Monthly Archives: September 2020

6th September picture of the day…

06 Sunday Sep 2020

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My last day at home for some time’s been occupied with prepping for my round Britain trip and having quality time with Dawn. The pair of us were trying to work out just how many nights away I might have had this year and neither of us can think of any! We didn’t have our usual winter holiday, all my jobs were day trips and the only trip we had planned (a few days in Berlin with friends) was cancelled due to Covid. So, this is my ‘big escape’ – which is really weird and totally unique! My packing list reflects this. Once upon a time it’d be focused on the electronics that I need for work, plus track atlases and timetables. Now it has masks and hand sanitisers high up on the list.

To say I’m looking forward to it is an understatement. I’ve never had my wings so clipped before. I’ll blog when I can and each day the picture of the day will be of somewhere from my next 8 days of travelling. I won’t be doing any rolling blogs as my writing’s commissioned by RAIL magazine and you’ll be able to read about my trip in three editions starting in October. Even so, I’ll try and give you a few teasers…

Meanwhile, here’s the last old picture of the day – which isn’t something I’ll be seeing on this trip! This is the amazing Buddhist temple at Borobudur, in Java, Indonesia. I took this photo in November 1998.

In the background is one of the many active volcanos that dominate this part of the world. Although Indonesia is now the worlds most populous Muslim country it has a rich history of religions and religious sites. Borobudur is just one of the most spectacular.

I’m looking forward to 2021 when I’m determined to het out to Indonesia again. In the meantime – I hope you enjoy my next week’s meanderings. If you’re on Twitter you’ll be able to find regular updates by following me at @PaulMBigland….

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5th September picture of the day…

05 Saturday Sep 2020

Posted by in Musings, New Zealand, Picture of the day, Travel

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It’s been an odd day. So many things I wanted to get done never happened whilst others did. Hey ho…

On the bright side I’m almost packed and prepared for the start of my round Britain trip on Monday – I even know where I’m going now, mostly, ish… The struggle of these trips is that when you’re planning to visit odd locations they’re fixed events. You can’t just pitch up on the next train, so the rest of the timetable has to be written around them – as you’ll see next week! Obviously I can’t go into the level of detail that I will in the magazine articles but I hope to pique your interest. I can certainly blog about my experiences that won’t form part of the three articles anyway – such as my impressions of the various towns I’ll be staying in, such as Kilmarnock, which I’ve only ever passed through. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever left the station before!

That said, here’s today’s picture from a place I have explored in the past. This is a view across Lake Hawea on the South Island, New Zealand, which I took on the 18th January 2019.

As much as I love living in the Pennines…

Covid and having my wings clipped is really starting to get to me. I miss the opportunity to travel so I’m really looking forward to next week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep readers of this blog entertained as I wend my way around the UK…

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4th September picture of the day…

04 Friday Sep 2020

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

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Today’s been full of planning for next week’s around Britain rail trip, mainly because of the Covid restrictions which mean I’ve got to be much more structured this year – especially when it come to some long-distance services where reservations are compulsory. The ability to ‘turn up and go’ has been restricted so I’ve got to be careful what I plan otherwise I could find myself stuck miles from where I’ve booked hotels. Of course, that’s unlikely, but I’m not going to risk it.

So, for once I’ve had to go to the station in advance to buy my ticket in order to book certain reservations in order to ensure the trip I’ve planned doesn’t fall apart in the first couple of days.

So much has changed on the railways since 2018 (and that’s without Covid) that I’m really looking forward to the adventure. I also get to travel on a couple of lines I’ve never travelled on before – and there aren’t many of those!

Of course, the ability to lean out of train windows to take pictures has (almost) disappeared, which means I won’t be recreating the picture of the day…

I took this shot on the 12th August 2003 whilst I was on a press trip with Virgin Trains on what was (and still is) the UK’s longest single train trip – from Aberdeen to Penzance. It was a hugely enjoyable (if marathon) event as we’d got to get to Aberdeen – and then get back from Penzance! The journey took us over three of the most iconic railway bridges in the UK. The Tay, Forth and Tamar bridges. I was lucky enough to experience two of them from the cab of the trains.

On the way through Cornwall we were presented with the most amazing sunset, which resulted in this picture, which I snapped from the window of the HST as we snaked around the Cornish curves.

The picture was such a hit that Virgin Trains used it in their in-house magazine and RAIL magazine used it as part of an article I wrote about the trip.

Sadly, there’s no chance of recreating it next week…

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3rd September picture of the day…

03 Thursday Sep 2020

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My brain hurts!

Today’s been a fairly relaxing day as the pair of us have been out for a (socially distanced) lunch with Dee’s parents at a garden centre. Rather ironic when you think that the Government’s current Covid rules allow us to do that – but not meet them in their own garden! The current state of play with Government policy doing so many U-turns is they look like the fabled Oozlum bird. Any minute now they’re going to disappear up their own backsides.

The brain-ache set in when I got home and tried to reconcile the irreconcilable. I’ve a wish list of places that RAIL and I want to visit on my round Britain trip next week, but it’s impossible to fit everything in – no matter how hard I try and how many timetable permutations I look at. Somethings going to have to give, but I’m not sure what that’s going to be yet. Seven days continuous travelling around the the UK’s rail network sounds like a lot – until you look at the geographical spread of the places I’m attempting to reach – and get back home on a Sunday…

Still, this leads me neatly into the picture of the day. These are conditions I don’t expect to find on my travels next week.

This picture was taken in India on the 26th March 2011. I was on a solo trip exploring old haunts (and a few new ones) in India and checking out some of the rail network in the Indian state of Gujarat. I’d been photographing the narrow gauge railway system at Miyagam Karjan Junction an hour or so away from the town of Baroda (or Vadodara as it’s now named). I’d no idea what time I was going to come back, so I bought a 3rd Class (unreserved) ticket for a few rupees and boarded a late afternoon train. If you’ve ever travelled on Indian railways this is the point where you’re probably thinking “that’s brave”. Here’s what it was like in the compartment of the coach I managed to squeeze into.

It was hot and crowded, but it was absolutely fine. My fellow passengers were a bit bemused at what a Westerner was doing there but we soon struck up conversations and people were happy to have their picture taken – and in this situation digital cameras are brilliant – as they allow you to share your photographs with the subjects.

This sort of interaction is why I’ve always loved travelling by the less expensive class of train in India. OK, maybe not when you’re doing 48 hours solid (although I’ve done that in may younger days) but on journey’s like this of a couple of hours it’s well worth it.

If you want to see more pictures from my Indian odyssey (including the one of me when I gave one of these fellow travellers my camera to get a picture of me) follow this link.

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2nd September picture of the day…

02 Wednesday Sep 2020

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Funny, isn’t it? No matter how many hours in the day you make use of – it’s never enough to accomplish everything you desire to do. Today I was out early in order to finish the fascia at the back of the house and put the guttering back before the weather changed. It was just as well that I did as the forecast was bang on, with the afternoon being wet, wet, wet…

Outdoor chores done I had plenty to keep me occupied indoors, even if it did mean spending the rest of the day staring at a computer screen as I cleared emails, scanned old slides and loaded more old pictures and railway memorabilia onto eBay for others delight and my profit – as well as freeing up a lot of cupboard space!

Dawn’s been a busy bee too as she’s got stuck into renovating and redecorating the porch – and an excellent job she’s done too. Afterwards, whilst I sat (boggle-eyed) in the office Dee cooked industrial quantities of dairy free lasagne for us and her parents – some of which we scoffed tonight.

Such a busy day ahs left me little time to think about today’s picture so it’s been a bit random, with no particular theme. Even so, I hope you like it. Today’s picture is of Mt Kilimanjaro as seen from a British Airways flight from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania back to Heathrow. I took it on the 12th May 2001 as we were (literally) lucky enough to be sat on the right side of the plane.

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1st September picture of the day…

01 Tuesday Sep 2020

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Hang on a minute. September? Already? Where the hell’s the year gone! Considering most of 2020 has been cancelled the time has flown by – it doesn’t seem like yesterday since we were staring lockdown in the face, now we’re just a few weeks away from autumn.

To be honest, my day’s flown by. I’ve continued working on the house, replacing a rotten weatherboard at the rear of the cottage and getting the place ready for the change of seasons. I’ve also been busy online, loading my next batch of old slides, railway badges and memoribilia for sale on to eBay. Here’s a sample. It won’t mean much to people who aren’t interested in railways, but those who are will know how rare an image of a Virgin Voyager at St Pancras is…

OK, that *isn’t* the picture of the day. This is – although I’m hoping the winter won’t be similar. I took this shot by Copenhagen Central station on the 28th December 2001.

At that time Lynn and I were regular visitors to Denmark as many years before we’d met Didi and her daughter Amalia, in Bali. We’d become firm friends and we’d regularly see each other. Either we’d go to Copenhagen or Didi would come over to stay with us in London. One memorable year we spent Christmas with Didi’s extended family out in Hunsland. Sadly, Didi died of throat cancer in 2005 and Amalia moved to Sweden with her partner and their children. I’ve not been back since Didi’s funeral, which was an amazing event as she was a well-known personality in Denmark. It wouldn’t be the same now without that wonderful community in Christianshavn. I just feel lucky to have been part of those times and treasure the memories. So, here they are. Lynn (left) and Didi (right) that Christmas in Hunsland in 2004. Rest in peace, the pair of you…

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Thank you!