On 4 October, I attempted to swim the Bristol Channel again, after my brilliant swim last year. However, it didn’t go well this year. I called it off after about 5 hours and 45 minutes of suffering in the murky sea. Motivation I booked this swim early this year as I was doubtful if I was ready to complete the UK 3 Channel Challenge (UK3CC) by swimming the North Channel, as it is known to be very difficult with tricky…
Prologue: The Calling After losing my job in April and facing a sluggish summer market in the UK, I found myself with an unexpected window of time. Reflecting on my journey, I realized my diving ability and comfort in the water had long outgrown the beginner tier. I decided it was time to return to Hong Kong and pursue my intermediate certification with my original instructor, Jason Yip. In my eyes, Jason is the definition of a practical waterman—an expert…
I did a sprint triathlon this week as I wished to have a lake race in addition to sea races, so that I could know how I perform differently. My ideal race would be an Olympic distance race, with a lake swim, flat bike and flat run, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any accessible options which could fit into my calendar, with some races held on a time of day when no trains run at all for me to get…
I did the Eastbourne Triathlon again this year on 12 July, competing in the Standard Aquathlon race. Unfortunately it was again so windy on the race day, with forecast showing force 6, not much different from two years ago when the swim was cancelled. However, this year it was wind with tide, therefore the organiser activated a backup plan to shorten the swim to a 750 m down the wind and tide, so we walked to the pier to start…
After my dive holiday in February, I fell completely in love with the sea. As soon as I returned to London, I joined a dive club hoping to find more underwater opportunities. However, local training is limited to shallow pools, where the club runs two sessions a week. I started attending just to see where I stood, and within a few weeks, I managed 75m in DYNB (Dynamic with Bifins) and 50m in DNF (Dynamic No Fins). For me, that…
BR Fares, a train fare enquiry website, has now launched ticket retailing capability which allows us to buy a ticket without choosing an itinerary, just like from a ticket machine. The website is accredited to the same standard as actual ticket machines. With this functionality, buying commuter train tickets becomes much easier. For example, when the industry journey planning system goes down, or when engineering works prevent purchase of a ticket valid for ticket acceptence, or to buy some tickets…
I am trying to buy a train ticket for a journey between East Croydon and Overton today. This is a simple journey, changing at Clapham Junction and Basingstoke. However, it ended up to be a hunt between different websites because the ticket didn’t show up on my preferred split ticket retailer. The itinerary was shown but it forced me to buy 3 tickets, one for each leg, to complete the journey. I then checked the website of the train operator,…
I have been using KeyGo for a while to travel between London, Croydon and Brighton. It is a product developed by Govia Thameslink Railway to be loaded onto a The Key smartcard which enables account-based ticketing so that I don’t need to buy a ticket beforehand. In the past, it always charged me correctly, but recently I am getting more troubles than the effort saved. In the last week, I had to contact the customer service twice because of suspected…
It has been 5 years since I emigrated to the UK and I have completed the requirements to settle in the UK. I am now a permanent resident, in a further year, subject to meeting the requirements, I will be able to register as a British Citizen. Since I moved to the UK, I have made breakthrough in my career, with the major achievement being improving GTFS-RT to make it capable to represent the real-time operations of National Rail. Besides…
On 30 December 2025, I did the “Christmas Parks Challenge”, which is an annual challenge of visiting all the park stations on the London Underground network, 24 parks in total. The rules of the challenge are follows: Before doing this challenge, the only kind of transport challenge I had done was the Random 15 challenge, in which I am a regular participant. It is a challenge where everyone departs together in form of a mass start, and the stations to…