Thursday 28 March 2024

Blog Posted,

so I was out first thing,


into a nice bright sunny day, 

past Peter Pan's Pond,

the bus was crowded, as I passed Catford bus garage 2 fire engines were out side,

in Catford I passed this building,

covered in a creeper, in the next month or so it will look a picture as it flowers, it is one of the biggest wisteria plants I have seen,

the market in Lewisham open for business as usual,

I was a tad early, the florist not yet open, next door 

into the station and down to the platform, good news, the train runs through Dartford, so no changing trains there, 

arriving in Gravesend it was warm and sunny, 

off of the 483 and up the hill,

on the way this tree looking very nice as it starts to flower,

and the first touches of green on the silver birch at the entrance, 

to the nursing home where Duncan stays, inside Duncan was in fine sprits, we talked about our first visit to Bangkok, so many things happened on that trip, so funny as we reminisced, when his lunch arrived we said our farewells, 

and I made a move for home, the weather had made a change for the worse, the skies had clouded over, and it was starting to rain,

the tree I took a photograph of last week, even though it was raining looked so nice,

train straight through to Blackheath village, 

the florists next to the station now open, 

lots of cut flowers,

the aroma of hyacinths in the air,

over the road at the bus stop the skies clearing, my number 54 bus in the distance,

opposite Lewisham hospital, the flower beds looking so colourful,

past the Catford cat, 

as I neared Catford bus garage the fire engines were still there, and nearly opposite a bit of drama, a police presence and the road blocked, as I looked down the road more fire engines and several police cars, arriving home I found out what was a happening, you can read about it here, a 55 hour police stand off!

the bee garden on top of this bus shelter looking green,

but with weeds, 

this is one of only two,

that have the original plants,

that they started with, 

off of the bus and a walk past Foxgrove Lodge, 

the wisteria on the building now starting to bud,

past the snail mail park post box, 

and home after a couple of quiz shows, a sherry and a read, the latest copy of Private Eye had arrived, 

for tonight Diana had left me a huge chilli-con-carne, 

'Cheers!', after a read Diana arrived home, so feet up for a coffee and a chat as we watched,

 a trip to the jungle with The Legend of Tarzan, not a great film but watchable neither the less, as you might have expected lots of special effects most quiet good actually, but the film holds a disquieting past, set in the times of King Leopold's hold over the Congo, it is not easy to look back at His reign of terror, and taking into account the mass of statues of people being removed in the UK and the USA, I guess His name is on the list to go,

next a film we had watched before, one full of laughs, surprises and special effects, Mars Attacks! it is a normal day for everyone, until the President of the United States announces Martians have been spotted circling Earth, the Martians land and a meeting is arranged, but not everything goes to plan, in fact most things that happen are decidedly unplanned! as an aside there is a nice minimalist aquarium in a couple of scenes, I really was amazed at the number of stars that appeared in this film, Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Jim Brown the list goes on, after which we were off to bed.


We Often Go For Walks In The Park Where We Live,

in one of our walks we saw one of these, 


it was in January 2019, I commented at the time:

"on Wimbledon Common, they have Wombles, and in Beckenham Place Park, we have Tribbles, like the parakeets that live here that escaped from captivity, the Tribbles escaped on the return of the USS Enterprise, one shot out between Diana and Myself as we were walking through the park",

 "and as I approached, curled into it's usual soft purring ball, as they do when they feel threatened", of course I was making a joke about the fact that someone had lost the bobble from their hat, and then yesterday I read that another tribble had been found in the UK

photographs from the Daily Mai© Kennedy News and Media, a walker had found one dishevelled and cold so she took it home, the next day she took what she says she thought was a motionless mammal to Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital, in Knutsford, Cheshire, in a box meticulously lined with newspaper and even placed a small dish of food next to it, as she remained by its bedside, at the hospital an amused Ms Kotze said: 'It was the first admission of the day. The lady came in with a box, she said she had found this baby hedgehog on the pavement and it was cold and she picked it up",

Ms Kotze above, added that if people see a hedgehog out in the open during daytime they should be taken to a rescue as it is a sign they are distressed, Janet said: 'It’s a golden rule that hedgehogs shouldn’t be out in daytime, especially little ones like that, but she did absolutely the right thing - aside from the fact that it wasn’t a hedgehog, you can read the full story here.


It Is The Most Expensive Substance On Earth,

antimatter, 


photograph CERN so what and how expensive is it? firstly antimatter is produced when antimatter and matter collide, they annihilate each other, releasing energy in a process epitomized by Einstein's famous equation, E=mc^2, this process presents antimatter as a potential source of tremendous energy, so why does it cost so much? well basically you need a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) pictured above, with a construction cost of $4.75 billion and an annual operating budget of $1 billion, the production of antimatter becomes a resource-intensive endeavour, it is proposed as a fuel for interstellar space travel, offering an energy yield far superior to any current propulsion system. In medicine, antimatter finds applications in imaging and radiation therapy, providing novel approaches to diagnose and treat certain types of cancer, and the cost? According to this article a staggering $62.5trillion per gram! And there was me thinking the most expensive item on earth was Nitrogen Atom-Based Endohedral Fullerenes, that is only a paltry $140,000,000 a gram.


Wednesday 27 March 2024

I Am Only Making One Post Today,

as it is Wednesday, and first thing I will be off to visit Duncan,


back to Tuesday, Diana is on late shift today so we had a huge English breakfast to start the day, after Diana had left for work, I had 3 things to do, so out into a slightly cold day,

past the magnolia, 

which was still looking good,

and into the station, the first thing I had to do was buy tickets for myself to travel to Winchester on Saturday, 

but alas the ticket office was closed, so that was that, 

next continue walking into town, past the green, 

and the nearly completed Travelodge, 

just this last bit to do, 

into the post office for some A3 size paper, success they had a pack of 10 sheets in stock, so 1 - 1 of the things I had to do,

next stop Sainsbury's to pick up some garibaldi biscuits for Duncan that he likes so much, I had some for Wednesday but would need some after that, and of course they were out of stock, 2 - 1 against the things I wanted to do, I enquired about when they would be back in stock, the assistant looked on her hand held machine as we both looked at the label where they should have been, "well we are out of stock now, and there are no deliveries of them scheduled for next week or the week after", so that was that, I was now homeward bound, 

past the Foxgrove Lodge at the entrance to the park,

in the distance a huge commotion, 

a number of parakeets were having a meeting in one of the trees, I counted 18 or so of them,

we normally see twos or threes, arriving home it was feet up for a couple of quiz shows before my evening meal, after which a Giant Lobster Hunters and a Outback Gold Hunters before a Midsomer Murder, during which Diana arrived home, so feet up for a coffee and a chat, we settled down to watch a all star cast in,
Murder by Decree, Sherlock Holmes takes on Jack the Ripper, (which he never did in the books), the sets of old London were so good, but deserted, as many commenters mentioned, at the time the streets would have had people in them 24/7, but there it is, very enjoyable after which we were off to bed.