London and Paralympics

Sunday 2nd - Wednesday 5th September

There continued to be plenty of things to see in London. Even the British Museum had displays related to the Olympics

Once the Paralympics started, there was more daily entertainment on the South Bank. This time, I managed to get a seat on one of the very few deckchairs to watch these acrobats from France who perform acrobatics on what look like two giant bicycle wheels about 15 feet high, which are fixed together about 5 feet apart.

You can probably see from my photograph what a small space they have for their performance, surrounded by hundreds of people. They were able to control the huge wheels just with their weight alone, and rolled them around gently while they balanced and did handstands and stood on one another's shoulders. It was a short performance, but very popular, as you can see.

When it was over, I left the deckchair for another tired person and went back to the Royal Festival Hall, where the Lego world map had been replaced by a giant inflatable man.

He wasn't fully inflated when I took this picture, but I didn't have time to wait if I wanted to catch my train home. There are only 3 trains an hour back to Oxted, 2 from Victoria and 1 from London Bridge, so you have to be careful not to miss the one you are intending to catch; it's either 30 or 60 minutes until the next one, depending on which London station you have chosen.

The next day, I had tickets for Brands Hatch to watch the cycling Time Trials. It was a hot sunny day, so hats and sun cream were necessary. We drove there, as otherwise we would have needed to catch a train to London Bridge, another to Sevenoaks and then a bus.

I've never been there before, so I found that interesting. There was airport style security to go through before we got in. This is a good overview of parts of the track. At the top of the hill were a group of wicker figures on bicycles. The sun was so bright I couldn't see what I was taking, so this is about the best of the pictures.

I need a camera with a viewfinder - that big screen you have on modern cameras is no good in bright sunlight.

I found the event quite exciting, as there was a very good commentary and I had a good spot on the railings about 150 metres from the finish. This is a photo of Nathan Smith of New Zealand, who, as you can see, only has one leg.

It was quite a humbling experience to see how many of the athletes were missing limbs or other severe disabilities but could still compete at this level. What courage and determination they have. It is a great lesson to the rest of us to stop grumbling about our minor problems and make serious attempts to get on with life, as these people have done. I don't have many good pictures, as the cyclists move so fast - I have quite a few pictures of back wheels, as my shutter is rather slow, as are my reflexes! Also, the athletes are followed round by cars and motorbikes as you can see in the photo, so the track is quite crowded at times.

Paul was seriously bored by the whole thing, I am sorry to say, and soon wanted to go home. He was hot and uncomfortable, and couldn't make any sense of the commentary so had no idea what was happening. I was able to persuade him to stay long enough to see Sarah Storey win the Gold Medal for GB in her class, then I agreed to go home too. He was willing to drive home himself and drive back for me later, but it had been quite a long drive, so I thought it would be better if we both went. I guess it was a poor idea to get him to come, he wasn't interested in any of the Olympics or Paralympics or any of the associated events in London, so I suppose I should never have suggested he come with me. He's only interested in golf, the prospect of which bores me to tears within a very few minutes. I don't think I'll try to persuade him to Rio in 2016!

End of the Bank Holiday

Monday 27th August

We had to catch a plane home, so it was a short day, not to mention its also being a very wet one. But we found time to make a quick visit to Patterson's Spade Mill, which wasn't far from where our friends live.

I had never even heard of a spade mill before visiting Northern Ireland, and I suppose I never gave much thought to how spades were made before mechanisation. Well, they were made by hand, being beaten out by a blacksmith into a spade shape from a rough rectangle of iron called a billet. I also had no idea whatever how many different spade shapes there were.

These are only a few examples; you would be surprised by the number of different types of spades there are. It would appear nearly every region in Ireland had their own type of spade, depending on the terrain. There are different shaped spades for stony ground, spades for clay, spades for digging turf and even in this category there are different types - there are turf spades for digging the turf out vertically and others for digging it out horizontally.

After the tour we asked how much one of their hand made spades would cost if we wanted one, and learned that the price is £80.00. Although this might sound expensive, the staff at the Mill actually worked out that the real cost of making one was £200. This takes into account the price of the materials and the man hours. Obviously they realised no one would pay this, so they are sold for £80.

Making the spade is very labour intensive. This is the chunk of metal that the blacksmith starts with. It will be beaten first on the anvil.

It has to be doubled over, so there are two layers. The layers are kept apart in the middle, at the top, by inserting a few cinders there; this is to form a channel that the handle can be fitted into.

Later, when the lump of iron has been beaten a bit on the anvil and is a bit flatter, it is beaten into a spade shape by the water-powered hammer. I did take some pictures of this process, but unfortunately they were too dark to see anything. It is a long and laborious process, and the big water-driven hammer is held in check, when not beating, by a huge chunk of wood. The chunk of wood is knocked out when the hammer is to be used, and jammed back in again to stop the hammer pounding.

The spade handle is made from a pole, which is sharpened rather like a pencil on the machine below so that it will fit into a channel in the spade; then it is riveted into position.

After we had seen everything and asked numerous questions, we were taken outside to look at the mill race.

This originally used to drive a waterwheel, but this was changed to a very early turbine, which has been refurbished and is still in use.

Once we had seen everything, it was time to go back and get ready to catch our plane back home.

The Antrim Coast

Sunday 26th August

It was a day without rain and reasonably warm with sunny periods, so we set off for the beautiful Antrim coast. We started off at the little town of Carrickfergus, where my friend and her brother grew up. It is a picturesque little place, with a little harbour, now full of leisure boats, though it used to be full of fishing boats.

There is also a superb castle, in a reasonably good state of repair, which is well worth a visit

We didn't visit it this time, as Paul and I have been before, and we were all anxious to get on with our drive along the coast.

The coast really is beautiful, with spectacular views across dark cliffs or of bays of white sand and blue seas (the sea was a beautiful blue when the sun was out, a rather steely grey when it was hidden by clouds). All along the coast were pretty little villages with whitewashed cottages.

It is so beautiful, I wonder that it isn't better known. You would think that tourists would come flocking in droves. However, like many beautiful places we have visited, there aren't enough places where you can stop and take pictures.

We arrived at the Giant's Causeway in time for a late lunch, then Paul, my sister and I set off on the walk down to see the basalt columns, while our friends caught the little bus. We didn't wait for it, the queue was enormous with its being a Bank Holiday. It's a beautiful walk down, and, as it was a very nice day, there were hundreds of people.

You can see, on the left of the picture, the black burned rocks on the sea shore that further reveal the area's volcanic past. Further down the road, you arrive at the basalt columns.

I'm afraid this next picture is slightly out of focus, but I think it gives a better idea of the 40,000 columns that stretch away under the sea.

You can walk on quite a distance, there are lots more formations to look at. This a view you can see once you pass the main group of columns.

Further on still, there are other extensive rock formations, including one that looks very like a giant boot - which, given the number of people there, is quite hard to photograph without somebody sitting on it.

There are other rock formations too, but I won't post any more photographs as I'm not sure how this new software will deal with posting photos. We did go a bit further, but not too far, since it was getting late and we had a long climb back up the hill again to the car park, not to mention thinking of our exhausted hosts having to drive us all the way back again.

August Bank Holiday Weekend

August Bank Holiday Weekend

Friday August 24 - Saturday August 25th

On Friday we caught a plane to Belfast to visit friends we had last seen on our visit to Norfolk. My sister came too, which was the first time she had been to Northern Ireland. We flew from Gatwick, which is fairly close to home, so we had the great luxury of parking, rather than using public transport. It was a great deal quicker, cost about the same, and meant there were no stairs to haul the suitcase up and down.

On Saturday, which was a fairly cold and rainy day, we celebrated the centenary of the Titanic by visiting the Titanic experience, which was only opened this year.

It is set in what used to be the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding yards, where the Titanic was built. You can see it was quite a stormy day.

The building itself is quite spectacular - though you need a better camera than mine to get a decent photo.

This is slightly less than half of it, there is another similar wing the mirror image of this one, joined by a smoked glass spine.

It is even more spectacular inside

There are huge escalators to get around the various parts of the exhibition. Some parts of the exhibition are also quite spectacular, such as the dark ride that takes you in little cars through a sort of replica shipyard to show you what the shipyard looked like. I did try taking pictures of that from inside the little car, but they were all rubbish. But you get a general flavour of the sights and sounds as you see how the different parts of the ship were built.

After that, there were many interesting displays showing life in and around the shipyards, before you get on to life on board the ship. There is quite a large model of the ship

and there are many examples of the cabins and public rooms. I tried to photograph these, with little success because they are all behind glass, which reflects all the lights.

This is one of the small cabins

This is a Second Class cabin. I photographed all the first class cabins as well, but they were completely surrounded by glass on all four sides, so not only were there reflections from all the lights, there were people looking through the glass on all four sides. There were very interesting displays showing some of the crockery, cutlery and furnishing materials. There were also plenty of photographs of of life on board, and it was interesting to see the contast between the luxury enjoyed by the passengers and the simplicity of the crew's quarters. While the passengers slept in luxurious beds (First Class) or comfy bunks (Second or Third Class), the crew slept on what looked like industrial metal shelving!

I had to give a miss to the films of the wreck at the bottom of the sea - I can't look at undersea things - but I was pretty tired by then anyway, and my feet were sore, so it was time to go home.

Between the Olympics and the Paralympics

August 13th to August 24th

However much I try, I still seem to be behind! Now, as I am a month behind, it is hard to remember exactly what I did. However, I need to catch up, as I am off to Sicily soon and will once again attempt to keep a diary every day. Things will be much harder now, since the very wonderful BlogPress has refuseed to open since the last update, and I am experimenying with another piece of software.

Once the Olympics were over, it was easier to travel round London, though, like everybody else, I missed the excitement. Work quietened down a bit, so I didn't have quite so much to do, which was just as well, since it could be very hot. 

The rhododendrons were long finished, but the hydrangeas were really spectacular. These are some in the lane outside.

I went up to London a number of times, since, although there were no Olympics for a while, there was still the London 2012 Festival and lots to see and do. Although there were fewer free shows outside the National Theatre, there were still things to see. I spent some time looking at the Book Maze at the back of the Royal Festival Hall. It was made of some enormous number of books, which are destined to be donated to charity afterwards. It was rather difficult to photograph, the light levels being quite strange.

The walls were low to begin with, but became higher the further you walked inside.

The walls were low to begin with, but became higher the further you walked inside. You were allowed to take out and read any book, as long as you put it back, so I spent quite a while reading one, and remembered to photograph the cover so I could look for it later in the library.

Outside, on the upper level, was a wonderful Lego map of the world.  I managed quite a few pictures of that, though none of them was much good. This is the one of South America.

It was too big, as you can see, for a picture of the whole world, this was the nearest I could get. You can see that one or two landmarks are shown, apart from the mountains.