Bit of an update this entry.

So, I finished the trench and moved a bunch of gravel into the back. I think it’s the fences next, or the pond. This below is the completed trench.

That was before it rained. It’s currently filled with about 10 cm of rainwater, or ground water, as I suspect it has come up and filtered through the clay rather than down (it is crystal clear). Ho hum.

The next weekend I went to the Cycle Show. I saw this Moulton with a child seat on the way back. I like the way the child gets her own pedals, linked to the chain wheel.

I had a look at the hubs on the Shimano stand.

Nothing there for me really, no drum brake option on the Alfine, and the dynamo hubs only work on 26-inch and bigger wheels. I saw the new IF folding bike, remarkably expensive, some wooden rims, the new Moulton 50 and had a terrible ride on a Mezzo on the rather flat commuter test track.

I got there far too late to try the mountain bike track. I mean it was open but the queues were ridiculous. I should have known that from last year.

I visited Southampton the next week for a conference. Nice train ride down via Megatrain, which puts you on the normal train, but on the slow service, but at half the price. Shot from the train window below. It didn’t actually rain.

My hotel was down by the docks and the walk there took me through a huge new shopping development and then the old walls of the town, and Jane Austen’s house (or something near it, according to the plaque).

These walls were actually on the sea. It’s been reclaimed as a road now though. And from my window (facing the docks), this rather impressive sight.

Walking back to the station, I went through the main centre park. The main attraction in there was a crime scene:

I popped into the nice art gallery (some nice impressionism and a Monet in there), and then back on the very slow train back home.

Now, the bike. I got a puncture on the rear wheel, and on inspection it was clearly end of life. The external rubber had worn through, 2 spots of the blue pucture barrier peeked through:

So, when I took my new hub to Bicycle Workshop, I asked them to replace it, but they didn’t have any. I wished they had told me during the 2 weeks they had the wheel (so I could order one), but hey ho. I got the bike back from them on Saturday. I had to leave at 5:30 to get
there for the 7am workshop collection. I got totally lost on the way and it was almost complete chance that I found it. Anyway, fundamentally, they think, because of the width of the hub, I shouldn't be using v-shape rims. They say the Velocity Aeroheat I bought is a deeper V than the Alex DA-16 I was replacing (personally I can't tell the difference). They said the angle of the spoke at the rim is too much, and causes the spoke to bend, and indeed I can see the spoke bending into the eyelet when I look. So, they predict that the spokes will start breaking, especially as the wheel is slightly dished. (OH FFS not again!!!) When this happens, they'll order me a Sun rim — which I really hope offers me a longer term solution.

Well, that fills me with confidence!! On the other hand, they might not break, they've used high quality Sapim spokes, which look thinner than my front spokes and I’ve still got all the spokes. The hub brake is OK and the new gears are working well, smoother than the last one, but as with the last one, the very occasional slip in 4 and 6.

While I was waiting for the bike (I took it in a 7:30 and got it at 17:30), I visited Westfield, the new shopping centre in Shepards Bush/White City. The biggest urban centre in Europe, I gather. It is indeed big, although not big enough to provide rain cover for those coming on public transport or on foot. It rained and everyone got wet (except those coming by car, presumably). Inside it was horribly packed and had all the same shops, it seemed to me, as Oxford and Bond Street, where I had just come from, except without the sales. Only 2 things in there delighted me, 1 - the sight of children playing Nintendo Wii, and 2 - the Alessi store, the one and only reason I may return there.

On my way to Westfield, I saw that Monument is coming along well with its refurb. Its going to look nice I think.

Tags: Garden, Moulton

Ah, Suffolk.

My best friend from school, Ross, has just married a lovely lady called Cath. Something must be wrong with me, since it did not occur to me the whole time I was at their wedding party to actually take a picture of them. Instead above is a picture of the back drop to the event. Not a bad spot I think, and by amazing unusual co-incidence for summer ‘08, fantastic weather that weekend.

Anyway I started off foolish. They were having their party at Moat Farm, and rather than read the invite properly, I let Google suggest to me that it was near Diss. Diss! I checked for train tickets and got them for only £6. Of course, as soon as I’d booked them (non-refundable), I realised the mistake. Diss! I mean, really. It was actually near Sudbury, and despite being a bit closer, that ticket was £28. Hmm. Anyway the morning of departure came, and as per my last blog post, I was going to cycle to the bike shop in Notting Hill to drop off the new hub, and then straight over to Liverpool Street.

But it was the 1st presidential debate the night before, which I’d watched, so I woke up late and started slowly. I started packing and where is my pillow? My Tempur Travel Pillow. My expensive camping luxury that gave me such a good night’s sleep last year. Hmm, hmm? Well, I still haven’t found it, and I wasted several hours on Saturday looking for it. So I had to take my old light and useless Vango pillow.

In fact, by the time I left for Liverpool Street (no time now to deliver the hub!), not only was I too late to get the mid-day train, I was too late to cycle for the 1pm train too. Eek! I rushed over to Catford Bridge to see I’d just missed the Charing Cross train, but luckily a Cannon Street train was on the way. I made it onto the Sudbury train with under 5 minutes to spare. My bike shared the cycle space with a Pedersen, another weird one.

At Sudbury, I had quite the oddest accident. I managed to drop my bike, chain-ring first onto my ankle. It is still healing now, and made the 7 mile ride up to the farm a bit uncomfortable, but not too much though. That ride was mostly uphill, a bit tougher than I expected. I decided to use the iPhone rather than Viewranger for directions, and although I didn’t get lost, I did have a few moments where I wasn’t sure where I was along the route. Turn left after 2 miles it says. How far is that then? Turn right on Church Street (but there’s no street names!), and so on. But I was late, so I hurried on.

When I got there, there was a Punch and Judy show going on for the kids and wine for the rest of us, delightful! The whole thing was great, and in the hangar next door was:
this. Cripes.

Whoah! Hawker Hurricane restorations! I had no idea such a thing existed. Not preservation, but actual aircraft restorations as effectively new working planes.

Amazing.
That night the pavilion where the party happened was lit up with Christmas lights and candles. It looked enchanting. I took this awful pic with my iPhone.

I didn’t dance: so many excuses, wrong shoes - too grippy, cut up ankle - too painful, but mainly too shy. Silly boy.

Me and Ross

In the morning, I thought I left in such good time to get a midday train. So much time, that I decided to buy some lunch for a few hours later. Hmm, took a little while to find an open shop, and then somewhere to lock up, and then oh no, oh no, a one-way system in town, and such a big one! I managed to race around (as best I could on 2nd gear) and rushed down to the station, following the signs. Rushing down a road I didn’t recognise, rushing and, um, where’s the station? I had to ask a local, it was far back up the road. Annoyingly the last sign for the train was perpendicular to the road on a roundabout. Coming at the sign, I simply didn’t see it and took a wrong turn. I missed the train by 2 minutes. Argh! Next train was a full hour later. Ack!

So I had a look a the station. Turns out it’s a community partnership branch line, kept open with local support, partly demonstrated by the floral efforts on the platform:

Quite effective in terms of butterflies and bees. What you can’t tell from the pics is the cacophony of bird noises around the station, in the bushes behind. It was like a jungle back there. Yup, doesn’t take much to entertain me.

Lovely finish to the weekend though. Best wishes to Ross and Cath on their Irish adventure!

Postscript - hub

I finally managed to get the hub over to Bicycle Workshop today. I cocked-up a delivery there on Monday (closed on Monday), but had an exhilarating fast ride across central London doing so. You ride as fast as you can, with fingers on the brakes, staying ahead of the traffic, but out of the way of it (certainly not on the inside of trucks!). Riding cross Hyde Park and then back through Bayswater. A huge work out for the Moulton suspension and a big smile on my face.

Speaking of which, you can hear about the Moulton (and hear me for 10 secs at the beginning) here at the Bike Show.

Tags: Sturmey

Trip to Bristol for a late morning meeting. Afterwards, I took a little walk through the old city centre.
Queens Square

Smirnoff Apple sculpture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge at the City Centre Ferry Landing.

Clock with mechanical bell ringers.

View up Broad Street.

View down Corn Street/Clare Street.

Towards the start of the Bristol-Bath cycle route.

It seems like a year of Weddings, with my friend Nick earlier in May, my former colleague Andrew in early September and my old Friend Ross a month or so back. This time though, it was my sister, Caroline’s wedding to Tennyson, and it involved a trip to back to beautiful St. Lucia.

We were going from Gatwick via Barbados, staying my mothers unfinished, and largely unfunished place there and then flying out via LIAT to SLU and originally, back via Air Jamaica. But Air Jamaica decided to drop the UVF-BGI route and put us on their code-share partner (LIAT) back to Barbados. This was a bit annoying, because when I booked the tickets, there was no flight on LIAT back to BGI. If there was, I’d have booked it, as LIAT was half the price of Air Jamiaca!

So, the flight out was uneventful. We arrived and were picked up after a snafu at immigration. Remember to get the address where you’re staying before going through BGI immigration folks! We only got through because my mum was on their systems already (passing through a few weeks prior). Due to her being at another wedding on the other side of the island, we stayed in a hotel that night, the Hilton. I dipped into the Caribbean sea which was rough and quite exhilariting, the waves were huge, and later on I took some night pics. The hotel was across from the capital, Bridgetown:

Night

Day

Next day, I ventured into town with my Brother to confirm the flight out to St. Lucia. Since the JM ticket said, ‘confirmed’ I didn’t check that segment of the journey. Mistake, as we’ll see later.

Downtown Bridgetown (Parliament is the building in the middle with green shutters)

Anyway, that took a little while, but went smoothly. I decided to see if we could inspect our heritage at the Parliament (one of the oldest - from 1639). We could! In fact, one half of the parliament has been turned into a modern interactive museum of parliamentary history and the other half has a guided tour of the House of Assembly, a lower chamber of elected politicians and then the Senate (appointed), composed of the great and good. The Senate chamber had a massive portrait of the Queen. I thought this was a bit puzzling, since I keep hearing that Barbados wants to be a republic, but apparently the lure of honours keeps the great and good from going for a full break with the UK, which suits me fine.

Photos were not permitted inside, so all I got was this picture of the mailbox (or was it a stamp dispenser, I’m not sure).

We then visited the cathedral, St. Michael’s, for a few minutes rest and to inspect the tomb stones, this one from 1673! And then over to the Synagogue (below right), which now has a state-of-the-art and fascinating museum of Judaism in Barbados.

What’s that you say? Jews in Barbados? Well, no-expects the Spanish Inquisition! They forced the Jews from Spain to Portugal, and then from Portugal to Brazil where they learnt how to grow sugar. The Portuguese inquisition pushed them again, and they migrated, with their knowledge to Cromwellian Barbados, where they taught to English how to grow sugar. Sugar production was labour intensive. We know what happened next.

Sugar was regarded as a spice along with ginger, cinnamon, cloves. As the market for sugar fell, many of the Jews migrated again. Those who didn’t migrate on to the US intermarried with the black population and mostly dwindled away, except for their names and places, Swan Street, Da Costa, Abrahams, Pinto, Barrow.

Synagogue Cemetary

The following day, we flew to St. Lucia. It was a bit crazy, as we took buses to the airport. Both were crammed with school kids and although I had hand luggage only, everyone else took suitcases. Somehow we all fit.
Everything else went smoothly, including the flight. Quite right too, as we were accompanied by the CEO of the airline, Mark Darcy (seen above at the front of the plane). Interestingly, the cockpit door remained open for the flight. Over St. Lucia, I got a picture, under the wing, of the famous Pitons (dual volcanic peaks).

In St. Lucia, we got a taxi to Gros Islet, the tourist area in the north of the island. SLU gained independence in 1979, and it showed, bus stop signs had the TfL roundel, and all the other road signage would look at home in the Highway Code.

The hotel was rather better than I expected and the beach (down the road) was beautiful (iPhone pic).

The wedding was the next day, and the fantastic reception was on a mountain top. The view back over Gros Islet was astounding.

Next day, was a tour of the island, similar but longer to the one I took in 2006 from the Easy Cruise boat. First, we went up to the top of Castries, the capital, for a view down and to see some of the older French architecture:

Past the Chavez funded oil facility, we stopped to have a look at a Banana plantation (from which locals are allowed to pick, so long as they don’t sell any), and that’s me in front of one of the sweeping bays along the coastal route.

Just before Soufrière, the obligatory tourist shot of the Pitons:

and at the bottom of a Swiss-like valley, a volcano gently smouldered.

After visiting the stinky sulphur pits and nearby botanic gardens, and a Creole lunch, we headed back to the Airport, via Magriot Bay, film set of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Back at the airport, it turned out that Air Jamaica’s ‘confirmed’ mark on the ticket meant nothing and we weren’t booked on the LIAT flight back. Everyone stayed calm, and when I failed to get through the Air Jamaica’s office in Barbados (un-suprising on a Sunday afternoon), the LIAT supervisor phoned the LIAT check-in desk at BGI, which is next to the Air Jamaica desk. Thank you, LIAT, for cutting to the chase there, and all was sorted in about 10 mins.

The next day was Concorde and cliffs. Barbados was the only regular (each winter) destination for Concorde other than Paris and New York. In recognition of this BA made a permanent loan of a Concorde to Barbados, and they have built a museum of flight around it. Aside from the museum, which had a replica Concorde departure lounge with menus and faux celebrity announcements, and an impossible to fly Concorde flight simulator, we were taken on-board and given a proper little taste of the flight experience. For once we could actually sit in the plane seats in a plane museum!


That afternoon I visited the cliffs on the rugged east coast. That’s me listening to the iPhone:

and the next day, it was back to Bridgetown to visit a sugar mill.

Errol Barrow and Independence Arch

The bus on the way out of Bridgetown went past the new cricket stadium before shooting up Highway 2A towards Speightstown.

So, as we know, the Jews taught the English how to grow sugar. Babados being a flat island was superb for sugar and a boom developed, which quickly bust as the soil went fallow and the market depressed with falling prices. What followed was a steady development of more and more technology-led efficiency. Barbados led the world in cultivation and harvesting techniques. And that was basically what the museum was about, one sugar technology break-through after another all the way from the 16th to 20th century. Barbados was the world centre for sugar, ending with complete mechanisation today.

Unfortunately, it seemed I picked the wrong sugar museum through (this is the right one, next time maybe). This one was the museum of the main actual working sugar factory on the island, but the sugar was still in the field growing. I could see the yellow hats, implying a factory tour, but the mills were idle, waiting for ripening and cutting to begin. Instead I saw a DVD, an old Pathe style production from the 1930s with sound showing the last remnants of the cane cutters singing and loading sugar into the last working Windmill, and then onto a railway to take the sugar to Bridgetown. Wait...a railway? The only railway I heard of was from my passed-on Grandmother. The video was a bit haunting, thinking of the terrible struggles for liberty and food of the cane cutters (not shown in the film). Still, we know there is a fairly happy ending. Not least demonstrated by the number of spanking new Japanese trucks on the highway.

On the way back, I was enchanted by a view out of the bus over St. George parish. It was a view of Barbados I had never seen before, a valley with fields and hedges, just like England. So the next day, my last day, I went back to have a look.

Getting there was easier said than done. I got off the bus far, far too early and had to walk at least a mile till I got to the high ridge over the valley (near to a water pumping station). Behind me was a sugar cane field and it was readily apparent that the island is indeed built on coral rather than volcanic rock, the “bedrock” below the muddy sugar cane field was exposed at road level and the fossils were laid bare.

After all that walking, I was thirsty, and it was close to midday. So I walked what I thought would be a short distance to a shop selling drinks with a bus stop outside. Mistake, it must have been 2 or three miles. There was nothing till Gun Hill (which was an early warning station for slave control), and when I got there the shop was closed. Still there was a nice view of the island up there.

Not to worry through, back out of Gun Hill, there was a fabulously cheap convenience store where I got a huge bottle of lemonade (for the price), and soon enough the bus came to whip me back, in good time for the journey to the Airport and home again.

Tags: Planes, Buses

So, I needed to buy some new shoes. The last pair I bought in 2004 have basically fallen to bits. Soles worn through, no good in the rain. The same for the trainers (well, my non-Gym trainers), the shoes I cycle in. So I needed to buy replacement trainers good for cycling in (replacing Merrell Chameleons), and new shoes for work.

Although there are 'big shoe' shops (well, at least 1) in London, if I wanted a wide variety, and to try before buying, I had to travel to Street in Somerset (home of the Clarks Village and lots of other shoe shops). I had been there before, in 2002. This time I'd be visting the WalkTall Outlet, and unlike last time where I stayed at the ghastly (my impression at the time) Backpacker Hostel in Glastonbury, I'd be going "up-market" to the 1-Star YHA Hostel in Street itself (last time, when I visted in February 2002, the YHA was closed for winter).

Even better with Viewranger on the Nokia and my bluetooth GPS now working together reliably, I would travel down on Friday night, cycling from Castle Cary Train Station to Street YHA, then on Saturday, get the shoes and cycle up and around Glastonbury to Wells via National Cycle Route 3, and onto Wookey Hole, to see the caves. Then back to Wells to have a second look at the Cathedral and then across the Mendip Hills back to Castle Cary on Saturday evening for the train home. I had the routes all mapped out in Viewranger, ready. Since I still don't have the correct rack bag yet for the TSR, I bought an excellent interim substitute, a 13 litre Ortleib water-proof dry bag. Excellent, because the the closing strap can wrap around the support struts of the rack (stopping it sliding off the back), requiring me to use only 1 bungie (to stop side to side movement).

And so with everything planned and ready to go, my Sturmey Archer 8-speed hub failed. Just on the 2,500 miles mark. Unlike last time though, it only failed in 3,5,7 and 8. Although 4 and 6 sounded a bit rougher, they worked fine. I thought I would check bus schedules in case I had to rely on them, and uh, no way. The bus service from Castle Cary to Street ended just after 6pm, an hour before my train would arrive. So I decided to trust the hub, and from the Monday to the Thursday before my trip, it worked great, giving me confidence. If it managed 50+ miles of London riding, I thought, it should be fine in Somerset. And given that I expected the Mendip hills to be hilly; having 1 and 2, for uphill, and coasting down hill, and gently touring in 6th gear (15 mph) seemed fine. Finally, remembering that I would be self-catering, I bought a Spork.

So, the day arrived and I set off for work, and all was fine until about mile inbetween Peckham and Elephant and Castle. That bit of South London that all the trains pass-by without stopping. What I think happened is, I accidentally selected 3rd gear. There was a clunk-click noise and the cranks locked solid (I couldn't turn the pedals). That's actually what the nature of the earlier failure (locked cranks) was, so I tried to engage 2nd to get out of it. No dice. The changer couldn't go below 3. Eek! And the cranks were locked in all the higher gears as well! Game Over. I walked back to Peckham while trying to figure out what to do. The only option now was the bus, but which bus and from where?

Back in 2002, I remembered that I had travelled to Street via Bath..or Bristol. They had busses, and I remembered that getting to Street was a separate bus via somewhere, so somehow I'd need to extend the train journey to somewhere with a bus service to Street. Coasting down the (drained and paved) Surrey Canal into Peckham, I accidentally pushed the pedals in 7th gear. Clunk, clunk, and suddenly I could select 1,2,4 and 6 again. But 4 and 6 sounded frightening, cluck, cluck cluck. There's no way I was going touring on that!

So, I rode home, clucking, and got the train (very very late) into work. A fair amount of time was spent figuring out my new route. Of course it was possible to get to Street by bus from Bristol, but before 9pm when the hostel reception closes? No.

If you have a long memory, you may remember that one of the policies of the 1997 Labour government was to create an Integrated Transport policy [insert laughter here]. The only tangible thing that seems to have come out of the policy (which is still sorely needed) is Transport Direct. You know, Transport Direct, the national journey planner! You've not heard of it? It's a door-to-door journey planner, covering all modes including all bus services in the UK. I'd love to say that you've not heard of it because it doesn't work, but today I can announce (because there ain't no Ministers talking about it) that it actually works! When it is working that is, because I had a number of connection and database errors trying to use it on Friday, but in the end the data came out.

The answer it gave produced some head scratching, but I (with Google) couldn't better it. With a ticket extension to Taunton, and 3 buses (!), I would get to the Hostel at 21:15. The Hostel reception opened at 17:00, so I had to wait till I was at Paddington Station to check. Good old YHA, they said it was fine, but I should phone them again if I was going to be closer to 10 o'clock.

I bought an extension ticket at Paddington (Castle Cary to Taunton) and after negotiating the ticket barrier, hmm, it is not helpful that your seat reservation looks more-or-less identical to your actual ticket, I got onto the train, and nice it was too.

All the old HST seats have been replaced with slim-line versions (with headrest wings). They were a bit hard (my bottom got a bit numb), but there was a power socket in between the seats in the foot well (iPhone says thank you) and much more leg room (knees very grateful).

Somehow, we got stuck behind a stopping train, outside of Swindon, and then had to stop completely (to call the BTP), after children were seen throwing ballast at the train, so we ended up 14 minutes late. What about my connections? Well, I would miss my first bus from Taunton Train Station to the Bus Station, but there was a few minutes gap till the next journey. Looking at it on the map, it looked like a walkable distance to the bus station. So, I decided to skip the first bus, and hot foot it to the bus station.

And I made it, with about 2-3 minutes to spare. I was not much assisted by the iPhone in this mini hike. Locate Me told me that I was bang in Central London. Not good. But of course, being in town, there were signs, so with the help of a few locals I got there OK, even with a few seconds to take a picture of some sort of Castle.

The bus I got was a big mini-bus, and was full of locals (who else?), with west country accents. I was able to use the iPhone to drag the Map to follow the route through the villages (yeah, it worked fine with only a GPRS signal), and so we eventually got to Somerton, where my final connection would be made. And more or less on-time, it arrived and I was the only one on the bus (I think this service, at this time was subsidised by the Council). This bus was nice and modern, with a roof and lighting that seemed rather Star Trek Next Generation:

Again, following on the iPhone (where I had put a marker for the Hostel location), I knew when to look out for the road the Hostel was on, but it came a junction earlier than my marker and damn it if the bus stop wasn't right on top of a hill, so I couldn't see it or the YHA sign until passing them. Luckily the bus driver stopped anyway. The time? 21:10. The time I arrived at the Hostel? 21:15!

There was no pavement on the way to Hostel, instead it was a little path in a lightly wooded area next to the road.

It looks fairly benign in dry daytime, with the odd swinging rope here and there, and lovely views over a field of sheep, but in the near darkness, I just had to put faith in the iPhone map and my compass. And I got there.

I got asked when in Edinburgh last week what the difference is between a 1 and 5-Star hostel given that its still a dormitory. Hmm, I'm not sure, apart from the obvious one that the 5-star hostel had a shower and toilet in the dorm room.

While in Street there was just a sink, and dormant fireplace behind this bed. But other than that there weren't many differences. I suppose other things missing in 1-star Street: Wifi or Internet access; lockers; air conditioning/fans; breakfast/restaurant (instead there was a big kitchen) and town centre location (about a mile south). Does it matter? When I turned out the light (just me in the dorm that night), it was pitch black and silent. Even with the window open. In the morning I was woken by Swallows chirping. What's more important?

Anyway, I wanted to stay there because it was styled like a Swiss Chalet:

What a lovely building, built in the early 1930s and the first Youth Hostel in the South West. The facilities were good, I slept well and had a nice hot shower in the morning, and the reception was friendly, as were the others staying there.

Because I wasn't cycling, I wouldn't be getting a close up of the Glastonbury Tor, but walking down to Street I got a clear long-distance view. Now, on this day I had a chance to employ and test out 2 features of the camera which I learnt had a big effect on quality, Auto-focus mode and Matrix mode. In my simple terms, you can make the camera's computers work on the middle of what you are pointing at, or work on the whole image. So, this is the difference between a light object in a dark room being light or dark (light metering), and a distant object behind a close object being in or out of focus (auto-focus). So, here is Glastonbury Tor, captured at maximum zoom.

I was a hazy day, and I had no tripod, so I think that's not bad. Street itself was very pretty indeed:

Anyway the shoes. These shoes ruled.

The one on the left is a Columbia Howell. The ones I got are tan coloured, and the soft leather has my feet very pleased. The one on the right is the Chameleon ISO. Essentially the same as my last shoe, but in a slightly less but not un-satisfactory 'bungie' colour - the only colour they had. The Chameleon fit my new right foot, but hurt my un-reconstructed left. Well, I had already decided that it only had to fit the right foot pending the op. on the left later this year, so I was happy (and only £20 over budget).

There was half-an-hour to wait for the bus to Wells (for Wookey), so I had a look at the TIC, where I got a 10% voucher for the caves, and grumbled at the buy one pair, get another free offers from the Clarks shoe outlet store in the rather nice Clarks Village. On arriving at Wells I got a bit of a shock. The next bus to Wookey was in 15 minutes (good), but the next bus to Wookey Hole was over an hour away. Not good. But the bus journey to Wookey Hole was only 7 minutes. Hmm.

The iPhone map doesn't have a scale, but it looked walkable, and since I was wearing new walking shoes (the old Chameleons went into the shop's bin), I thought, why not? 25 mins (1.5 miles) later I was there. Mostly uphill, but nice views of the Mendips.

There's a fine line in UK visitor attractions between cool for kids and tacky. Wookey Hole Caves skirts close in places but manages to avoid tackiness while seemingly delighting children.
Yes it's Kong, just in front of a dinosaur park, and here's me in front of the landscaped cave mouth, having slept well:

So, the caves, a whopping £15 entry price. But quite interesting. Apparently a woman used to live there with a dog long ago, hence the witch legend, see her in profile on the right:

The cliff above the cave was used by hyenas and humans as a trap. Animals were chased over the edge to their death, and a fresh meal. Later the river was tapped to power a Paper Mill, and there is still (very expensive) cotton paper made there. The (limestone) caves were/are formed by an underground river. And they were/are being uncovered by a combination of diving and caving since the 19th century.


And here's a close up of Kong, yeah it's 'life sized':

The Paper in the mill is made from cotton pulp, rather than wood. In this picture cotton is being sieved ready for pressing and drying as a (£3) sheet.

After the mill, there was an authentic penny (20p) arcade, and a little circus. I expected the circus to be naff, but it wasn't. All the performers seemed to be under-18 and some of the stunts they did were rather good, human pyramid, hanging upside down from ropes, great juggling and jumping tricks.

I finished with about 40 minutes to wait for the bus, so it was an easy choice to walk down to Wells. I managed to get just within the walls of the Cathedral for a quick pic before hot footing back to the station:

As I arrived at the station, the bus from Wookey Hole arrived, and turned into the 161 to Frome, the bus I needed to take me to Shepton Mallet, where I would get a final coach to Castle Cary. In Shepton, I got off in the middle of town, and got a sandwich for the train journey from the Co-op before looking for my coach stop. Walking there I saw this which looked interesting:

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, apparently. But I didn't have time to have a look and also find the bus stop, so I just went to the stop and waited...and waited. This was the only journey on the trip that was late, about 6 minutes so, but it got me to Castle Cary (with it's colonies of Swallows, Crows and Cows) 30 mins before the train arrived.

The HST back had to terminate at Reading due to a shortage of train crew (huh?), so we all had to pack into a 5 car Adelente to get to Paddington, but overall it was a great day out, very relaxing.

Congratulations to my mate Nick and his new bride Cynthia. I took the opportunity of them getting married in Edinburgh to try out Heathrow Terminal 5, for real. I managed to pack a change of clothes into a camera and tripod bag (no, not ready to trust BAA with my hold luggage, thanks), with my camera (I was official photographer - fingers crossed for the F40fd), and despite the tripod potentially being a club to terrorise the plane with, I got through security without a murmur.

The top left view is of Terminal 5 B, where, it seems, all the Long haul flights go from, while the domestics, including mine, went from the main building. The vibe in the terminal was certainly world-class, very relaxing and soothing with lots of natural light, and no blaring announcements.

I had to take advantage of the superb shopping facilities to buy some headphones for my iPhone, and a tie and cufflinks to match my pink Van Heusen shirt. Despite being tax free, the Sony Style store was a bit more expensive than Amazon, but the Tie Rack offerings were quite affordable for the quality.

The flight (BA, Airbus A321) left 15 minutes late, but the pilot said we'd make up the time. When the meal came, to my surprise, it was a full English breakfast:

and very tasty it was too. If I'd known, I wouldn't have had a little breakfast baguette from Pret a Manger (probably the cheapest eatery in T5) about half-an-hour before. Despite an effort with my paper towel, I got a spot of watery fat on my tie. Drat.

The rest of the flight was moderately uninteresting, a fair bit of turbulence on descent over a big wind farm, and a powerful, hard on the brakes landing. A quick phone call to the groom to check where I was going, and I took the express bus into town. I got off at the wrong stop though, I was sure I saw a sign saying Waverley, but it turned out it was Haymarket, so I had a good Google maps assisted walk into the centre. I was several hours early (just in case), so I went on a little tour of the Museum of Scotland, which was just down the road from the wedding chambers. I got a bit lost on leaving the Museum, but got to the Wedding in good time to set up. Before leaving I took a photo of the Castle from the Museum roof.

We got up there in-time from the 1 o'clock gun...which I didn't hear. Oh well!

The next day, after breakfast with the wedding party, I came to the main 'other' attraction of the visit.

The Scottish Parliament. The last time I was in Edinburgh, the building was under construction. I phoned up and booked a tour for 11:40, and in the meantime visited the Royal Palace across the road (Holyrood), where there was a renaissance painting exhibition.

The Parliament was designed by a Catalonian and was intentionally and obviously modernist: wood, glass, slate, concrete etc. I found the architecture to be a bit incoherent (for my tastes) at ground level, but the overall design, from the air, looks great. It is meant to be stalks and leaves and boats. Inside, there are St. Andrews cross motifs everywhere including in the concrete roof, and all the doors:

and lots of tasteful angles everywhere. My favourite architectural motif was the MSP offices, which have little contemplation booths on the outside:

In a parallel from my tour of the Australian Parliament, the tour guide explained how Scottish the materials in the building were. There wasn't enough sustainable Oak in Scotland for the flooring so they had to import some from England France. Sadly, we couldn't take a picture in the debating chamber, nor in the committee room we saw, nor in the lobby (why??), so that was it.

I got back to the station in good time for a great train ride down the dramatic East Coast Mainline. Near the top, we were actually by the coast:

Back in London, I decided to take a peek at St. Pancras International (last time I was there in November it was still unfinished). Wow, what a difference and what a vibe! It felt lively and so very big; walking all the way to the back past shop after shop took a while, until I found the reserved platforms just before the final 'circle' of shops:

SE Trains, for 'Javelin' High-Speed Kent services

I think St. Pancras International is certainly equal to T5 in ambience, and of course, trumps it completely in terms of accessibility and connectivity. I walked all the way back to take a close look at the Eurostars, and well, it's certainly summer, they were plastered in blood and carcasses.

I remember the first time I saw the roof, I didn't like the colour at all. Funny how the addition of a clock accessory can change how things look:

It was also nice I think, to see how the western side of the terminus is now a big window over the British Library. Nice and airy, a great building.

Tags: Trains, Technology, Planes, Buses

I was at the Heathrow Terminal 5 trial today. I think today was perhaps a bit different to other trials. Perhaps not. (Above pic is of the Concorde at the BA Cargo centre, I took it on my new Digital Camera, last years FujiFilm FinePix F40fd).

The terminal is impressive in the check-in area and in the shopping mall with gates area (aka departures). There are some spectacular view of the end of the runways, but being at the end rather than the middle is not as good as I expected, perhaps it's better for T5B (which I didn't visit). The shopping area is very nice, fairly high-class, and today a few shops, restaurants and coffee places were completed (and open) and many others had the logos up and were being kitted out.

I was in a group of 40. We were told hold luggage was not being tested in our group. Instead we were to have 2 pieces of hand-luggage (including any bags we had with us). I was a frequent flyer going to Edinburgh. As I had hand baggage only and my notes said I had checked-in online, I and others went straight to security. The line at security was atrocious. The reason for this was only a few desks were open, but also, they were testing out the new finger print biometric security system:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/08/uk_biometric_air_travel/

It seemed like each person took at least 1 minute to be processed. You have to press 4 fingers of your left hand, "firmly" onto a green scanner and hold them there for several seconds (I understood this, since I understand the English spoken to me...) Then they take your picture, as well as doing the other checks. I think it took me around 20 or 25 mins to clear security - BAA needs to fix this before go-live. The x-ray on the other side of biometrics though was very clever, well the tray system was. Everything was sensor driven, even the rollers were powered and the trays automatically cleared away once you had removed your stuff on the other side (and not before). Those to be searched manually were automatically filtered off on separate rollers to the security person. Mine got stuck at the roller junction for this, blocking the trays behind, so there are perhaps some bugs to work out.

Through to 'air-side' and it's all...shops, loos and gates. Nice and airy, like an upmarket mall, but no time to admire much as I had to go to the gate since it was open for boarding. We went to gate 4, which either is unfinished or is really meant to be just a loading point for a remote stand. Anyway, fingers were checked again (no sign of FF fastracking...) and a bunch of us squeezed (yes it was packed) onto a Citaro bus. We drove around the terminal and ended up...at a remote stand where a BA A320 was waiting for us. (yes!)

We boarded normally, and there was a sandwich, apple, tiny bottle of water and a Nutrigrain bar for each of us, for lunch. I know we're meant to take photos of the in-flight meals for trip reports, but we were told no photography. Boarding took a LONG time but the crew were playing along with the pretence that it was a genuine flight to Edinburgh, even the captain, who sounded authentic. Once the flight was full, the doors were closed, the crew did the safety demo, and I got that tingle in my stomach, from the excitement of being about to fly. We pushed back and taxied backward about 20 metres and stopped.

Dunno what it is about the A320 series, but at that point I snoozed off. Far to easy to sleep on those planes, although this was was a bit tatty. I woke up to the seat belt sign coming back on and we were told that we have just landed at Heathrow, and we have just been on a flight from Manchester. We roll back to the stand and we de-plane, all maintaining the pretence.

I have now become a lady, and I am connecting to a flight to New York. That all goes fairly smoothly (I noted a few potential snags), and ended up at the gate, where there was, this time, no plane. Then we were given a third scenario, which was a fire drill in the immigration area. That was a bit chaotic, but that's the point of tests I suppose. Something else, the place was crawling with Police, apparently there were doing security checks necessary for T5 to be classified an air terminal.

At the end I must say I was exhausted. But it was a great experience, and I'll definitely try and fly from there once it's open in April.

Tags: Planes

How annoying to learn something only shortly after you really needed to know about it?

I decided on my trip to Bradford that my sleeping bag was a) a smidge too small, and b) too big when packed. I used my messenger bag (about 28l) as my main bag, and the sleeping bag basically filled the bag, leaving precious little space for my inflatable mat and requiring my clothes to be compressed. My toiletries had to go into my (hydration) back pack, my pillow was strapped to the front of the bike and so was my water proof jacket. So last night and today I had a look at 'lite' bags.

Looking first on Vango (which is my current brand), I noticed that I already have a 'Travel/Lightweight' bag! Odd, I thought. Looking at the current bags, my equivalent would be a Voyager 100.

Reading reviews of sleeping bags mostly from Americans, I was struck how all the features they were marvelling at on expensive bags (double-sided zips, convertable to a duvet, zip secured with velcro) is all old hat with Vango bags. The new Voyager shaves off 550g in weight, down to 1KG and (I thought) a full 10 cm in pack size, down to 21cm long.

However, the length was the same at 210cm, so I thought I'd look for a bit more. I had a look on Outdoors Magic for other British brands making sleeping bags. I thought of Craghoppers, and somehow came across this. Hmm, never heard of this lot...Snugpak? I looked at the reviews on Outdoors magic and saw this question being asked about looking after a new sleeping bag. Apparently you shouldn't fold up a sleeping bag, since you can crease and damage the synthetic lining, instead you should just stuff it in. I also saw the same advice given on Youtube for packing a tent, you might crease the outer shell. So, I thought I would test this out, but first I picked the bag I will eventually buy.

The 'micro' pack size is remarkable (if not achieved by any of the reviewers), and it has a number of features that sounds good to me: a chisel foot for my big feet, a "Chrysalis Baffle System"...a what, what the what? CBS=Stretchy sides to permit turning in your sleep (ah!); and most importantly 220cm in length. But yes the reviews, they said that all they tried, they couldn't squeeze the pack down to 16cm long. They called on the manufacturers to tell them the secret, well, I'll just email them if I cant figure it out, but they made me think. I always had trouble fitting the Vango into it's little bag and squeezing the compressions straps over it. But the reviews talked about a compressed size and an uncompressed size. Uncompressed, the Softie was 30cm long! Compressed, they got it down below 20cm, but not to 16.

I have two sleeping bags. The first once I felt was too small, and I changed it for the Vango. I but I remembered that the old one was always easy to pack, so I got it out and unfolded it and stuffed it back in the bag. Easy! Next, I decided to see how far I could compress it. Rather than pulling on the compression straps, I put it tail up, and pressed it down with my knee and used the straps to hold the bag in compression. Wow! Instantly 20cm. Some more kneeing and it was 16cm!!

The diameter was also much smaller than the Vango, so overall it was much less than half the size - TINY. I've promised this bag for my sister, Caroline, so it turns out she's getting a super small Micro Thermalite bag. Not bad! The weight of it was exactly 1kg. Next up, and just dried from the washing machine was the Vango. Again, stuffing rather than folding the bag actually worked. There was a little sweating involved, but it all fit in, giving a +30cm long package. Down with the knee again, and:

21cm. There you have it, not pretty, but that's how to pack a sleeping bag.

Tags: Technology, Sleeping Bags

Some road works today on my way back from a seminar in Victoria today. I learned this from the third 185 bus (driver) which was going only as far a Camberwell. Every other bus she said, should be going the whole route. But, this is the third bus not going to Catford! Every other bus she said. Not listening. So I walked to Waterloo bridge where I got the 171. All was well, till we got to Brockley:

Blooming heck. We got stuck. An MPV was parked in front, and this clown wouldn't reverse back to let the bus through. The drivers behind him reversed back. The bus, couldn't move, because there was a jam behind. 5-6 minutes later and there's 6 buses waiting for this guy to move, passengers (and residents) are out remonstrating with him, and the female driver from the bus behind is screaming the air blue!

Seriously dude, just give way...its a BUS! 6 BUSES! Eventually he moved forward about 1 metre, and we were able to move. 1 metre - so what was all that palaver for! Some people, eh?

Tags: Buses, London

I rode to Wallingford on Thursday afternoon, passing the Thames outside Oxford

and Abingdon.

The N70/GPS/Viewranger combo was problematic. It kept losing the signal from the GPS, and both the phone and the GPS had to be re-booted. Not good. I made it to Didcot (Power Station) along National Cycle Route 5 before needing to take a detour to join Route 40 to Wallingford, where Waitrose and my dinner awaited. All laid out in Viewranger. Of course it decided to stop working just at the critical detour moment - so I used used (Viewranger) map and compass from that point.

To my dismay, the track on the OS map leading me under the railway line to route 40 was a dead end of bushes. I had to improvise a route, and happily found that I was not the only cyclist taking the detour. The other cyclist was much faster than me though and I lost him around a corner. I suddenly found I was going back toward the power station. I had to be on the wrong road. Sweating profusely, I tried the GPS again in vain and a slight panic (it was 5pm already and starting to get dusky). While waiting for everything to reboot, again, I noticed out of the corner of my eye something flashing. It looked like lots of cars passing behind a bush. Looking closer I could see a railway crossing sign...aha!!! Back to the map on the phone and yes, there was a railway next to the road I needed (B1046). I rode up and there it was, Route 40. It took me a long way, but fast up a few hills and down again all the way to Wallingford,

where I camped. Sadly, the site was about 50 meters from the riverside:

But it had a fantastic, new and high-tech shower block; instructions for the no-touch controls below.

Next morning I rode down to Goring and Streatley.

I got there around 10:30, up and down several fast hills, but this was a bit late in hindsight, given that I had planned to stay the previous night in Streatley (but there was no room at the YHA) and leave there at 8am. I should have asked to camp in their grounds I guess.

Anyway, from Streatley, there was a ride along Rectory Lane and then the biggest ascent imaginable and on the worst quality road imaginable! Big rocks, split open with sharp edges. My poor tyres, they were catapulting these things left and right. I could barely keep upright. In the end I had to push the bike up, it was so rough. Note, I wasn't pushing because I was tired, so that's something. At the top I was greeted by the splendour of the Ridgeway! Er, misty and cloudy.

I passed a dog walker. She said it gets better (referring to road quality). She was right and wrong. You'd get 100m of impassable stones, then 100m of packed earth, then grass tracks, then rocks again. Argh! I had to get off!

But I had forgotten to buy the 1:250000 GB roadmap (in case of detours), so I had no map for a change of route. The map I had bought was for the Ridgeway and that was it (or so I thought). Looking on Tuesday though, I noticed that my map went nearly as far south and east as Hungerford - what a twit I was not to notice this since that would have made a big difference. I decided to ride as far as the A34, then detour somehow down to Newbury. Before I got there a concrete road appeared! North to continue the Ridgeway or South to Compton. My heart said North, but my brain over-ruled. A huge down hill race to Compton where Google Maps took over emergency map duties, and worked well, getting me to Newbury down Long Lane by 12:30.

Where the sun came out, and I made the fatal mistake of taking Cycle Route 4 along the Kennet and Avon Canal. It was not a very fast route (which I needed), and chucked me off onto hilly roads to get to Hungerford. Some lovely views on the way through.

Several times I could hear the roar of the Great Western Railway, and in to Bedwyn I rode along the canal again, but Route 4, took me away again. If I had consulted the map, I would have had realised that I was right next to the A4, take the main road, fool!

Instead, out of Bedwyn I saw Route 4 tell me to turn right, but there was no right turn. Odd. 200m later, there is a turning into the Savernake forest, but no Route 4 sign confirming this. The forest looked scary, so I carried on, and presently saw another route 4 sign. It turns out that Route 4 forked at that point and I should have gone through the forest. Later on I saw this confusing sign:

I came from Hungerford, so do I turn right or go straight on? It actually points in all directions! WTF? 5 miles later (after Burbage) I notice I am heading South East back to Bedwyn rather than west. So I turn back and take the right at the sign, but this new route is full of (albeit lovely) hills, and is taking me north rather than West. North to Marlborough.


Halfway to Marlborough, I cross the canal again. Aha! I think, I'll just ride the canal in a straight-line to Bradford-on-Avon, and sod the cycle route. Except the towpath is appalling quality with tree roots and more stones. Basically my speed is little above 10mph for another hour and it is now 17:00 and I only am vaguely aware that I should be in Wiltshire. I pass a cyclist and ask how far it is to Devizies. 1 hour he says (I am shocked). No, make that 2 hours, good luck! I am distraught. Devizies is 20 miles from Bradford! Argh! I've got get off this stupid tow path.

So I get off at the next bridge to find it's nothing but a farmer's field. Unknown to me, I am now firmly back on the Viewranger map, but I have to ask at a pub the way to Devizies. The tourist gets out his road map and suggests I go down the road to Pewsey. Never heard of it, but off I go, and not 2 minutes later I find a train station. Should I? Should I give up? I then get a text message from a friend I'm meeting for drink that evening - he's nearly there, and I'm due there in about an hour.

It turns out this in an inter-city station, and there is a train coming, so I made it in time and at least I rode from Bradford-on-Avon train station.

Pics from the weekend here, and here's a video I made:

Tags: Moulton, GPS, Mountain Biking

I had a great weekend, although the ride to Bradford was a bit of a disaster in part. Funny, it doesn't look that way from the pictures.

Wednesday night then, I left work to get the train to Oxford. I left in plenty of time and half way across London, I realise I've left my phone behind. Disaster! So I hot tail it back and realise that I'm going to miss my train. The train I had booked an apex ticket for... So I got the phone, but I got a call 2 days later from work to say I'd left the solar charger at work too. Oh well. Luckily the battery lasted.

I got to the station and the customer service guy wouldn't say if my ticket was still valid. The train guard will decide he said. I was loathed to spend £18 for a ticket, but I took the chance. There was no ticket inspection and at Oxford they let me through, so great. The YHA was literally across (under) the railway tracks, and I walked into town for a sneak peak. Lots of young people about depsite this not being term time yet. Oxford also has a backpacker hostel, but no way! I wanted to sleep rather than listen to yakking aussies!

I had planned the morning, of course. Walkabout at 9am, Ashmoleum at 10am, Walking tour at 11am, Pitt Rivers at 13:30. First stop, the Carfax Tower.

I found this while failing to locate an Internet Cafe (all shut down). Great views from the top (drag the picture below for the view).

Next, the Ashmolean. Both this and the Pitt Rivers are under refurbishment, but the Ash had a Treasures exhibition on, which was great.

The cloak of Pocohontas' father

The Alfred Jewel

Guy Fawkes' lantern

The walking tour went around the university (where else, eh!). We started at Exeter College, where William Morris studied and fabric'ed up the chapel.

Went around some dreaming spires:



And visited Keble:

Where they had this famous painting:

I had to sneek at peek at Balliol as well, which was right opposite the tourist office:

The Pitt Rivers was a bit too rich for me to take in so I rushed through it. I'll come back another time.

Tags: Moulton

Went to a birthday party in Leighton Buzzard and I decided to ride down from Milton Keynes. I was quite surprised, having only ridden around it before, the centre was very sterile I suppose, very clean like Canary Wharf, and the people and the cars were separated with nice underpasses.

After walking the bike across the shopping centre (still officially on the cycle route), I quickly reached a big dramatically hilly park. I was quite surprised and that was essentially the last urban-ess I saw till Bletchley.

I rode down the Grand Union Canal, along a parallel path. These high quality but bumpy paths are called Red Routes.

I got lost around the Open University, but eventually found it to get back on track.

And followed the route along a lovely lake to Bletchley, where I got lost again before re-joining the canal for the long long ride to Leighton Buzzard.

Tags: Milton Keynes, Moulton

I had a meeting in Bristol today and booked a late train so I would have time to finally visit Brunel's SS Great Britain. Unfortunately I was writing a long email after the meeting, eating up ship time, so I had to rush the visit into about 20 minutes, so I didn't have time to enjoy the museum which looked very well done.

Tsk! Never doubt Brunel.
Anyway, she is quite a ship.

With impressive detailing:

The ship is in a fantastic dry dock. The top is glass with running water, it looks like the ship is floating, but you go through a door and then I get a sinking feeling because you go down below the water and under the ship. Gulp.

But it's amazing, amazing how thin the hull is, and pretty scary thinking that this is all that's keeping back the river:

At the back is the technology, a balanced rudder and screw propellor providing easy maneuverability (and a prototype for modern steering and propulsion in ships).

Livestock were kept on the main deck, for food I guess?

First Class was mostly 2 bunks, and so very narrow!

On board barber shop - he must have been skilled and balanced, or the other guy reckless:

Others in steerage class slept width-ways in dormitories:

The ship was salvaged off the Falklands in 1970 and sadly will never sail again; too many too big holes:

But apparently you can rent out the dining room for weddings and bar-mitzvahs!


A great ship, precursor to all the cruiseliners we hate love today!

Tags: SS Great Britain, Bristol

Just finished a clean up in my living room. This was to coincide with gettting my new Ikea desk. Only £30 and it works great in the little corner I have put it. It's an egg shaped Vika Manne. I particularly appreciate the white legs. All that's missing now is THE REST OF THE DECOR to go with it. LOL! That will come later this year, after the next thing which is another round of gardening. This time it's boundaries and levelling the ground. I'll have to ask how far along we are, I'm worried it will never end!

In other news, I went up to Manchester early last week and to my surprise there was settled snow on the ground. See here from the train:

I finished up there early and went walking around the Arndale Centre, and lo! I found the Apple Store. Rather more fabulous than I had imagined, all along the inside are illuminated walls with images of young people living the iLife. So, a very much brighter store than usual.

Nice. Sort of opposite the store was a very nice Waterstones where I bought Josie Dew's new book: Long Cloud Ride, about her jaunt around New Zealand, and then went into HMV to get Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. A film I've wanted to see for a while, and I watched it on the train back. Fantastic.

Tags: House, Snow, Apple

I was up quite late last night doing research for my up coming day trip to Newcastle (tacked onto a conference I'm attending up there). So I travel up Tuesday for the start of the conference, then stay overnight at the Hilton, then stay the following night (on my own budget) at the YHA.

So, I've a day, Thursday to look at the city. Well, not one to slack about town, I've planned a day of activities (in OmniOutliner, of course!):

▼ Tuesday Evening
• Millennium and Tyne Bridges
▼ Wednesday Night
• Performance at the The Sage Gatehead
▼ Thursday Morning
• Segedenum + Hadrian's Wall
• Laing Gallery
▼ Thursday Afternoon
• Grainger Town and Arcades
• Grey Street
• Castle Keep Museum via St. Nicholas Cathedral
• Baltic and Bridges
• Quayside Art, Bridges and Cafes

I'm quite pleased to have found Segedenum, it should add something different to the trip.

I just finished watching the excellent Equator on BBC 2. It's presented by Simon Reeve, who is great on screen, one of those people who has a permanent smile, even when grimacing. I just found his web site and he's more than just a pretty face, he was the first to write a book about Al Quaeda and he wrote One day in September, which was made into a film - a prequel of sorts to the stunning Munich. Check him out (and his Rapid Weaver designed site - sad that I can tell, I know).

Tags: Newcastle

So, I went to Bristol, and since them, I've been to Nottingham, Manchester and Coventry.

Let's start with King's Cross again. I thought there was something familiar last time, about the new entrance hall to the tube. And lo, yes, it reminds me, slightly of Gare Du Nord, and what's this?

It's a Relay, a magazine and tabac shop, dropped in, as if straight from Paris. Anyway, took the train up to Nottingham for a meeting and on arrival at St. Pancras, I saw that Midland Mainline have been moved to their new platforms, ready for Eurostar in 2007.

Turning around I saw that the renovation of the original train shed roof of the station was complete. To explain, the Eurostar trains are so long, that they had to build a roof extension, so the curved roof (with light blue girders - hope that's not the final colour) is the original and the flat slatted roof is the new bit. You can get a better idea with this model and a shot through the new roof, to see the original one:

Here's my pic from the train window:

Ah, rolling fields; and here is downtown Nottingham:

Nottingham is actually very modern and re-developed, lots of outdoor bars, mutiplex cinemas, but still lots of independent shops, and a tram, which I rode on:

And zut! Up to Manchester a few days later. Ah... the English countryside:

Its not easy you know to take these pics when traveling over 100 mph and often at tilt! If you've not been to Manchester for a few years, when you visit you might be in for a shock. The centre is totally rebuilt and the shopping district looks like this:

On the way back I noticed the train had a promo vinyl on it. The film was fantastic (saw it last Thursday). Is it a bird, is it a plane, no, it's a 125 mph, tilting train! .

I finish this round-up with the widest behind I have ever seen (proportionately). I am sure she makes some man, somewhere, very happy.

Tags: St. Pancras

Travelled to Bristol today for a work meeting. Lovely train journey on a lovely summers day and a very positive meeting.

I decided to ride from work to Paddington and normally this would take about 25-30 minutes. Certainly when I used to commute this way it would take about 30 minutes. Imagine my surprise though...I was in conversation and didn't notice the time. It was only 30 minutes before my train was going to leave! So I rushed to get the bike and set off at top flight, watching the clock. I got to Paddington 20 minutes later. Not bad at all eh?!

Empire Museum

Anyway, Bristol was looking marvelous in the summer sunshine and on the way back I popped into the British Empire Museum to ask a question. Last time I had visited I was disappointed not to find an Empire Map, did they have one? Yes, but in the book section (where I hadn't looked). I got an Empire map tea towel as well. Smashing.

Tags: Bristol

Riding back from work before the Trinidad and Tobago vs England match, I saw that the Sun and News of the World had hired a little plane to fly a HUGE banner around. Such a shame the Moto takes tiny silly pictures, still, you get the idea. 'Come on England', it said, except they didn't, the performance was atrocious.

Tags: World Cup

Last week I had a trip up to Manchester for meetings up there. I love going by Pendolino, although the early start means a bit of shut-eye is usually taken. I managed to get a picture during a tilt though a station, can you tell?

That evening instead of going home, I went to Leicester to see old Uni friends, James and Wayne. Nick travelled up from London. A bit of a cock-up on my journey across the Pennines.

It wasn't exactly clear at Manchester's departure boards, since they don't show trains, they show destinations, so I took the first train to my destination. This turned out to be a slow, cramped Northern Trains train. I should have asked really, before I got on the train "Shouldn't this be a Trans-Pennine Express?", but it didn't occur to me that the two trains could leave within minutes of each other. Anyway I got to Sheffield about 15 minutes after my connection had left, so I took the next train (Virgin), which only went to Derby, and the train from Derby (MML) was cancelled. I was an hour late in the end.

Anyway had a great time, some curry, some drinking, some clubs and a nice walk around the old town. I finally visited the city museum on New Walk, which I had walked past countless times on my way into town, when I was studying in Leicester.



I was expecting, yes, the dinosaurs, but not much else. Instead, it's rather good with exhibitions on the Egyptians, and endangered species and other stuff, some of it tied in with recent BBC documentary series. Good stuff for kids, although I didn't stay too long as I had to go into town to meet up with the others.

Tags: Trains