Tech Pain

And another thing about tech merchandise, they are constantly telling you what to do, asking if you need help  when you don't, and just getting in the way!

I pick up the mobile and at the bottom of the screen it jumps up and says 'Try saying 'Cleopatra in Egypt.''

Why?

What do I want to day anything for to a machine?

Or it jumps up offering help.  

Why?

What help on here do I require?

On emails I receive a long list of answers is given for me to select.

Can I not think of an answer by myself?

Are the geeks who come up with this stuff so inept they cannot think of answers so need prepared ones?

These things are on the laptop also.

They are everywhere 'helping' by doing your thinking incorrectly for you.

As if I need help making mistakes?

On the trip on Sunday the driver commentated on how his car tells him his door is open, his seat belt not pushed in, or how close he is to the car behind.  

Can he not see these things for himself?

People have been driving for over a hundred years yet require a computer to tell them the obvious!

Granted some things can have their uses, no, I cannot think of any either.

I've taken to coffee in the mornings, sometimes this works and I wake up.  Sainsburys have taken to offering a variety of coffees at ludicrous high prices, even this type, their own brand stuff is overpriced, but I prefer the others on sale.  Last time I tried own brand coffee, Tesco I think, it was so strong it kept my eyes open for days.  Maybe I am getting used to this stuff but the result is very mild here? 

Ethiopian Coffee, Ethiopia being where coffee first arose, Columbian , and elsewhere can be bought.  However, the Costa Rica version has been removed and shows no sign of returning.  This is a shame as I think that was one of the best.  If I remember right the other bag in the cupboard is some form of Kenyan coffee, and I am not sure if I tried this before.     

I think I may require some of that Tesco coffee again if I fail to wake properly in the mornings.

Costa Rica Coffee and Eon Inflation

I am Mr Lucky!  There can be no other person as lucky as I.  

Just last night, as I tidied up in the kitchen, I lifted my cafetierie thingy from the washing up and smashed it against the bunker!  

How lucky am I?

Luck was in again as I am hooked on Costa Rica coffee at the moment and without this coffee maker I was going to start seeing spiders up the wall.  At least, apart from the actual spiders that now inhabit my wall.  

Lucky me had intended to remain indoors this morning, stretching my weary limbs and doing nothing beyond my mental abilities.  So, you will realise, nothing was to be done today.  However, the Costa Rica coffee, which I had run out off, called very strongly to me, and by 8:15 I was in Sainburys painfully looking for a new, unbroken cafetiere thingy.  Good grief!  They had one, at an amazing cheap price of only £7:50!  'Only,' is a word used by shops to lie to the customer!  I packed my bag with all the required goodies, including the coffee cafiterie (You spell it your way, I will spell it mine), the bag was overfull as I was buying for the weekend also, and stumbled slowly back up the road, watching the workers heading into town to pretend they are earning a living.  

Back home, having remembered to purchase the Costa Rica coffee also, I packed away my treasures, mostly with 'reduced' labels upon them, sat down at my laptop and swallowed Costa Rica coffee, with double cream obviously.  

Wonderful.  

I cogitated on doing nothing but sitting here with my feet up all day watching the Gala at the West Somerset Railway.  Old Great Western Steam engines plied their way back and forth over the aged rails.  What fun! Several visiting large engines on show here today.  Jolly good show I say!

It was then I remembered I must take the electric meter reading.  

This, as you know, means stumbling downstairs, wandering round the back, lifting the large wooden, filthy lid, and descending down into the bowels of the building to where the meters tick away day and night, never feeling any guilt as they do so.  

What fun!

So, this I did and found going down to be harder than coming back up, somewhat surprisingly.  I also noticed the rubbish lying about down there, no idea where it comes from or who dumped it.  It remains a mystery as to how things find their way into the cellar.

Note taken of the meter, in spite of the dog downstairs barking as he did not recognise me, back upstairs, enter number, ('It's so easy' say EON, forgetting that making £3 billion a year is easy for them, not us.) and send it off.  Within 24 hours the EON AI will tell me I owe them £10,000 and must increase the monthly payment to £500 a week!  Or something similar.  

If only we had an election?  If only we had an opposition? Something could then be done about all this. The future is bleak, and will not improve much for the UK.

Costa Rica Tarrazu and Italian Style

For a while now I have been using those Cappuchino coffee sachets that coem 8 to a box.  These wake me up to some extent each morning.  However, the cost has risen to £2 a go and that has brought this to an end.

Some time back I was using ground coffee in an indvidual cafferiere thing and jad discovered a wide variety of coffees.  This became a trend for a while and ended in the way such trends end.  So, having been offput by supermarket money grabbing I returned to the ground coffee.  Now one of my highly intelligent and beautiful nieces had sent me a coffee maker of sorts, ideal for Expresso, and a bag of Costa coffee to go with it.  I tried this again and remembered I also had a jor filled with the previous coffee, Costa Rica I believe the origin thereof.  I also noted that Sainsburys had given me a pile of extra token vouchers so, at Sainsburys this morning I made use of them.  However, to get them I had to spend more than I hoped so ended up with an Italian job also.  Once again the main coffee is from Costa Rica, and so, in spite of having the dregs of the previous lot for breakfast, I made use of my new purchse and, adding double cream instead of milk, obtained a delightful drink that I much enjoyed.

That was this morning, It is now nine in the evening and I am still awake!  This may be a long night...

Talk Halted

 

I was going to regale you with talk of my coffee drinking in here today, however, due to circumstances beyond my control, housework, cooking, and sloth, I have not yet got around to it.  I could do it but time is pressing and you have little interest in how I accidentally made the coffee too strong this morning that my shredded brain has not unshredded itself as yet, and my eyes are still staring in a fixed manner straight ahead.

Another reason was the interruption to my day by time spent reading the story of an electric kettle on one young ladies splendid blog.  Through France to Costa as it were for a kettle!  Try it Bead.  

This followed on from a very interesting walk around Bermondsey with another young lady.  (I am open to any young female)  This captivated me and brought back memories from times past and is well worth a read, though I suspect you will have already read both these splendid works by now anyway.  

This, plus watching Saturdays football highlights, means time has run out and so my work here is finished for the day.

Speed and Coffee Talk

Not that long ago a workmen's van arrived, stopped across the road, unloaded gear, set up a security fence, climbed the ladder, placed this sign on the lamppost, collected the gear, and drove off.  Thirty minutes work.

Nobody has taken a blind bit of notice!

As I trudged down to the Post Office to finally post my card to the new born, the rain began, the cars splashed, and none looked up to find a big '20' sign in front of them.  I suspect this is because there is no sign at the beginning of the road, nor one following on from where the supermarket shoppers join the road.  Ignorance is bliss for many, deliberately from some.

Whether such a speed on this main road helps is debatable but few are debating at the moment.  I can understand this on the side streets where people often wander on the road, but this is a main carriageway and heavy traffic can be found on many days, including 'rush hour' traffic that never reaches 20 mph on any day.  

Having posted my cards 'Special Delivery' (£6:85) to ensure they get there this week, I wandered around to the church coffee morning to get out of the increasing rain.  The occasion is an excuse for old women from the locale to join old women from the church, and one or two men, for a mornings gossip.  It is one of the things that keeps such women alive.  Many are lonely, one or two not quite right, and all like to gossip.  During the day they get bored, at night they watch dumb TV, and the next day they find another church with tea on the go to fill a moment.  My mother used them when she aged, and enjoyed them all.  Here, my beard growth was encouraged by one women in the hope I would play Santa next year!  My reply was curt.  

After being offered a lift home I returned to eat and sleep.  Which sums up my life at the moment.

The abode requires urgent cleaning, and much has to be done.  However, there is no urgent cleaner on show at the moment, and none of the women, bored as they are, would offer.  So it may be left until next week...

Victorian Budget and Win 11

Windows 11 is sitting on my 'Upgrade' awaiting introduction.  I am not sure if I ought to go ahead with this, I am awaiting news of those who have downloaded it already and review their problems, and there will certainly be problems here.  

TechRadar has already offered help for those who have found difficulties.  It looks a good site for such problems.  There are many other similar sites out there, some however have too many adverts, some seek money, some are dodgy.  

My intention is to wait a bit, see how many folk suffer, and then install.  I suspect this will take all day to finish and then another day restore the lost items and working out what has gone missing.  Normal Microsoft work then? 

I had a bath the other day, and this was a mistake.  You see I normally shower but sitting in the bath I was able to scan around and in this manner noticed all the dirt that has accumulated since I last had a proper clean of this place.  It was not attractive.  So Monday saw me scrub the er, scum, from all around, and then plan to replace the filthy seal which has become somewhat degraded (somewhat!).

However, luck was with me and my dinner made me nauseous so I was forced to stop work.

Overcoming this took until the next day when I went over to the Garden Cafe to meet an old friend, I only have 'old friends' these days, for coffee.  There we did the honourable thing and took all the people we know apart, put the world to rights, and risked frostbite sitting in the gardens.  

To warm up we wandered and we cheerily greeted a volunteer gardener inside a large bush of some sort as we passed, his muffled answer was not quite so cheery, and wandered about the gardens enjoying the fruits of their labours.  We have rarely met, she has been making use of the new freedoms, in spite of Covid still existing, to meet all her old friends, and she has many!  When we worked at the museum have the day was taken up by visits of her old boyfriends!   It was nice to get out for a while.

 

Sunak

     

This Billionaire Sunak was informing the House of how to increase the nations wealth today.  I did not look in.  Too much, far too much, has already been leaked to his friendly media, and they will always make it look good so I have a good idea of what would be said.  Tomorrow, once the clever people have looked it over, we will find out exactly how Sunak has avoided once again taxing his wife's £1.3 Billion company in which he has a share, yet increased charges for everybody else, especially the poorest.  I have realised I no longer require to seek information on Victorian life by researching the books on my shelf, I just need to look at what Boris and his cabal are saying and there it is right in front of me.

 

 

A Day Holiday!

I've just had a holiday!

A church friend took me all off two miles up the road, (Rayne Station is 2 miles and 14 chains from Braintree Station in case you wished to know) where we got coffee from the one time booking hall!   Closed many years ago it has been run for some time by volunteers (I think) with a successful coffee shop attached.  This now provided takeaway coffee and cake for aprice from behind a security window.  I wish I had known this before. The coach just peeping in the photo is used as a museum, when open, and the use of the building in this way is very successful on normal days.  

Naturally, I suggested this spot as I knew it would be quiet, with an occasional passerby, the old railway line now being a popular walking/cycling spot.  Today the car park was full, with others outside, so we squeezed in at the end and joined a long - distantly seperated - queue for coffee.  Very slow, only one man doing everything, and having avoided the slice of tempting cake we both regarded as fattening we could afford it.

 

 

How lovely to photograph something other than a Daffodil!  A pot of pansies at the end of the platform, next to the aged railway cart, supplied some colour to the scene.  Sitting nearby I allwed the young lass to disgorge her worries and offer news of the past year.  We have not met for a year, I wonder how many others are in similar situations?  The sun shone occasionally but the clouds kept hiding it again.  This however, did not deter the number of people walking/cycling/dogwalking from using the line.  The coffee queue never ended, it went on for ever and I suspect this is a constant at this spot these days, there is nowhere else nearby to wander abroad.

 

Had we more time we may have trundled up the path a short way, but neither of us would have gone far.  Age is not a blessing!  It must be 18 months or more since I have been here.  The place is looking a bit grubby, the grass worn by the people attending events before Lock Down, as well as the daily traffic.  This is rather sad, the popularity of the place enhanced by Lockdown leading to a despoiling of the area.  A well kept station building however, and a marvellous day out for me!

 

Witless Wednesday

This sums up my day.
Doing nothing but drinking coffee and reading things.
The hardest work was getting this laptop to work, thanks to another Microsoft download it has since been giving trouble.  Isn't it always the way?  At least it works, even if it requires restarting, indeed Blogger requires restarting also, several times, as this is hindered by the updated software.  While it works now it was slow and unwilling to start, Blogger also, and I look forward to tomorrows beginning struggle.
However that apart, I read Twitter for news, books for knowledge, and did little else.  I was going to watch Boris meeting the House Committee this afternoon but could not face the lies.  Since then I have learned there were lots of lies.  Cummings is still around and I await the Durham Police next step.  Take your time lads, get it right.
Of course, after all this coffee I cannot sleep...

Lock Down Continues...

The tea is going down.  The number of cups drunk is increasing to habit forming numbers.  The kettle may not survive this constant boiling!  What else is there to do?
Watch TV?
50 channels of total pigswill on offer when I looked earlier, only one programme attracted me and my little aerial could not receive it!  Those who enjoy mind sapping pap may be happy enough to continue watching this stuff, however these are the people who only ever watch two channels anyway, no quality to be found on either! 
I attempt to insert an aged video, the machine spits it back out.  I try another and it merely switches the thing off.  I insert a DVD and find it is not recognised!  It strikes me I must do something about this machine.  Using all my technical ability I am sure I can soon get it to catch fire and burn the house down.  Maybe later...
Radio, nowadays my favourite.  However it is Saturday and little new of interest is to be had.  Who arranges these programmes?  Is Radio 4 getting worse or is it my tastes are getting better?  Even Radio 4 Extra has little to offer today.  Bah!
Drink tea instead and stare out the window.  
This is difficult as the curtains are half drawn across, the usual situation when a North, or as today a north east wind blows.  The air comes either through the gaps or straight through the glass ensuring I know that what the weatherman says is a 'mild' day is in fact a 'mild day with chilly wind.'  This air thus ensues my tea quickly chills and I am once again filling the kettle.  In an effort to save tea bags I may have to start making use of that aged small teapot and reusing the old bags again.

 
Desperation to remain focused may mean digging out the coffee.  This is a strange one however as after drinking I do not feel any wider awake, yet while trying to sleep later my eyes will not shut!  Is there delayed action coffee?  
I hear from some that after a few days they have a sparkling clean house.  You can rest assured that is not the case here.  The women have been cleaning, cupboards, behind furniture, kitchens, while the men have found work to do in the garden if they have one.  
Less fortunate people are trapped with children!
Now there's a funny thing.  Imagine being trapped by your own child with no escape.  With some people and their kids it makes me laugh.  Others are trapped with a dog, dogs want out and it is clear the man from the club is getting much more exercise than he requires, I note the wife was out with the dog today.  
You would think there was an abundance of blogs to read at such a time, it appears not.  There again so many people no longer pour out blogs.  So many I once knew are dead, married, moved away, got fed up, lost interest or took up social media in a big way and no longer find blogs worth while.  This is a shame as there are still some worth reading, if you can find them.
Those not getting out might not have much to say of course...

 

Coffee Time

I ventured into one of the many local coffee shops that are rising and falling all the time.  A friend from the museum and I met to discuss the place now that it must be missing me.  Apparently my not being there has not yet been noticed by those that matter.  This I cannot believe as there will be no individual so willing to moan about they way things are if I am not there.  The rest fail to grumble when they ought and just get on with things.
Anyway we went to a coffee shop that has recently opened, nice decor, very nice chocolate fudge cake that cost £1:75 but convinced me I ought to be eating much more of that day after day!  I nearly cut my tongue by licking the knife they give you with it.  However, nice though the place was, decent the service from the people, possibly Albanian, and certainly busy after lunch I wondered if a place as small as this could survive.  The previous owners also have a coffee shop in the public Gardens and possibly could not keep two places afloat, I hope the man in charge today can keep this one going as we will be back next month.  Once again there is a needless choice of coffees with names that make no sense to me so I plump for American each time as it never appears to disappoint and did not do so today.  In fact I benefited as the Americana cup is larger than the others.  
There are now at least seven coffee type places, plus two greasy spoons, in the town centre that I know off.  Soon a large empty shop will be turned into a 'Bistro' whatever that will be, much to the annoyance of those who demand major shops move into town.  The fact that this town is too small, major shops are dying, and those who grumble did not use the shops that have closed down because Tesco etc were cheaper does not yet appear to have registered with some folks.  You wish a market and lots of shops, vote in a council that cares, one that does not charge too high a rate and then use them I say.  The coffee shops survive because people use them.
However we put the world to right and I left some £8:50 less wealthy!  I knew there was a reason I rarely ventured into these places.

 BBC 

Tact and integrity is not something you associate with Boris now is it?  So when you hear No 10 'sources' leaking information regarding phone calls between Boris and Angela you comprehend how untrustworthy the Junta can be.  Private calls require confidence is kept, clearly not in this case.  
We await the next page in the drama.  I hope no-one is writing a book about Brexit as it will be longer than David Cameron's buck passing thousand pages, reduced to 800, which few have bought bar those who may be mentioned within.

  Guardian

As it is raining I expect the Sourdough bread chomping 'activists' will have departed for their trusty steeds and headed home by now.  This does not include those who blockaded Smithfield Market while also queuing up at 'Burger King' for lunch, not many vegans at Smithfield?  Protesting for show is all very well but if it rains you go home and watch pictures of yourself on Channel 4 News.

Boring Tuesday

I was disturbed early this morning by a message on my ansafone informing me the appointment with the 'Health Check' lady was cancelled as she was 'unhealthy.' 
"I have wasted time having a bath," thought I," I could have left that to the weekend after all." 
So I continued using the old socks and vest and lazed about the house finding lots of things to leave for another day.  This included the difficult link in the family history that took me 48 hours to figure out.  The answer was of course right in front of me!
Having avoided the health check I decided to take advantage and change the diet again and see if the extra weight that has appeared again might disappear by the time I see her indoors.  Fruit now appears delightful though for a while after several choice portions I wondered if I did the right thing...
I checked out Tesco for light foodstuffs, apart from the Bakewell Tart that fell into my basket, so I kept it as it might be broken.  I noticed a long queue at the 'Costa Express' coffee machine and wondered if the word 'Express' was a suitable term to use.  Later I heard that today all such machines were FREE and that explains the queue.  In various parts much grumbling and complaining was heard as 1st world problems reared their heads.  The FREE coffee machines had run out!  Despair and anguish all around.  I feel for these people...
Then I paraded around town watching the clouds above gathering for a get together.  The began to look menacing as I crossed the park.

I was right!  
They menaced me on the way home and began to drench the world as soon as I got in.  Thunder gently clapped above, (Can thunder gently clap?)Lightning flashed and rain teemed down heavily for quite a while.  It was seen that the BBC had promised this on the website and they got it spot on.  Thunder, Lightning and rain they said and that is what we got, lots of it.  Car drivers did not appear to ease the speed outside my window but they are in a hurry to avoid the inevitable accident down at the roundabout.  Possibly that may be the reason there are so many accidents, but car drivers do not think that way.

The latest Boris wheeze, which he now says is 'out of date' is to put custom posts, 5 or 10 miles either side of the Border in Ireland.  This later became, 'only on the Republic side of the border.'  I think we can ask if he and his advisor's, Dominic and Carrie, are actually mentally ill?  Could it be that they have taken too many opium tablets to keep themselves going?  Could it be they are just daft?  Do they neither care or understand the situation in Ireland?  Does Boris think Nanny will fix it?
Boris is still trying to shake off Jennifer, a US lass who he managed to gift £150,000 of taxpayers money to for her 'business.'  She has hopped it to the US because off Brexit!  How did she managed to get cash from Boris I wonder?
Allowing for the Conservative Conference which is driving them to sleep, isn't it interesting how Michael Gove is keeping remarkably quiet these days?  He does appear and toe the party line on occasion but he is very quiet for him.  Is this orders?  Or is he awaiting the inevitable 'slip up?'

Thursday Drivel...

After a year of almost constant bugs bugging me I now find myself somewhat free from them for a moment.  This is great as I am able to write drivel on here and research dead men with a degree of enthusiasm that had long since departed.  I even began tidying the house, replacing things on shelves they have missed for months and putting away dust covered items that ought not to have dust anywhere near them.  I am even contemplating cleaning the oven!  Now that doesn't happen every year.
Of course I still have the fridge to do, paint the bedroom, fix the tiles, and a thousand other items that required work months ago but they will be done, if the weather warms up and there is no football to watch.  How lovely to be almost fit.  Indeed I have done more exercise in the last two weeks than done in months before this, I am almost beginning to feel better about it.  Naturally much of it is not helping my knees get me up the stairs, that requires different exercises that I must add, later I think...

Stumbling through Sainsburys ignorant and cretinous customer base today, I had to go there for items only they stock, I remembered the coffee had run out.  So the choice was which of the £3 bags to buy, I am now hooked on real coffee for a while, and there could only be one choice, Costa Rica!
Grown in the 'Tarrazu' region it is claimed by 'connoisseurs to be one of the best coffee growing areas in the world.'  Doesn't it say that on all the packs?  Just asking...  Whether it contains 'Milk chocolate and floral notes' I am not yet sure but it is smoother and less bitter than the Italian and Ethiopian coffees I had before.  This will bring me into the world tomorrow morning and if it doesn't work I will send it back to the Tarrazu mountains. 

Something exciting is happening, a French bloke is seen taking the salute alongside Mrs May, has she gone over to the other side?  Did I miss something in the news?  If she joined the anti-Brexit mob it is likely it would not be printed in the right wing press, they like to keep that sort of thing secret.
Maybe we are going to war with Trump?  I must check twitter...

A Normal Day

Autumn brings with it dark mornings.  Midsummer sees the sun shining brightly at five, or at least waiting to appear over the houses, Autumn means it hangs about there till seven and then often hides behind clouds.  Struggling out from under the fetid blankets a glance at the window shows what the day has in store, dim sky, wind shaking the branches of trees, glacial air pouring through the gaps in the aged window frames.  Oh joy.
This morning I clambered out into the world and waited while the boiler decided whether or not to work.  During the summer it took ages to find a thermostat point that satisfied the brute and now the chill has arrived it has shown signs of working almost properly, normality for the thermostat has returned it appears.  Eventually there was enough water for my weekly bath, after which I chomped on the remaining almost but not quite stales bread before eventually dragging my bulk towards the museum.
My head was still asleep as I had woken at 5:15 am or so the man rather too cheerfully told me on the wireless, but sleep would not return to me until I decided to rise just on seven.  Why can I not get back to sleep in this situation?  If I was going nowhere I am sure I would sleep again but no, today I drowsily lie there soaked in wakefulness my head filled with fears, failures, worries and thoughts of a debilitating kind.  Twenty minutes more sleep and I would rise refreshed, cheery, and ready for almost anything, but no, instead my gloom is heightened by the arrival of a song, Nina Simone with 'My baby cares for me' going around and around my head until the arrival of the songstress in my abode would lead to twenty years solitary for what I would do to her!   It's a decent enough song but not one I wish to hear, or bits of one, that I wish to hear for hours every morning!

Drowsiness suffused my hulking body as I arrived at the museum and found the doors locked.  This meant walking all the way to the other door and ringing the bell, such stress at this time of the day.  Once inside I found the 'Star Wars exhibit' gone completely and work begun on setting up the next one, old postcards and other bits.  Clearly I had to take immediate action, I hid and made coffee.
On around the third mug, and I usually don't drink coffee, I noticed both eyes were now open and I began to see people walking about once again.  The thing about exhibitions ending is that few people arrive in the 'in between' time and only the much wanted gas fitter came in early on.  The boiler has been giving trouble and has not worked properly since February as far as I can tell.  After a few minutes fussing he had it working, if you call three hours a few minutes.  When I left the heating was on but by then I had been moving about and could not tell if it was working because I had been.
During the clear up some boxes had to be carted to a car and I was called upon by the disgraceful use of guilt by the females in the party to carry the heavy ones in spite of my condition.  The constant refrain 'We can manage' from women as you know means 'DO IT!'  I did it but my back hurts now.  Can I claim compensation I wonder?

One lass today had a problem with a child.  He had misbehaved badly and she felt guilty for slapping his bahookey.  In the circumstances I thought she had acted rightly but parents do feel guilty when disciplining children.  I told her not to feel bad, I would have been angry too at his behaviour and young as he is he is a human creature and requires the slap occasionally.  Get it now so he knows how far he can go I say.  A good family, proper parents, and the children are well cared for, such behaviour upsets the parents more than the child but that is what parents are for, they suffer, the brats merely learn about real life.  These kids will make it and make it well in the end.

No visitors disturbed the peace today bar one lass checking the shop and another regular having a quick look round.  Only staff running (I use the word advisedly) in and out kept me awake.  I was forced to make my own tea as Peggy took the day off again but I accidentally swallowed a slice of chocolate cake left from yesterday by mistake while doing so.  Actually two others did arrive one lass enquiring re a hotel we had never heard off.  All the clever people were involved, all were ignorant of this building.  We did however have educated guesses as to where it had stood and decided the Liberal club is probably the place under a new name.  However we truly did not know the answer and gave the best help we could.  Most annoying and meant I would have some checking to do when I got home. 
The other chap donated a pile of pamphlets and papers of great interest, I found this out by going through them afterwards, great stuff!  I mentioned to him out previous query and he answered it right away!  Not only was it the club we had considered but I was in there with him only the other week!  Someone told me it had been a restaurant but I had forgotten the name and did not know it did wedding receptions, which was part of the previous lassies query.  
That is a good result and what we want from people in this town, knowledge that we have not got, and there is a lot of ignorance amongst us I can tell thee!

 
Home satisfied that one query was dealt with.  happily I ate what passes for lunch and discovered I drank so much coffee I could not sleep.  I still cannot get my eyes to close...

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.