten a different one in Toronto for $4000), I think I got decent value for my money. Plus, once the kids are too big, I still have a useable bike.

Ako je hokej, onda okej!

Posted on 5/17/2011 by boj Posted in General

While we were in Zagreb, we went to a hockey game. Now, you might think that Zagreb is not a hockey town, and you might be right, however, as long as I remember, Zagreb had two big hockey teams. When I say big, I mean teams that could sell tickets so someone other than their immediate family.

In the 80’s, Zagreb had two skating rinks, an indoor one inside an early 70’s sports/entertainment complex, Dom Sportova, and an outdoor one in Salata, part of an outdoor sports/entertainment complex of a somewhat earlier vintage. In last few years, a new skating rink has opened in a fancy-shmancy handball arena.

While we were in Zagreb, Croatia was playing in the IIHF World Championships final. My sister got us some tickets and we were off to the spectacle.

The finals were at the old indoor arena, for which I was glad, and not just because it was much easier to get to by tram. As a kid, I’ve been to Dom Sportova on few occasions; Stars on Ice, figure skating championship, a brief attempt at public skating, but mostly I was there for the yearly winter sporting goods exchange where my dad would sell my old skis and boots and buy bigger ones for the upcoming season. Chris and I have been to Dom Sportova for a concert a few years ago, but never for a hockey game. For a hockey game, Dom Sportova shines in its well loved socialist splendour, including, but not limited to, an unmarked three wheeled ice resurfacing machine.

According to Chris, the hockey was at about AHL level. This was the last game of the tournament so both teams played well but were quite exhausted. Romanians, however, managed to shore up more energy and won the title.

Transporting in London

Posted on 5/11/20115/16/2011 by boj Posted in General

Apart from the usual BMW, though in London it would really be BUW (bus-underground-walk), we sampled tow new options of public transit. We went on the Overground, which is a light rail ring around London, and we used London’s bixi bike rental system.

Overground

I had hoped to use the “Boris bikes” a bit more, but the thought of riding in traffic that is flowing in the opposite way of what I expect, did not appeal to me. Our original plan was to get the bikes and ride through Regent and Hyde parks but we soon discovered that bikes are prohibited from most park paths. If our stay was longer I am pretty sure that we would eventually get used to the traffic direction and find less busy roads to bike on, but as is, we had other activities planned.

London version of bixi bikes

The bike stations are not on the main roads as I expected, but tucked in the little nooks and crannies. This is probably because they require space and the trailer that moves the bikes from full to empty slots needs constant access. I saw a decent number of people using these bikes, and the trailers transporting them back and forth were not an unusual sight on the road.

Most people biked personal bikes and I found there were a lot more cyclists than I would expect given the road conditions. However, considering the rising price or owning and operating a car in London and given congestion, distances and density, I suppose it is only natural.

Random view from the double decker

Taking the bus was fun for most part. Rxcept in one instant, there was always a seat or two on any bus and they arrived in decent intervals. When we booked our hotel, we expected to do more trips outward so we got a hotel in zone 2. What actually ended up happening is that we gravitated towards zone 1 so our hotel ended up being quite far from where we went for walks. If we were to do it again, we would get a hotel in zone 1 and shorten the time we’ve spent on the bus.

At the transport museum

We did not intend to go to the Transport museum, but as we arrived at the Convent Garden a little too early for the opera, we decided to peek in and check it out. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in engineering history and public transit.

Film – Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

Posted on 5/10/2011 by boj Posted in Film, General

No, we did not go to the royal wedding, but we did go to a zombie one…

Curiously enough, zombies require much less security and no helicopters.

We did not get enough of Dr Whos at Southwark, so we ventured into the full Dr Who experience.

We got threatened by some Daleks, we piloted the TARDIS and we got to be 3D’d by some aliens. I kept my eyes closed for the 3D part, so I can’t tell you more.

Post Industrial Brambles

Month: May 2011