Continuing my account of my homeward journey from my Scottish holiday, taking things as far as Neptune’s Staircase.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my return journey. I covered as far as Glenfinnan Viaduct last time.
EXPLANATION
I took many photos on this journey, which has led me to break it into multiple posts, using either landmarks or stations as appropriate as dividers. This post is still exclusively related to the Arisaig to Glasgow leg of the journey, with Neptune’s Staircase being an arrangement of locks not far from Banavie Station, which is the last station stop before Fort William if travelling east. The journey continued to run smoothly between these points.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the photographs that relate to this post…
An account of my involvement in an ‘Unhappy birthday, Elon’ event yesterday, complete with photos.
Yesterday was Elon Musk’s birthday, and activities had been organized in various places to make it an unhappy one for him. I took part in the event in London, outside the Tesla dealership in Park Royal.
THERE AND BACK
I caught the 7:42 train from King’s Lynn to London King’s Cross. I had been speculating over the possibility of travelling on the Metropolitan line to Rayner’s Lane and then going back down the Piccadilly line to Park Royal, but an announcement to the effect that the Metropolitan was experiencing delays saw me change plans and go the direct route along the Piccadilly. I arrived early, and did my best to assist with the setup. I did not stay hugely long, and was back home in time to catch most of the T20I between the England and India women’s teams. Most of the time I was there was spent with a sign urging passing motorists to “HONK IF YOU HATE ELON” – and quite a few did so.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photographs starting at King’s Lynn Station and ending with a distant view of Ely Cathedral on the return train journey…
This arch is part of the remnants of a viaduct that carried what is now the Hammersmith and City line by way of a station named Hammersmith Grove Road to Ravenscourt Park for the run to Richmond. Part of the displayA giant ‘unhappy birthday card’The Tesla sign and a protest sign in the same shot.I was delighted to get this picture of the name ‘Covent Garden’ picked out in tiling.
A piece of bizarreness from the IPL and a win for the good guys in Wisconsin, plus a large photo gallery.
My main reason for posting is that I have a large photo gallery to share. However I have a couple of small things to share as well.
AN UNBEATABLE RECORD
I was at work yesterday and by the time I was in a position to tune in to the commentary on the IPL match (Lucknow Super Giants v Punjab Kings) there was no real point doing so as it was obvious which way the match was going and there could be no big finish. However, I did keep a cricinfo tab open. Thus I was able to see with my own eyes the calling of officially the most pointless ‘strategic time out’ ever, and while it might be equalled and I can be certain that will not be surpassed: LSG had scored 171-6 from their 20 overs, and at the end of the 16th over of the reply PBKS were 171-2 – scores level, the chasers with eight wickets standing and four whole overs available in which to get that run! It actually took until the second ball on the resumption for PBKS to complete the job.
WINNING IN WISCONSIN
Ordinarily I probably would not even have been aware of an election of a new judge in Wisconsin, but Elon Musk had been putting huge amounts of money behind one particular candidate in the hope of altering the political balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As far as I am concerned a defeat for Elon the Execrable counts as a win, so I am pleased to be able to say that Musk’s candidate has been defeated.
An account of my involvement in the first Tesla Takedown event, outside the dealership at Park Royal, London. Features a special section on the magnificent Park Royal station.
Yesterday saw the first Tesla Takedown event take place outside the Tesla dealership at Park Royal in west London. I was one of the participants, and this post describes my day.
PREPARATION AND TRAVEL
The event was scheduled to start at 11AM, which necessitated catching the 7:42 ntrain from King’s Lynn and then changing to the Piccadilly line at King’s Cross. I had agreed to meet my sister at King’s Lynn station for the oublic transport element of the journey. Given the importance of making that train I planned to leave my house in North Lynn at 7AM to be absolutely sure that there was no possibility of missing it. The journey to King’s Cross was smooth, and the weather was so benign that had I been religiousI might have reckoned thAt someone up there was on our side and ipso facto opposed to Elon the Execrable. It prpved to be just as well that we had lots of time for the cross London journey on the Piccadilly lin, as this part of the journey saw us delayed. Ironically the problem area was what is usually the quickest portion of a journey onn the Piccadilly line, the non-stop run from Hammersmith to Acton Town (the District line has intermediate stops at Ravenscourt Park, Stamford Brook, Turnham Green and Chiswick Park, in a reversal of the situation between Baker Street and Wembley Park, where save for a stop at Finchley Road the Metroplitan line runs fast, while the Jubilee line stops everywhere). We had just past Turnham Green when the train stopped, and we were then told after a substantial pause that it would move forward before stopping suddenly and then rpoceeding slowly. There was then another unscheduled stoo before Acton Town, followed by precisely the same rigmarole, which was then followed by an announcement that the train would now terminate at South Harrow rather than going on to Rayners Lane. The last few stops of our journey passed without further incident. Park Royal is such a fine station that I am giving it a sectionof its own later in the post. Before moving on, here are the pictures taken between King’s Lynn and just before arrival at Park Roya…
I haven’t seen many churches with solar panels on the roof.
TAKING DOWN TESLA
The Tesla dealership is actually visible as you step out of Park Royal station, and it is located just off the A40 (the main road between London and Oxford – the Oxford Tube bus service was in evidence – four Oxford bound buses passed on our side, and although I did not observe them all probably as many coming into London came the other way. We garnered plenty of support from passing motorists. The principal organizer was asked to take down his handmade banner because it featured a swastika (no one actually seeing it could have interpreted it as supporting that ideology, and it features in the photo gallery at the end of this section, but apparently some drivers had seen the symbol and looked no further before contacting the police. The police were very friendly about it, and the banner was taken down. I spoke to a couple of media people who were covering the event for their publications. I left a little early, feeling the need to get home…
A version of the official publicity shot using the Tesla sign as background taken with my camera. I am in the red top, holding a placard made by my sister.
PARK ROYAL STATION
I noticed a number of very distinctive elements about Park Royal Station, including an ornamental tower that sits on top of a circular ticket hall, and a covered walkway which links Platform two (eastbound, towards central London) to the rest of the station. At the top of the tower are roundels on three sides with a concrete ‘shadow roundel’ on the fourth side. I have included on ‘rogue’ picture in this section, a picture of a ‘Middlesex shield’ which is not actually anything to do with the station but cannot be put anywhere else in this post. Enjoy this splendid example of station architecture…
A view of the platforms from the street.A close up of the tower roundel.A map showing times to each station on the Piccadilly line.
HOMEWARD BOUND
As suggested by the last pictures in the Park Royal gallery the Piccadilly line was srill not back on peak form by the time I was heading back. I did consider heading for Hanger Lane on the Central line, but although it is marked as walkable signage outside Park Royal station is non-existent, and so in the end I settled for Park Royal. By the time an eastbound train arrived it was jam packed, and I alighted at Ealing Common, where there was the possibility of a District line train (and change to the Hammersmith & City at Hammersmith), but in the event the next eastbound train was another Piccadilly line service, and had lots of space on it. I got to King’s Cross with a fair wait until the next train to King’s Lynn, and ate the sandwiches I had prepared in the morning while waiting for the train. The journey back to King’s Lynn was uneventful. Here are my remaining photos from the public transport part of the journey…
Another variation on the roundel theme – here there is a roundel shape in the glass, but it has not been coloured.A bronze statue of one of the greats of locomotive engineering, Nigel Gresley.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Of course I have been taking my usual kind of photographs as well…
The 2024 General Election is done and dusted and the votes have been tallied up. This post looks at some of the features of that election. I have deliberately overlooked one party because of the way the official coverage has been gushing over them while ignoring at least equally deserving cases.
THE LEAST CONVINCING “LANDSLIDE” EVER
Keir Starmer is Prime Minister, and has a colossal majority. However, that majority is based on the votes of only about 20% of the electorate (35% of the votes on a very moderate 60% turnout). This is an artefact of the outmoded first past the post (FPTP) system still used in UK elections. FPTP works when and only when basically every vote goes to one of two parties. When, as it in this election, a number of parties figure prominently it throws up some very bizarre outcomes, including Starmer and his version of Labour having a thumping parliamentary majority based on half a million votes FEWER than Corbyn and his version of the Labour party polled five years ago. Having pointed out that this election is not nearly as much of a triumph for Starmer as it might look (it has been a total, unequivocal disaster for the Tories) I am of course pleased that the Tories are gone after 14 years. The moment at which Labour’s confirmed seat count ticked to the magic 326 (half of 650 plus one for an absolute majority) was one to cherish – North East Somerset & Hanham, where the odious Jacob Rees-Mogg was the Tory candidate went to Labour.
OTHER FEATURES
The Liberal Democrats did superbly, overturning some seemingly impregnable Tory majorities (the scale of the disaster for the former governing party can be estimated by the fact that 12 people who had come into this election as cabinet ministers came out of it as ex-MPs), and becoming the third largest party in parliament. The Scottish National Party were all but obliterated.
In Islington, where Jeremy Corbyn, constituency MP for 41 years, had been thrown out of the Labour Party, who then imposed a private healthcare entrepreneur (a role at odds with everything the Labour Party should stand for) named Praful Nargund as the official candidate, was running as an independent. All of the polling companies ended with egg on their faces on this one – every last one of them had Nargund, with the benefit of having the Labour Party machine behind him winning comfortably, but it was Corbyn who won comfortably.
A number of left wing independents got in elsewhere as well, including eliminating Jon Ashworth, set to become a minister in the new government.
The Green Party, without the resources to mount full campaigns in every seat, but with candidates on the ballot paper everywhere, had targetted four seats for serious campaigning: Brighton Pavilion, which they held but had a new candidate as the incumbent had retired, Bristol Central (a new seat, where the Labour candidate who had been incumbent MP for its predecessor seat would have been a minister had she been elected), Waveney Valley (a new seat, where the predecessor seat was Tory held) and North Herefordshire (going into this election as close as one got to a safe Tory seat). All four of these seats now have Green MPs – Carla Denyer in Bristol Central, Adrian Ramsay in Waveney Valley, Sian Berry in Brighton Pavilion and Ellie Chowns in North Herefordshire. In addition a number of Greens came second in other constituencies. Sian Berry polled over twice as many votes as Labour in Brighton Pavilion, Carla Denyer has a majority of over 10,000 in Bristol Central (and Labour poured resources into both seats).
In my part of the world James Wild retained his seat, but his majority plummeted from 20,000 to 5,000, while in one of the last results to be officially confirmed Southwest Norfolk MP and former Prime Minister (for a risible 44 days) Liz Truss lost her seat to Labour’s Terry Jermy. Since both Boris Johnson’s former seat in Uxbridge and David Cameron’s former seat in Witney also changed hands that meant that three former prime minister’s seats fell in a single election.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
This is now my reserve cafetiere……because I spotted this going for 50p in a yard sale.
A look at developments in the match between Essex and Somerset in the county championship, a mention of yesterday’s elections and a photo gallery.
It is a grim, grey day here in Norfolk (after several fine ones), but there is play happening in the County Championship. The main body of this post will look at developments in that match so far. Yesterday saw voting in various local, regional and Police and Crime Commissioner elections (only the latter for us in King’s Lynn, but I made sure to vote – Green of course). Results are coming in, and the Tories, from an already poor starting position, have had an absolute nightmare overall. Labour, the main opposition party, are not benefitting as much from this as they ought – smaller parties and well organized Independents have been gaining more in general. In relative terms the biggest gainers are my own Green party, who have gained a number of seats, including at least one, in Peterborough, where it looks very like Tory votes went mainly to Labour and some to the hard right Reform UK while a greater number of previous Labour voters switched to Green, resulting overall in “Green GAIN from Conservative”.
SOMERSET IN CONTROL
Somerset won the toss and put Essex in to bat. Dean Elgar was out cheaply, which is something of a rarity, and Somerset built on that start, picking up wickets throughout the morning. By lunch the score was 97-5. Essex suffered a body blow not very long after the resumption, when Westley was bowled by Lewis Gregory for 43 to make it 111-6. A rash shot by Harmer, a great delivery from Pretorius to bowl Harry Duke and a good delivery from Jake Ball to find the edge of Sam Cook’s bat have added to the wicket tally. Essex are now 150-9, with Snater (born in Zimbabwe, now officially Dutch and a cousin of former England white ball international Jason Roy) having brought up that score with a four. Somerset have bowled very well overall and are currently well placed.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I got off one stop earlier than usual on my way back from work yesterday as the weather was ideal for walking . This enabled me to photograph St Faith’s Churcb
A mention of goings on at The Oval, A mention of James and Sons recent auctions and a mention of leafleting for the Green Party, plus large numbers of photos.
As I type this England and Australia men’s teams are doing battle at The Oval in the last match of a superb Ashes summer. This post starts with a brief look at what is going on there.
‘BAZBALL’ V ‘BOYCSBALL’
Yesterday England were put into bat, and managed 283 from 54 overs, Brook leading the way with 85. Australia by the close were 61-1. This morning saw an utterly craven batting effort from the Australians, with lady luck saving them on several occasions. Labuschagne in particular seemed to be digging in for a draw even though it was only the second morning! His dismissal for 9 off 82 balls brightened things up a little, but not much. Fortunately the afternoon session has seen Australia being punished for their wilfully slow scoring. Three wickets have fallen since the interval, two to Broad and one to Anderson. This leaves Australia currently 153-5, 130 runs behind England. If Australia, as is currently more than possible, end up behind on first innings they will have only themselves to blame.
A BANKNOTE AUCTION
James and Sons auctioneers, my employers, had a two day sale this week. Day one was stamps and postal history and seems to have gone well. Day two was banknotes (a huge lifetime collection from all around the world), and went superbly. I will be writing more about this later, but I touch on it briefly today as I secured two lots along the way: Antarctica and Djibouti (the latter containing an item of railwayana). Here are the images (to view an image at full size just click on it) that people got to see during the auction:
Here are some more images taken since I took possession of these notes…
LEAFLETING FOR THE GREEN PARTY
This morning I went to South Wootton to collect some leaflets for Michael de Whalley’s campaign to be elected for the vacant Freebridge seat on Norfolk County Council. I have started delivering them, doing one side of Low Road and all of Old Manor Close on my way home. Here are images of the leaflet:
PHOTOGRAPHS
These photographs come from three sources – my morning walk before work yesterday, my walk home in the evening having alighted at Gaywood and while I was out and about today…
While I was preparing this post for publication Alex Carey became the sixth Aussie to be dismissed this innings, holing out to cover off Root. They are still over 100 adrfit.
A look at some of the stories emerging from the local elections which took place in England yesterday. Also a huge photo gallery.
Yesterday saw local council elections in various parts of the country. Many of the results have now been confirmed, although we are still waiting for quite a lot as well, including my own King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. This post looks at what we know so far.
THE GENERAL PICTURE
The Tories have been taking an absolute hammering. Sir Keir Starmer’s Tory Tribute Act that still has the gall to call itself Labour is basically flat lining, while Independents of various kinds, Liberal Democrats and Greens have been making major gains.
LOCAL INDEPENDENTS
The biggest success by someone standing under an independent designation was by Alan Gibbons in the newly created Orrell Park ward. Gibbons, hounded out of Starmer’s Labour, stood for Liverpool Community Independents and achieved 77% of the vote, while the official Labour candidate managed 19%. There have also been major successes for Independents in South Tyneside and a few other areas.
THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
They have had successes in some deep blue areas, winning seats in the Cotswolds, and also in die-hard Tory Essex – they now control Brentwood Council, having gained three seats yesterday.
THE GREEN PARTY
A record breaking set of elections for my party. They have already gained control of Mid-Suffolk Council, the first time they have had an absolute majority of seats on any council. They are also the largest party on East Hertfordshire council, remarkable given that only a few years ago the Tories held EVERY seat on that council. In Bath they took out the current Mayor, while they have also won a seat in Merstham, Surrey for the first time ever. Other areas that have seen Green successes include Darlington and Worcester. Heather Skibsted, hounded out of Starmer’s Tory Tribute Act of a party, won a seat for the Greens in Peterborough. I await with some eagerness the results from Saint Margarets with St Nicholas ward, next door to me, where there are two Green candidates. In my own ward there were a beggarly three candidates for two seats, two Labour and one Tory. I was seriously tempted to spoil my ballot paper in protest at the paucity of choices, but gritted my teeth and voted to prevent the Tory from getting in – to quote a line that Colleen McCullough assigned to Pompey in one of her series of Roman historical novels, in that case in context of Marcus Favonius, known as ‘Cato’s ape’ because he slavishly imitated the latter, “The ape is not the equal of the master” – even Sir Keir’s abomination of a Labour Party is not as bad the actual Tories.
ACTIVE TRAVEL AND THESE LOCAL ELECTIONS
In a number of seats being contested this time there has been much heat and rather little light around active travel, and associated traffic calming measure such as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). In every seat where this was a significant issue those most virulently opposed to any form of traffic restriction did appallingly and folk in favour of encouraging active travel did well – vociferous as the opponents of such things as LTNs can be they are few in number.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Although this has not been one of my usual posts, it ends with my usual sign off…
A bit about leafleting for the Green Party and a photo gallery.
There are local elections coming up in May. As a member of the Green Party I am delighted that they have two excellent candidates standing in the centre of my town, officially known as St Margaret and St Nicholas Ward (King’s Lynn Minster was St Margaret’s Church before its promotion to being a Minster, while St Nicholas Chapel is it’s North End counterpart). I am helping with the leafleting – I did some yesterday and plan to do more tomorrow. The northern boundary of the ward is marked by a railway spur only a few minutes walk from my house, which means that my leafleting area is all within easy walking range.
GETTING STARTED
I got an email about upcoming campaigns on Thursday evening, noted that one of them was for Rob Archer, a former railway worker who was only just short of being elected first time round, and emailed him to say that I would be round on Saturday morning. Having established that his home was somewhat closer to the South Gate than to the town centre, and with a stated start time of 10:00 I set off at 9:30, duly arrived at 10, and was entrusted with a pile of leaflets and a map of the northern part of the ward, at which point I set off. I did two streets, Wyatt Street (too old to have been named after Danielle Wyatt, but there could be a connection to former Warwickshire and England skipper Bob Wyatt) and Kettlewell Lane on my way home, then I took a short break, and set forth again, polishing off Archdale Street (another with possible cricket connections – England Women’s first ever skipper Betty Archdale, and Somerset keeper the reverend Archdale Palmer Wickham), Eagle Yard, Eastgate Street and their side of Gaywood Road.
THE LEAFLET
The current leaflet, a double sided A4 sheet in the form of a newsletter (which means it has to be folded to fit through almost all letterboxes) is highly impressive:
PHOTOGRAPHS
Yesterday’s activity contributed to a splendid photo gallery, and this morning’s walk augmented it. These pictures both showcase some of the natural sights that King’s Lynn has to offer, and in some cases further illustrate why more Green councillors are badly needed:
Part of the boundary of the ward.A common enough sight from bus windows in the countryside, but I rarely to get to see a pheasant close enough to get a really good picture of it.The detritus of this botched tree planting exercise near the Gaywood River Path is one example of why we need green councillors.
An account of this morning’s walk, a tool for you to use for estimating the extent to which Liz Truss is deluded given the rubbish she spouted to the Sunday Telegraph and the photographs from the walk.
Just a short post today, describing a walk I took this morning.
CHOOSING THE ROUTE
In view of the fact that I will be heading into town for an early supper and intend to set forth in daylight I decided to pick a route that would not overlap with this afternoon’s in any form. I also like to avoid main roads as I have mentioned before (Columbia Way, though it is quite substantial, does not get heavy traffic at any time for the simple reason that is not really on the way to anywhere). Thus I decided to concentrate on Lynn Sport Park and the Gaywood River Path.
THE WALK IN DETAIL
I started out following Columbia Way until I reached Green Park Avenue, which I followed until I got to the start of the footpath that I followed to the edge of Lynn Sport Park. I then diverged onto a minor road that leads to a point near the scout hut. I then followed a rough but walkable path to the scout hut before turning back. I now followed the road alongside the Gaywood River until the point that the river curves away and the road crosses it on a bridge. From there I visited Gaywood Library just in case they had something worth reading. I emerged with four library books in my bag and then headed back across the bridge, before following Swan Lane along the bank of the Gaywood to the start of the Gaywood River Path, which I followed until the path to the Discovery Centre diverged from it. I then headed to Columbia Way, recrossed it and approached my home from the opposite side of the green space in front it that I had used on the way out.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off starts with a bonus feature. Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss was on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph today (many people were having their say about this on social media) demonstrating that she has clearly got a Decree Nisi if not a Decree Absolute from reality. Describing the economic establishment as ‘left wing’ demonstrates that she is beyond barking, but how far beyond I leave up to you (use the map below – I did not feel the District line offered sufficient scope) to decided just where she is in relation to barking:
Barking is in the red circle, and all points east count as ‘beyond Barking’ – where do you put Truss on this map?
aspiblog 