Thursday Thirteen feat. a blackbird

1. We are still staying in the woods, in the Scottish lodge for the rest of this week.
2. It's one of those buildings that is kind of upside down, with the bedrooms downstairs and the living space upstairs
3. This works well affording a much better vantage point to spot red squirrels, rabbits and other wildlife from the balcony.
4. Local wildlife appears curious of visitors and when on nearby paths, woodland creatures will never be more than a few strides away.
5. Even the balcony gets its share of visitors. One was the blackbird shown at the top of this post.
6. Indeed, so excited was the blackbird at the prospect of getting some crumbs of shortbread, that it returned with one of its young.
7. The younger bird looked about the same size as the adult, but didn't have such a great sense of flight.
8. It took off and promptly flew into the glass of the balcony, with a gentle plink sound.
9. It was a low speed flying accident and the bird reverted to a nest-type chirping as it waited for the adult to either rescue it or feed it.
10. A few minutes later it took off again, this time getting itself caught in a space on the balcony between a corner wall and a chair. It could see through the chair, but couldn't work out how to fly/climb out of the space. Instead there as a great flurry of wings and feathers as it oscillated up and down in the space.
11. I rescued it by moving the chair and it promptly flew into the glass again - another low speed plink.
12. This time it flopped to a gap underneath the glass and I managed to persuade it to hop underneath and then to flutter down to the freedom of the grass below.
13. Undeterred, it immediately set about pecking the grass like a true professional, with no hint of its recent adventure.

Wordless Wednesday

Baaa,

lodge time

A few days back in our lodge in the woods.

One of our near neighbours is quite well known in this part of Royal Deeside. Yes, the Queen spends summertime in Balmoral which, whilst bigger than our place, shares the same local shops.

Unfortunately, there's been some drastic weather since the last time we were here. Last December the nearby village was flooded when the Dee burst its banks and it is only now getting itself back together.

All the way from Ballater along the river there's signs of damage, such as this Victorian suspension bridge across the river at Cambus O' May. Usually we'd cross here on foot, but since the destruction of last December it is closed.

Separate from the floods, the historic timber railway station buildings in Ballater suffered a major fire. The building is listed and there is much activity to put it all back together again.

It used to be the end of the passenger line back in Queen Victoria'a reign and she'd make her way from the station to Balmoral by royal coach.

Rumour has it that she opposed the extension of the passenger service past her own estate, although we did spot one of the ex-railway buildings in Braemar.

walled in or out?

Travelling to Scotland, we spent some time along the remains of Hadrian's Wall. Originally 15 to 18 feet high and running across the whole of the Great Britain between Solway Firth in the west and and Wallsend on Tyne in the east.

Built in 122 AD, supposedly to keep the 'barbarians' from the north outside of the Roman Empire, I suspect there was also a symbolism to the original bright white colour of the wall and its Roman mile spaced turrets and fortified checkpoints.

Quite a statement along the lines of beyond it 'there be dragons'.

As well as the wall's obvious military deterrent effect, there were also also a couple of wide ditches and a set of 'entanglements' added in the English side, so it looked as much about keeping people in the Empire as about keeping people out.

After Hadrian left, his successor decide to build another less well0known wall further north. Hadrian's wall started to become maintained by non-Legion locals and eventually fell into disrepair, being raided for its stone, which is now well dispersed in local stately homes, cathedrals and churches.

I'm sure there's some 'history repeats itself' lessons in all of this?

not qi working

A blip in communications at present.

I've been using Qi wireless charging for my iPhone, that's the kind where it doesn't need to be plugged in to the charger.

As they say, it was working fine, but recently seems to have plummeted to only give very short charged time for the phone.

I thought I'd thrown my extended battery into the bag for this trip, but unfortunately not, so I'm now nursing the phone until I can get properly re-wired.

Inconvenient, and like being in a pre-mobile world, but I'll survive.

head for the high lands

We've been heading north, this time to Scotland, but only after a detour through the Lake District. There will be a contrast between the busy roads of the Lakes and tranquility as we reach the Highlands.

Thursday Thirteen (V60) - Colleen sent me #TT #T13

Following yesterday's half Wordless Wednesday, I thought I'd try a Thursday Thirteen. (Hence today's picture of forget-me-nots)

1. Actually, it was Colleen's suggestion that I tried the #T13, which had also slid out of my regular blogging.
2. I can always remember that #TT was much harder to spontaneously complete than a #WW
3. The last one of mine I can easily track down was from 2012 and is linked to here:
4. I'm guessing that the gradual drift towards ever shorter messaging, such as twitter, brought about the shift away from WW and TT.
5. When I looked at the links for Wordless Wednesday, the highest number of participants in a single week seemed to be around 284. That's a lot of participation. Check it out here.
6. I probably started contribution to Thursday Thirteen back in around 2006.
7. There was another fun site called Michelle back in those days, too. Some will remember the message "Michelle sent me"
8. Thursday Thirteen was a good place to comment about a few of things I was doing that would maybe not get their own posts.
9. Like I've unpacked from last week's trip away and am about to start packing for the trip which starts tomorrow.

10. I'll be including walking boots, although I notice the temperature is currently about 9 degrees C cooler, where we are going
11. The bought in Switzerland Lowa walking boots got thrown away after they disintegrated in a field last year during a pop concert. A simultaneous de-sole-ing of both boots. We suspect they had been through a tumble dryer.
12. My current Lowa boots are light weight, although I still have some very high mileage heavy duty Vibram soled leather ones in the garage.
13. We'll be starting tomorrow's journey very early, with an aim to miss some of the commuter traffic.

Something else I remember is that I used to keep a rolling list of possible TT thoughts. The kind that spring into mind when on the top deck of a bus, or waiting for a tube train. I guess I'd better start that again. But first, back to the packing.

around a week ago in the north east #ww

This could have been a Wordless Wednesday post, although it looks as if WW has quietly disappeared.

Update (found it!) here

Anyway, marvel at the almost #ww blue car safely docked adjacent to the Sage spaceship.

Whatever weather, this rooftop parking spot is a great place to absorb epic north-eastern vistas.

in the Heights, London. @InTheHeightsLDN

Along at the weekend to Granary Square to see the excellent In The Heights, a show set in Washington Heights, New York. The show shares the same theatre as The Railway Children, and the show plays between two sets of banked seats, along two platforms of Kings Cross station.

The concept has allowed the bar to receive a US-subway style makeover, and presumably a daily repurposing to a Southern Railway waiting room for the other show.

Understandably, In The Heights will have broad comparisons to West Side Story and Rent, although this is sufficiently its own piece and with its modern twists.

It's a really high energy show, with a great cast of actors, who all sing and dance with zeal. As a musical it has been around since the mid '90s, originally doing well and winning plenty of awards in New York. This version has been in London since late last year, and its run has been extended.

They'd run out of programmes and there were quite a few substitutions in the cast, so I've no idea who was in the version we saw, except to be able to say that they were all great. It didn't feel in the least like a second cast. I'd happily see the same gang do the show again. Similarly the snappy band, hidden away yet ripping up some storming numbers.

The style is a hybrid, mixing rap, hip-hop and Latino in this bustling New York offshoot of the Dominican Republic. It's fundamentally simple storylines with the style and vibrancy of the players keeping the entertainment values dialled up high. We were in row D, very close to the action, and immersed in this very particular part of Manhattan for a couple of hours.

shapeshifting shopping

Part of the journey last week took me past the big tin sheds of modern fulfilment centres, as part of the new normal landscape for shopping.

Not just Amazon, there's also new warehouses planned for John Lewis and Next.

Last week I'd also been into a provincial mall, where I couldn't help notice the sheer number of closed retail units.

One of the anchor stores had been a BHS, now closed, and along the sides were various empty units, some with that full size wallpaper designed to make them look as if they may still be occupied.

Further shops had those 'closing down sale' notices. These were not the perpetual closing down sales of Oxford Street, but instead announcing a finality that they will be gone by the end of summer.

Today, back in London, I noticed the contra-signals from the more rarified atmosphere of Shepherd's Bush Westfield. Their crazy mixed-up car park entry gives early hint that this is one of the malls actually growing in size. A high crane count and further 70 shops being added.

inventing a mona lisa overdrive for robocars

There's been some coverage of self-driving cars over the last few days, as the next round of manufacturers' tests get under way.

The Google sticky car paint springs to mind as a 'you can't make it up' moment. The patent is for a special kind of paint that becomes ultra sticky if the car hits something. It is supposed to ensure that any person hit by the vehicle then remains on the vehicle instead of bouncing to the ground. Human (no) fly paper?

My current car has some self driving functions. They include a radar based active cruise control which responds to cars in front and slows down or speeds up accordingly, up to my pre-defined speed limit. There's also a traffic jam mode, where it will edge forward in traffic as the cars in front move.

Even these basic autonomous functions can create slightly unexpected results. The main one is when I'm in slow traffic on a motorway and a car in front moves out of my lane causing my vehicle to speed up. This sometimes takes a 'push-along' driver in the outer lanes by surprise when my car accelerates to close the gap in my lane.

In stop-start traffic the car will edge forward using its own safety pattern and sometimes a twitchy car to the left will think there's a gap opening to switch lanes.

It raises the wider question as cars become more autonomic. Like an early form of Asimov's Laws, how will the cars respond to unexpected events?

As some cars get cleverer, what happens to the motorists in vehicles without the same capabilities? Will we start to see driving hacks designed to slow down, stop, or divert the intelligent cars and trucks? Geo-fenced routes using the sat-nav to keep the robocar on selected routes? What about police cars? taxis?

Will the new cars know about cyclists? How about eye contact when at a tricky junction where someone has badly parked? Handling outside schools at pickup time? Maybe a law abiding robocar will refuse to park in dangerous spots?Will robo-cars properly observe speed limits? Even when there is a pushy driver on the tailgate? What about defensive braking such as at the approach to a roadworks? The list goes on.

Current cars with autonomous facilities don't have to advertise it externally. I wonder, as the capabilities increase, whether there will become a new equivalent of an electronic 'red flag'?

And then how long before the Slick Henrys create hacks for the autocars? Or after-market add-ons? A kind of Mona Lisa Overdrive?

train time

Having driven the blue car north, I came back on the train. Platform 3, coach J, seat 09.

Except the train arrived without a coach J because of something to do with Edinburgh. Nonetheless, I managed to get a block of four seats,with two more to the side, in what was a comfortably empty train.

Something like this one, although this was actually on another track. Then south, with only two other stops before London. Darlington and York, then fast all the way.

I'd had a few days away from London, so a suitable refreshment (or two) seemed to be in order, compliments of the rail company. Then something I seldom do on a commuter train - simply watching the world go by out of the windows.

Perhaps it was because I was in a designated quiet coach - but I didn't fire up the gadgetry, aside from a few iPhone snaps along the journey. Instead watch the unfolding scenery of spring fields.

Okay, and a few pieces of railway paraphernalia, like these diesel locomotives - in this case parked at York by the railway museum.

Then a pause at York before starting the non-stop run for the rest of the way into London.

A blend of countryside, some industrial reminders and even some scenic interludes, like the bridge across the canal.

I don't know whether modern train drivers are supposed to keep the trains moving at all times, but we slowed enough here to take the picture through the girders of the steel bridge.

This was also around the point that the complimentary lunch arrived, so despite a few minutes delay, it was an altogether enjoyable experience. And then, almost before I was expecting it, we were at Finsbury Park, on the home stretch into London.

Time to gather my few lightweight travelling items, ready to bundle out at Kings Cross and across to a tube. Not bad at an average land speed of about 85mph - including stops, compared with about 50mph in the car - and I won't mention the typical number of motorway holdups...