Further boring traffic stories

It wasn’t quite pelting it down today, but the programme I was listening to whilst stuck in all-but stationary traffic on the M1 this afternoon was about various global efforts to beat drought.  Dew ponds in the South East.  Tenerife schemes to use greenhouse (real greenhouses, not metaphorical “greenhouse effect” greenhouses) heat to evapourate sea water to remove the salt and give pure water. A scheme to put 50 robot-piloted boats on the seas of the world making artificial clouds to combat the greenhouse effect.

Have we actually had a drought anywhere other than the South East?  We had quite a long period without rain, but my garden never got to the cracked earth stage I remember from childhood.  We’ve not had a hosepipe ban up here as far as I am aware.  And we’ve had rather a lot of rain in the last few days.  Our waterbutt, which, due to a diy failure, only collects the rain that falls directly into it through its gaping open top, is half full.  If it had actually been collecting roof rain it would unquestionably be full.  And that’s without us even having to divert our bathwater.  Mind you, the sort of torrential rain we’ve been having in fits and starts over the last few days is not the sort of rain that helps replenish water stocks.  When it falls too fast, too hard, it just slips off the top of the soil and contributes to pluvial flooding.
And another thing.  Thames Water, the wrath of whose customers is falling on them for not  repairing their pipes fast enough – when we went down to London to see the Queen, I was amused to see that Thames Water were coming into some flack in the Evening Standard for, erm, repairing their pipes.  The line the paper was taking was, wasn’t it awful that the evil water company were daring to close MAJOR London thoroughfares MERELY to dig up and repair century-old mains water pipes.  A somewhat inconsistent line to take when in previous days the company was being roasted for allowing a vast percentage of its water to escape its pipes into the ground (where, of course, it actually helps top up London’s parched water table.)

Royal Pay Cut Fairy

The phrase “Royal Pay Cut Fairy” was on a news-stand advertising a local paper, and lead to all sorts of interesting mental pictures.

Unfortunately, when I got closer, I saw it was Royal Pay Cut Fury, referring to pay cuts at the local hospital.

Random wibble.

Lib Dem theme from YouTube

New diary entry from Lord Bonkers.

Somewhat surreal afternoon driving up the M1 in tipping rain with spray everywhere listening to Radio 4 programme talking about skin problems brought on by sunlight.  Just as the motorway slowed to standstill, with rain slewing down on every front, the automatic wipers spurred into a frenzy, Barbara Myers and Dr Tony Bewley were just getting going on what sun creams are best.
Polymorphic light eruption is the name of one of the diseases, but it could be so much more!

Off home shortly, listening to the middle east debate starting at 9pm.  It seems to have bumped Adam Hart Davis’s Engineering Solutions off the schedule.

What to do in Paris

I wrote this two years ago for another place, but I keep pointing people to it, so I thought I’d cut’n’paste here for posterity. The original question was about a short break away. Oh, and apparently, Samaritaine is closed at the moment, so for rooftops do Montmartre and the Tour Montparnasse.

Things to do: avoid the places you’ll have to queue. Don’t bother with the Eiffel Tower, do the roof top cafe at the Samaritaine department store. Don’t do the Louvre — or at least, stick to the outside, the Jardins des Tuileries and the shopping centre under the glass pyramid. Also — a food hall is under there for cheap tasty international cuisine. For art, do the Musée d’Orsay instead.

Get a hotel in the Marais and do everything on foot — there’s loads of picturesque roads around there. See the Place des Vosges, walk as far as La Bastille and Place de la Concorde. Check out the bouqinistes, the river walkways along the Seine and Pont de L’art. Do the first few meters of the Bvd St Michel on the other side of the river — as far as the Deux Magots. There’s no real need to get on the metro or go further afield.

Bar-hop around the Marais for gay Paris life — Cafe Open on the corner of Rue St Croix de la Bretonnerie and the Rue des archives. The terrace in front of the Marronier, the, er, naughty upstairs at Quetzal si cela te branche.

Some things you can do for free: the Madeleine church inside and out, (check out how the front of the church is reflected in the front of the Assemblée Nationale on the other side of the Place de la Concorde) Samaritaine’s roof top, shopping but not buying in BHV, the walk along the Grands Boulevards with the mini arcs de triomphe, the doors with the lion carvings on the Rue vielle du temple (as featured in Dr Who City of Death), wandering around the Forum des Halles, and the outside of the Pompidou centre. Browse for haute couture in the Place Vendome. You used to be able to go around the Opera for free during the day, but I think they’ve stopped that now.

I spose these things will be old hat to you if you’ve been to Paris before… that’s when you need to get on the metro and go further afield to see some of parks a bit further out (Citroen, Buttes Caumont, Jardin du Luxembourg around the French upper house, the Sénat and the two either side of Line 1, Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes), or the Moulin Rouge or Montmartre or les Invalides, or the Rodin museum, or the Montparnasse, the highest tower block in the city, or the catacombes, or the sewer tour, or the walk from the bastille along the old canal, or the Champ de Mars, or BCBG of the 16th or the chinatown district in the north east or Père Lachaise cemetary (Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, very moving monuments to the Nazi death camps)

… gee, I wanna live in Paris again!

EDIT 2013 – see this amazing (French language) list of places to get good views over Paris.

“What a lovely smile!”


"What a lovely smile!"

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

For some unfathomable reason, people at 3 Choirs always comment on my smile.

Back in 1994 someone by the name of Edge remarked on my smile.

This week, clearly the smile is back. Members of the public whose tickets I’ve checked have said how nice it is to be welcomed to the Cathedral with a smile.

I really don’t get it. I don’t think I’m that smily faced and it’s certainly not the case that anyone else looks gloomy. Most, definitely not all, are very welcoming indeed.

Perhaps people are misreading my grimaces as I walk on my blisters.

"What a lovely smile!"


"What a lovely smile!"

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

For some unfathomable reason, people at 3 Choirs always comment on my smile.

Back in 1994 someone by the name of Edge remarked on my smile.

This week, clearly the smile is back. Members of the public whose tickets I’ve checked have said how nice it is to be welcomed to the Cathedral with a smile.

I really don’t get it. I don’t think I’m that smily faced and it’s certainly not the case that anyone else looks gloomy. Most, definitely not all, are very welcoming indeed.

Perhaps people are misreading my grimaces as I walk on my blisters.

SPCK


SPCK

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

SPCK, the Christian bookshop have a stall and a noticeboard in the Festival club which proudly boasts they can get any book in print.

I’m very tempted to try ordering something utterly filthy.

Banned from evensong


Banned from evensong

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

I was late for evensong because I’d been standing outside one church telling concert goers the event was actually taking place elsewhere.

When I got back to the cathedral, they wouldn’t let me in! Tonight’s evensong is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 and will be broadcast on Wednesday, the day after tomorrow, in the regular slot. So the cathedral was sealed by heavies, aka the vergers, and latecomers were not admitted.