Simon Dew
simonjabadaw.bsky.social
Simon Dew
@simonjabadaw.bsky.social
Tech comms and linguistics.

Cross-posting from http://simonjabadaw.micro.blog (for now)
Into Derbyshire, and starting to get properly hilly now. Passed the gauging basin at Bottoms Reservoir in Longdendale. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Old railway architecture in Hyde. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Wiers and waterfalls on the Tame. I’ve now gone beyond the part of the trail I knew from my commute. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Feels like I’m getting closer to the hills now. The ruins of Hyde Hall stand forlorn, surrounded by modern housing. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 4:25 PM
The lost streets of Portwood. Lunch in Reddish Vale. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
“Water is life and heaven’s gift. Here rivers Goyt and Tame become Mersey, flowing clear from Stockport to the sea” #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Stockport. In my head I always sing “Cyclist Dismount” to the tune of Shepherds Arise. The remains of Tiviot Dale station. I unironically do think Stockport is beautiful. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Feels a bit weird to be blogging this bit of the #TransPennineTrail as this was my commute to work for nearly 10 years. Railway ruins on the Mersey; horses at Vale Road Farm. The only thing that’s changed is that the pyramid is finally occupied again. 🚲
June 15, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Rainbows as the weather lifted. Finished today’s stage in Didsbury. Only 32 km, much shorter than last time, deliberately so. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

The banks of the Mersey are still a mess in Didsbury, where they were breached in the floods last winter. Repairs ongoing near Simon’s Bridge.
May 25, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Les pavés ! L’enfer du Nord-Ouest ! Not sure if I’m going in the right direction here. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

(Turned out I was. And shortly after I took this photo the weather turned horrible. Just like the Paris-Roubaix lol)
May 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Kickety Brook, then over the M60. Tried to draft this delivery rider for a while, but he dropped me somewhere in Stretford. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
May 25, 2025 at 4:35 PM
The stank of Carrington Moss, and then over a bridge and we meet Mother Mersey again. Looking very different from the last time we saw her. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
May 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Dunham Massey to Broadheath. In the far distance, across the green Cheshire plain, I catch my first glimpse of the Pennines, a blue line on the horizon. Before them, the towers of Manchester. #TransPennineTrail 🚲
May 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Thelwall and Lymm, along old railway lines. I don’t think I’m actually going to see the Thelwall Viaduct after all #TransPennineTrail 🚲
May 25, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Stopping for lunch in Wilderspool. Manchester ship canal, Chester Road swing bridge (I think) #transpenninetrail 🚲
May 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
On the train to Warrington for stage two. It’s been a while. #transpenninetrail 🚲
May 25, 2025 at 12:40 PM
There was a fiddle player at the session tonight who had been taught by Miranda Rutter and knew some of her tunes 🎵

Makes me happy, because I’ve been gently trying to get a couple of those tunes into the tradition here. Great to meet someone who already knows them
May 12, 2025 at 10:21 PM
We’re Already in the Aftermath

"what our overlords want to do is … destroy every vestige of the past and replace it, largely through digital technology. They want to control meaning itself; they want to regulate our ability to find meaning in our life and to know our own past"
May 12, 2025 at 9:58 PM
New season of The Change on 25 March! Featuring Boss Morris with music from Sam Sweeney, Rob Harbron and Miranda Rutter 📺

Boss Morris | Instagram
March 20, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Free Folk Sessions @ The Smithfield Market Tavern - Manchester Folk

"Join us at The Smithfield Market Tavern from Thursday 20th – Saturday 22nd March for free folk sessions."
March 19, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Birds seem to be having a cultural moment. Model swifts at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, to raise awareness of the Sheffield Swift Network. Made at a workshop led by Patrick Amber and my old friend Jo Veal.

A Scream of Swifts
February 19, 2025 at 11:16 PM
To the Monday evening session, where I saw this message from Ursula Le Guin
February 4, 2025 at 12:18 AM
"Effective immediately, STC will permanently close its doors and cease all activities"

Society for Technical Communication
January 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM
CS Lewis might have had some ideas about what we’re really speaking to.

"(I didn’t really leave theology behind when I left my childhood religion and I believe we are trying extremely hard to consort with demons in some of these cases.)"

https://mas.to/users/kissane/statuses/113824858315783110
January 15, 2025 at 12:01 AM