A (very brief) case study on inspiration, some autism related stuff and stuff about sharing, and some of my own photographs – read, enjoy and feel free to share so long as you do so in the right kind of way!
INTRODUCTION
I have a number of things to share today (although today’s blogging won’t quite be on the epic scale of Saturday’s), and with one significant exception for this post I am concentrating on autism related stuff.
A CASE STUDY ON INSPIRATION
One of the treats awaiting me in my inbox this morning was a post on estersblogabout Greenwich. Seeing her pictures of Greenwich inspired to me to created a post on my London transport themed website about Greenwich. The picture below is one of Ester’s, and links to her post about Greenwich:
As well as the picture that I am using as to link to the post I was inspired to create, I have a screenshot from that post below it:
This is part of the image gallery I created for lot 1,001 in James and Sons’ April auction.The screenshot
SHARING AND COMMENTING
I came across an excellent post about sharing and commenting onthesilentwaveblog. Please read this post in full by clicking on thesilentwave graphic below:
A NEW FIND – THE AUTISTIC ACADEMIC
I came across this blog yesterday. The post that caught my attention was titled “Ten Things Autistic Kids Pick Up Faster, Better, and With Less Trauma If They Aren’t Bullied Into Learning Them” and can be read in full by clicking the screenshot below. The PDF of the article to which this piece was responding can still be viewed, although the original article has been taken down (nb – once you have posted something anywhere on the net it is exceedingly hard to remove it, so best to think before you post so you have no need to worry aboiut trying to remove it!).
ANOTHER NEW FIND –
THE UNABASHED AUTIST
As a sample of this blogger I offer you a piece title “This Is Your Solution – To Ruin The Bike?”, which can be accessed by clicking the Unabashed Autist graphic below:
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are some photographs from yesterday to end this post:
We start with some public transport themed pictures (five in total)This display is not as prominent within the station building as it should be.Close ups of each poster.
From the train station to the bus station (while this is not quite a true transport interchange, the distance is only about 200 metres)Some of these pictures were taken yesterday morning, the others yesterday afternoon after my mother had dropped me back in King’s Lynn (near the cemetery, which made the best walking route home obvious – note for those new to this site best in this context does not necessarily mean shortest).
A review of a book in a new find of mine, the Bryant & May series, with a few other bits.
INTRODUCTION
Although the book review is the principal focus of this piece there are a few other bits that I will be sharing afterwards.
A GREAT READ WITH A MINOR QUIBBLE
Those of you who follow my London transport themed website may recall that I posted a review of a book called Off The Rails which featured a team of oddballs collectively known as the Peculiar Crimes Unit (officially the Peculiar part of the title referred to the crimes being investigated as opposed to the investigators but one might think otherwise).
Since reading that book I have taken every opportunity to deepen my acquaintance with Arthur Bryant, John May and their team of oddballs, and The Burning Man is just one of a number of their adventures that I have recently read.
The story in this book features riots provoked in part by misbehaving bankers being used as a cover for a series of murders all of which involve the use of fire. The story has many twists and turns. There are also various subplots, principally the antagonism between the PCU and Superintendent Darren “Missing” Link.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I have every book I have encountered in this series, and heartily recommend it. It is in that spirit that the following is offered (and I hope will be accepted)…
A QUIBBLE
To set the stage, here is a photograph of the paragraph on page 144 that gave rise to the quibble:
How many of you can guess without reading on where my quibble arises?
If you guessed that it was the sentence “He worked with some crazy people, borderline-autistic tech-heads who were likely to turn up at the front door, find no-one home and climb through a window.” score yourself 10 out of 10.
The phrase borderline-autistic is meaningless given that autism is a spectrum condition, and the usage of such a phrase is indicative of what Richard Dawkins terms “the tyranny of the discontinuous mind”. I also take umbrage at the notion of an autistic person responding to finding no one at home by climbing through a window. Finally, as an autistic person who is skilled in the use of computers I still object to the conflation of autism and tech-headedness – while the two traits can go together they do not always do so. Finally, I find the entire sentence lazily reinforces damaging stereotypes about autistic people. To finish this section, although in one sense every post on this blog has an automatic connection to autism, you can find more posts in which I specifically deal with autism here.
In spite of my quibble with a paragraph on page 144 I thoroughly recommend this book.
ANOTHER FIND AT THE BUS STATION
The new information office at King’s Lynn bus station is a treasure trove. My latest find focuses specifically on West Norfolk…
The obverse in full
A close up of the map
The only section of the reverse worth reproducing
PLANS FOR KNIGHT’S HILL
I make no comment as yet on this scheme, which is still at a preliminary stage, just reproducing it in full…
POSITIVE AUTISM AWARENESS CONFERENCE REMINDER
NAS West Norfolk are holding a Positive Autism Awareness Conference at the Duke’s Head Hotel on Friday 15th April. One feature of this conference will be a photographic display by yours truly. I have mentioned this in a number of previous posts.
These buildings span most of the history of this town. The first two buildings you will see are visible from right outside my door.
CLIFTON HOUSE TOWER
More or less due west of my own “compact” flat, this tower is instantly recognizable.
THE GRANARIES
Located on the Purfleet side of Baker Lane car park, and one of the tallest buildings in the town.
THE GUILDHALL
The second most iconic building in King’s Lynn. The checkerboard frontage is unique, although a couple of other buildings in the town have small bits of the same in their walls and there is one church in Norwich that is not entirely dissimilar.
GREYFRIARS TOWER
The last remnant of the Franciscan Friary, where at one time Nicholas of Lynn, who certainly sailed as far as Iceland and may have reached the American Coast over a century before Columbus, was resident.
BANK LANE ARCHES
Another remnant, in between Greyfriars and the Library.
THE LIBRARY
An amazing and important building. This construction in brick and carr provides a vital service to the residents of our town.
HAYES AND STORR
A solicitor’s office in a very handsome building that happens to be almost directly opposite the library.
THE METHODIST CHAPEL
Right next door to Hayes and Storr.
THE REMAINS OF ST JAMES’ CHAPEL
One wall section is all that now remains of this chapel, which was also a workhouse in the Victorian age.
THE RED MOUNT CHAPEL
THE CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST
This church sits right at the town end of St John’s Walk.
KING’S LYNN TRAIN STATION
This station, which opened in the 1850s, has recently been restored. It is very close to the centre of the town, and there is the option of a scenic route – follow the footpath down past the church of St John the Evangelist, then diagonally across The Walks to the library, down Millfleet to the river front, along the river front as far as the Purfleet and approach the Tuesday Market Place by way of King Street, thereby circumventing the Vancouver Quarter entirely.
A SECTION OF OLD TOWN WALL
Very little of King’s Lynn’s old town wall survives, but close to Morrisons and the Primary School this section can be seen.
HIGHGATE METHODIST CHAPEL
Much smaller than the main Methodist chapel on London Road, this building is located just off Littleport Street, still very close to the town centre.
AN OLD BUNKER?
I cannot think what else this building which sits next to a small river, just off Littleport Street, could be.
THE LYNN MUSEUM
Admission to this museum, which adjoins the bus station, is free.
THE NEW BUS STATION BUILDING
Following extensive redevelopment work (visit this post for more pictures) the new bus station opened in June of last year. This is the building that accompanied the external developments.
THE MAJESTIC CINEMA
There have been plans to extend this cinema for some time, but for the moment it remains the same as ever.
THE LYNN RESTAURANT
While both the quality and the prices at this restaurant are very acceptable, it is the restoration work that has been done to the building above it that chiefly interests me.
ST NICHOLAS CHAPEL
This chapel has recently been repaired and restored, and the results of all this work are spectacular.
There has been a chapel on this site since 1146
This image shows all four large cushions that comprise the timeline – it is followed by eight individual images that show close ups of parts of the cushions.
The organ – dates from 1899
THREE BUILDINGS FROM THE TUESDAY MARKET PLACE
This building houses the West Nordolk Disability Service among others.Not to be confused with the establishment in Norwich where James and Sons hold some of their auctions, this is The Maids Head, King’s LynnThe Dukes Head, where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference will be taking place on April 15th. This photo was constrained by the presence of the Mart. After a fortnight in Lynn, the Mart splits in to two to go to various other places around the country – but it is only in Lynn that you get to see everything.
CODA: KING’S LYNN’S NEWEST CONSTRUCTION
A new wind turbine has just been built near the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was built very rapidly – there was no sign of anything there on Tuesday, by Thursday morning the tower was in place, and by Friday morning it was complete (my bus travels this way on work mornings). Here are a couple of pictures, taken through the window of the bus on Friday…
An account of a walk yesterday morning, the journeys to and from East Rudham, and Sunday lunch in East Rudham, with a subsection devoted to bees enjoying wild marjoram.
INTRODUCTION
This post concerns yesterday, and us set part in King’s Lynn and part in my parents village, East Rudham. A running theme is nature. I hope you will enjoy it and that some at least of you will choose to share it.
PART 1: KING’S LYNN, MORNING
It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I decided to take a long walk from my flat, planned to finish at the bus station in time to catch the 11:55 bus to arrive in East Rudham for Sunday lunch. Right at the start, the upper Purfleet yielded these pictures…
South Quay then yielded a few more good pictures…
A gull swimming in the Great Ouse
A few minutes later came one of the regular highlights –
CORMORANT PLATFORM
The set of pictures I have this time indicate precisely why I have given this structure which sits at the meeting point of the Nar and the Great Ouse the name I have…
Before leaving the river there was just time for a couple of shots looking back at the town…
On leaving the river I headed through Harding’s Pits, which at this time of year means…
BUTTERFLIES
It is difficult to capture butterflies on camera, but I got a few pics…
After this, the next pictures worth sharing came from near the end of the walk, along a stretch of river near Morrison’s…
My photographic comment on Australia’s recent batting performances!
A VARIATION ON THE USUAL BUS JOURNEY
A combination of a spectacular day and herd mentality increased the journey time to Hunstanton and the sea to two hours and rendered the Knight’s Hill junction with the A148 effectively unusable for buses, so the X8 towards Fakenham went by way of Leziate, Ashwicken and Roydon joining the A148 just short of Hillington and its first out of town stop. Thanks to this intelligent alteration of the route the bus was only a couple of minutes late arriving at East Rudham.
PART TWO: EAST RUDHAM
Following a delicious lunch of roast beef the afternoon was spent sitting out in the courtyard outside my parents house, until it was time for me to get the bus home. I was reading the book by Robert Bakker that I mentioned in a previous post – keep an eye for a review in the near future – and also endeavouring to do photographic justice to…
THE BEES
As well as being useful for bringing out the full flavour of lamb, the wild marjoram that grows in abundance just outside my parents door is much appreciated by bees. Bees are a vitally important part of the ecosystem and are under ever increasing threat from the combination of the insensate greed of pesticide companies and the cravenness of governments (the latter do not have the guts to stand up to the former). Their activities so close to where I was sitting were an irresistable opportunity for the only sort of shooting I am interested in – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530!
THE RETURN JOURNEY
The bus turned up precisely when it was scheduled to, and until it hit the now customary traffic jam on Gaywood Road (at which point I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way) it ran exactly to schedule all the way.
PART THREE: KING’S LYNN AGAIN
In this last section I am going to share some pictures from yesterday evening and also the pictures I got of the bus station immediately before setting out…
The new London Connections map, one of the many things that can be obtained from the visitor’s centre at King’s Lynn Bus Station.On the reverse side the whole of the South East.
The front of the vistor’s centre and the Lynn museum
Focus on the visitor’s centreThe clock, courtesy of King’s Lynn Civic Society.The barrier at stand C – interleaving Captain Vancouver and the Custom House.
This post deals with the redevelopment of my local bus station, a process which began in January, and has finally reached the stage at which all bus services will once again be departing from the bus station. You could therefore say that this is a celebration of the ending of one cause of disruptions.
THE NEW BUS STATION
APPROACHES TO KING’S LYNN
King’s Lynn is a splendid town, badly let down by the ways in which people approach it. Neither the bus station nor the train station drop people in particularly good locations, and the main approach by car, via London Road is not beautiful either. However, after almost six months of work and attendant disruption to services, at least the bus station now looks presentable. I will end this section with a link to a previous post about King’s Lynn and both sides of a new promotional document for the town…
THE REDEVELOPMENT
Work started on the redevelopment on January 6th, but the big disruptions did not hit until March, when services heading south started departing from Portland Street and northbound buses made use of the only three stands still available at the bus station. In the week beginning on May 18th all was confusion (we had been warned about the following week), as northbound buses started making use of two of the new stands, which were ready for use but no one had thought to advertise this! The following week was the one week in which northbound buses did not depart from the bus station – they made use of Clough (pronounced Clow not Cluff) Lane instead.
Then it was back to the bus station for good, and eventually an announcement appeared stating that all services would resume running from the redeveloped bus station from June 29th (today). I thought to myself “I’ll believe that when I see it” but decided I would call in at the bus station just in case it did happen, and it had.
THE BUS STATION TODAY
I took various photographs to show what the bus station now looks like, including threeKing’s Lynn Transport Interchange from the car park above Sainsbury’s (the most elevation I could gain). I hope that you enjoy these photos, which will conclude the post, and that you will be inspired to share…
This departure board was the first novelty that greeted me.The new guard fences at the new bays – interleaved pictures of the Custom House and Captain vancouver)
The board at stand D (I could not get a clear shot of the one at stand E which I shall actually be using).The first of two shots of the frontage of the new Visitor’s Centre
A historical information board.A thoroughly modern map of King’s LynnA circular bench.
Stand E, whence Fakenham buses will depart.The first of three shots from such elevation as I could gain.
The match between Scotland and Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart is at the halfway stage and has already seen a record set and another equalled.
Kumar Sanggakara kept his appointment with a century, becoming the first to achieve the feat in four successive ODIs. His century was matched by one from Tillekaratne Dilshan and the main course was followed by an explosive 51 from Angelo Matthews as Sri Lanka ran up 363 from their 50 overs. In amongst this carnage Josh Davey took three wickets, taking him up to 14 for the tournament and temporarily leading wicket taker, one ahead of Trent ‘the conductor’ Boult. That figure of 14 wickets for the tournament also ties Eddo Brandes of Zimbabwe for most wickets ever taken by a bowler for an associate member at a world cup (in 1992 Zimbabwe had yet to be promoted to full member status).
The Bellerive seems to be a serendipitous ground for great things to happen at – it was here that Ireland edged out Zimbabwe in a thriller just a few days ago. The word serendipitous derives from the wondrous island encountered by Sindbad the Sailor in his sixth voyage, the Arabic name of which is rendered in English translation as Serendip, Serendib or Sarandib. The name by which this island is now known? Sri Lanka.
I do not see this game developing into a Zimbabwe v Ireland style thriller, especially with Kyle Coetzer, the Aberdonian with a South African surname having gone to the second ball of Scotland’s reply.
As those familiar with this blog know I never leave you without sharing some pictures…
Work on what will be the Northbound exit from the new bus station.Gaywood Clock through the window of an X8.A lacewing on the inside window of an X8 on the return journey.A close up of the same lacewing.A new dawn (something English cricket needs) breaking over King’s LynnMy new bathroom window – I also have secondary glazing on the High Street side of the flat.A glimpse into the Jewish Cemetery, Millfleet, King’s Lynn
These swans, swimming in the Nar, were a trifle uncooperative.
Moorhen about to take the plunge……And now happily swimming.
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