I know we moan about the weather all the time in this country. It’s what we do. It’s a way of forming conversation. Something we can talk about. We love headlines that ultimately just say:
Weather cold this winter.
Weather hot this summer.
Yesterday, after about a week or forecasting the snow came to the UK. It hit Maidstone at 18:00. The town ground to a slow crawl. It probably doubled the length of time for me to get home. But, I got home and there were no exciting events for me. Rather than the UK moan about:
Why aren’t we prepared for this? Why does everything go to shit when it snows, it doesn’t in Finland.
We need to accept that nowadays snow is a reasonably rare event, definitely in the south east. It’s a few days a year. We should EXPECT disruption and things to go to shit. It’s essentially a rare event.
Here’s the traffic from 18:30 last night:
A larger view of the SE.
Now on this map, apart from my favourite places, you can see the disruption. Here’s a larger view:
Lots of red roads which is indicative of severe disruption.
My niece and I are currently in a week long “steps” battle. We both own Garmin fitness trackers and are in a challenge via the Garmin app. Whoever does most steps this week wins. I did well with a run yesterday but was worried today would let me down so I went for a walk to the local monetary. It’s a Carmelite monk place called Aylesford Priory or The Friars. It’s quite picturesque and even has its own relic of a saint.
Aylesford Priory Altar
It’s a pretty place within a lovely setting just next to the river Medway.
River Medway
There are some nice gardens, although not a lot about at this time of year.
Aylesford Priory – A View
The weather was perfect for an atmospheric horror movie, but I didn’t see anything untoward.
I got a proper christmas present from Jo and this is the first part of it. It’s a model of the Millennium Falcon coming in at about 75mm long and 50mm wide. I have R2 and an X-Wing to make yet. This was pretty fiddly! There were about thirty pieces of metal sheet to pop out and then fit together. My eyes are possibly slightly too old for this shit! But it does look good.
Millennium Falcon
If you want to see a 360 degree version, and who wouldn’t, then click here. One more view:
Millennium Falcon
Yes, I know the word “christmas” should be spelt with a capital letter. But I don’t care.
After seeing Rogue One (again) Mr O and I decided to visit a military museum. Rather, what we did was use the POI thingy on the Sat Nav and it came up with the Military Museum in Aldershot. I’d never been to this garrison town before and it is something to behold! Plenty of red signs everywhere.
We journeyed from Guildford to Aldershot. The road was a curious one making its route atop a ridge.
Journey Part 1
After arriving at the museum we noticed the gates were locked shut. We weren’t that far from a set of armed guards securing the base itself so we tried a search for something else. This time we checked the website to make sure it was open. Off we set for Tangmere Museum. It would appear the Mr O misread the website as it clearly states it opens in February. But, we weren’t aware of that and so drove to Tangmere near Goodwood.
Journey Part 2
Along the way we saw many lovely countryside sites with layers of fog which, if we had a decent camera, would have been great photos. It was very picturesque. Except for one bit. We had seen a race course on the top of a hill and we were discussing whether it was Goodwood or not and BLAM. The sun was directly in our eyes along the line of the road. I came to a halt. I couldn’t see shit. The sun was literally in line with the road.
Blinded (highlighted bit)
We had to try and drive for about 200m without being able to see. I found that if I moved my head so the door pillar blocked the sun I could just make out the left and right sides of the road. I still couldn’t see anything in front but we ambled along and hoped that someone else would stop if they were coming the other way. It was a curious experience and one I don’t really want again. We should have made a note of the time because there would be a decent set of mathematics to be done to check where the sun was and how much it aligned with the road. If I had the inclination we could probably work out where and what time just from the facts I have already said.
Tangmere
Another set of locked gates indicated closure. Bugger. All we wanted now was a cup of tea and some cake. We knew Goodwood circuit was nearby and so we drove to that. Everything there was also closed. The day had turned out to be a series of closed places that we wanted to visit. We had to drive back to (near) Reigate for a cuppa.
Journey Part 3
The journey itself was fun, interesting and a delight. It’s just a shame everything we were trying to see was closed.
I have taken, again, to listening to local radio. Not local for Kent but local to New Orleans. Yep, that New Orleans. I have a bit of a thing for the New Orleans Saints NFL team and am looking forward to seeing them play next year versus my number two team the Dolphins.
About two years ago I spent time listening to WWL radio station because they broadcast commentary of the Saints’ games. I don’t think they broadcast the games any more but I do find it interesting listening to the other programmes.
I get information about local weather, the quality of the waterways and where the best fishing is. One day I ought to visit the place to get a proper appreciation of what I listen to.
WWL doesn’t broadcast to the UK via TuneIn, but you can find it and get Sonos systems to play it.
I had some wine the other night, which was not a normal occurrence as I have given up drinking at home. The bottle was labelled and on the label was a latitude longitude coordinates.
It’s A Wine Label
Clearly this had to be investigated. You can’t mention numbers that can be checked without someone wanting to check them. I remember watching an Aussie TV show called Rescue Special Ops where they mentioned a location and so I went on Google Earth to check out where it was. The writers had done their job properly as the location was definitely in the bush [there is an awful lot of it].
So, apparently Rioja is an area in Spain. These are things I don’t really know, it could have been a person or something similar but I guess it’s logical given that Bordeaux is also a place.
So, I have saved you the time of typing in the lat long. Here is the location:
It’s a vineyard. There’s also a vineyard about 506 metres away from my house.
The other day I had another go on a PSVR headset, just to see some more trailers and play another part of a game. See this communication about why I had to sell my PSVR. One of the trailers I watched was me strapped in a chair being attacked by what looked like a zombie. This was mostly fine.
Then I played a Call Of Duty demo where I was flying a space ship. I probably managed about thirty seconds before I had to stop as the feelings of sickness were rising.
It was a good thing that I sold the PSVR (which saddens me).
This feels like a hard communication to write and for people who are interesting in not knowing anything about this film please consider this a warning that there are going to be many spoilers.
I took a trip with some science type friends to see Rogue One, the stand-alone Star Wars movie set in between film episodes three and four. I went to the Odeon cinema in Maidstone which was fine. As is a custom now I rated the film after watching it on IMDB, you should probably read this communication about the rating system and you might also be interested in this one about Star Wars Episode Seven.
I think I ought to explain this rating as a six is pretty low. Episode 7 got a ten by default but the more I think about it the more I feel I should have been more honest with myself. I’m not sure it would get a 10 now, even though I own a copy. Rogue One will probably be purchased which would default the score to a 10, but in reality the film was a little bit shit.
The Best Thing About This Movie
Do Not Read On (mostly because it is poorly written)
The best thing about this movie and quite likely the only good thing about this movie was the droid K-2SO. I would have quite happily listened to him much more throughout the film, he was the only character who seemed to have a sense of perspective, or even character. He was voiced by Alan Tudyk who has been in some of my favourite shows.
I was slightly bothered that there were no floating words telling me what had happened and that we didn’t get the Star Wars opening theme. Start with a child disobeying her father and then watching her mother killed, obviously you need psychological trauma and daddy issues to be a hero. Then we have little sequences on lots of planets that I couldn’t give a shit about and we learn that the Empire is making a massive weapon.
This film seems to be consistent with conspiracy nuts in that it believes you can have a massive infrastructure project and keep it secret from everyone, even though everyone knows this is being built. Also, it seems that the entire galaxy knows that a cargo pilot has defected with information and he needs to be debriefed.
I spent a large amount of the first act worried about intelligence gathering in a age when the whole galaxy has access to rumours and ideas. I just didn’t like it.
Then the heroine gets rescued and debriefed / interviewed in the Rebel fucking control room in front of the senators and all the bloody equipment. You DON’T put prisoners in the control room, what shit.
Then some stuff happens. I may have to come back and fill this in once I’ve seen the film again. Perhaps I can over my prisoner logistical problems.
Then we have a scene in the control room again where the Rebel senate appears to be discussing ALL the details about the secret plans in front of everyone including every pilot and vaguely important person. “The secret plans are held on this planet” etc. Arrrrrgh.
There’s a blind monk who chants shit about the force, but the film maker clearly shows him using his hearing to work out where things are, he doesn’t use the force. He’s a charlatan.
Let’s invade a planet and make it look like a Vietnam War film, that’ll keep the dads happy. I seriously felt like I was watching a ‘nam film. Bloody palm trees.
Why was there a random shutter opening and closing at the top of the data tower. WTF? It makes absolutely no sense that it is there, apart from trying to appease kids who watch and play computer games and need to get the timing correct.
So, you build a massive tower to store all your plans for every building in your Empire. Then you need a transmitter which you just happen to build on top of your tower. Finally, you place a data reader and transmit controls OUTSIDE at the TOP of the tower. Not somewhere safe inside the building. WHY would you do that? Why would you put a control system in a place where the weather will get to you? AND then you place some of the controls on the end of a platform sticking out from the tower. Fuck this movie.
I recently spent some time in the A&E department of a Kent hospital. This may or may not have been related to the previous communication. While waiting for the hours to pass I read every poster and most of the magazines in the minor injuries department. This is mostly foolish as none of it is interesting. I did see this though:
Hospital Report
I will highlight some areas of this poster. You can click on the poster to see a larger version.
Apparently 72% recommend a service, maybe. We aren’t made aware of what those 72% are recommending. It could be the coffee from the machine [I didn’t see one]. Without knowing the question this set of data make no sense.
Next of note are the responses on a scale of 1 – 6.
Responses
The percentages for these have been given to two decimal places, just in case you were desperate to know. Again we don’t know what question was being asked. The poster doesn’t say.
As for the two charts, these tell us nothing new. Absolutely nothing. They replicate the data given in the list. They are utterly pointless. I’m not known for being a fan of pie charts and this one is terrible. In my opinion if you’ve used a pie chart you haven’t done the best you can in interpreting your data.
Pie Chart
Bar Graph
Then, most helpfully we get a list of the most recent types responses to a survey question WHICH WE DO NOT KNOW.
Comments
Now we can guess the question. We also have a pretty good idea of what all of this means, but we aren’t told. This poster could have been way more informative, way simpler to read and quite a bit clearer. It says the same thing THREE times.
I’m not really having a go at the hospital. I imagine that they have been told it’s a target to make sure they have these feedback responses pinned on the wall for all to see. The hospital doesn’t have enough time or money to do this well and so they rely on a bit of software or an external agency that then does a print run and these things are pinned up all over the place. If hospitals and the NHS could be left alone to get on with their jobs, if reform was stopped, if the staff were listened to then maybe, just maybe, things like this useless poster could be stopped and the service returned to the excellence it once was.
YES I blame the tories.
Much like the shit that is happening in education at the moment.
