I did not know this. The diagonal lines on the BR logo are not parallel. They taper outwards so they “look right”.
The Tube Train That Runs In the Channel Islands
Bizarre.
On the small island of Alderney in the Channel Islands, did you know there’s a railway which uses old 1959 Tube Stock to run its services.
11th September 2001
On 11th September 2001 I went to work at Norton Radstock College in my role as Director of the WCC.
I was working in my office, when someone came and said a plane had crashed into a skyscraper in New York.
I went the BBC News website, but it wouldn’t load. I initially put it down to the college network, but of course realised later on that it was excessive demand on their servers which was causing their site to fail to load. I tried a fair few times to get the front page to load, but had no luck.
In the end I went to the canteen where the news was on the TVs in there and there was loads of people, students and staff, just watching the TVs. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but as the day progressed it became much more apparent what had happened.
I listened to the radio news in my car on the way home, there was a lot more detail about what had happened, but less about the who and the why. We went to the gym and as I cycled away on the cycle machine the news was on the screens in front of me and the devastation and destruction was shown. It was awful. The cycle of news, of the plane crashing, the towers collapsing, the dust and debris cloud was right there in my face and it just added to my shock and disbelief.
Those memories of that day have stayed with me ever since then.
A House Through Time
So there is a new series of the A House Through Time starting 7th September, 9pm BBC Two.
I really enjoyed the previous three series. The series on the house in Bristol was really interesting, though I think I preferred the first series on the house in Liverpool.
This one is set in Leeds.
Then and Now – St Pancras Railway Station
I took this photograph of St Pancras Railway Station in March 2019 from an office building across from the station.
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart.
I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.
I always think I should give them a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. The first instance of this that came to my attention was last year in May when I went to Manchester.
It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!
Back in August 2007 I took this photograph of St Pancras Railway Station.
At the time the station was undergoing an £800 million refurbishment to become the terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link as part of an urban regeneration plan across East London.
London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to Leicester, Corby, Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham on the Midland Main Line, Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford, Cambridge, Peterborough, Brighton and Gatwick Airport. It stands between the British Library, the Regent’s Canal and London King’s Cross railway station, with which it shares a London Underground station, King’s Cross St Pancras.
This is the (similar) view of the station which I photographed in June 2016.
Two years later I was back and took a similar shot in September 2018.
This time I was actually catching a train from St Pancras to Paris (and then onto Brest) for a conference presentation.
I was back at St Pancras in August 2021, however I took a photograph from a different perspective.
Close by to St Pancras is Kings Cross Railway Station.
The other side of the Gorge
At the weekend we went for a walk around Leigh Woods. I went to Leigh Woods once, about twenty years ago, but have not been there since then. This I find quite surprising, as I do live in the area, and go regularly to Ashton Court, the Downs, which are all roughly in the same area.
Leigh Woods is quite small, a 2-square-kilometre (0.77 sq mi) area of woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, close to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
We parked the car and looked at the map and thought about which route to take. We walked through the woods and down to the Avon Gorge.
There were a couple of streams which feed into the River Avon.
With some modifications to stop flooding of the paths I assume.
We went under the viaduct on the Bristol Portishead railway line.
As it was Saturday and only carries freight now and then, we didn’t see any trains.
We then walked along the Avon Trail in the Gorge. It was really nice to see the Gorge from the other side of the river.
Generally I either see the Gorge from the Clifton Suspension Bridge, on the Portway or from the Downs.
We walked along the River Avon Trail and then as we reached the Clifton Suspension Bridge we took a right back into Leigh Woods.
We passed some grazing cows which looked out of place on what was quite a steep rocky footpath. Once back at the top we walked back to the car. It was a little further than we planned but was a lovely walk.
Welcome to the Hedgehog Cafe
Out on a lunchtime walk we noticed this at the bottom of someone’s fence.
Thought it was cute.
“Horse: Everyone knows what a horse is.”
This on the Twitter made me smile today.
The first Polish language dictionary (published 1746) included definitions such as:
"Horse: Everyone knows what a horse is."
— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) July 5, 2021
Going to the cinema
On Friday night we went to the cinema, after checking we ended up at Cineworld in Weston.
We spent over eight pounds on one portion of popcorn and some pick and mix. I can never understand the cost of cinema food. I understand the economics of it, but I do wonder sometimes if that model is flawed.
We saw The Fast and the Furious 9 which was a fun escapist film. It didn’t take itself too seriously, so neither did we. This is the first of these films I have seen from the franchise, having said that I don’t think you needed to have seen the others to enjoy the film (well except perhaps the post credits clip).
Despite being almost opening night, a Friday night and peak time of 7:40pm the cinema was quite empty. The whole complex looked very sad now that Prezzo, Pizza Express and Loco Mexicana have all closed down. The only places left are Nandos and Costa. How long will it be before Cineworld decides to shut.
What’s the sculpture?
On a recent visit to Ashton Court I was reminded of this piece of bronze art that was on display at the front of the mansion building.
There wasn’t anything that I could see that said more about the art, so no idea about the title or the sculptor?
What’s the sculpture?
I quite like it though.