neil.baldwin – Page 52 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

We will fight them in the beeches!

On my Lord, what do they think they are up to? New Labour must feel, with the election looming, that they are doing so well in the polls they should try to ensure they alienate every potential voter from The Chalfonts to Waddesdon & beyond by slinging a high speed rail link through the Chilterns. Obviously the existing rail network has been invested to to a point at which no further improvements can be made so, and as we have £30 billion slooshing around in the public coffers and in need of a home (the homesless/NHS/education/care of the elderly/decent equipment for our troops and MP’s expenses having clearly been overfunded already), they must have pondered long and hard what to spend it on.

On a serious note, the Chilterns are one of the primary reasons why so many of us choose to live or visit this area. They provide a green lung for London and an immediate escape from noise, pollution and urban living that that dogs much of our daily routine. Any infringement into this AONB will weaken its protected status and before we know it we will have Tesco, Aldi & Starbucks setting up franchises in the Lee. Perhaps a multiplex at Ballinger! Sorry, I have gone into rant mode again. We have been spoilt and assumed this Eden as our automatic right for too long. So speak now and smite the developmental serpent, or Paradise will indeed be Lost.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/highspeedrail/hs2ltd/route/keyplan.pdf

PS This was a party political broadcast on behalf of no party but the Sharpie one!

PPS Thanks to Steve for letting us know about the route, cheers m’dear

Roll call

Sat on plane waiting to take off from Belfast city, all was going well until the despatchers and the crew could not agree on numbers.
In the end we the ground crew had to go to each passenger in turn and mark us all off the list of passengers thay had. As I write this we are 15 minutes delayed.
In the end a gentleman was taken off the plane. It was not clear if he was on the wrong plane or not. The attendent would not tell me, but I got the impression that he was and the despatchers were embarassed that they had allowed him through.
One of the pilots of the plane is female, I don’t think I have ever noticed a female airline pilot.

W H Smith anti virus

Back to Luton airport for a trip to Belfast. Thought I would have breakfast at the airport, this time, as I noticed that Pret does porridge. Turns out to be good porridge, I guess because it has been on the heat for a while the oats really get a chance to expand, so the whole thing is much more creamy. I opted for a dollop of honey for £1.99, which means they are making big margins on materials. I get a kg of Tesco value oats for less than a pound, and all you need for a portion of porridge is half a mug full. A bag lasts me a couple of months.
On the way in I stopped off in W H Smiths to get a paper, and noticed that the advertising screen above the tills was showing and error message, as I like to collect public error messages I thought I would share it with you all. It is an AVG anti virus message complaining that the license had run out.
Anyway the plane is about to push off and so am I.

Happy go lucky (*****)

Poppy is a happy go lucky primary school teacher and the film centres around her simple day to day life, as is traditional in a Mike Leigh film. The film starts off with Poppy having her bicycle stolen, she is just sorry she did not have a chance to say goodbye! So she decides that she should have some driving lessons, the instructor turns out to be an very angry person, and the relationship between the two is hilarious, as they are at the extreme ends of the happy spectrum.

The film carries on you meet her sisters and family , and the friend also a teacher who she lives with. During the course of the film normal everyday things happen, she goes to dance classes, meets a bloke, has difficult situations to deal with in the class rooms etc etc.

The film is a typical Mike Leigh film, it is about normal people, in normal lives, (although this one is far more happy), but somehow he manages to keep your attention, proabbly because you want to know what is goint o happen next, and a lot of the scenes are visually stunning, in an understated way, when is a Tesco express service station in front of a Gasometer make a great shot!

I give the film 5 out of 5, and would recommend everyone what it, it is just a lovely film with a nice story.

The fence

After having done some chores this morning, because R&L, A&M, Ange are coming rouind for a curry tonight, we headed off to Wendover for a walk to Coombe Hill.
On the way there we popped into our painter’s to have a look at his PC. He had managed to get some fake antivirus software installed which he could not get rid of. We sorted it and were soon on our way.

We parked in the public car park and headed off up past the railway station. The weather was sunny but there was a cold wind. I think we were on the cold side of the hill too, as there were not many signs of spring about, as there is else where round and about. There are fragments of an old fence up round the Coombe Hill area which I wonder maybe belonged to Chequers in a era gone by. See the photo’s

attached to the post. The fences are serious structures, the posts are cast iron and the fence part is quite fine (you would not be able to climb them), and very pointy on top (even more reason not to try and climb them).

Any way we did a loop round and ended up coming down the “usual” route up Coombe Hill with the view. When we got back to Wendover we went into Rumseys for a coffee and some lunch, I had Chocolate truffle cake and Helen had carrot and orange, very health concious we are.

Fire at work

Fire alarm at 9:15 the factory was on fire. No less than 2 fire engines, a fire all terrain vechile, and a fire car turned up.
We all had to stand outside in the cold. According to a reliable source “They ran out of water and had to start pumping from the canal”, although some doubting Thomas thinks that they used a fire hydrant.
The news got as far as the Mix96 website by 15:38 (not as quick as it was on the blog!) and we got glowing reports. Everyone knew what to do the, and all our fire precautions are ship shape because we take that sort of thing seriously.

The lovely bones (***)

This is a film from a book of the same title. Apparently the film follows the book but leaves out some details, but does clarify some of the more confusing parts of the book.

The film is set in the 70’s and centres around a girl who lives in Norristown Pennsylvania, who want to grow up and become a wildlife photographer. She is murdered by a neighbour, and then things get complicated because she goes somewhere that is not the after life it is a bit of a “waiting land” where she meets other girls. Anyway there film jumps between her family and never never land as they all come to terms with loss and separation.

Susan Sarrendon plays her drunk grand mother who at one point comes to stay.

There are some surreal scenes set in New Zealand, probably because the film is directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame.

I give the film 3 stars worth a watch but if other films had been available to watch I might well have chosen another.

The diving bell and the butterfly (****)

This is a French film about a the editor of a women’s fashion magazine Bauby who suffers a stroke and and ends up a prisoner in his own body. The condition is called locked in syndrome. He could only move his eye but thanks the patience of his speech therapist he was able to communicate and eventually write the book that the film is based on.

The story shows the relationship between Bauby and the speech therapist, his wife, three kids, ex colleagues, mistress etc. It is very thought provoking.

At the start of the film the shots were a bit wacky but it was an attempt to see the world through is eye’s and we soon got used to it.
Despite the depressing subject matter, the film is a great attempt to see a world we could never imagine, and is actually really well filmed.
I give it 4 stars.

The canal is overflowing

On the way to and from work this morning it looked like the canal was going to over flow. Not sure if it was caused by the recent rain/snow or a lock open up stream. The water was flowing fast through a closed lock, it was only a bout 1 or 2 inches from over flowing, and generally the canal was clear rather than the usual murkiness.

Kitchen update

It is finished. Great work by all our trades, thank you. & Neil has christened the floor by dropping a food processor on it 🙂