A Walk in the Park

In the chill of the day ensuring we all knew Autumn had arrived the sun continued to pretend it was summer and tempted me out onto the zimmer bus.  A trundle into the big city (they call it big) and a walk in the park by the river was on the cards.

The skies above were filled with puffy clouds (or UFO's to those who read the 'Daily Mail') standing out from the attractive blue sky.  Here the sky is seen above the cafe which offered me a decent coffee for only £1:90, far cheaper than those expensive shops that fill all the high Streets in this world.  Not only that the service was attractive, friendly and efficient.  I will use it again when there.   

It is no surprise this well cared for park was busy.  Mums with pushchairs, joggers sweating by, workers on lunch enjoying the air and the occasional duck flapping about in the water.  All in all a good way to spend your lunchtimes and make use of the cafe.  There was a happy relaxed 'feel' about the place which is not always the case in cities, maybe the population had not yet gone for their coffee?  Anyhow it was an enjoyable couple of hours in the sunshine.

During 1842 the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) arrived at Chelmsford on its very expensive trek towards Ipswich.  Eventually the line reached the destination but only after many money troubles.  I suspect having to build an 18 arch viaduct across what is now Central Park in the town added to their financial care.  The station now stands high above the town, the old signal box has is five story high on the north side, and this magnificent viaduct still carries the daily traffic, taking some 14,000 a day in the London commute.  I constantly find myself admiring brickwork, especially the brickwork involved in creating thousands of Victorian rail bridges both large and small.  No wonder the economy grew?  The desire for railways ensured a demand for bricks, the railways took bare material to factories which turned this into goods which the railways carried away.  The growing economy led to a move to the city, a demand for new housing, a demand for more bricks.  Those simple red bricks help change the nation.  I realise there is a lot more to this than my simple explanation but certainly the arrival of rail changed the world in a way little has until computers landed on our desks.

    
Here we see the Abellio service rushing towards Ipswich (is it my cynicism that makes me wish I had written 'the late running Abellio service?) possibly stopping at the Chelmsford but sometime charging straight through.  A journey of just under an hour into Liverpool Street station has made this a commuter town a favourite for many.  I find it a bit boring but at least all the shops required can be found here, all other activities are catered for and for many young families it meets their needs.  However while the Essex County Cricket side play most of their games in Chelmsford their football team is so far down the leagues that it will take a year before they can join little Braintree and a further year before they can meet the 'big boys.'  Maybe it will be their year this time...

Whether there are any fish in the River Can I know not but this man is moving at my speed today!  In the background can be seen some canoes with slow moving oarsmen paddling along.  The flow goes this way and I hope they can manage to fight the stream all the way back.  Some distance down there is a canoe club which may be where they are heading, possibly they started from there and went up river.  A nice pleasant way to pass a day like today.

I was somewhat surprised to see outside the shopping centre table tennis tables, 'Wiff Waff' to some of us of course, and is that a chess set laid out for use?  It all looks to energetic for me, a quick trip to the butcher for '3 for £10 chicken' then off to catch the zimmer bus, admire old folks bus passes with another zimmer bus user and rest my knees.