About me:

TL;DR?

Just read the banner above and you’re good!

Otherwise…

Born (1952) and schooled in the UK. Notable for the amount of time spent at the University of Sheffield, in the ’70s, and still leaving without a qualification. During one of my ‘breaks,’ I hitch-hiked to Greece, then took buses and trains overland to India and Nepal. So started a long-lived—though now somewhat reduced—fascination with India. (Not to say that I shan’t return: rural India still appeals.)

Since my mid-teens, my life has been defined pretty much by rock-climbing. Never successful at school sports (rugby, football, cricket), I showed unexpected aptitude for climbing – and found it thrilling. My choice of Sheffield for university was more influenced by ready access to the Peak District National Park, and its wonderful gritstone and limestone crags, than any academic considerations.

I never allowed lecture attendance to get in the way of a good-weather day out on the crags. Then, with my university career well and truly—and ignominiously—behind me, I headed over to the US (1978) with a couple of climbing friends. We bought a car in New York, climbed a bit, drove to Boulder, Colorado, and climbed a bit more, then more of the same in Utah and in Yosemite,California.

At the end of our trip, we three went our separate ways. I headed north to Calgary in Canada, feeling little pull back to the UK. And I’ve been based in Canada ever since. I met a lovely woman with a shared passion for travel. We married a few years later, and had a family (one daughter, one son, now in their thirties) a few years after that.

I had been working in construction, as a carpenter and occasional general contractor, but as the children started school—and when we could no longer disappear somewhere warm and adventurous for the winters—I decided it was time for a change from outdoor physical work. I returned to university, in Calgary.

I left university for the second time, at the age of 51, this time with two degrees and a teaching credential. I then instructed at a polytechnic for fifteen years before retiring just before my 66th birthday.

Swapping from life as a carpenter to being a student had been good for my back. Not so much for my front. I’d continued to eat like a construction worker and grew too heavy to climb. Biking, specifically touring, seemed a good new distraction.

I had done one extended cycle tour back in the early ’90s, before our children were born, in southern India. At 60, it felt time to see whether cycle touring still worked for me. So, in the fall of 2012, I cycled from Darjeeling, in the north-east of India, to Kanniya Kumari at the southern tip of the sub-continent. Yes, it was still fun (most of the time!). Still a great way to travel. And a bit of exercise didn’t hurt, either. (Well, sometimes it did. Literally. But the exercise always felt good for me! If not necessarily good to me.)

My life can be roughly divided into three parts. First: a passionate and totally committed climber. Then: husband, father, student, teacher, conventional almost. Now: a retiree, hoping to enjoy my bike in as many interesting places as possible whilst still able, and playing with code when back home from my adventures. I enjoy travelling alone but, when Bev joins me, it is even better.

About this site:

In 2000, I was studying computer science and started the website: dmorg.org. (I don’t remember but can only surmise that dm.org was already taken.) Over time, dmorg.org morphed into large, unwieldy Wordpress site documenting my travels. When Covid interrupted all our travels, instead of fixing the many niggling issues with my Wordpress site, I focused on other, more satisfying hobby-coding projects. Back on the bike in 2022, riding from London to Prague with my ever lovely companion, Bev, I documented the ride on Blogger (https://dmorgorg.blogspot.com). I enjoyed this because the Blogger app made it easy to make minor updates from my phone.

I may have forgotten this convenience when I started https://slowcyclingsenior.ca as a fresh Wordpress site for this year’s (2023) trek. Then my hosting plan came up for its renewal: C$340 for a year. Whoa!

Hosting plans often offer cheap starter rates but I’m long past those from my otherwise excellent service provider. And I’m sure I didn’t pay anything like this for my last triannual renewal. Anyway, it’s way too much for this parsimonious retiree’s blogs and hobby sites. Especially as I’ve migrated all but a couple of my hobby sites to a different technology which I can host for free. Really, all I need the hosting for is Wordpress. (And not really for that when Blogger is available.)

I have been interested for a while in static sites, which I can code myself, which are faster, and don’t require a database. Using JavaScript rather than Wordpress’ PHP code. (There is one drawback; I can’t implement an efficient comment functionality.) This is coded using a JavaScript compiler called Sveltekit (which is an absolute joy). Posts are written in Markdown. It is freely hosted on vercel.com. Now everything I routinely use is free/open source—except for my photo processing which requires paid software (DxO Photolab, Adobe Lightroom).

Now, the time-consuming task of transferring ten or more years of posts from two Wordpress sites and one Blogger site.Something to keep me out of trouble for a while. I don’t anticipate completion any time soon; my other projects are a distraction. And I do go on trips now and again!