2022 has started in a relaxed fashion here in Bigland Towers, mainly because the weather’s been so wet neither of us have ventured out since New Year’s Eve! On the plus side – it’s been unseasonably mild, which has worrying long-term implications, but as there’s nothing I can do to change that right now I may as well enjoy it.
This lack of activity (although not idleness) means there’s not much of a blog from me today. I’ve kept myself occupied by writing and tidying up my picture filing by clearing away stuff from 2021 in readiness for opening 2022’s photographic account just as soon the weather improves.
Whatever the weather I’ll be sallying forth tomorrow if for no other reason than getting some exercise and working off some of the Christmas largesse. Neither of us really over-indulged, but we certainly ate more than we would normally – and multiple courses too so I’m looking forward to cooking some simpler but no less tasty food this month and cutting back on the meat dishes.
Right, I’m off to watch a film with Dawn so here’s the picture of the day. Another of today’s tasks was to polish off editing the scanned slides I’d amassed before Christmas. The last of the shots from Indonesia in 1994-95 have been added to this gallery and the British travel pictures have been added here. Next in the queue are travel shots from Anglesey, like this view of Red Wharf Bay which was taken on the 6th May 1995…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Another year that I won’t be sad to see the back of to be honest, despite the fact it wasn’t all bad – although did any of us expect the year to end in the way it has? After the year beginning in a lockdown did we seriously think we’d be be seeing the year out with record numbers of Covid cases, even if it does seem that Omicron is less lethal a strain? The amount of my social media friends and real relations that I’ve seen report contracting Covid has been sobering to say the least, but at least Dawn and I have managed to dodge infection so far – and plan to stay that way!
I’d hoped 2021 would see me finally being able to escape the clutches of ‘Brexit island’ and head back into Asia. I’d planned to do so early in 2022 but Omicron looks like it’s put the mockers on such dreams for now at least. Instead, I’ll be stuck here, watching the UK’s international reputation continue to disintegrate as Johnson and his Government lurch from farce to scandal and back again on what looks like an endless loop. A year on from leaving the EU the realities are becoming obvious. Far from getting Brexit ‘done’ Johnson’s embroiled us in a protracted blame war with the EU in order to detract from the fact the Brexit unicorns and ‘sunny uplands’ were always a fantasy. Covid’s helped him in that but he can’t hide from the reality forever and it seems (according to polls) even many Leave voters have come to realise what “Caveat Emptor” means. Sadly, far too late and the shambles will continue for years to come…
We may have the ‘fun’ of the Tories ditching Johnson in 2022 in order to save their skins in the 2024 election, but let’s face it – the field to replace him is hardly attractive. I mean, Liz Truss? Seriously?
Workwise, 2021 has been enjoyable. The gradual wind-down of restrictions meant that press trips and events resumed so there was plenty for me to photo or write about and the COP26 Climate Change conference in Glasgow in November kept me very busy indeed. I also added a mixture of 7,924 new pictures and old slid scans to my Zenfolio website, the most I’ve ever achieved in one year which beat last year’s previous best of 6200 plus so Covid’s proved to have some benefits. I’m now well on course to have all my old slides scanned in 2022 a mere 33 years after I first switched to that medium! 2022 promises to be an exciting year on the photographic and journalistic front as the construction of the HS2 high-speed railway will be in full swing. Over 20,000 people are working on the line at the moment and next year will see work start in earnest on the section from Birmingham to Crewe. Phase 1 is already well underway with three tunnel boring machines in action, the huge Colne Valley Viaduct under construction and work started on the stations at Euston, Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon St. There’s far too many landmarks to mention but HS2 Ltd have put out this helpful video which showcases much of what’s happening.
We’re ending the year as we began it – at home. We’re having a quiet one just to ourselves, enjoying good food, a drink and time to relax – ready to hit the ground running in 2022 as we’ve both got a lot of things we want to achieve next year. Let’s see how that shapes up.
In the meantime, thank you to all the people who either keep popping in to read my rambles in these blogs or who visit my Zenfolio picture website. I’ll be keeping both well-stocked in in 2022.
All that remains is for me to wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year and let’s all look forward to one where we finally cast off the madness and tragedies of Covid and return to a much more normal life. Onwards to the next challenge – whatever that may be….
Unsurprisingly I took a day off from blogging yesterday, it being Xmas day and all that. After all, the time was dedicated to families, not type-swiping. There was no chance of of a white Christmas here in Surrey as the we had a downpour that lasted all day – unlike back in West Yorkshire where the mercury was low enough to allow a dusting of the white-stuff across most of the county. Clearly, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Even so, it was a very enjoyable day. The Platt family (plus me) came together for a very traditional Christmas that involved some superb food which was prepared by Dawn and her brother Darren, aided and abetted by myself and the Matriarch of the family – Norah.
Today’s been a much more relaxed and disparate day following a lazy morning at the Lodges where we’re staying. Dawn took herself off for a walk, her folks watched ‘Calendar Girls’ on TV, whilst I had some solitary time to catch up on picture editing in order to clear the 2021 decks ready for New Year.
Later in the day we met up with some of the Tilford neighbours who’d completed their traditional Boxing Day walk to call at the nearby ‘Duke of Cambridge’ pub before heading back into Tilford. I joined them for a couple of drinks and the final leg of the walk where we ended up outside the Barley Mow pub. Both establishments have the advantage of large beer-gardens where we could get together in safety.
Now the Platt family have come together for drinks and an evening meal. I’m seemingly exempt from cooking duties tonight so I’m sitting sipping a 15yr old MacAllan whisky whilst typing this and enjoying the wonderful smells drifting over from the kitchen. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to working off some of this Christmas cheer and upping the exercise level.
In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day which is from another old batch of scanned slides but one that has a tenuous link to our recent weather. In January 1995 I was in Kuta, Bali waiting to fly home the next day. We had torrential rain there too – but the Balinese have a very different way of coping with downpours and flooding. I’m not sure UK traffic cops would be too happy to see this tho’!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
We’ve had a relaxed and convivial day here in Surrey – and feeling very fortunate too. Our main mission today was to celebrate the 14th birthday of Dawn’s nephew, Sam. Before hand I saw a message from my brother that his family’s Christmas has been kiboshed by the fact Bev – his wife- has tested positive for Covid this morning. Bev works in a school and has done throughout the pandemic, but right now staff are ‘dropping like flies’ as Dave described it.
So far we’ve been lucky – and we’re determined to keep it that way. However, seven of us did go out for a meal in Guildford to celebrate Sam’s birthday. Considering it’s Xmas eve which is normally a frantic day for last-minute shopping and catch-ups the town was remarkably subdued – as was the restaurant. We’ve eaten at Olivio before. It’s a lovely Italian restaurant based in a classic old building full of character where the staff are lovely and the food (which comes in huge portions) is delicious. Normally, this time of year Olivio would be booked out. As it was there were just two 1st floor tables taken for lunch, ours and another family group of 6. An awful situation for the restaurant but good for us as the kitchen staff had few people to focus upon.
The pair of us had eschewed breakfast in order to do justice to the portion sizes. Here’s what Dee and I shared…
We’re both fans of Calamari so this shared starter was right up our street. The Mayonnaise dip was mixed with garlic and the calamari is laced with herbs. The whole dish tastes divine as the Calamari is cooked perfectly.My main course was Buridda, the chef’s version of a classic Genoese fish casserole dish containing mussels, swordfish, tiger prawns, monkfish, potatoes, cooked in a delicate white wine, garlic, chilli and tomato sauce. The picture doesn’t really do the dish justice as the portion size and amount of fish it contains was excellent. Dee plumped for another fish dish. GUAZZETTO DI SALMONE contains salmon, prawns, potatoes, olives, capers, garlic, anchovies, tomato and aromatic herbs served with garlic crostini bread. – delicious and filling!
We’re now back in Tilford, chilling at Chateau Platt whilst preparing food and presents for tomorrow’s festivities. I hope you all have an equally relaxed and fun day, wherever you’re celebrating and whomever you’re celebrating with!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
This wasn’t quite how I was expecting to be travelling, but when needs must…
Dawn and I packed the car early this morning before driving over to Huddersfield to pick up her parents as we were all going to be travelling down together. There was only one problem. Four of us, all the clothes and presents plus the other Xmas supplies (and my camera bag) meant that there was so little room left in the car that it would’ve been a very uncomfortable journey down to Surrey. We’d looked at hiring a bigger vehicle but the rates this year were ridiculous, it would have cost us nearly £1000! I’d a sneaking suspicion this might happen so I’d already planted the seeds of a plan B – which was me catching the train and meeting them down there. When Dee saw how little space was left in the saloon for her parents even she agreed! So, here I am on my Jack Jones heading down to London. It was cheaper to come via the West Coast and there’s less cancellations too (LNER have knocked out a lot of services due to Covid staff shortages). I jumped on a TPE service from Huddersfield across to Manchester and now I’m sat on Avanti West Coast’s 12:15 to Euston. It’s worked by a 9-car Pendolino which is around 60% full but I managed to find a table seat where I’ve set up the mobile office to get some work done – something I couldn’t have done in the car!
I’ll keep you posted how the journey across London and down to Farnham goes as it unfolds. Right now we’re heading for Stoke-on-Trent in the same miserable weather that’s followed me all the way from West Yorkshire. I hear from Dee’s mum that they’re heading down the M1 right now. I hope their weather’s better on that side of the country…
13:50.
We’ve had a classic Pendolino journey so far, speeding South with ease. Say what you like about these trains but they can’t half sift and you never even notice when you pass another service as there’s no pressure pulse or juddering like there used to be with the older Mk3 carriages. After leaving Stoke the train had filled up to around 70% occupancy. Now we’ve stopped for the final time at Milton Keynes where dozens more folk have joined us taking that up to 80-85%, thankfully the vast majority of people are wearing masks so the atmosphere doesn’t feel uncomfortable. There’s been no ticket check en-route, which is hardly surprising at the moment with the numbers of rail-staff off due to contracting Covid or self-isolating.
14:05.
We’ve just sped through Cheddington which (in 1963) was the site of the infamous ‘great train robbery’ which took place just up the line at Ledburn,. The weather here’s dry but just as gloomy as the rest of the country I’ve traversed today. It’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon yet most cars have headlights switched on and industrial estates security lighting has tripped in!
16:15.
Tempting as it was I didn’t hang around in London. Instead I caught a tube straight across to Waterloo. The Underground was far quieter than you’d expect this time of the year although Euston station was rammed with people heading North.
Waterloo was much more subdued but as much of its traffic is commuters that was no surprise. Rather than get a direct train I hopped my way down to Clapham Junction in order to see how busy services were. Here’s a Shepperton service after leaving Vauxhall. Good to experience an old friend (the Class 707) again. I drove one of these when they were being shaken down on the Siemens test track at Wildenrath in Germany!
Now I’m on another (earlier) Siemens product, a Class 450 heading for Alton. There’s half a dozen of us in this car, which is one of 12 making up this train…
17:05.
Beat them! I’m now sitting in the ‘Mulberry’ pub next to Farnham station waiting for the car team to catch me up. They pulled off the M4 20 minutes ago so it might be a while before they get here. In the meantime I’m nursing an indifferent pint of the local Hogsback IPA whilst downloading pictures from the camera to the laptop. I’d originally intended to go for a wander when I arrived but the weather’s even wetter here than it was up North. So much for the sunny South!
My train from London to Alton passes a service heading in the opposite direction at Farnham.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Here at Bigland Towers we’re in the final wind-down to the festive season although (to be honest) it seems more like a wind-up as there’s so many things to do! Dawn’s ‘demob happy’ as she finished work yesterday but today’s hardly been restful as there was a long list of things for her to do in preparation for us heading South to Surrey for the festive season. Part of that list included her cooking Bakewell Tart and Millionaire’s shortbread to take with us to feed the family so the house has been filled with delicious smells all afternoon. I’ve also been busy finishing various bits of work and stockpiling enough other stuff to keep me occupied and fruitful if we get poor weather or enforced downtime due to Covid whilst we’re away as none of us have any idea how things might change.
As usual with this shambolic Government we haven’t got a clue what to expect them to do next – other than it’ll be too little, too late. Whilst the Welsh and Scottish administrations have announced plans in advance to give everyone certainty and chance to prepare the only announcement from Downing St is – “ummm”… Very helpful.
Despite this, we’re determined to make the most of the time away whilst still staying safe and not taking any unnecessary risks – especially when one considers the number of daily Covid cases has just passed the 100,000 mark for the first time. Unlike the shit-show that governs us I may be eating cheese and drinking wine in rather more isolated (and enjoyable) company.
So, tomorrow the four of us travel South for few days. Sadly, our old moggie, Jet, won’t be going on his holidays with us this time as he’s on a permanent and far-ranging ‘holiday’ beyond the rainbow bridge, but no doubt we’ll have a few fond memories of his first and only venture earlier in the year as a Northerner down South!
Expect a few gaps in blogging over the next few days but not too many as I’ve a series of articles previously published in the print media that I’ll be posting as blogs. Plus, I’m sure there’ll be the odd day out and chance to grab pictures (railway or otherwise) that I’ll have time to turn into a commentary.
In the meantime, I’d like to wish all of my readers (and there’s over 40,000 of you so far this year, reading over 80,000 articles – and you’re spread all over the planet, which is amazing!) a very merry Christmas and a Happy (Gregorian calendar) new Year!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Yay – I got the month right from the off! For some strange reason my brain seems to be stuck in November, which is why I’ve cocked-up two recent December blogs and backdated them until kind readers have pointed it out. I suppose I could always try the Captain Mainwaring defense from ‘Dad’s Army’ and pretend I wondered who’d spot it first. Truth is – it wasn’t me!
There’s not going to be a long blog tonight, mainly because this hasn’t been the most exciting of days. The Calder Valley’s spent most of the day bathed in fog and I’ve been stuck at home sorting out paperwork, old slides and the occasional Xmas present. I did get out for a wander late in the day in order to get some shopping and get my daily exercise, so a wander in to Sowerby Bridge was in order. We may be in the run-up to Christmas, but the town seemed quite subdued for a Saturday at this time of the year. I suspect the reality of the new Covid strain’s starting to concentrate a few minds even though Calderdale has (for now) seen Covid cases decreasing.
Whilst we’ve been lucky I couldn’t help suck my teeth at today’s news that the anti-vaxxers and Covid conspiracy nuts decided to hold a rally in London. If there’s one place where Omicron is going through the roof it’s London. Still, a cynic might argue this is social Darwinism in action and if this means the shallow end of the gene pool gets deeper this is no bad thing. Will they be missed? Nope…
Once back at home I indulged in some cooking therapy and knocked up a veggie casserole which was an ideal accompaniment to the miserable weather. I love any recipe that contains Cumin, Garlic and Smoked Paprika and this one certainly did.
To pass the time I’ve been scanning and storing lots of old travel slides. They won’t see the light of day just yet as they’re in reserve to give me something to do over Christmas during those quiet ‘down time’ moments when everyone’s stuffed to the gills with Xmas fayre and falling asleep in front of the TV. But here’s a snippet. I’ve finished scanning the Bali pictures from 1994-95 and moved on to UK images from the latter year. So here’s one of the last Bali pictures. I’ve always loved the sculptured landscape of Bali and the way farmers have managed to carve out paddy fields from the most extreme of slopes. Here’s an example.
These fields are near some fascinating old Buddhist temples at Tampaksiring in the islands hinterland. Spot the nursery field where young rice plants are grown before being pricked out by hand across the other terraces….
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
This morning I woke up to the welcome news that Johnson’s Tories had been humiliated in the North Shropshire by-election, losing a seat they considered theirs as a right to hold to the Lib-Dems. It was a massive 34% swing that saw the previous Tory majority of 23,000 become a Lib-Dem one of nearly 6000. One can only hope that this is the start of a shift that will see UK voters reject the kakistocracy we’ve had in charge ever since Johnson was elected in 2019. But I’m not going to hold my breath…
As if to celebrate the news the weather decided to grace the Calder Valley with sunshine. Well, the tops of the valley anyway, the lower levels have been hidden in mist for most of the day! Undeterred I decided to have a day out and head West with the camera, escaping the confines of the office now my computer problems have been resolved. If only every problem was as easily solved by a phone call!
My day out saw me heading West to old haunts, in this case Wigan, Southport and Liverpool where the weather held and sunshine reigned. I needed some pictures of the ‘new’ Class 769s (former electric trains converted to bi-modes with the addition of a diesel engine) and also the brand-new Class 777s for Merseyrail which are being built by the Swiss company Stadler. For once my luck held and I managed to complete my quest. 769s were running services to Southport and when I arrived one of the new 777s was sitting in the station whilst the crew took a break. I had enough time to grab shots of it at the seaside resort before getting ahead of it to take pictures at Hall Road on the edge of Liverpool. Sadly, by that point the sun had been overwhelmed by cloud. Even so, I managed a reasonable shot of old and new together, which is today’s picture of the day.
On the left is a Class 508 unit which was built by BR at York between 1979-80. These units were built as 4-car trains for the former Southern region and operated out of London Waterloo for several years before being reduced to 3-car trains and sent North to Merseyside in 1984-85 to replace the Class 503 electric trains which had been built by the London Midland and Scottish railway in 1938. Now it’s their turn to be replaced by the Class 777s one of which is seen here on a test run from Southport to Sandhills in Liverpool. 52 of these new units are on order and will start entering into passenger service sometime in 2022. There’s around half a century of the evolution of train design captured in that picture. I remember the 507-508 taking over services on this line over 40 years ago. Barring medical miracles I don’t expect to be around in another 40-plus years to see what replaces the 777s! Still, never say never…
If you want to look back at the Merseyrail system over the years you can find pictures going back to the 1990s in two different galleries on my Zenfolio website. Images from 2003 to the present day can be found here. Shots taken when the franchise was run by Arriva (from 1997-2003) can be found here – and pictures from the British Rail era can be found in this gallery, but you’ll have to do a lot of searching!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Panic over – my laptop’s been repaired. A Dell engineer phoned me from Ireland this morning and talked through the problem, after which we set up the machine so that Mohan could take remote control of it and run through a series of diagnostics that identified and fixed the issue (a software glitch with Windows 10). I’ve done this before but it’s still weird seeing your computer take on a life of its own as someone else controls it and you become a bystander. At least it was a bona-fide Dell engineer and not a hacker!
I can now breathe easy and spend time backing up all my pictures off the machine and filing them away as I’d been intending to. Whilst the process was going on I had a chat to Mohan who told me he’s been working from home for 2 years now. I guessed as I heard his Golden Retriever barking in the background! Of course, his is the ideal job to have for working from home. Let’s face it – if he can control my computer from Ireland he can control it from anywhere. That’s one of the things that people who claim we should all be working from home don’t quite understand. Mohan is a man of Indian descent living in Ireland, being paid an Irish salary, but he could be in India being paid an Indian salary, which would considerably reduce Dell’s overheads. WFH could potentially mean a migration of jobs away from the expensive Western nations with their rates of personal and corporation tax – and don’t think that very thought hasn’t occurred to some corporations, so be careful what you wish for when you call for people to WFH. This is not what Brexiters think of when they bluster about ‘Global Britain’, but it is the reality, not the theory. Building barriers isn’t very clever in this day and age.
Now I’ve a fully working laptop again I can concentrate on getting ready for Christmas and finish all the jobs I need to do before the festering season – which may be just that due to the increase in Covid infection rates. I certainly won’t be attending any large gatherings for the foreseeable future – especially indoor ones. I may be double-jabbed and boosted, but I’m thinking of others as much as myself. The people I feel for are those in the hospitality and travel trade, for whom this new variant couldn’t have come at a worse time – just as they were hoping the Xmas season would help boost depleted coffers. Only now they’ve got to face events without any government support. I’ll be doing what I can to give them support whilst still being careful.
Tech panic over I finally managed to get out for a walk today and get some exercise although that wasn’t without a surreal moment. Just as I left a large ‘Peppa Pig’ balloon appeared from the valley below and floated over the house before getting snagged in the trees beyond. I’m sure it’s a metaphor for something, although I’m not sure what! Maybe it’s an omen for the by-election which is being held in the Tory safe seat of North Shropshire today. As well as that Parliamentary seat there’s also 12 Council places up for grabs today. You can read all about them on the excellent ‘Britain Elects’ website as they analyse the make-up and history of each seat – and also provide the results via their Twitter feed at @BritainElects. It could be an interesting night…
Right, on to the picture of the day. This one’s yet another from the Indonesian slide collection but also quite simple. Whilst I was there in December 1994 the Lotus flowers were in full bloom. Almost everywhere we stayed had a water feature of some sort, from simple urns to huge ponds. This was one of them.
Taken on slide film with a 50mm prime lens, I’d love to go back and play around with similar shots now the technology at my disposal is rather more complex and flexible. If you want to see the rest of the Indonesian collection (which is still having new pictures added) you can find them by following this link.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
You know it’s going to be one of those days when you start the day with an optimistic frame of mind and technology decides it has other plans for you. Today was one of those days. Having bounced out of bed, made coffee and sat in the office ready to start the day I booted up the laptop.
Only it didn’t. It absolutely refused to be woken from its slumber. The expression ‘Oh, sh*t’ was one of several that passed my lips as I realised my plans for the day were well and truly out of the window. Fortunately, I have an old machine gathering dust on a shelf so dug that out. But because it hadn’t been used since August last year it took me quite a while to get everything set up and (mostly) reconnected. You forget just how interlinked systems are nowadays so when passwords and other gubbins are updated, old machines don’t always ‘get it’. Finally, after a few hours of cursing and shouts of ‘I don’t believe’ it I was operational again. Ish. Apart from all the pictures and files I’d not had chance to copy of my main machine or back-up to the Cloud. I few emails to Dell later and a several missed phone calls and I’d arranged to get tech support in the morning that will hopefully coax my recalcitrant machine back to life (fingers crossed).
Needless to say, this ate up much of my day which was doubly-frustrating as the weather was gorgeous and the trips I had planned were canned, so all I could do was admire the view over the valley as I fought with various systems. Thankfully everything was up and running enough for me to be able to respond to a picture request from RAIL magazine without any more blood sweat and tears although I did rediscover another idiosyncrasy of laptops that I’d forgotten about. The wifi on my old Dell couldn’t blow the skin off a rice pudding! It doesn’t like working from the office as the signal is really weak and frequently drops out – not good when you’re sending hundreds of Mb of data, so most of my working day’s been spent sat on the bed as that room’s directly above the router! On the bright side, I was thankful that I’d worked over the weekend to get all the pictures from last weeks Community Rail Awards edited and sent out, otherwise my computer problems could have been ‘fun’ to say the least.
I’m being optimistic and hoping the the tech wizards at Dell can sort things out for me tomorrow and that the issues are software not hardware related. Frankly, I can do without the expense this close to Christmas and having had to have a camera rebuilt recently.
Sadly, all the new slides I’ve been scanning recently are sat on the other machine, so today’s picture is going to have to come from the archives. But what to choose? Oh, I know…
Here’s a change from the recent exotic travel shots I’ve been feeding you. Clapham Junction may be a lot of things but exotic isn’t a word that springs to mind. This unusual shot was taken on the 7th December this year. It’s a view of the station few people see because it’s taken from the apartment block where an old friend whom I was staying with has a flat.
The trains in the foreground are a pair of Southwestern Railway Class 707s which will soon be displaced and cascaded to Southeastern trains as (despite the fact they’re only a few years old) SWR have planned to replace them with an even newer fleet of 10 car Class 701s built by Bombardier in Derby. Only the 701s are very (very) late and riddled with faults which is causing more than a few headaches all round. So, this is a sight that will eventually pass into history.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 