London Lights - 26 November 2006

Christmas in London is a special time to look at the lights and shop windows. The ‘big name’ retailers certainly put a lot of work and planning into their window displays. Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges and so on provide a fantastic free show for the passers-by and since we ended up adding to the takings in two of those retailers, I guess their efforts must be worthwhile as a return on investment.

One never seems to be able to find about some ‘happenings’ beforehand and often we just come across things as they happen. So it was today, a parade of TVR sports cars through Piccadilly Circus. Hundreds of owners converged on London and ultimately presented a petition to Downing St, protesting against the proposed closure of the TVR UK production facility.










Other London freebies are premieres, if you can find out about them beforehand. Today Nicole Kidman, Robin Williams, Elijah Wood and others were in Leicester Square for the premiere of Happy Feet. Unfortunately the ‘great shot’ of Nicole was blurred – my paparazzo days are over!

And always available are the free shots of the great sites that make London such a special destination.

Our faithful Fujifilm F10 falters - 25 November 2006

Observant readers of this blog will have noticed that since 28th August (45 days after the warranty expired) there has been a small dark blob top centre of the photos. It was especially noticeable against blue sky. Lately a much larger splodge appeared in the lower left quadrant, most noticeably between the spires of Southwell Minster. Again, it showed up worst against a blue sky.

I sent off samples to Fuji and they informed me that the standard repair cost was £119 but they would generously trade-in the faulty one for £40 off a replacement. Originally the F10 cost us £221 and since we have shot about 11000 frames with it that works out at around 2p per shutter click.

Much web browsing later we decided to stick with Fuji because the xD cards fit very few other cameras and we especially liked the low light abilities of the F10. The natural successor seemed to be the F30 and as this was one of the models offered by Fuji on the trade-up deal we took the plunge. Bang goes another £160.

The whole process was handled in a most efficient manner: I sent my first email to Fuji on Sunday afternoon and the replacement camera was delivered to my office on Thursday.

Although Saturday’s weather was indifferent we felt we had better venture outside to try it out. Initial reaction: we are quite impressed.

Autumn walks - 17 & 18 November 2006

The weather synchronized perfectly with the weekend.

Saturday dawned frosty and sunny so we set off due east, for the coast. After a lengthy spell of chaos, enduring jammed roads on the North Circular; we eventually made our way past a closed-off flyover, and continued our journey to Tilbury. The Fort there was once an important guard post on the Thames River route into London with a grand gateway that was simply there to impress people passing by on the Thames. Nowdays, from the river, most of the gate would be obscured by the Thames flood defences.

Further down the Thames estuary, is the town of Southend-on-sea. It is a typical British seaside town, (this means amusement arcades, amusement parks, masses of fish and chip shops, and general tat, not sand castles on the beach) but its claim to fame is the longest pier in the world. This needs to stretch past the shallow water at low tide into the Thames channel. The pier is 1.5 miles long, and a railway provides an easy way to reach the end. We choose to ride out, and walk back -very pleasant on such a beautiful afternoon.


Sunday was also fine and frosty: a perfect day to do a walk though Hainault Forest and enjoy the autumn colours. We finished the day with a drive through nearby Enfield forest. The trees there were absolutely stunning, a bright gold against the blue sky.

Robin Hood et al - 11 & 12 November 2006

Armistice weekend marked the end of the Grainger touring year for 2006.

We set off for Nottingham hoping for some lovely autumn foliage, stopping first at Bolsover Castle. This was basically built as a party venue by Sir Charles Cavendish,in the 17th century. His 'Little Castle' has survived with it's original lavish wall and ceiling paintings. His son, the first Duke of Newcastle built the Terrace Range, now a ruin, and the Riding School, which is still in excellent condition.

We then did a five-mile walk through Sherwood Forest. Some of the trees had turned a lovely golden colour. The Major Oak, said to have been a hiding place for Robin Hood, was still a stubborn green. After our walk through Robin's wood, we felt obliged to watch the very poor BBC TV production of Robin Hood that evening.

On Sunday we did a circular drive starting at the town of Southwell with it's inspiring Minister. Poignantly, we happened to be there for the two-minute’s silence of Remembrance Sunday, in a place that has provided solace and comfort for thousands of bereaved and suffering folk during it's 1000-year history.



From there we drove through an area known as the Dukeries, as these were estates owned by four dukes in the 18th and 19th centuries. We visited Clumber Park, the estate of the 2nd to 7th Dukes of Newcastle. The Duke’s Drive is a 3-mile double avenue of lime trees, the longest lime tree avenue in Europe, - looking beautiful in their autumn colours. The house was demolished in 1937 and all that remains is the park, the Chapel, the kitchen garden and some estate buildings.

Our tour finished at the lovely town of Newark-on-Trent. This town has it all: a picturesque Castle ruin on a river; interesting historical buildings many of which face the large market square; a beautiful church; and possibly the narrowest building in Britain. Links to Robin Hood can even be found here, as the Castle is where King John died.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Winter has arrived late, but with glorious sunshine and frosty mornings.

We started Saturday, the 4th, with a visit to Framlingham Castle. Although a “ruin” it still looks imposing on the outside. But apart from some more modern additions, is just a shell inside. English Heritage has developed an enjoyable high-level wall walk, which gives great views of the surrounding countryside.

After the castle we did a walk around the town of Framlingham, an attractive country town.

A drive to the coast brought us to the equally attractive town of Aldeburgh. From here we did a circular walk to another picturesque seaside town called Thorpeness. Its icon would have to be ‘The House In The Clouds' built originally as a water tower. The walk back to Aldeburgh was along the beach past a fascinating scuptlure based on the scallop.

We then had a look round Ipswich, which has some fine old buildings. One of these is Christchurch Mansion, which is a beautiful old Tudor mansion. The entire mansion is open, and furnished in period style, both upstairs and in the extensive servants quarters and utility rooms. They also have a collection of Constable and Gainsborough paintings as both of these artists lived and worked locally.

On Sunday we wended our way south from our overnight accommodation at Stowmarket, passing through Hadleigh and Nayland with their attractive buildings and enjoyed a walk at Tiptree on our way to Maldon, an attractive port on an estuary with numerous sailing barges tied up at the wharf.

Being the closest Sunday to All Saints, it was fitting that the Tiptree walk turned for home at the All Saints Church, a small church miles away from any houses and now surrounded on four sides by a golf course.

Bristol beckons - 28 & 29 October 2006

To complete our alliterative month: Bellingham; Baldock; and Birmingham, we set off for Bristol. Saturday's highlight was a visit to the SS Great Britain. This ship, designed by the famous engineer Brunel, was launched in 1843. It was the first ship to be made of iron, the first to use a propeller instead of paddle-wheels, the first with a balanced rudder, in fact the largest and most technically innovative ship at that time. After a long and eventful life it was, in 1970, rescued from the seabed in the Falklands, and brought back to Bristol and is now on display in the dry-dock where it was originally built. Given that the typical life for a ship at that time was 20 years, it is truly remarkable that, 160 years later, we can still go aboard.

It is an excellent exhibition: Not only can you take a tour of the ship and see the cabins and saloons, reconstructed, as they originally were, you can tour the kitchens, sailor’s quarters and engine room. But just as interesting is the chance to walk on the bed of the dry dock, and view the hull of the ship, the state-of-the-art balanced rudder and the revolutionary propeller, all under a glass sea. This glass sea is hermetically sealed and the humidity below the water line is kept below 20% RH as this is, apparently, the only way to halt the process of corrosion.

Our other visit of the day was to see the coral reef at the Wildwalk exhibition. This complex is a great place to take the family on a wet day, but sadly the walk-though coral reef, billed as the first in Europe, was not worth the entrance price. We finished the wet day at the Industrial History Museum, also on the waterfront.

It is one of the interesting facets of visiting places in the UK is that some labels take on a whole new meaning. What are simply ‘Southdown’ or ‘Romney’ sheep, ‘Jersey’ cows or ‘Ayrshire’ bulls back home in NZ, take on a whole new dimension when you walk the South Downs or drive through the Romney Marshes or Ayrshire. Similarly one does not think of the sturdy old Bristol Freighter, a common site from my youth, as coming from Bristol, it is just a name. So, it was interesting to see the display on the history of Bristol aircraft, to see old Bristol cars etc at the Bristol Industrial History Museum.


Sunday was a beautiful day. After a circular walk that returned along the coastal path to Clevedon, we went to have a look at Tyntesfield. This linked neatly into our tour of the SS Great Britain the previous day as Tyntesfield belonged to the Gibbs family, who purchased the ship in 1850 and used it as a passenger ship to Australia. The Gibbs family were just merchants and traders until one of their agents signed an exclusive deal to ship guano in from South America, making them extremely wealthy almost overnight. As one contemporary (and probably envious) commentator said, “...[they] got rich from the turds of birds.”

The house is large and impressive. The NT only purchased it recently and restoration work is still in early stages. When Richard Gibbs, the last Gibbs to live there, died in 2001 his will decreed that house and contents be sold and the proceeds distributed to 19 nieces, nephews, cousins etc as his younger brother had indicated he did not want to inherit the stately pile. The National Trust launched a public campaign to raise money to buy it - and to prevent Kylie Minogue or Madonna from doing so. With a rather large grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund the NT closed a deal after a 26 hour meeting with the executors and agents. One interesting condition of the NHMF grant was that the NT had to open the doors to the public within 10 weeks of getting the keys. This shortened the usual NT opening timescale by about 8 years and enabled us to visit.

How the other half lived - 21 & 22 October 2006

The weekend was spent in and around Birmingham, starting on Saturday with the Tolkien Trail. The first house his family lived in after returning from South Africa is still in an area of Birmingham, which used to be the village of Sarehole.

The Sarehole Mill is open and must look just as it did to Tolkein. Nearby is Moseley Bog, the inspiration for the ‘Old Forest’ where Tom Bombadil lived. We then drove a few miles west to see the “Two Towers” (one a folly and one part of the Waterworks): inspiration for the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.



From there drove further west to Wightwick Manor. This house was built in 1887 and extended in 1893. The intention was to build a house which looked as if it had always been there, but to include all mod-cons of the time.


One of the first six homes in England to have electricity, it also had central heating and would have been extremely comfortable. We loved it, and, from the external appearance, were certainly fooled into thinking it was a Tudor house that had been lived in for generations. Sadly, it was actually only lived in for 50 years.

On Sunday we took a very different tour through a series of homes, also operated by the National Trust. They have opened up the last remaining example of the 43,000 “Courts”, Back-to-back housing complexes, which were the standard form of working class accommodation in Birmingham from the early 1800s to the 1960s.



The tour started in a house as it was in 1840, no lighting or plumbing, and we learnt the history of the actual occupants. As we moved through the five different dwellings we moved forward in time, until we heard about the final tenant, a tailor’s workroom and shop, only vacated in 2002 when the Trust took over.

This tour was excellent, and, as with all National Trust tours gave a glimpse of a life style we can only imagine. Usually this is because the lifestyle in the “big house” was several orders of magnitude away from what we could ever hope to experience. In this instance it is our fairly normal lives that would beyond the imaginings of the inhabitants of “Court 15”. This was one of the smaller Courts so there would only be some 60 people sharing the same three outdoor, non-flush, toilets and two laundries; putting their tallow candles in tin boxes to stop the rats eating them; sharing the same tin bath between the 11 families on a daily roster; and living out their lives in a 60 sq m yard.