7th March picture of the day…

07 Sunday Mar 2021

Posted by in Bali, Indonesia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Well, that was a week I’m not unhappy to see the back of! Hopefully this next one will be rather calmer and more productive, there’s certainly a lot to look forward to anyway so I’m going to remain positive and optimistic whilst taking one day at a time.

I’m not going to bore you with a blog about the minutiae of life as there would be plenty of minutiae to bore you with! Instead, I’m going to go to the picture of the day, which has been chosen from some of the few slides I had time to scan today. It’s the end of an album, so you won’t be seeing any more like it for a while as its partner and next in the series is further down in the queue.

I took this shot in the town of Ubud on the isle of Bali, Indonesia in December 1994.

One of the many cultural delights of the island is going to see some of the variety of Balinese dance performances that you can witness at hotels, temples or theatres. This particular location is the Ubud Palace which provides an excellent backdrop for the dancers. It’s also right in the centre of town, which makes it very easy to get to. The dances vary from solo to mass performances, all of which are accompanied by a live Gamelan orchestra. The movements of the dancers are extremely stylized and choreographed, plus – they take years to learn. Many Western tourists don’t appreciate the art or understand the messages the dances convey and just enjoy the spectacle – which is OK as it helps fund these dance troupes and keep the traditions alive. I’ve always been impressed with the way the Balinese have managed to (mostly) make foreign tourism work for them without it subsuming their unique culture. I’ve many more pictures to add from Indonesia but the next batch will be from a country that’s culturally very different but that has some stunning scenery. Personally (out of the two) I know whose food I’d prefer, but I won’t knock some of the American national parks!

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6th March picture of the day…

06 Saturday Mar 2021

Posted by in London, Photography, Photojournalism, Picture of the day

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Life’s slowly returning to normal for now as (despite his age) our cat shows a stubborn resistance to the idea of dying. The old bugger’s scared the life out of us this week but we’re so knackered by it all we’ve decided the only thing we can do is give him all the love and attention we can whilst starting to think this was a clever ploy on his part just to become the centre of attraction even more than usual! Poor Dawn’s been kept busy trying to find different foods just to attract his appetite and get him to eat, which could be part of his plan…

Moggie maintenance has taken up most of our week so I’m looking forward to getting back to a less fractured routine and chance for more exercise and less stress – especially as the weather’s slowly warming up and the days are getting longer. With a bit of luck I might even be able to dust down the camera and document the present besides scanning the past…

Talking of the past, here’s the picture of the day. I’ve not sorted and slides this weekend so this is one from the last batch. I’ve been posting pictures from all sorts of exotic locations but this is one that used to be close to home. I took this shot at Columbia Rd flower market in London’s East End on the 12th March 1994 which was when I still lived in the East End. Lynn and I used to cycle over to the market from my flat in Bromley-by-Bow to pick up plants to decorate the communal balcony outside our homes. Columbia Rd was a brilliant place to while away a few hours of a Sunday morning, buying plants from the street stalls or drinking coffee outside a cafe whilst people watching and grabbing pictures like this.

I do miss it. Going to local garden centres here in West Yorkshire just can’t compete!

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It’s just another ‘Groundhog day’ for Joe Rukin and StopHs2…

06 Saturday Mar 2021

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Railways, StopHs2

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Having watched the abortive anti HS2 campaign for nearly 10 years now two words always spring to mind: Déjà vu – or in the expression made famous by the 1990s film – it’s another “Groundhog Day”…

After 11 years of failure those opposed to building our new high-speed railway haven’t learned a thing and keep repeating the same failed, stale tactics in an endless series of re-runs. Observing their campaign is like having a TV stuck on one of those cable channels that spew out endless repeats! I’ve lost count of the number of petitions launched, legal challenges threatened or boycotts demanded.

The latest ‘haven’t we been here before’? moment comes courtesy of Joe Rukin and StopHs2, the one man and his dog operation that’s been irrelevant for some time now. As Joe’s still not found a proper job after years of trying he’s desperate to try and keep the group running as it helps bring some money in.

So, Joe’s recycling the tried, tested (and failed) route of – yet another Judicial Review! You can find the full details in this rather rambling entry on the stophs2 website.

More Comical Ali than legal eagle, Joe Rukin videoed a call for help from the StopHS2 registered office and ‘nerve’ centre (his spare bedroom).

Over the years anti HS2 campaigners have tried dozens of JR’s. The late (unlamented) High Speed 2 Action Alliance launched a plethora of them, all but one failed and the one that didn’t was on a consultation that HS2 swiftly re-ran, so it was all rather pointless. It’s been the same with celebrity environmentalist Chris Packham who also tried and failed, achieving little more than parting a lot of fools from their money via Crowdfunding. Money that was then trousered by his grateful solicitors ‘Pay Day’ (you mean Leigh Day! Ed). As usual, the only people who benefit from any of these doomed legal cases are the Lawyers.

I’ve little doubt this latest attempt will result in the same outcome. Rukin is applying for permission to launch a Judicial Review, but the fact he’s appealing to others for evidence to back up his claims tell you all you need to know. The fact that he’s giving people so little time to gather this evidence doesn’t bode well either. His closing date is the 9th March (Tuesday).

Of course, what Rukin isn’t telling his supporters is what happened last time he applied for a Judicial Review. This was back in October last year – only then he didn’t bother with such a trivial thing as evidence – which is why his request was summarily thrown out at the first hurdle and he was landed with a legal bill of £4300!

I blogged about the debacle at the time, which you can find here.

For some mysterious reason you won’t find any mention of his October 2020 failure anywhere on the StopHs2 website or Facebook page. It’s been expunged from history, as if it never happened! I wonder why?

Perusing his latest request for help it looks like Rukin is trying to re-run the same failed case again, which suggests he’ll get short-shrift from the Judges who end up having to consider his request. As usual with Rukin, details of these things are scant, so there’s no information on who his legal advisors are (if he even has any) or when the hearing will be, so watch this space as I’ll report on the outcome of the judgement when it’s delivered – as I suspect Rukin will be as reticent as last time to announce another failure! Watch this space…

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5th March picture of the day…

05 Friday Mar 2021

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

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Not exactly a vintage end to a vintage week…

To say this week’s been stressful would be an understatement. We’ve been back and forth to the vets with Jet, our aged moggie. The old boy’s nineteen and a half and his health’s taken a turn for the worse. At one point we had visions of being on a one-way trip to the vets but the old bugger’s bounced back again! We’re fearful we could lose him anytime has he’s indifferent when it comes to eating but he doesn’t seem to be in any pain. The vets can’t find anything wrong with him other than weight loss and the passing of years, so we’ve really no idea how long we have him for. But, he knows he’s loved and the fact we’re both working from home means he’s getting lots of attention so we just have to take life on day at a time.

One bright bit of news was that I’ve now got both my Covid vaccinations booked. I receive the first one next Thursday and the second one on the 27th May. With the relaxation of lockdown looming this makes me feel rather relieved as I may be better placed to take advantage of work opportunities due to that fact. I can’t wait to get out and about again as there’s been huge changes on the railways over the past year with massive changes in train fleets, plus big engineering projects like the rebuilding of Kings Cross station that I’ve simply been unable to cover – and that’s without the biggest engineering project in Europe to document and report on (HS2).

The vagaries of the week have meant my plans (and usual routine) have gone out of the window. My daily exercise has gone to rat-shit but I have managed to scan an awful lot of old slides so the light at the end of the tunnel’s getting closer – although the plethora of pictures is making it much harder to choose the picture of the day! This week I’ve gone from India to Bali via Denmark and various ports of call in the UK, but the picture I’ve plumped for is this as I don’t think I’ve featured anything from Denmark before.

I took this shot of the Radhus clocktower and nearby statue in Copenhagen in August 1994. Lynn and I had friends in the city whom we’d met when travelling in Indonesia and used to visit them on a regular basis. Sadly, now both Lynn and Didi have passed away but it’s a city I have some very find memories of.

You can find many other pictures from Denmark in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

Scanning of old slides may slow down a bit next week as I’ve many other things to catch-up with, but – the next album in the queue is going back to the very beginning. I started taking pictures on slide film in 1989 and the album I have lined-up to get through starts with shots I took in the USA in 1990 when four of us spent a couple of weeks driving around California, Arizona and Nevada, taking in various national parks like Big Sur, Monument Valley, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon as well as cities like San Francisco. After that the album covers UK destinations before containing the first pictures of my 1991-92 year-long solo trip from India through to Australia – most of which was done the hard way – overland. I’ve wanted to scan these pictures for a long time as they contain some brilliant memories and great stories of how backpacking was 30 years ago. Watch this space…

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Siemens show off their new Piccadilly line trains for the London underground.

04 Thursday Mar 2021

Posted by in Rail Investment, Railways, Siemens, Transport

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Today, in an on-line press conference Siemens showed off the final design of the new trains they’ll be building for the Piccadilly line of London’s deep level tube network. Back in November 2018, Transport for London (TfL) commissioned Siemens Mobility to supply 94 nine-car, articulated Inspiro type trains.

In what is billed as a world first for any deep-level ‘tube’ system the trains will be fully air-conditioned, which will come as a great relief to anyone who’s ever had to use the Piccadilly line in the summer! The technical specification of the trains is impressive.

These new trains coupled with an increase in frequency of trains in peak hours from 24 to 27 trains per hour from mid-2027 (a train every 135 seconds) will provide a 23 per cent leap in peak service capacity.

The new trains feature regenerative braking capability and cutting-edge traction systems using low-loss permanent magnet motors and auxiliary electric systems that feature silicon carbide technology, as well as Lithium Ion batteries. These system will help to reduce the heat in the tunnels generated by the existing trains braking systems, despite the addition of air-conditioning. Passengers will also benefit from the wider doors and abolition of the single doors at the car ends, plus the ability to walk right through the train in the same fashion as the S-stock used on the Sub-surface lines like the Metropolitan. Siemens have released these impressions of the train interiors.

Construction of the vehicles will be split between the existing Siemens factory in Vienna, Austria and the company’s new UK factory which is under construction at Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Initial testing of the fleet will be done at the Wildenrath test track in Germany.

3rd March picture of the day…

03 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel, World War Two

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Apologies for absence but the past 48 hours have been rather stressful. I’m not going to go into details right now, just the concept of a nearly 20 year-old cat – and vets…

Our stress levels are starting to subside now but I’m having another night off so without further ado – here’s the picture of the day. I have a huge queue of scanned slides waiting to be edited at the moment and this is one of them. I took this picture of a recovered World War 2 ‘Sherman’ tank at Slapton Sands, Devon on the 31st July 1994. It commemorates one of the great secrets of World War 2. The Slapton Sands area was evacuated of civilians during the war as it was used as a secret training area for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. During one such exercise disaster struck as on the 28th April 1944 German E-Boats attacked a fully-equipped convoy training for the landings, killing 700 men. You can find details of the events here.

The tank was lost at sea during the attack and recovered in 1984 after secrecy about the attack was lifted. It was installed by the sands in Torcross as a memorial to all those who lost their lives.

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1st March picture of the day…

01 Monday Mar 2021

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

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Bloody hell – it’s March already! We’re now just a few weeks away from the first anniversary of ‘Lockdown’ and the event that’s turned many people’s lives upside down…

It may be the month when spring arrives but the balmy weather we had yesterday was but a flash in the pan. Today we were back to temperatures in single figures and a miasma that hung around all day, blocking views of anything more than a few hundred metres away. The gloomy weather left me with a severe disinclination to venture out. Instead I spent most of the day catching up on paperwork and scanning old slides of sunnier climes. When I did sally forth my walk was a short circular one to pick up some shopping and that was that. I’m working on the assumption that banking my time whilst the weather’s so poor will leave me in credit when it improves and restrictions on movement begin to lift. Oh, and having a pub beer garden to walk to rather than wondering aimlessly without a destination in mind will be a great improvement too!

Anyway, here’s the picture of the day which was taken on Arambol beach in Goa between Xmas and New Year 1993…

Each evening local children from the village would turn up to play on the beach once the heat of the day had dissipated. Here, a group of young boys play cricket whilst a young Western boy (who wasn’t English) looks on in bemusement. It wasn’t just the locals who’d appear this time of day as many Westerners would appear to jog, juggle or just enjoy a stroll along the miles of sand before adjourning to one of the beachfront restaurants for a sunset beer. Oh, to be able to do that right now…

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28th February picture of the day…

28 Sunday Feb 2021

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February has ended on a bright note – weather wise. We’ve had a gloriously sunny day here in the Calder Valley, where it’s felt like spring really is just around the corner. It’s such a relief after the freezing cold and soaking wet weather we’ve had the past couple of months. If this keeps up it’ll make the last few weeks of Covid lockdown almost bearable as I’ll be able to sit in the garden rather than spending most of my time cooped up indoors.

Looking back over my life I can’t think of a time when I’ve been so restricted to one geographical area. Even when I was a penniless teenager I was out and about as I used to hitch-hike everywhere, sometimes even on a whim. Once (just for the hell of it in 1982) I hitch-hiked from Southport to John O’ Groats and then down to Lands End and back to Southport. Surprisingly, it only took me two and a half days. I’ve always promised myself that when I become more of a man of leisure I’ll write a blog about some of those days. Between 1978 and 1988 I hitched around 75,000 miles and kept logs of how many lifts it took me to get from place to place. What a different era that was! I met some fascinating people and had some crazy times. Looking back over my life it’s fair to say that I’ve always had itchy feet, which is why I’ve not exactly enjoyed lockdown – even if it has had its uses. Once this is over, it’s going to be time to scratch those feet again – big time…

Until then I’ll plod on with making the most of lockdown and scanning all the pictures of past adventures. I’ve still thousands of old slides to get through, many of which tell a tale of a different world., which brings me neatly to the picture of the day, which is from one of the latest batch from India. I took this shot in late December 1993.

It’s the old ferry across the Chapora river from Mandrem to Siolim in North Goa. When I first arrived in Goa in December 1985 these little ferries were the standard way of getting across many of the rivers in North Goa, or for crossing the border into the next state (Maharashtra). When I was staying in Arambol, you had to use these ferries to get to the nearest town (Mapusa) which was quite a day-trip. Then, going to change money at the bank was an all-day adventure. That said, the ferries were a relaxed highlight of the trip. We’d pile onto the local bus and didn’t worry if it connected with the ferry or not because you could always sit and watch the world go by whilst the ferry chugged back across the river. Maybe having a chai, or a cold beer in one of the tea shops or bars as you waited. The ferries started disappearing in the 2000s. Most of the major rivers had already been bridged, but it took until 2003 before the Chapora bridge opened. India being India it would take several years for a bridge to be built from start to finish. The transport infrastructure may have improved, but I miss these little ferries as they were from a time when life was simpler and less rushed – and the cool breeze across the decks on a hot Goan afternoon was something to be savoured!

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Crazy anti-HS2 campaigner of the week. No 29.

28 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by in Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week, Hs2, Politics, Railways

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I’ve always been amused by how little the ‘conservationists’ who’re opposed to HS2 actually know about the environment they’re supposedly so concerned about saving. In many cases this is because they’re using ‘green’ issues as a figleaf for the fact that really, they’re just Nimbys. Even the serial protesters of Extinction Rebellion (the ones who wander from cause to cause) seem to know bugger all about the natural world they’re allegedly trying to save. I had to chuckle at the fun and games at Denham, when the protesters claimed they were trying to save an ‘ancient’ Alder tree. A tree whose age kept increasing as the stories got wilder. First it was 400 years old, then 600. People who know anything about trees will know why I was giggling at the claims.

An even better one happened a couple of years ago after one of the local Buckinghamshire rags reported the moans of a local farmer who was complaining about Ragwort growing on land owned by HS2 as the plant could spread to his fields and ‘pollute’ his land, threatening his livestock who get upset tummies if Ragwort gets into their feed. Suitably outraged, some of the local Nimbys tried to get a group together via one of their Facebook pages with the intention of going out to pull up the ragwort! It took a real environmentalist to point out that would be illegal as Ragwort is a valuable native plant that’s a source of food for insects and butterflies!

It seems these people never learn, hence this weeks award. Step forward Caroline Thompson-Smith, the determined self-publicist and serial spreader of exaggerated nonsense who can normally be found at Calvert, near where she lives. Well, unless she’s breaking the Covid lockdown to travel to other protest camps, such as her spot of gratuitous self-publicity and filming at Euston the other month.

Caroline has produced another long video diatribe which has appeared on the HS2Rebellion Facebook page and features the latest failure of the protesters at the Poors Piece eviction near Calvert (but nowhere near HS2!). Here’s a screengrab.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story eh, Caroline?

Her garbled story starts unravelling at 1’23” when she makes the claim that behind her contractors are felling Black Alder trees and that the Woodland Trust say the ‘Black Alder’ is one of the rarest trees in the UK with just 600 remaining, so HS2 contractors are felling 1% of the entire UK population! Wow – some claim! And a claim that rapidly unravels by 5’50” when Caroline forgets her original fairy story. Now it’s the Wildlife (not Woodland) Trust who claim the ‘Black Alder’ is rare. So rare the number has shrunk from 600 to 6 in the space of 4 minutes!

So, what’s the truth here? As usual, just a few minutes searching on Google and Caroline’s claims are in tatters. Here’s what the Woodland Trust REALLY say about the Black Alder. Yep, you’ve guessed it – the ‘black’ Alder is just another name for the Alder tree – and it’s also called the Common Alder – because it’s not rare at all! Nor is it a particularly long-lived species, which is why I was giggling last year at the claims about ‘ancient’ Alders!

There’s more on the Alder here from Wikipedia which reveals that the Alder is on the ‘least threatened’ list.

Of course some viewers of Caroline’s nonsense clearly just lap this stuff up. Gullible isn’t the word here. You could literally sell them anything. Listening to people like Caroline you’d think it was Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes sweeping across the Chilterns, raping, pillaging and laying waste to the countryside in their wake – not a company building a railway who have to abide by legally-binding environmental protocols and laws and who are subject to strict oversight by a whole host of agencies.

Still, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, eh?

2023 update.

The Poors Piece eviction wasn’t stopped by Caroline or anyone else. The trees that had grown up along the course of E-W rail (not HS2 as the wood’s nowhere near) were removed and the rest of the wood remains intact – although polluted by the remains of the abandoned protest camp which was left to rot by its occupants.

Caroline continues to rant about HS2 but on a much reduced basis as it’s painfully obvious to all but the most blinkered that construction of HS2, the maintenance depot and E-W rail is unstoppable with the work at a very advanced stage that expands as each day passes.

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27th February picture of the day…

27 Saturday Feb 2021

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

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It’s ‘groundhog day’ weekend again but the added bonus is the weather’s getting warmer and the days longer. It doesn’t stop the world being any weirder but at least it’s not as chilly! If nothing else, I’m looking forward to being able to sit out in the garden and soak up some sunshine whilst I contemplate the madness. If nothing else I’ll at least have a base-tan for when I’m allowed access to sunnier climes.

 Like everybody else I’m looking forward to the end of lockdown and the chance to resume normal life, although I’m not sure what the ‘new normal’ will look like. Whilst everyone has been focused on Covid and lockdown rather than the Brexitshambles we still have the the political and economic  consequences of that to look forward to once Covid’s under control and people remember there’s other things happening in the UK other than a pandemic.

Personally, I’m taking a backseat. I always knew that Brexit was going to be a shambles that would drag on for decades, but what’s masked that has been Covid, but not for much longer…

We’re in for a very ‘interesting’ year of the old Chinese curse variety although I suspect most people have still fallen for the Tory slogan that Johnson got Brexit ‘done’. Oh, if only it was that simple. Welcome to years of negotiations folks.

Not that I want to be seen as a complete curmudgeon. The Covid vaccination progamme seems to be going really well, although the cynic in me knows that’s because the Government didn’t bung billions to Ministers friends this time and let the NHS do the job instead. Try as I might, I still struggle when I realise that we’re now living in a banana republic and a cause for celebration is someone doing something right for once.

Anyway. Enough of this. As the old saying goes, people will have plenty of leisure time in which to repent. Right now I’m going back in time to post the picture of the day, which comes from a very different era and time in my life.

Today’s picture was taken at the Anjuna flea market in December 1993.

The women you see are local tribes-people from Maharasthra, the state North of Goa. India’s a fascinating place for so many reasons but the mixture of people’s is one of the most intriguing. The history of different invasions and ethnic origins makes the place so colourful – as these women demonstrate.

Scanning all these old photographs during lockdown is so frustrating as it’s showing me all the places that Covid has deprived me of visiting. I’m going to have a lot of lost time to make up. Not just for places that I’ve been before – but also the places I’ve never yet made it to. As soon as the planet starts to re-open, I have a cunning plan..

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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 need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!