Did The Mounted Met Get Their Man?
Yesterday, around three in the afternoon, I went out to get three bottles of water for my Dyson Humidifier from the corner shop about a two hundred metres away at the junction of Southgate Road and the Balls Pond Road, which has a very advanced traffic-light system
I crossed Southgate Road on the zebra and all seemed quite, as I started to walk up towards the junction.
I then heard a lot of blue lights coming, so myself and a very tall and large black couple, stood back from the road to see what was up. As everybody does!
A scruffy individual with a backpack about thirty riding a high-powered motor-bike doing about sixty towards the lights, in a road, where the speed limit is twenty. He was followed by three Police motorcycles.
All four motor-cycles turned right at the lights and disappeared towards Dalston Junction.
Perhaps twenty second later, they all returned, as obviously the scruffy ride had done a U-turn. I last saw them disappearing towards Highbury & Islington station.
Afterwards, a couple of Police cars came through and then it all calmed down.
Did the Met got their man, in the traffic congestion at the station?
Legal & General Has Acquired One Of The Last Major Crossrail Development Sites
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on City AM.
There have been several stories like this is recent months and I think it shows how Crossrail will generate new housing an business developments across London.
Who Remembers Sides-to-Middle?
Last night, I put my feet through a bed-sheet, creating a large hole.
I suspect, it was probably past its throw away date, but it got me thinking!
My mother would have cut the sheet in half, put the two good sides together and sewed them securely with her reliable 1930s-built Singer.
She used to call it Sides-to-Middle!
This sheet was a fitted one, which didn’t exist in the 1950s and 1960s!
So I doubt, it would have been possible anyway!
These Dreaded Glasses Are Starting To Appear In Hotels
In my hotel in Novara, I didn’t get a proper glass or even a hard plastic one, like those I use at home.
I got one of these design crimes!
Consider.
- They are single-use plastic of the worst kind.
- They are difficult to open with my gammy hand.
- When I opened one in Germany I destroyed the glass.
But the worst thing, is that they are unstable and one tipped over in Novara and ruined my paper, in which I was doing the sudoku.
Ban them!
Where The Queen Gets Her Energy
Yesterday’s edition of Countryfile on BBC1, was entitled Royal Special: Windsor.
In the program, they shows how Windsor Castle and the surrounding estate, use an Archimedes screw in the River Thames to generate electricity.
I found this video on the Internet.
There is also this document on the Internet.
It may look crazy, but after reading the document, it would appear to be cost effective.
This Google Map gives aerial view of the weir and the installed screws.
The two screws are installed in two sections of the weir at the right end.
It may look crazy, but after reading the document, it would appear to be cost effective.
- At peak flow the two units generate a total of 320kW/hour.
- There is a six year return on investment.
- The design life is fifteen years..
- The owner of the generators has a forty year lease on the site.
I suspect, we could see more units like this!
In Bruges
I thought that I was passing the city, I should take a pit-stop in Bruges, with perhaps a gluten-free breakfast.
If you go to most cities in Germany, there is always a handy tourist office at the station.
As I didn’t know the city, I needed information on how to get from the station to the centre, which was a twenty minute walk.
If it hadn’t been for a helpful local man, who spoke impeccable English, I wouldn’t have found out that the buses were convenient, but you had to buy the tickets from the paper shop inside the station.
In addition, there wasn’t any visible staff at the station.
How tourist-friendly is that for a welcome to one of the most important sites in Belgium?
My gluten-free breakfast wasn’t very good either!
It came with ordinary bread and only the tea was good.
My argument is that if you advertise gluten-free, then make sure you can do it properly.
Finding a bus back to the station wasn’t easy to cap it all.
Conclusion
Don’t expect to turn up in Bruges on a train and spend a pleasant hour or two before moving on.
Unlike many cities in The Netherlands, Germany and Italy, the information lets you down.
Millicent And Ursula Prepare To Go Tunnelling
I went to the Tideway Open Day today to see Millicent and Ursula before they go tunnelling.
Other than the names on the sides, you will notice that Millicent has less teeth on the business end, than her friend.
This is because Millicent will be going West from the site near Battersea Power station and Ursula will be going East.
As the geology is more challenging to the East, Ursula has more teeth.
Some points to note!
- Millicent was named after Dame Millicent Fawcett.
- Ursula was named after Audrey ‘Ursula’ Smith.
- Both machines will have a statue of Saint Barbara, who is the patron saint of miners and tunnellers.
- These machines are larger than those of Crossrail.
- A documentary is being made for television about the tunnel.
There’s more on Millicent and Ursula on the Tideway web site.
Square Comes Full Circle For Grosvenor Estate
The title of this post is the same as that of an article in the Business section of today’s copy of The Times.
It describes the history of Grosvenor Square and its relationship to the Grosvenor family.
There has been an American presence in the square since 1785, but with the moving of the American Embassy to Nine Elms earlier this year, the need for security measures has decreased and control of the square has returned to the Grosvenor Estate.
These are the last two paragraphs of the article.
After a public consultation, Grosvenor is seeking ideas from urban designers, architects and artists to “recreate a place fit for the 21st century”.
Craig McWilliam, chief executive, said that Grosvenor Britain and Ireland wanted to create “a haven where locals and visitors can enjoy the best of the city”.
Donald Trump has stated that moving to Nine Elms is crazy, but London will gain immensely from that move.
Does Talk Radio Make Telephone Fraudsters Go Away?
At the moment, I’m being plagued by telephone fraudsters. What they are up to, I don’t know, but I get around five a day, if I’m sitting by my computer writing.
I usually have my television switched to Radio 5 or something like the News on BBC1, when they call and I find it strange that if I don’t switch the sound on the television off, by the time I get the phone to my ear, the line is dead.
The fraudster seems to hear the noise of the talking and feels they may be wasting their time.
But it never seems to fail!
It reminds me of a story told me by a farmer, who was breeding free-range organic chickens for one of the major supermarket groups.
The local foxes were a problem, until someone suggested that he wire an old radio up to a car battery and put it on Radio 5 all night at a lowish level. It appeared the calm voices of Doton Adebayo and Rhod Sharp convinced the foxes there were people around and he was losing fewer chickens to the foxes.
Wet Wipes Could Face Wipe-Out In Plastic Clean-Up
The title of this post, is the same as this article on the BBC.
What are wet wipes?
In my seventy years, I’ve never used or even seen one!
I don’t think my late wife ever used one either!
Do we really need them?
The Anonymous Widower 