Wednesday 30th

Duxford village green. 2.10 pm. Another no-fly day. That calendar did say summer time didn't it?

Tuesday 29th

Waterloo Station. 5.07 pm. Peak hour rush about to start.

Monday 28th

Ahhhh at last. The waiting is over.

Sunday 27th

      

       Lisbon. Portugal. 9.10am. Morning coffee.Slightly more authentic than your average Starbucks.

Saturday 26th

Lisbon. Portugal. 12.20 pm. Rua Castelo de Sao Jorge. Neighbourhood watch Portuguese style.

Friday 25th

Lisbon. Portugal. Street cafe. 8.25 am. 

I'll have a double espresso please and they will have a......errrr...beer?

Thursday 24th

Lisbon. Portugal. 11.05 pm. Sitting outside a cafe on a balmy spring evening about to commence dinner watching the no.28 slide by as it transports Lisbonites out for the start of an evening.

A chart as clear as mud

I went flying today. It was one of those perfect spring days. Cool, cloudless, and not a breath of wind at either runway level or even at 3,000 ft. As I took the keys to the plane from the flight controller at the Aero Club the following conversation took place

FC - Enjoy. It is great out there at the moment and bring her back in one piece

NW - Thanks, I'll try not to get lost

FC - Well if they start speaking to you in French or Dutch then do a U-Turn cos you have crossed the channel and gone too far East. If they try to shoot you down you have gone too far North (Scotland) and if it starts raining, gets bleak, and you see men doing unspeakable things to sheep you know you are in Wales.

NW- Thanks

L-Living ..Tuesday 22nd...

L-Living warehouse stocktake - somewhere in Hampshire where a set of duelling ukelele's wouldn't be out of place. 4 rows of 000's  of boxes. Sometimes you even learn something from mind numbing hard labour.

Dexterity

Richmond Bridge. 3.42 pm Monday 21 March.

An inverted chat

Sunday run

A 4.5 min waddle/run from the front door ( probably less than a minute for Haile Gebrselassie... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Gebrselassie) gets you from home to Richmond park. A 9.5 sq km expanse of English greenery ( 3 times the size of New Yorks Central park ) and home to about 400 deer. It all seems rather incongruous. Large live venison steaks leisurely grazing the fields surrounded by cyclists, cars, rugby fields and tall apartment blocks.

What do you think he is thinking?

and regardless of his thoughts surely it doesn't get any better than this as a dog ? An almost cloudless crisp spring morning in the Kent countryside, open fields , fresh air , streams to wade through, and mud to slosh in.

I thought I had seen it all...or at least most of it...

Cast your beady eyes over the bill below...( lunch today and btw I had the hamburger and chips and glass of red) and see if you can see what is wrong with this bill...well let me rephrase that....see if you can see what I think is wrong with this bill...I guess if you are the owner of the pub anything is worth a try.

Still stumped ?

Subtotal = 30.60

Tip = 3.83

Total = 34.43

Service not included

Thank You - see you again soon (I seriously doubt it)

Join our offer club at thedukerichmond.co.uk (more chance of the UK government adopting a non hypocritical approach to foreign policy than me joining me thinks)

A406-M4-M25-M11 and return (Day 6)

''Ring-ring...ring-ring....ring-ring....Hullo Cambridge Aero Club....Anfernee speaking''

''Hi there, I've got a 2pm slot booked and was wondering if you guys are flying today as it's very foggy down here in London ''

'' Well it looks marginal to be honest as it's foggy here as well but forecast to clear. Where are you?''

''I'm in Richmond so was wondering if I should make the trip up there (72 miles)''

'' Well we wont be able to make a call until probably half an hour before your slot so you will need to be nearby otherwise if conditions are good and you don't turn up you will forfeit the slot and be charged the cost (£125)''

'' mmmmm...OK...''

So this was my view for 3 hours today. 1.5 hours there....1.5 hours back and no flying.

 £35 in petrol, £3.50 for a stale egg mayo sandwich, £1.10 for a mineral water, £2.50 for a pack of jelly babies and 70 pence for a Crunchie. Diet of champions.

The Turner View (Day 5)

Joseph Turner was one of Britain's greatest landscape painters and if you go to the Tate Modern Gallery in London you can pay up to see a collection of his best works. One of which is the view from atop Richmond Hill which has become known by locals as 'The Turner View'.  See below...

Alternatively and for free you can walk 207 metres from my front door and get the same view. Just don't pick a grey foggy London spring day as it is today.

Richmond Bridge (Day 4)

A morning walk on a fog drenched spring morning sees two kayakers making their way along the Thames River towards Richmond bridge

The Thames is 215 miles (346 km) long and the second longest river in the UK. It's source is at Thames Head in Gloucestershire near the town of Cirencester. It has a tidal swing of 7 metres and 80 islands. 

There are 214 bridges that cross it, 20 tunnels, 6 public ferries and 1 ford.

Richmond Bridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Bridge,_London

Hollyhock lunch (Day 3)

Exit my flat and walk 87 paces to the right and you are confronted with this Southeast view of the Thames. 

On a glorious Spring day it is then a 2.5 mins stroll down Richmond Hill Park to the Hollyhock Cafe where a leisurely and somewhat healthy lunch whilst basking in the Spring sunshine ensues. 

With 'The Times' spread across the table, a good latte coffee in your hand and your balding head warmed by the early afternoon sun it sure beats sitting at a trading desk berating a sales person for bringing you a customer flow that has just cost you money. 

The English love a flowerbed and I have to admit it's the parks that save this City. 

 

Spring has sprung (Day 2)

You know spring has sprung in the UK when the countryside comes alight with the colour of Daffodils.

Duxford is a small village some 55 miles north of London and just 10 miles south from Cambridge. Famous for its part in the Battle of Britain and home to Douglas Bader it is now home to the Imperial War Museum and a pretty impressive array of military aircraft. If you are ever in the area it's definitely worth a visit ( The museum that is) and make sure you get into the American Hangar. No expense spared there. 

Duxford is also home to my mother-in-law, a Sunday roast and a country walk past buildings 2-3 times older than Australia.

Day 1 of 365

Anyone reading this blog would be well justified to wonder why there is a snapshot from my TV reflecting the disappointing (if you are an Arsenal fan....delight if you are anyone else) scoreline from the FA Cup game between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Well, wonder away no more.

I've decided to create a pictorial diary over the next  365 days consisting of a photo a day that in some way reflects the day. It entails carrying a camera obviously and on some day only a picture will be posted. But hopefully in a years time this blog will show an interesting insight into life's experiences and thoughts.

Bemoaning my teams performance this season got me thinking. How many people get to see their team play in a Wembley Final, contest two games against the greatest team (Barcelona) of my generation (some might even say in the history of the game), play in the quarter finals of the FA cup and still be in the running to be crowned the best football team in the country by winning the League title?

The answer is not many.

If you want to reach into the heart and soul of this country then go to a football match. If you want to touch the real fabric of this society then make it a game that doesn't involve the top 20 teams but rather anyone else. There are hundreds of clubs supported by thousands of supporters who know that they will never ever see their team play at Wembley, contest the league title or play against Barcelona yet week in and week out in some of the worst weather imaginable they turn up in hope. That's either an incredibly sad thing or something that speak positive volumes about your typical football follower.

An ''enlightening'' experience

It's interesting being self employed. You find time to do alot of things that you would otherwise not do or pay someone else to do it for you. This is because as you rush from home to work and back to home again you look to maximise your down time. Why fiddle around burning freedom hours on a small task when you could pay someone else to do it for you thus leaving you time to do what you think is more fun or important? However in doing so, in taking the softer option, I have discovered that you are actually depriving yourself of further education and enhancing your own life in some small way.

Case in hand this week has been the educational process of learning to change the front light bulb on a car.

First trip was to the local car dealer to purchase the necessary bulb. Now I knew it would be a halogen lamp and therefore not your stock standard Phillips bayonet hence a little more expensive. £16.85 plus 20% VAT and the bulb was mine. I arrived home and out of curiosity researched the same item online. Auto-Care UK had the same bulb in a pack of 2 for £8.50. Right, so £4.25 + VAT per single bulb online or £16.85 +20% VAT.

Mmmm lesson no.1 learnt.

After writing an email to the car dealer deriding his thieving mannerisms I then set about to change the light bulb. Can't be that hard can it?

What's the saying?

''When attempting something for the first time, double the time you think it will take then add 50% and double again and then pay someone else to fix up the mess you have created''

Down to the car and up with the bonnet to try and access the headlight. Think about it logically and surely it can't be too hard.

Errrrr.

 Or b.

After 10-15 minutes of confusion in 0-5 degree weather working with metal tools I retired hurt to the phone and called the guy that normally services the car.

"' Hey Andy how hard is it to replace the bulb on the front headlight of my car ?''


'' No problem at all. All you need is the right tool which should be in your tool bag that came with the car. Hexagonal piece with a levering arm. If you don't have one then don't even bother trying as the job can't be done. However. If you do have the tool simply peel back the stiff matting from the interior of the boot and you will see 3 rubber lugs. Take off the biggest lug and poke this tool into the gap until you feel it grab something and lock in. Then turn the lever and the entire front of the light section, rubber seal , glass and all will move slightly forward. Grab the entire unit and pull it out of the car chassis.There are no wires as everything runs through a USB port type attachment. Take off the protective plastic backing, extract the burnt out bulb, insert the new bulb and reverse the whole process.Simple''


'' Uh-huh. Could you just start again from where you said ..all you need is the right tool....''


'' All you need is the right tool........''


'' Right. So how long should this take me?''


'' 3 minutes''


''OK . Well I'll give it a crack and expect to see me later today for you to do it for me.''


In a triumph over science and utilising my limited mechanical nous I followed his instructions and 22 minutes later was turning on the engine to see if the new light bulb was functional. There is something mentally rewarding about doing something you have never done before and which you know other people get paid to do. Mentally rewarding until, as you pack up the tool bag you realise there is a large plastic protective backing still sitting on the ground.

Grrrrr.

Off with the matting again, out with the lug, extraction of complete unit a second time, attachment of plastic backing, re-insertion of unit into chassis, levering of tool to lock it into place, replacement of lug, reaffix matting, turn on engine to check light again.

Still took me 19 minutes the second time! However it was just as rewarding and something new I have learnt.

There is a positive in every negative.