Category Archives: Musings

5th November picture of the day…

05 Sunday Nov 2023

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

‘Tis been a quiet weekend here at Bigland Towers. Partly because the weather’s been so bloody awful, but partly because it’s been nice to have the downtime and the opportunity for the two of us to spend some quality time together as well as to catch-up with various chores and bits.

I’d quite fancied the idea of attending a local firework display but the one’s I could find were on Saturday when the weather was crap. I’m glad I didn’t book as I ended up getting soaked just nipping out for some shopping. Standing around in the rain, trying to look up when you wear glasses wouldn’t have been much fun at all. I might as well have stayed at home, stayed dry and stared into a Kaleidoscope! Instead we had a quiet night in with me cooking, enjoying air-fried chicken thighs with a lovely honey, chili and soy sauce glaze, dressed with spring onions and Coriander and served with steamed veg. Bugger, I forgot to take a picture!

Today’s been better, the rain has (mostly) stayed away, allowing the two of us to get out for an evening stroll which eventually led us to our local pub for a drink and a warm by a real fire. Yes, they’re very un PC in these days of Climate Change, but when it comes to my contribution (or not) towards screwing up the planet, they’re the least of my concerns. If you want to help the planet survive, don’t have kids and don’t vote Tory…

Talking of voting Tory (or not, if you have any sense of community, decency or self-preservation) I couldn’t help but wonder what the latest gaffe from our Home Secretary, Cruella, sorry Suella Braverman is meant to be a dead cat for? I mean, suggesting that to want to ban and fine charities from giving tents to homeless people because homelessness is a ‘lifestyle choice‘? Even she can’t be this stupid (oh yeah? Ed) so what’s this a distraction for – the Covid enquiry? The sooner we’re shut of these asset-strippers, feather-bedders and shysters the better. But I’ll bet they’ll hang on as long as they can to remove all the fittings they can get money for. And the next election will be dirty and divisive. The Tories will fight the ‘culture wars’ as they can’t defend their 13 year record on the economy (they’ve trashed it) all they’ll do is pick on minorities as a tactic to appeal to their ageing and intolerant vote-bank – and their friends in the media will cheer them on.

Right, I wasn’t going to vent any spleen tonight, it just sort of happened. So now I’ll leave you with a picture of the day which isn’t in any way political and should hopefully make you go ‘awww’ Back in December 2022 I was standing in a queue to get through the ticket barriers at London’s St Pancras and felt this pair of eyes on me. Then I looked down and saw this.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

2nd November picture of the day…

02 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by in Community rail, Community Rail Network, Derbyshire, Musings, Picture of the day, Railways

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

After a wonderful couple of days away thanks to my wonderful wife who arranged a special treat for my birthday we’re both back with our noses to the grindstone. Whilst Dawn’s been busy playing catch-up with her day to day work for Community Rail Network I’ve slipped on my CRN judges hat to spend all day wading through the entries for their 2024 awards. To be honest, it’s a pleasure rather than a chore as I get to learn about so many fabulous groups and the amazing stuff they’ve been up to over the past 12 months and more. There’s some really inspirational groups out there and the work they do is amazing. Judging them is really hard as the standard’s so high. In many cases there’s really not much in it, but we have a points based system spread over four categories, which makes life easier for myself and my fellow judge for the ‘It’s your station’ category – Mark Barker.

Now the first sift is done and all that remains is for me to fill out the awarded points on the spreadsheet and crunch the numbers. Then, in a few days time when both judges individual scores are combined we’ll meet to talk through the results and agree the final marks and winners of the four rankings (Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze). My work isn’t entirely done. I still have the shortlist for the photographic competition to select, this time with fellow judge Alice Mannion from CRN. The winner will be chosen from the shortlist by public vote.

Today’s been a good day to be stuck inside as the weather’s been awful, nothing but grey skies, mist and rain – although (so far) we’ve escaped the latest storm that’s battering the South coast. It’s heading our way but we’re expected to miss the worst of it as it passes through overnight. However, I’ll see how the weather is tomorrow morning before I make any plans. There’s still plenty for me to do at home if it’s not up to much.

Tonight I’ll leave you with a picture that illustrates the work of the community rail. The work the volunteers (and staff) carry out around the network is amazing. It’s not all station gardens or posters either. There’s restored buildings, station cafes, food banks, fetes and much, much more. Here’s on example from the friends of Buxton station who had ‘Joe’ made from scrap railway items donated from the site of the old Buxton locomotive depot. You can read all about the brilliant work this group are involved in here.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling blog. Getting away from it all…

31 Tuesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

11:35.

After a busy few days (and with more to come) it’s time for a break. As part of my birthday bash my wonderful wife Dawn has arranged for the pair of us to have a luxury night away in the lake district. We’re in no rush to get there, the weather’s hardly conducive to long walks in the countryside – we can’t even see the other side of the valley through the rain and murk here, but that’s not the point of the trip. It’s chance for the pair of us to have some quality time together in lovely surroundings. Let’s see how the trip goes…

14:50.

We’re on our way cross-country via Skipton and Hellifield. Here’s the rush-hour and sunshine at Clapham. No, not that one – the other one!

16:00.

We’ve arrived at the Wild Boar – which is rather special…

Did I mention it has its own microbrewery?
Our room’s not too shabby either. Dawn’s done a fabulous job in finding this place.

18:15.

Wow! What a lovely place and way to relax. We’ve spent the past couple of hours sat downstairs by the real fire in the bar area having a drink, chatting and watching the residents go by. Now it’s time to dress for dinner. Not too dressy mind – most of the hotel guests are like us and normally wearing walking gear.

21:30.

We’re both stuffed after eating a meatfest in the restaurant. Dawn had the Venison and I had the Mallard. Both were gorgeous, and not something we’d cook at home hence us ordering them. The irony? The dish we both enjoyed the most was a side dish – roasted Butternut squash with pickled Walnuts!

Mallard with some interesting (but light) sides.
Dawn’s melt off the bone Venison.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

26th October picture of the day…

26 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, TPE

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

A day I’m glad is over to be honest. The weather here in’t Calder valley has been wet and miserable but that didn’t matter so much as I’ve spent the vast majority tied to my computer. First I had to sort out and edit pictures from yesterday as some are needed immediately for my next article. That took quite a while. Then I ended up wasting a couple of hours in a frustrating battle to get a new Fitbit. My ‘old’ one (just out of warranty) died last weekend when the battery gave up the ghost because it refuses to charge. After some to-ing and fro-ing with Fitbit they agreed to send me a voucher for 50% off a new one. Not perfect, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Then I tried to use the voucher code. No-go. Repeatedly, for several days. So, today I contacted then again. Sorree – we’ll send you a new voucher code. Which they did. Only this time it was only for 35% off. Oi! I complained. After much more to-ing and fro-ing they apologised and said they shouldn’t have given me 50% as in the UK we’re only entitled to 35% (I wonder why?). But, a deal’s a deal. Only they couldn’t send me a new voucher. Oh no. Now I have to buy a full price Fitbit and they’ll refund 50%. Eventually, when it’s shipped – which may be days…

All this took over two hours to sort out as there’s no-one on the end of a phone, it’s a keyboard chat. The frustrating thing? They insisted on a copy of the order details to be sent to them. Eh? You’ve already got everything – I’m buying it off you! So, after faffing around with screenshots, they finally (albeit with an apology) said ‘OK’. Now I have to wait and see what happens.

This faff didn’t exactly put me in a good mood, but I gritted my teeth and finished writing my RAIL article, doing my very best not to let sarcasm slop over into it when I was writing about some recent political puffery. OK, maybe the Subbie is going to have to wield a judicious scalpel…

So, everything done and sent off I realised it was late and I’d promised to cook, which was just as well as I needed the therapy. Now I can add a fresh batch of Chana Masala to today’s accomplishments. At least the decks are now clear for tomorrow when I’m having a bit of a day out as a celebration of becoming a Beatles song. I’ll leave you guessing as to which one! The day might not go to plan as the idea was to enjoy a ride behind one of the last Trans-Pennine Express Class 68s and Mk 5 sets before they’re withdrawn at the December timetable change. Problem is, TPE have very few working sets and locos left and only one Class 68 is shown as being out tomorrow. Hopefully the spanner-monkeys will be busy on the other one overnight…

In the meantime, here’s a picture of what I’m hoping to enjoy…

68025 hauls 1U52, the 12:48 Scarborough to Manchester Piccadilly through Batley on the 19th Aril 2023.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

24th October picture of the day…

24 Tuesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Brazil, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

‘Tis been another quiet day here at Bigland Towers. The weather in the Calder valley’s been wet and miserable these past few days although we’ve been lucky (for once) to escape the flooding that’s affected other parts of the UK, including areas that I was in just a few days ago – like Chesterfield. It’s no laughing matter for those affected and flooded out of their homes or businesses. We know – we’ve experienced it here.

That said, I couldn’t help but laugh at the insanity of comments from our Environment Minister, Thérèse Coffey, who’s managed to outdo the classic railway PR blunder about ‘the wrong kind of snow’. Apparently, the flooding that’s been experienced is due to the rain coming from the ‘wrong’ direction. I shit you not! Here she is being quoted in the Guardian newspaper. Christ on a bike – how do these talentless people end up in Government – and stay there, rotating between one useless job to another? If you voted for these people – hang your head in shame (and do the right thing next time).

Away from the weather I’ve been busy researching and writing my next article for RAIL magazine, which will look at a route across Northern England which is a shadow of its former self but what’s left is very much worth visiting. I’ve also been planning the next few days which will see me out and about, looking at the present and future of the UK railways rather than reflecting on the past. Oh, and somewhere in all that I’ve a birthday to celebrate as I’m about to be a Beatles song. I’ll leave you to guess which one.

Right, time to go, which means leaving you with a picture. What to choose? Umm – how about this one? Fed up of rain and grey skies? OK, here’s a toast-rack tram crossing the old Carioca Aqueduct in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil at sunset on the 7th August 2002.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Musings…

21 Saturday Oct 2023

Posted by in Musings, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I’ve a long list of things I want to write about but little time to do it at the moment, so some thoughts and spleen-venting are appearing here. I’ve had a busy few days which has left me with lots of pictures to edit against the clock as I’ve needed to get them out to clients – hence yesterday’s blog purdah. The whole day was spent staring at a screen as I waded through several hundred pictures which needed checking/tweaking. That said, yesterday was a good day to do it as the weather here in the Calder Valley was appalling. It didn’t stop raining once. Even so, we didn’t experience any flooding – unlike poor Chesterfield where I was the previous day. I’ve chosen (by accident more than design) a good couple of days to stay away from the rail network. Our Victorian system was designed when no-one had even dreamt of climate-change. Still, isn’t is a good job we’re building a new railway spine (HS2) that’s designed to cope with our changing climate? Oh, wait…

The one bright spot yesterday was hearing that that Tories were hammered in the two by-elections in what were supposedly ultra-safe seats. The other bright spot is hearing the levels of denial from the Tories over why this has happened. The delusions are weapons-grade. According to many Tories it’s because they’re not right-wing enough. Seriously? Talk about being out of touch! It reminds me of how the hard-left always used to blame Labour defeats on the fact the party wasn’t left-wing enough. Then along came their golden-boy, Jeremy Corbyn and his corbynistas. Corbyn still wasn’t left wing enough to win an election? Oh boy! The Tories are making exactly the same mistake, but then reality denial is a prerequisite of ideological purity. My gut feeling is that the Tories are going to lose the next election in spectacular fashion and then split just as Labour did in the 1980s when some of the centre-left went off to form the Social Democrat Party (SDP). The difference here is that I believe what’s left of the main Tory party will become UKIP by another name (aren’t they already? Ed) which will leave the right having completely abandoned the centre ground of politics. The old ‘one nation’ Tory party is dead, Boris Johnson saw to that when he expelled those people for opposing him over Brexit. Thus, the far-right Tory loons will become increasingly isolated. The SDP had the Liberals to merge with and the Liberals were the 3rd party with a powerbase and MPs. Who will the far-right Tories merge with? Reform? Britain First? Bless!

Sadly, Tory travails were the only high-point of my day. The economy (which they’re ignoring, preferring navel-gazing and stoking culture wars) is hardly in good shape and being hammered by the combination of Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the appalling scenes from Israel/Palestine. The old (apocryphal) Chinese curse ‘may you live in interesting times’ couldn’t be more appropriate. Still, the disaster capitalists are rubbing their hands in glee. Frankly? I’m getting fed up of interesting times. Like any rational person I’d actually prefer some stability but I can’t see us getting that for quite some time. There’s too many nutters around, both rich and poor.

Meanwhile, the rest of us rational poor plebs will try and weather the storm until Sunak decides he’s wrecked the country enough (or made enough money from doing so, which is more likely), leaving the rest of us to have our say via the ballot box. That will be one election where I’ll be staying up all night with the champagne on ice – although I don’t underestimate the challenge Labour will face when they take over.

In the meantime, here’s a picture from Thursday. After the successful launch of the new electric shunter a few of us adjourned to Chesterfield for a pint or two and the chance to catch-up after far too long. Imagine this as me and my old friend Steve Upton (@DriverPotter on Twitter) having adjourned to the Winchester, having a nice pint and waiting for this this to all blow over*…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

* See the 2004 cult film ‘Shaun of the dead’ which was filmed in 2003 with many scenes recorded just around the corner from where I lived in Crouch End, London.

15th October picture of the day…

15 Sunday Oct 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

You’ll have to forgive me, as I’m having a pensive and thoughtful day so this blog is going to be hard to write. After all, humanity’s world’s not exactly going well right now, is it? I sometimes wonder how much better the planet would be if we hadn’t crawled out of the primordial swamp, grown feet then opposing thumbs and ‘developed’ into homo-sapiens as we seem hell-bent on destroying both ourselves and the planet. For an animal with such a huge brain-pan we can be incredibly dumb.

Right now I’m looking around at what’s happening in the Ukraine and also Palestine and Israel and wondering ‘what the fcuk’? Our capacity for death and destruction seems to outweigh everything else – including the ability to reason. Seeing what’s happening in Israel and Palestine (and that’s before we get into a discussion about whose borders are whose) I’m left thinking of the saying that ‘an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind’. I abhor the violence from both sides, but I’m also old enough to have followed the conflicts in that part of the world since the 1970s and know the answer is anything but black and white – just seemingly intractable.

I’m beginning to feel that the world is becoming a very unstable place for a whole host of reasons – which includes social media and the power of a small bunch of billionaires -and utterly useless, sell-out politicians. Now, I’m not a paranoid, conspiracy-loving person but I’ve always subscribed to the adage ‘follow the money’ – and the money is concentrated in fewer and fewer people’s hands – and philanthropists they ain’t.

Humanity at its best is capable of incredible things. Music, medicine, science and architecture, humour and compassion being just a few. So why’s so much of our time taken up with shit? Maybe I’ve reached that age where I look at what time I have left (whatever that is) and think it’s time explore what’s left of this beautiful planet before we completely screw it up and I can still enjoy it. Yep, I’m in one of those retrospective moods tonight. Anyway – my blog – my rules!

I’ll leave you with a picture that’s less dark than my thoughts. This is what I could do with right now. A palm-fringed beach, sunsets and solitude. Here’s a spectacular sunset at Viti Levu, Fiji, on the 7th March 1999 when the world seemed a very different place. This is the simple, natural beauty of a planet we seem hell-bent on rendering inhospitable, to ourselves and every other creature on it. But hey – it’s so important that I have that SUV to drive down to Waitrose…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

11th October picture of the day…

11 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Derbyshire, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Today’s been one of those that didn’t exactly go to plan – but in a good way! After I’d finished editing the latest batch of pictures and getting them off to a client I’d intended to catch up with sorting stuff around the office – a sort of ‘autumn cleaning’ if you like – then blogging about the latest Sunak/HS2 debacle. The weather’s certainly changed here compared to the balmy days we’ve had so far, with temperatures staying in single figures, so I thought it was time to make the place more streamlined – and cosy. Instead I got sidetracked with pitching a story to a magazine which they’ve decided to run with so I became embroiled in initial research. Before I knew it, several hours had passed. Then I had a contact about a short-notice commission which I’ve managed to squeeze into next week. So, that’s the autumn cleaning and long blog out of the window for now as I’ve events in Derbyshire and Wiltshire to attend as well as an article to write.

Now I’m prepping for another day out in the Manchester area tomorrow (expect a rolling blog) as the weather’s promising to be half-decent and I’m running out of time to get the pictures I require, which means an early start tomorrow to make the most of the shortening days. I’m going to miss the long summer evenings, but the consolation is that winter sunlight (when you get it) is far superior to harsh summer sun – especially for artistic shots. Well, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time anyway!

Now it’s time to go as I’ve stuff to prepare. I’ll leave you with an image from the Hope Valley taken on Sunday. You can find the full selection in various galleries on my Zenfolio website, simply follow this link to see which galleries have been updated.

A Trans-Pennine Express Class 185 heads West towards Manchester through the gorgeous Hope valley.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

RIP: John Russell-Brown.

06 Friday Oct 2023

Posted by in Down memory lane, London, Musings

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I’m writing this because no-one (apart from his close circle of friends) will know of John Russell-Brown – or JRB as we called him. I have to admit I’m no longer one of them as I haven’t seen JRB for many years, but all will become clear later.

Sadly, JRB died of cancer on the 3rd October, in London. Apparently, he’d been ill for several years but decided to refuse any more treatment.

I first met Jon when I was applying to live in the housing co-op in East London which became my home for a decade back in the 1980-90s. JRB was a friend of friends and when I got a flatshare there in 1986 we were allocated a flat just a few doors down the same balcony from JRB. The whole balcony became thick as thieves as we had a lot in common – beer (real beer) being one of them, although thinking back to those times my poison was real cider. Oh, there was food too. Jon lived on his own and could be quite a private person. He never married and in all the years I knew him he never had a partner. That was never a problem. Many of us didn’t – we just all gelled. It was very heady days. Then, Jon was a dispatch rider, often travelling daft distances on his motorcycle to deliver stuff. These were the days before the internet – or Amazon when you could make a living doing such things.

Jon could be quite imposing in his leathers. He was tall, well-built (but not fat) bearded with close cropped hair. He was also a gentle giant. He had a stammer, which I think he was quite conscious of but none of us ever mentioned, why would we? He was just a lovely bloke – and very knowledgeable about beer – and politics. We became good friends and part of a small group I nicknamed ‘The Corbin drinking crew’ – Corbin House being the name of block on Bromley High St we lived in.

Jon was also very well read. We used to have parties in his small flat which was filled with books and beer memorabilia. I remember he used to make his own houmous which contained so many cloves of garlic you wouldn’t have seen a vampire for miles!

Sadly, when Lynn and I moved to Crouch End in North London I lost touch with Jon – apart from when I attended the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) where I knew I’d catch up with Jon as he was a volunteer on the Foreign beer stand. Sadly, moving to Yorkshire (and Covid) prevented me being there for some time.

But I’ve never forgotten Jon, or those fabulous and special days living in Corbin House. God, we used to have fun. Travelling around London to different pubs, attending the Canterbury beer festival and many others – and simply having a great time.

I’ve hundreds of pictures from those days but right now this is the only one I can find that I’ve scanned. I’ll do better soon. Here’s JRB flying kites with the rest of us on (I think) Blackheath in May 1995. I know I have better pictures. I’ll find one soon.

Jon may have gone – before his time too – but he’ll always live on in my memory, and that of all those of us who knew him. Sleep well, gentle giant. See you on the other side…

Rolling blog. Surrey road trip…

23 Saturday Sep 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Rolling blogs, Surrey

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

10:30.

I’m eschewing my usual mode of transport as the pair of us are driving down to Surrey. Bigland Towers will be in exile in the home counties for the next week, which means taking the bare bones of two office setups with us.

Today’s a good day for travelling, unlike earlier in the week. The sun’s shining, the roads are dry and there shouldn’t be too much commercial traffic on the road…

11:10.

So far so good. We cut across country from Halifax to the M1 via windy A roads that provide the most direct route, although the potholed conditions leave something to be desired. Now we’re on the M1.

11:30.

All was going well until a couple of miles before the junction with the M18 when we hit a jam which we’re now stuck in, crawling along at 7mph.

11:34.

Free! Some poor sod was unlucky enough to break down on a carriageway reduced in size due to roadworks!

12:00.

We’re back on the road again after taking a wee (literally) break at Woodall services – not one I’m familiar with. The place was busy with others with the same idea, doing similar for their four-legged friends and smokers, sucking on fags as they hung around their cars.Motorway services have gone upmarket since my hitchhiking days in the 80s-90s. This one even has a Waitrose supermarket!

13:50.

Having called in at our usual pitsop at Watford Gap we sat in the sun, watching the world go by whilst munching a sandwich on the grass bank at the rear of the service area. The car-park was packed with vehicles as this is such a strategic services due to its location near were the M6 motoway diverges from the M1. One thing I noticed on this visit was how many EV charging stations have been installed and were in use.

Now we’re on our way South, but not by our normal route. The A43 is closed between the M1 and Towcester, so we’re sticking on the M1 and heading for the London orbital carpark (aka the M25).

This section of the motorway brings back so many memories of my hitchhiking days, heading to/from London. When I moved to the capital in 1986 I couldn’t afford the train fare or to hire a van so I spent several weeks hitchhiking back and forth, moving my stuff South by the rucksack load! Happy days!

I had a series of white plastic cards that fitted in my bag, each one bore the number of a main motorway such as “M1 please”, plus one for emergencies when you got stuck for ages. It read “anywhere but here!” It would raise a smile if nothing else but also a lift sometimes.

Funny the way the memory’s jogged sometimes. Near Luton we’ve passed a couple of bikers. Years ago I often came to see a friend who’d moved here and we’d go out and about on this 250cc Honda. Of course, you’re immortal when you’re in your 20s and riding pillion with Duncan could be an ‘interesting’ experience as Duncan enjoyed his beer and exotic substances. So much so his nickname was ‘Duncan disorderly’…

Then (the early 80s) there was a pub in nearby Dunstable that was popular with bikers and hippies. The Wheatsheaf didn-t have a jukebox. Instead it had twin decks so people could bring in their own albums. We’d often bike over there. One time Duncan was a little overzealous with his overtaking and I felt the car coming inthe opposite direction brush against my jeans!

What’s changed so much since those days is the landscape around the motorway. Where it once passed through open fields it’s now hemmed in by massive distribution warehouses for the likes of Amazon, H&M and Lidl.

16:20.

And relax – we’re here in Tilford. The car’s unloaded and it’s time for a breather. The Southern end of the M1 and M25 were very busy but kept flowing, as did the M3. Then we headed across country past Aldershot and the Hog’s Back to reach our destination.

19:00.

Having sorted ourselves out it was time to have a mooch and take Tilly, the family’s Cairn Terrior for a walk. Tilly has a set route, oddly enough, she was insistant thart we called in here – The Barley Mow…

22:45.

‘Tis time to bid goodnight. We’ve had a lovely evening full of food and drink here in Tilford, but now it’s time to call it a day. Tomorrow the Platt family are off to watch the youngest male member of the clan play Rugby. Me? Rugger’s never been a game on my horizon, so I’ll take the camera for a walk somewhere. I just don’t know where yet. Watch this space…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312