After yesterday’s slight hiccup the two of us faced a new week with renewed determination that the next seven days would be productive! It certainly started well. Dee was up just after 6 to begin her daily exercise regime. I stayed in bed a mite longer but made the most of it by working on the laptop whilst I sipped my coffee and kept the moggie company. He’s decided our bed’s his now and won’t take no for an answer. Trying to remove him’s like trying to throw away a boomerang!
I did join Dawn in time for a morning meditation which put us both in a good frame of mind for having a positive day, whatever life threw up.
Suitably balanced we retreated to our separate workplaces and cracked on. I’d already got a queue of slides ready for scanning and had a pleasant trip down memory lane, meandering back 27 years to the summer of 1993. I’m still amazed at how many of the pictures I remember taking although every so often one foxes me, leavng me thinking “what was I doing there, then”? The fact the individual slides are still unblemished and undamaged after over a quarter of a century is a relief too. There’s the odd one with a bit of surface scratching but I was meticulous about keeping my camera clean after having some travel pictures from India so badly scratched by grit on the film plane back in 1991 that vowed never to make the same mistake again.
Whilst I was busy scanning I did keep one eye on social media and the latest pathetic antics of ‘Extinction Rebellion’ as their tiny band of protesters pretend they can stop HS2. Quite how holding up a some banners outside a couple of worksites long enough to get pictures to post on social media before buggering off again is meant to stop HS2 is a mystery. All it does is fool a few gullible voyeurs sat at home watching into donating their money, but presumably that’s the idea. I notice a lot of the bluster has died down now. XR’s supposed ‘protectors’ have gone from claiming they’ll stop HS2 to saying they’re there just to record ‘wildlife crimes’. Only problem is – despite all their cameras – they’ve failed to capture a single ‘crime’! So we have allegations thrown around like confetti, but not a single arrest, much less a prosecution or conviction.
It is laughable that people who can’t even stop themselves being evicted from any of their tiny camps claim they’re going tostop the biggest construction project in Europe. Talking of evictions, many of the remaining protesters at Harvil Rd (and some of their associates) have been served with writs and are up before the High Court on Thursday this week!
I finally took a break from scanning to take some exercise and stop my legs ossifying. The weather’s the worst it’s been for some time – cold and windy with occasional, desultory rain showers so literally took a walk up the road with the hope that conditions will improve later. My determination that this is going to be a good week extends to getting my daily 5 miles under my belt every day – but it does prove difficult sometimes when juggling so many things. Today was no exception. With the pair of us at full slog throughout the day it was after 18:30 pm that we went out together and did our local circuit through woodland and park before getting home in time for the weekly Platt family ‘Zoom’ call.
Zoom is a good stopgap for face to face contact in these troubled times, but will it replace it? You have to be joking!
Afterwards I had a last hour in the office editing today’s scans and getting them onto my Zenfolio website. You can find them in this gallery.
I added to my health ‘brownie’ points by also having an alcohol free day so I felt very virtuous by the time I climbed into bed that evening. As for all those scanned slides – here’s a sample.
On the 1st July 1993 Class 86s No’s 86634 and 86637 haul a Freightliner train bound for Ipswich through Stratford in East London. Built for the West Coast Mail Line electrification in 1965-66 these locomotives were 23 years old when this picture was taken. Remarkably 86637 remains in service today, 27 years later – although not for much longer! Freightliners remaining Class 86s are about to be replaced by Class 90s displaced from Liverpool St – Norwich services. The 90s have been rendered surplus by the introduction of the new Stadler built Class 745 units. 86634 lasted in service until May 2002. It was scrapped at CF Booth, Rotherham in 2005.
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