neil.baldwin – Page 42 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

London to Brighton Vintage car run 2010

Sunday was the London to Brighton vintage car run. Helen and I with Helens mum joining us for a list to Hassocks, met up with the crew at Crawley after a wrong turning off the M25 meant we missed the exit to the Redhill Little Chef. We stooda around with Martin at CVrwayley town square until the car arrived then we went to the local pub for a traditional pint. Unfortunatly Rory could only be with us until Crawley, so it was then my responability to keep up with the vehicle and allow passengers to swap over a get a chance to ride in the 1903 Humberette.

At about 10 miles out of Crawley we swapped over to give Justin a ride, and Gerald joined us in the car. Gerald is a hockey chum of Gilbert, and had also played his part in the team of over 70’s who won the title at the world championships in Cape Town earlier this year. He is also the president of the British Naturalist Association. The weather was perfect for the run the sun was shinning and the leaves were golden as we went over the steep hill where some cars need a tow. At the Pikeham junction we did another swap and Mark joined the car for the final drive into Brighton.

We hurried down to the front where I dropped everyone off near the front then dumped the car in the NCP car park round the corner from the Travel Lodge. When I got back to the front somone had kindly managed to bag a cup of muled wine, another traditional drink for the run.

This year we had taken a chance and booked the Travel Lodge for the night, a bargain at £32.50, the rooms were small but the place was clean, and we had a good nights apart from the noise from the storm that had descending upon the country. After freshening up we met up in the bar and I used Google maps to find and Italian restaurant near by, it is a great service because it summarises the reviews from many review websites and presents the result in a really easily read way. I picked out one that had the best reviews and we used the directions feature to take us to the restaurant.

The place looked really nice although it was on the street where there are lots of takeaways and other restaurants, and where in the past we have had a couple of bad meals. From the outside it promised to be good, it looked clean and newly decorated. We all agreed the place looked good so went in. The menu had some great selections. We had between us Misto Mare (deep fried sea food), Olives/Breads and Bruschetta for starters then Spaghetti a la Vongole, pumpkin risotto, pork in a mushroom cream sauce and the sea bass special. Three of us had dessert Tiramisu and fruit salad, followed by coffee and liquers. The bill came to £40 per head and everyone agreed that the meal was really great and that we should check it out next year.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped of at a pub that did great real ale, as well as loads of different types of tequila!

L2B preparation

The london to Brighton is tomorrow so it is round to Rory’s to polish the car, which is a 1903 Humberette. As usual Rob and Rory were bickering over doing it earlier next year. Rob impressed us all by making a brass bolt to replace a missing one. We also discussed helping me make a panorama bracket for my camera.

It was soon polished and shiny.

The Humber is a British automobile that dates its beginning with Thomas Humber’s bicycle company founded in 1868. The first car was produced in 1898 and was a three-wheeled tricar with the first conventional four-wheeled car appearing in 1901. The Humber, like many other Marques, evolved from a company which had originally made pedal cycles.

The first cars had two- or four-cylinder engines, but the tiny single-cylinder-engined Humberette succeeded them. The name Humberette literally means ‘small Humber’. The Humber was a sturdy and well-made machine that carries a useful payload under very little power. A Humber would have been displayed as one of the many European cars presented at the Louisiana Exposition

held in St. Louis in 1904.

Under the Humberette’s hood is a 611 cc, 5 HP, automatic inlet, side exhaust valve 1-cylinder engine with a 92.1 x 92.1 mm bore and stroke. At a weight of 650 pounds, the Humberette can travel at a maximum speed of 25 mph. The rear driven vehicle uses a Longuemare float-type carburetor. The Humberette features a De Dion style of front-mounted water-cooled engine, with a leather-covered cone clutch, a two-speed gearbox controlled by levers under the steering wheel, as well as drive shaft to the rear wheels – the last being a real novelty in the early 1900s.

The Hangover (**)

This is a pretty predicable film if you have seen the trailer you have seen the file. There are some funny moments. It is about 4 blokes going on a stag do to Vegas, and predictably it all goes wrong, but they end up at the wedding on time just in the nick of time.

Cleaner (****)

A murder mystery with a twist. A guy (Samuel L Jackson), ex-cop, who runs a business cleaning up after murders/suicides. He attends the scene of a murder to clean up, and no one is there so he cleans up and leaves. Only thing is he forgets to return the key, when he does the person who is at the house knows nothing about it. Anyway it turns out the cleaner has a past, his wife was murdered and the murderer was killed in prison.

The cleaner then find himself getting more and more involved in the case, he has essentially been stitched up. His ex partner then gets incvolved to try to help him resolve the issues, and police corruption raises it head and it seems like there is no way out.

A great thriller of a film, I would recommend seeing it.

Who ate all the pies?

Early breakfast then we hit the trail, heading straight out to the sea past the abbey ruins. We had a good look rounnd the sluice bushes but not much to see. As we headed towards the hide someone pointed out out single turnstone on the end of the groyne, and informed us that there was a snow bunting further down the beach, we could see lots of peiople looking at it.
As we headed toward the twitch Helen spotted a shore lark. The snow bunting was very trusting, one photographer was within 3m of the bird. We got really good views. After that we had a look at a distant king eider, but we had to take other peoples word for it.
The coast guard cottages were a welcome break for a coffee. So far the weather had been clear skies, and warm sun. The wind was light, but if you spent too long in the shade it was cold.

We headed off round the heath after dartford warblers but had no luck, the consolation was that Helen M found a fly agaric to photograph with her new camera. There were quite a lot of mushrooms about but a lot of them had seen better days. We paused for lunch on a bench set back off the path and dedicated to Billy and Betty. The pies we bought yesterday were lovely Helen S and I had a Heidi pie which was made from vegetables and squash, and Nik and Helen M had the asparagus and mushroom pien which they gave the thumbs up to. At the north end corner of the heath, we almost trod on a slow worm, which probably die to the cold was not moving while it obliged us by posing from our cameras, Helen H then moved it off the path and in to the undergrowth at the side and in the sun, it moved more then perhaps because of the warmth. From the heath we headed towards Greyfriars. Nik spotted a hare in the field and we saw two green wood peckers on a telegraph pole.
Through Greyfriars and past the abbey ruins we arrived at the Dunwich cafe and chip shop, out intended point for a break before we turned back towards Eels Foot.

After a welcome and very sweet hot chocolate we headed back up up the hill out of Dunwich retracing our tracks back to Mount Pleasant farm where we picked up the bridleway which is a straight line route back to the pub touching on the edges of the Minsmere reserve.
On the way we came across a herd of deer with a stag. Whilst looking at the deer I spotted a little owl on a distant fence post, it sat around as they do for some time before flying off. Further on we spotted a mouse in the undergrowth that did not hang around for long. When we got almost back to the pub when you can see across the fields in land we were treated to vies of 2 barn owls hunting across the fields in the setting sun which was just idyllic.
After relaxing in our rooms and a quick shower it was back into the bar for some more food and beer. What a great way to spend a Saturday.
If you want to know who ate all the pies well the prize goes to Helen S and Nik who topped off the lunchtime pies with Mean Bean pie at the pub for dinner, and Nik believe it not ate half of Helen M’s at lunch time.

Lord Nelson

Weekend at the Eels Foot, yes again! Arrived in Southwold and headed straight to the Lord Nelson for Helen to have a pee, and to meet Helen and Nik.
Pub is very busy it is the end of half-term week and a Friday, not a free table in sight but managed to secure a couple of bar stools.
After some lunch we headed off round the shops. I managed to find a present for my mums birthday from the amber shop, and dad a book. Nik and I purchased some pies for lunch tomorrow, Helen S bought a jacket, Helen M some earrings and a print of a rook/crow, and Nik bought a jacket. I bought Stephen Fry’s auto-biography. After shoppinge we headed back to the pub, when we got our rooms and headed off for a short walk to look for owls, all we managed was a the call of a Tawny.
Finally it was time to have a well earned pint.

Despicable Me (****)

Animated feature film about a villain who wants to steal the moon and pull of the biggest and most notorious crime ever. He as a rival called Vector who finds out about his plans via his father the Villain Bank manager. Throw into the mix three cute orphans (one reminded me of my niece) and you have the makings of a great story. It is funny, sad, heart warming and most of all slapstick. Watch the 3D version if you can.

The Contract (***)

Bit of a strange story this one. Morgan Freeman is a contract killer who is putting together a team take out a rich business man. It all goes wrong when his is in an accident and ends up in hospital, where they find his gun and call the police. The local police man finds out he is a wanted notorious killer and arranges for the Washington authorities to transport him to thier offices.

He escapes on route and ends up kidnapping John Cussack and his son who are out hiking. The story then becomes a hunt and chase movie with Morgan trying to escape, Cussack trying to get him to the police and Morgans colleagues searching for them all.

The rut

We hosted a party for Caroline’s birthday last night, this morning she and Helen managed to get to church (9:15 service), which impressed me give the partying the night before. I got up and watched the exciting Korean grand prix, had some breakfast and tidied up a bit. The weather was crisp and sunny so I headed out for a walk around Ashridge.

I parked in the small car park just up the hill from Alburgh, which is if the beaten track away from the monument area. I headed in the opposite direction from the monument the plan was to get some picture of fungi and see if I could catch site of some of the deer in the area.

I followed a bridleway, passed a very big house and eventually came across some smaller houses which were at the end of of a track. They seemed had a great location, a couple were semi-detached and bizarrely one of the front gardens had a couple of horses grazing. The garden was normal front garden size and the grass was nice and short!

I then headed towards the road that runs through Ashridge, which meant crossing the very large grassy heath area, when I spotted no less that 4 green wood peckers all very close to each other. You could see their red heads poking up above the grass. After crossing the road I headed in to the woods the other side, where I started to here the stags calling, which they do at this time of the year to attract females and make their presence known to other males in the area. I heard a few quite close but only got fleeting glimpses of the deer them selves.

I got some some pictures of some fungi in the silver birch areas, but they were not at the best they were showing their age a bit. It reminded me that I need to read over the LX3 manual again I seem to spend too much time figuring out how to change settings which I know exist I just can’t figure out how to make contact with the right bits of the menu system.

I then heard a stag really close by so I slowly and quietly made my way toward the source of the noise, I was then lucky enough to see a stag and 3 females hanging around what looked like a stand. I was there for quite a few minutes behind a tree which helped support my binoculars, I got some cracking view of the stag calling. Eventually they got spooked by some other walkers in the woods. Time to head over to Hillside fro some of Caroline’s birthday cake.

RED (****)

Retired and extremely dangerous, is a a tongue n cheek comedy /action film. Bruce Willis plays a retired CIA agent who in the past has lead a dangerous exciting life as an operative in the field. He is a lonely and regularly phones his pension company to complain that his payment cheque has not arrived just to be able to speak to a female employee who he is trying to pluck up the courage to ask out.

Things get complicated when a crack squad are sent to kill him, as you would expect he kills all the squad out to get him and then embarks on a road trip picking up the pension administrator and few ex-colleagues along the way. The colleagues are played by Helen Mirren, Morgan freeman, John Malcovich, and Brian Cox.

The film is full of plenty of action as well as comic moments and the team try to sort out the situation. Well worth 4 stars an enjoyable film.