Bills Posts

We have just had a really lovely weekend at Heythrop park. It’s been on the cards for a few weeks. There are some things that want to comment upon;

I phoned the hotel and asked about the charging points. I was confidently informed that they were Tesla chargers, and didn’t have type 2 sockets. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a whole bank of podpoints not Tesla at all. All I needed to do is download the app, top it up and we were good to go. It didn’t matter that they weren’t fast chargers. We weren’t going anywhere. It was impressive that there were a lot of them, and that they were always some free. Very nice.

We had a problem with the room, not the room itself, but the noisy fan outside, which would disturb our sleep. A quick word with Miles on reception and we were sorted out with a new room, and an upgrade no less. Delightful.

This is the second hotel in the last few months where there has been good wifi coverage in the rooms. This was excellent, no problem at all. Very nice to see.

The entertainment was very good. With the singers and musicians all of excellent standards. The selling point for the weekend was The Pink Floyd experience. Excellent.

It was seriously lovely to be with our friends Mark and Helen. We always have a good time when we get together. It really was a lovely weekend.

I didn’t explain the title. It was 100 miles from home to Heythrop. On the return journey we started with 100% on the battery and didn’t stop to recharge. On arrival home we had used 80% and had taken 124 miles.

We went for a walk today, not a long one, but it did involve a couple of steep-ish slopes. We got to the point, a gate where I had initially suggested we walk to, and as we were on it seemed reasonable to carry on to what we hoped might be the top of hill. Luckily it was.

At some point I think it was Mark or Helen had spoken to somebody who said there was a zoo a bit further along. The first encounter was with this slightly Eeyore-like cutie, that just stood and looked at us rather uninterested. Eeyores partner wandered over and showed a bit more interest.

It turns out that was a company that trains animals for parts in movies or appearances in photo-shoots.

Who’d have expected to a group of these in the middle of Oxfordshire? We certainly didn’t.

Anyway, it made for an interesting stroll, and I was very glad to get back for a cup of tea.

Nothing quite like it.

We went for a walk through the woods today. It was really quite pleasant. We saw a muntjac deer in the distance, was a fleeting glimpse of one or two seconds as it slipped into the undergrowth, and quite a few yards away, but it was quite distinctive. Lovely to see.

We had been on a solid path, but as we progressed it turned into a dirt track, then a wet dirt track. It wasn’t so bad that I though I would have to turn back, but it could so easily have done.

Because, I had wholly inadequate footwear to walking on a muddy path. Trainers no less. the annoying thing is, I so nearly brought me walking shoes with me, but didn’t in the end. Tomorrow, I have said that I will only walk on solid track. We’ll see how that goes.

The really frustrating things about ev charging revolve around when you do it away from home. Perhaps the biggest bugbear is whether the charger is working. My view is that it must be a legal requirement that who ever owns a publicly available charging point must have a response plan in place for when it goes out of service. Now the question then arises as to the service level requirement.

Now, I have seen charging points that have been reported on zap maps as being out of service for more than a day. Totally unacceptable. But, is that because they have not been reported as having come back into operation? I admit I have no idea what are the reliability requirements. It may be that actually, they are more stringent than i’ve already advocated. I think I need to do some research.

There is no doubt though, that whilst there are nowhere near enough charging points around, the situation is improving.

And the beer? I had two pints of lager tonight. I think it was Māori. It was very smooth, and not only did it go down very easily, it went straight to my brain. Need to be careful with that.

During a conversation this evening, was reminded of a couple of visits to places that at various times I had always wanted to go. One of the first library books I took out of hte grownup section of Wareham Library was the story of the construction of Jodrell Bank, at the time, I think it was the largest sterrable radio telescope in the world. I had alwayus wanted to visit, but as it was up near Manchester I never thought I would have a chance. More on that in a bit.

First though, I spent a couple of years working in Newquay in Cornwall. That gave me a chance to visit Goonhilly, site of the ground station for the worlds first deep space communications network. I visited there in the mid 1980’s. I can remember being so impressed by the vast array of impressive dishes. It was fascinating to see, and of was still operational at that time. I am sad to see that it is , apart from very special occasions, completely closed down, a quick look at google makes it appear that the facilities are still in place.

Back then to Jodrell bank. In 2011 I was working in Warrington. Everythursday, I would drive back home to St Neots, this one particualr day I decided that I would make a diversion and visit this famous site and have a look at the telescope built by Bernard Lovell, starting in 1945, the large steerable dish became fully operational in 1957.

I am so pleased to have hadd the opportunity to visit both of these famous locations.

Just ten days short of two and a half years ago is how long since I started numbering this blog. I suppose to be strictly honest there will be a couple of days when things went a bit astray, but I think for the most part I have gone with the schedule.

I reckon if I were to go and look at the 500th post I would be talking about achieving 1000 not too far from that now and like any venture, I have had my rough patches; writers block, feeble posts. Please don’t think I am ever happy with those.

I don’t think that doing the blog has become such burden that I don’t want to continue doing it. But I must admit, that especially recently it has been difficult to keep going, but not because of a loss of desire to write. I think that is still there. It was worse, I think when I had that period where I stopped the morning walk. I seriously ran very low on inspiration.

I think that at least the walks give me some thoughts.

I think it was just before Christmas we bought a ninja foodie. We haven’t been using it much. The odd batch of chips here and there. Why bother?

I’ve been thinking about it, so tonight I did some pork steaks, with a breadcrumb coating, and actually, they came out not too bad, even if I say so myself. I’m going to have another go.

Whilst the moon itself is not very well exposed I wasnt expecting this picture. There’s something almost mystical about it. I caught it on this morning walk as I was walking down the High Street.

This mornings chorus was particularly tuneful as I was walking along Mumby Road. I didn’t use the app I have that identifies bird song. I’m not sure that I trust it, and you can’t export the list of identified birds, which I find a bit frustrating. I should really see if there is a better app, the one I have which is more than a couple of years old.

Partway down the high street there was a bit of a face off between a cat and a young fox. They were dancing around a waste bin. I left them to it.

I didn’t see anybody to say good morning to, but it was a nice walk nonetheless.

Yesterday wasn’t a lazy day. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to London, and would happily do another. There are a number of places in the city that I have never been to, one example of which is The Imperial War Museum. Although I saw the Cutty Sark, I didn’t go on board, that remains to be done.

The train tickets we bought were about £23 each. Relatively, that’s really quite cheap. The thing was though that you could only catch specific trains outbound was alright. But we finished doing everything by about 6PM with the return train at 7.30PM. We had some time to waste. An ideal bit of time for some people watching. A fascinating activity, and with it being Waterloo Station, there was plenty of people around to watch.

Elayne recorded some video, just peoples lower legs and feet walking past, fascinating to watch. I was watching the pigeons in addition to the people. They, the pigeons, were equally fascinating. Very skilled at getting out of people’s way. They are very graceful in the air but ungainly on the ground.

I finished the ironing off this morning, and then we had a very lazy day, even to the point of going out to the sailmaker for dinner, a very nice carvery. Just the right kind of day after yesterday.

A few weeks ago, Elayne had a day booked in London to meet up with friends. I decided that I would go to London with her, my first visit to the city since pre-covid times, probably around 2019. I decided that I was going to do a few things that I hadn’t done before.

We had pre-booked trained tickets that were quite cheap but it meant that we were committed to specific trains that we couldn’t change unless we paid a fair bit extra. So, we were on the 0815 out, arriving at around 0950. Elayne headed in to town, I got on the jubilee line, and headed for Canary Wharf. Now, I am not used to using the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) so my first frustration was realising that the DLR do not install a lot of pay points at stations. Twice I had to retrace steps to find the one pay point, but it did get me down to the Cutty Sark Station.

I didn’t visit the Cutty Sark today, that’s a future visit. Instead, I headed for the Royal Greenwich Observatory, mainly because I wanted to see the exhibition of the Astronomy Photographer of the year. When I arrived at the RGO, I was told that the exhibition had moved but since I was there I decided to have a look around the observatory.

I did the usual thing of straddling the Greenwich meridian, which meant that I was in both the East and West hemispheres at the same time. it was a fascinating place where a lot of science was done, and history made. After walking away I even managed to see the 1PM (1300hrs) time ball fall. I didn’t know they still did that.

From there I went to that astrophotography exhibition, which was nothing short of amazing many of the pictures were taken by amateurs using basic equipment. Every picture was extremely. High quality and stunning imagery. Well worth a visit.

From there I made my way back to The Tate Modern for a bit of art appreciation. Trouble was my feet were aching and I needed a cup of tea, so my viewing of art was somewhat limited. It did make me wonder though; how much time do you need to decide whether you like a piece of art? And then analyse why you like it, or otherwise of course. I need another visit to Tate Modern, and I need to go there first.

The time to think about the train home was coming but not quite here. I had enough time to get to Foyles and do some browsing. Of course, I bought a couple of books.

On the 1930 out of Waterloo, behind us were a group of five or six young ladies. Let’s just say their antics (hand stands in the aisle and pull-ups on the luggage rack along with lots of shouting and laughing and very ripe language) certainly gave us some entertainment, but I think a few of us were relieved when they de-trained.

It was an extremely pleasant if a bit tiring time.