I was lost, and now am found

Interesting day today, certainly one worth blogging about.

Today was the day of the Keighley mapping party, organised by Bradford Linux Users' Group. All very well, you may say, but it was my first mapping party, and with the Open Source GIS nature of my PhD, and my inability to code, it was time I learnt how to contribute something back to the community.

Those of you who work with me will know that mornings are not my forté, and having to get up at 7 on a Sunday is not the best way for me to start the day - never mind that the downstairs neighbours' burglar alarm went off at 4am - they're not around at the moment, and I was pretty sure my landlord wasn't going to answer the phone at 4am... It eventually stopped, and despite there being no signs of a break-in, the neighbours two floors down say they heard someone walking around...

So I duly went off to town, not quite bleary-eyed thanks to the espresso, to catch the 0900 train to Carlisle, getting off at Keighley. My plan was to go around with someone, using both my department's GPS unit (a Garmin eTrex Legend for the GPS-heads) and BuddyWay (which turns out to be a bad choice as it needs the phone to upload data via its mobile data connection); and record the experience with audio and possibly some photos.

...only that while checking through the stuff on the train, I happen to have left the digital audio recorder (which shares a pouch with my IrisPen) on the train. Oh dear. Carlisle is a long, long way away.

Anyway, so I went off with David Carpenter of Bradford LUG, mapping Keighley in the vicinity of North Street / Skipton Road. There's some interesting and convoluted local history to be gleaned from walking around, trying to classify streets, and occasionally getting drawn into conversations with residents (Keighley turns out to be quite a friendly place on a Sunday - even the Jehovah's Witnesses!) - and after I got back the data was unloaded via an expensive Orange data connection to the "cloud", then out again as KML files for Google Earth (and eventually for categorisation and loading onto OpenStreetMap).

We finished about 4, with one of the group suggesting that the 0900 to Carlisle ought to be making its return journey through Keighley soon. Sure enough, perusing the timetable it appeared that the next train to Leeds would be the return journey of the one I lost my voice recorder on (it takes about 3.5 hours to get to Carlisle from Leeds, and the train stays at Carlisle some 2 hours before returning... hardly the best use of resources...). I had asked at the station after realising I'd left it on the train that morning, and again about 4, but to no avail. I sat in the same location I had on the way out, and asked fellow passengers if they'd seen anything. Then I asked the conductor as he passed through. He told me to follow him, as the other conductor had had something handed in. it was a small black puch containing a voice recorder and an IrisPen. Stranger things have happened, I suppose, but I didn't get to make voice recordings, while £250 worth of my research kit went on a 200 mile round trip without me...

Back to Leeds (via reduced price items at Sainsbury's at a quarter to 5), I found a new sign had been placed outside my house. It showed the wildlife which could be found on Woodhouse Ridge (including the Tawny Owls which keep us awake some nights, and the butterflies we never see). Thanks to the Woodhouse Ridge Action Group for that - it must have been the project for this month's workday. I also asked my neighbours 2 floors down about the burglar alarm when it went off... there's no sign of our landlord by phone (we both call again), and eventually I hit on the idea of emailing him via Unipol's (the University housing office) website, which means they keep a copy. He arrives in about half an hour, and another half an hour later has sorted the problem - the alarm sounding a warning because the power's been cut as the downstairs neighbours have moved out.

So eventually, all is well with the world - apparently. It's been a strange and tiring day, so much so that I missed a very unusual gig round the corner (a Georgian folk choir at the Yorkshire School of Music and Drama) as I wasn't up to going out again. Oh well... tomorrow's another day!