swim to the moon...

It's been a while...

2006-02-25T11:09:00.000Z

...since I've been able to post here.
What with Christmas, parents visiting, a trip to Spain, the return of the other sport, heavy work deadlines, and a lapse in pool membership... it's all been a little frantic at Moon Mission Control.

Yes there has been swimming... but not an awful lot. There were a few laps ages ago, but I can't quite remember how many... and I did swim 25m in a capsize drill recently (sigh). Oh well, racing is coming soon, and with that the other sport will lie dormant for a bit - giving me a bit more time to splash about in the pool.

So, where were we then? 119.954km from central London at our last update.
And you were posting your laps like champions:

2.1 km from Sam in Oz
10.2 km from Cristy & Paul in Laos
0.9 km from The Pink Kitty in California
3.3 km from Michael & Becky in Oxford, UK
64.8 km from Claven in US
3.2 km from Rob in Oz
4.0 km from Isa in Oxford too!

Plus my weird little 25m takes us to 208.704km!
Does that get us to the other side of the Channel?

Despite my hiatus, I'm sure other lunar astronauts have been keeping up up the pace!
How far did you swim in the last 4 months?

Flightpath

2005-11-29T10:45:00.000Z

This latest map plots our projected flight path around the Earth. We follow the red line East(ish) from the centre of the left-hand globe - London, England - across to the right through Europe, Asia, the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, and loop back through South America from the far left.

Thanks to Charles Sturt Uni's fantastic online Map Maker interface, I've plotted it in azimuthal projections (!) centred on London (rounded to Lat. 51 N, Long. 0 W), and the other side of the globe (Lat. 51 S, Long. 180 W).

It's the route that takes us across the most land-mass, so we should get a great view of the scenery as we go by!
Wheeeeeeee!

Okey Dokey

2005-10-11T10:02:00.000+01:00

Together we'd managed 18.65km last time I managed to update. We've had some fantastic input since then, with laps from all over, so here we go with the new total:

Prev: 18.650

thepinkkitty 3.050

owen 47.500 (amazing!)

claven 3.200

(& seal) 400

paul 48.000 (amazing here too!)

claven again 4.800

sam 1.350

marketmosley 4m (3 laps of bath)

Add to that, my own paltry 2km, which I'd like to blame entirely on accient and injury... But let's be honest here, I've been a little slack recently. With an emergent beer-belly to show for it!

So the new total: 118.954km!!!!!

Holy smut! We've shot off the coast!

We're now a little way into the English Channel, heading east on our first lap of the Earth!

(courtesy of googlemaps)

It might seem a little unfair to poor Paul, who's been splashing away for 240-odd km in Dempasar... But according to the rules, I'm only allowed to count laps since you found this website, which I'm gonna assume happened about a month ago when Grazilla spread the moon mission news. And I'm also sorry Owen, but the rules say that I can only accept proper wet splashy laps, otherwise I'd have to make the site

swim, row, jog, cycle, skip and pole-vault to the moon...

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it.... Anyway, I'm sure you'll still manage to get to a pool occasionally! And as you all will have seen - When I'm in a generous mood, I even accept the occasional laps-of-bath, and contributions of accompanying wildlife. (Wow, Claven, You got to swim with a seal! I wonder if seals know how far away the moon is... It'd be great if we could recruit them too - they swim heaps!) You'll notice though Mosley, your bathtub shenannegins don't quite promote you to out of the 'land lubbers' section of my links... Get your self proclaimed 'gay icon' ass into some togs and GET WET PROPERLY!

And to finalise the tally, this time we've had laps from UK, USA, Laos and Australia.
Yaaaay.

How far did you swim today?

Maths Memo

2005-09-20T12:19:00.000+01:00

To help us (mainly me) out, here's a post with quick conversions to kilometers:

Yards x 0.9 = Meters
Miles x 1.6 = Kilometers

Yay!
This'll be in the sidebar too.

That thing I do during the day

2005-09-18T12:05:00.000+01:00

has been getting really hectic recently. Not to mention moving house (twice in one day, no less). Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Soon to follow.

Re------al slow

2005-08-22T20:34:00.000+01:00

I was cruising along for my last couple of lengths -- just chilling out in the water, taking each breath like a lazy yawn.

Sometimes I forget to do that bit -- not the breathing I mean, but the other bit: slowing down a little to relax into the feel of the water and the shape of the stroke. Groovy baby. Groove---y. 0.75km.

And a big shout to our international team of lunar aquanauts! Since our last tally we've had 1km from Sam in Sydney and 6.15km from The Pink Kitty in California, and her Mom (I think that's GREAT)! That's added onto our current distance of 11.5 achieved so far by myself, littlekerri and Vanja in the UK, and Owen in Philadelphia. Yay team!

Today's total: 18.65km
Rockin'

Hooray for kickboards

2005-08-15T11:16:00.000+01:00

Well, this injury of mine has pretty well ruled out my favourite stroke for the moment 'sniff'. So for the next little while I'm getting into the groove of kickboards! Some may think it's cheating to use a flotation device on the way to the moon, but if you think about it, it's only going to make me slower (unlike some other 'training aids' I can think of -- flippers for example -- they're *so* cheating. No flippers to the moon please. Really!). Besides, I reckon if I can persist with 30 mostly-kickboard lengths, I deserve 'em!

30 lenghts x 25m pool = 0.75km

Aquanauts, we're doing swell! Vanja (who promises to donate laps from Montenego soon), has given us 1.6km, so added to the previous total of 9.15km that's...

11.5km! We've broken the 10km mark. We'll be at the moon in no time...

How far did you swim today?

Good news...

2005-08-10T08:30:00.000+01:00

1. for aquanauts!

Seven Russian sailors trapped for three days were rescued today after a British undersea robot cut their small submarine free of ocean floor debris off Russia's Pacific coast.

The freeing of the trapped submarine and the rescue of the crew was a welcome happy ending to a drama that some feared might end like that Kursk submarine disaster five years ago in which all 183 crewmen died.

More of this or the denouement.

2. for astronauts!

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - The space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts glided safely back to Earth on Tuesday, successfully completing NASA's troubled return to human space flight 2 1/2 years after the Columbia disaster that killed all the astronauts on board.

More of this or read about the somewhat unbelievable landing process.

3. for lunar aquanauts?

Hopefully I'll be over this cold and back in the pool by Friday...
How far did you swim today?

Update

2005-08-06T19:40:00.000+01:00

So what with Prague, and the pesky return of a comical childhood injury, it's been no laps from me this week, but contributions from my fellow lunar aquanauts are bringing the mission along nicely!

That's 0.9 km from littlekerrie, who I met on my last expedition, and another 2.6km from Owen - continuing his sterling work by internationalising our moon mission with laps from the states!

Altogether 9.15km to date -- no doubt with more to come...

(The lovely Miss V, for example, has been hinting she's got some contributions on the way...)
How far did you swim today?

3 not-entirely-successful launches

2005-08-01T18:30:00.000+01:00

So we're in Prague this week (No, unfortunately, not yet recording moon mission progress - simply recounting a quick getaway, a break from the merrie(sic) English weather...) So here in sunny old 35C mid-summer, you'd think I'd be able to knock off a few more clicks on the way to the moon. Think again.

There must be something inauspicious about the alignment of the planets for *launches* right now...

Launch #1

Staying in a hotel which happens to have a gym which happens to have a pool! Quite a rare combination, you'll find, when you travel on a budget at slim as mine. So I think,

great, I'll be able to contribute laps from Prague - how fantastically intercontinental.

So I go upstairs to check out the top floor fitness facilities (of which I only require the pool), cautiously expecting some moderate charge. But when I get there, what do I find? A 350 koruna fee for a 'full day's use'. Full day! I only want a few laps! I'm in Prague for the sum total of 4 days - why the hell would I want to waste a whole day of it in a hotel pool? I digress, let me clarify, that's about 9 pounds, 16 yankee dollars, nearly 25 aussie bucks!

Mission Status: Aborted

Launch #2

So in the wake of the swankerificly expensive hotel pool, it turned out that there might actually be a Plan B! That very evening, we met a chap who invited us to go swimming with him at the pool of his friend's wife, who owned a country club just outside Prague. Sound good to you?

Well it sounded good to us... the first time this guy offered... but the further he descended into his stash, the more vehement his invitiations got, and the less appealing the whole package started to sound: Afterall, we only met this random Nigerian an hour earlier when I knocked over his beer in a basement reggae club which we'd only ended up in because the jazz bar we were aiming for turned out to be closed down, and standing in the street outside, wondering what we might do next, some guy comes over and invites us to his bar, as he'd just seen us all half an hour earlier at the last pub... which happened to belong to his brother! Random.

Oh, did I mention that by 'all of us' I now mean, not only my comrade & co-conspirator, Mr Z, but 3 other Aussies we happened to meet in the afore-said pub. Not only meet, but happened also to know from a town sometimes referred to as Canberra. Good grief! Random!

So no, all things considered, we did not don our swimming trunks with the wife of the friend of the Nigerian guy whose drink I bumped in the bar of the brother of the owner of the pub my Australian friend was helping to paint as she cycles across Eastern Europe. Whoosh...

Mission Status: Aborted.

Launch #3

Ask NASA...
Mission Status: Questionable...

Back in the swim of things...

2005-07-20T19:43:00.000+01:00

Finally got back to the pool again (I love that wobbly feeling of water rushing past your arms...) and clocked up another kilometer on the way to the moon! Despite the break, I feel like we're making a bit of progress here: 4.25k on my own, and the fabulously exciting news of my FIRST LAP DONATION.

Wheeeeeee!

Even more excitingly, it's an international donation - 1.4k from Owen (Cheers Mate, Good to hear from you!), who's swimming in Philly, USA. So there you are folks, a grand total for the Middle of June, of 4.65km. I reckon that shoots us straight over the top of the Tower of London, and halfway into Shoreditch!

AND wouldn't you know it, while I was down at the local (pool, that is...) I bumped into another 2 potential aquanauts! Girls! I await your laps with glee!

Confession Part 2

2005-07-18T12:28:00.000+01:00

Yet another no-swim-weekend (not to mention the week before!!!). And yet another festival induced excuse - This time the Glade Festival was to blame!

Electronic dance music extravaganza that it was, I was unable to take advantage of the local waterways, as, despite the very clear signage, gents who couldn't be bothered to queue for a urinal, insisted on contributing to the nearby water catchments (yuck).

Instead I spent my time frolicking amongst day-glo fairies with six-foot fluttering wings, goblins, stilt walking cabaret girls, and a fair few, fairly happy, mad-dancing party-people. Woosh. I probably danced my way at least as far as the Tower of London - but boogying doesn't really count, does it!

Confession

2005-07-11T12:21:00.000+01:00

Actually, blaming the traffic for a no-swim-weekend is actually a bit of a furfie. I was a bit caught up at the NASS Festival, where skateboard vert-ramps, BMX junkyard trials and dirt jumps were the order of the day, rather than swimming. Besides, donning a swimsuit in the midst of so many early teen boys (for whom, festival reports comment, the main contraband turned out to be porno magazines...) hmm, it might have been a little unwise.

I did manage to take some fun photos though!

We're ok

2005-07-08T16:51:00.000+01:00

Phew! South side of the river - not caught up in any of the London mayhem. Traffic's terrible though, no swim this weekend.

View from the slow lane

2005-07-06T20:56:00.000+01:00

I met a charming elderly gentlewoman, who entered the pool with a hint of blush and her hair swept elegantly in a loose french roll. She was cruising along in a leisurely half-breast stroke -- the half that means you keep your head well and truly above the water. She was having a quiet word with a frightfully enthusiastic young chap, whose enthusiasm didn't really translate into speed or distance. She was offering that he could go ahead of her, so that she could avoid his splashes. He declined, then looked across at me as though I'd agree she must be insane.

Why swim if you can't put your head under water? He said petulently

I suppose it's good exercise, I tried

Still, it makes you lazy. See, I have to wait now!

As it turned out, she was on immuno-suppressant drugs, and couldn't put her head uder water for fear of middle ear infections. As it turned out, he'd declined to go first, not out of politeness, but because he was too tired and needed a rest... Yeah, makes you lazy... R--ight.

40 laps today, so (short course) another 1km. That takes my total to 3.25 km! I think that takes me to the Tate Modern. Cool

Where in the world?

2005-07-04T21:28:00.000+01:00

I've used some tiles from MultiMap to show you how far I've come!

From London Victoria Station, Past Big Ben, across the Thames to Waterloo Station - right next to the London Eye: 2.25 km Yipee! You can see an interactive aerial photo at multimap. (Waterloo Station looks like a big grey fish, and the ferris-wheel that is the London Eye looks like it's fallen over)

How far did you swim today?

The Rules...

2005-07-04T11:39:00.000+01:00

I've had a few queries from potential aquanauts about whether they can donate their laps from last summer, or a few years back when they were on the swim team. So here's the FAQ (due to gradual revision...).

1. Simply donate your laps as a comment following the latest blog-post, and I'll add them to the running total in the very next update! Leave your name, number of laps, and the length of your pool (short course pool = 25m, olympic pool = 50m)

2. You don't have to post laps on the day you do the swimming - it's ok to keep a running tally and donate your laps weekly, or even monthly if you like.

3. Please only post the laps you swim after you find this website. This is a mission-in-progress. We want to swim to the moon together!

4. Please don't spam my wetlog! And only real laps please. This is a silly but enjoyable project, it's much more fun if we all get wet doing it!

Long Bus Trip - Straight to Pool

2005-07-03T19:30:00.000+01:00

Just got back from Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History Rally, where over 200,000 people formed a great white band around the city centre, in the hope that G8 leaders will listen to the call to Drop the Debt, Make Trade Fair not 'Free', and to give More and Better Aid to countries in need.

So... 6hrs to Newcastle, overnight stop, 3hrs to E'bg, rally-rally-rally. Then back again to Newcastle, plus another whole day on-a-bus. Phew! Too much sitting down -- straight to the pool for me!

30 laps (30 x 25m) = 0.75km

That takes my running total to 90 laps & 2.25km.
Starting from London's Victoria Station, I've crossed the Thames and landed bang-on Waterloo Station!
I shall work on maps soon...

How to get there...

2005-07-01T16:54:00.000+01:00

Getting the ball rolling

2005-06-30T18:24:00.000+01:00

Well you might think it's cheating, but I think its good sense to start with the laps I've already swum this week.

Monday:
40 laps (short course pool) = 40 x 25m = 1km
a pretty good start I'd say...

Wednesday:
20 laps (running late for the pub) = 20 x 25m = 0.5km

My grand total for Week 1... 1.5km

Starting at London's Victoria Station and heading roughly East-ish, 1.5km takes me past the Westminster Abbey, and on to Big Ben!

How far did you swim today?

To the moon!

2005-06-30T15:55:00.000+01:00

I like swimming. I really do. But sometimes I think

I wish I'd kept track of how far I've swum, I probably would've made it to Botswana by now!

So here it starts - the great adventure begins. From today, every time I go to the pool, I'll post my laps here, with a cumulative total. I'm swimming to the moon! Want to join me?