While I may have gone on about the new bridge and road system around here a little bit that might indicate just how much the bridge changes things for what used to be a quite isolated part of Kent sandwiched between two major conurbations. I do think the new bridge will change that.
Part of the road changes that happened also mean a number of road speed limits have changed to reflect the expected increase in traffic and to reduce the risk of accident [I assume].
Here’s a map of the roads that had a previous limit of the national speed limit:
Previous National Speed Limit
The newer safer speed limits have reduced the 60 zone down to the following:
Current 60 Zone
This has kinda taken the “fun” out of driving these roads but I guess they are safer now and quite often people would dawdle along at 40 and then NOT slow down for the villages to 30 because they are wankers.
The construction company have put in new road signs but the one at the end of Bull Lane is obscured by branches until you get quite close. This picture shows the BEST view of the sign you get.
Popped over the river last night to see Deepwater Horizon. Use the new bridge. As is customary I rated this film on IMDB and you should see my guide to the rating system to get an idea of what the numbers mean. Otherwise you have no relative scale.
This film was quite enjoyable (?). While travelling to the cinema I was hoping that they would explain the mechanisms of oil exploration and also the culture of poor safety that lead to the explosion. I also wanted a cunning thriller with footage of inquiries mixed with the main story that I had seen in the trailers which was an action film. I just didn’t want a simple action film.
The film started with an explanation of why rigs get blowouts and some audio from the actual inquiry. This was a good start. The majority of the film was the action part of the film with some lovely shots of the Bristow helicopters flying out to the rig. The film showed the interplay between the BP officials and the workers of the people who owned the rig.
There was quite a bit of tension building with plenty of build up of the explosion that didn’t come. Then finally it happened and the race to escape the rig commenced. The action sequences were pretty good and the fire safety while filming must have been quite impressive.
Once the main action thrust of the film was over there was some short footage of the inquiry and a roll call of those who died in the explosion. Overall this film was ok. It could have been so much better by turning it into an investigation film with the action intercut with people figuring out what happened. I guess those films aren’t as exciting to modern audiences and probably don’t get made that often.
I have communicated with you a little about the new bridge. I have now had the chance to test distances to the Post Office where, brilliantly, parcels are taken even though it’s far away by road.
The old distance is shown below. So, 15km is just over 9 miles.
The new distance, measured via car this morning, is 4.8 miles. The new bridge saves a journey distance of four and a half miles. I think that’s quite substantial.
I went for a run, which isn’t that unusual, but this one included the new bridge [see this communication]. I had already run over this bridge yesterday but for got to use the recording app on my phone.
I had a run, but forgot to start the tracking software. Which is a shame as it would have recorded me running on water. 13km completed.
Today I remembered but I didn’t want to run up the Downs on the west bank of the Medway. This new bridge is pretty close to where the Romans crossed and invaded the island of Great Britain many years ago. The bridge isn’t really on any maps yet and so the route recording app will have me either:
Running over the water like the Jesus Christ Lizard [I wasn’t going fast enough and probably couldn’t].
Walking on water like Jesus Christ [which didn’t happen].
Getting a boat with a chicken a fox and some corn [takes 24.5 journeys if you do it wrong].
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than watching a classic tale of cowboys robbing banks. But, I get ahead from myself. I went to the cinema. I watched a film. Possibly the best bit was using a new bridge to get there, see this communication. I had tweeted the following:
Normal trip to cinema (pre-bridge) was 14km. Will inform you of new distance.
Well the new journey was about 11.5km. So it’s a shorter distance and has some lovely corners with adverse camber and brows of hills, however if you get stuck behind someone slow it’s incredibly boring. The normal route would include some motorway and nice accelerating corners, this new route was good as long as there’s no traffic.
You should refer to this communication if you don’t know how my rating system works. This is the first 8/10 for quite a while! It was a good film.
The story was a classic cowboy story with two brothers robbing banks. The horses were replaced by cars but all the other elements were there. The music complimented the filming wonderfully and the acting was great. The pace was suitably relaxed. I really enjoyed it. There’s a lot to worry about with the modern audience if they can’t cope with a film of this pace. I’m not saying they can’t cope just that most films aren’t like this one. Perhaps modern superhero films could learn something from this film.
The title of this communication does not refer to the more frequent sea passage in the Northwest of the globe. The fact that this passage is becoming a more regular occurrence should scare the fuck out of all of you. Anthropogenic Global Climate change is happening and the speed is increasing. The biggest problem is that all the damage has been done already. Because the effects are long term and not pleasant and will cost a fucking fortune to sort out it’s not the sort of thing politicians really want to talk about. As far as I can tell this planet is fucked. It isn’t going to get solved and our grandchildren will be suffering as a result of this. Fuck the self-interested assholes who “govern” the countries. Fuck them and the short-termism of politics.
Bridges
The bit in the middle of the map, bounded by the river, the A229 and the two motorways is a lovely area to live in. I have written about it before see this communication. To get to Snodland, which the Post Office thinks is the best place to take my parcels, is a 9 or 12 mile journey ONE WAY. This is largely because of the river and the location of bridges over the river.
A new village is being built on brownfield site in the three villages area. There will soon be four in the valley. While I understand the need for more housing I do think the character of the valley villages is going to be ruined. Currently the villages are largely working class Victorian homes built for the workers of Burham Brick Works. There’s a certain look and feel to the villages. The brand new village will be large, expensive homes. My chip on my shoulder is back! I have found myself getting annoyed recently at the stratification of society and the problems that causes. Anyway, back to the journey to the post office lest this writing become another rant about the uselessness of politicians and the social engineering they mess with [along with fucking the planet].
Part of the deal for these new houses was a new bridge to be built. This will allow most of the traffic of the new village to not go past the junction to my village. But in reality that’s bullshit. What may happen is that the local country roads become over run with people cutting through along the bottom of the Downs. We shall see. My village is already planning a zebra crossing because of the expected extra traffic.
New Bridge
The new bridge is in place and opened recently. I drove over it this evening and took a photo. Already the road seems busier [anecdote and confirmation bias]. I will run that way tomorrow. Normally running along that stretch I would be passed by about 3-4 cars during the mile I am on that road. It will be interesting to see what happens. While I like the idea of the bridge I am not happy about what it means for those who live around here.
The New Bridge
So I now have to spend the next few months behind non locals who think the road [at the split] is two way because they haven’t paid attention. My patience could be tested.
I will keep you chaps updated about what happens. I predict a serious crash at the Bull Lane / Pilgrims Way junction within a year and then traffic lights or a mini roundabout will be installed.
There’s nothing on at the cinema I want to see tonight so how about a picture of the aircraft I am currently tracking?
I don’t think it’s too bad. I’ve been working on port forwarding and things to try and see stuff outside my home network and it’s getting there.
This isn’t all the aircraft my receiver is getting signals from but it shows the aircraft with known positions, the ones that broadcast their GPS location.
About a year ago a microscope came to be in my possession [legally] I might add. It needed a little work to make the light focusing platform to work properly but that was completed in July.
Microscope
I also ordered some prepared slides with your standard introduction to looking at little things samples. It was pretty good looking through the microscope at these. What I want to do soon is get some blank slides and then cut stuff open to get my own samples for viewing. Here’s a photograph, taken through the view piece by placing the camera lens on top of the eye piece. I think it’s a photograph of a housefly leg.
Fly Legs
I’m looking forward to seeing more of less of the world.
I don’t often do late night trips to the cinema but Suicide Squad was a film I was interested in and there was only one showing at Ashford Cineworld last night. That said, by late I mean 21:20 hrs and not midnight or something, I am definitely not 18 anymore! As has become custom I have rated this film on IMDB using my wonderful rating system which is explained here. I also then shared this rating on twitter to my one point six two million followers.
This film was terrible. I did stay in the cinema until the end though. Now as a slight warning I should inform you that I don’t like the Batman films. I don’t really like Batman. The recent Superman films weren’t very good. When you look at the Marvel cannon there are only two or three good films in there. The problem is there are a lot of super fanatics of these comics and trying to create a film for them doesn’t work. The comic translations just seem to leave me cold.
In this particular film I thought Harley Quinn was tame, she could have been a lot more crazy. I didn’t like the Joker or Batman. I didn’t think any of there characters were any good. The fight scenes were boring, nothing special, all been seen before. I spent the first thirty minutes of this film hoping for it to be good but thinking constantly that it was shit.
There, this film was shit.
Addition: Something I thought while watching this film but forgot to write down is that great songs do not a great movie make. The soundtrack put this film to shame.
