Solo walk around the southern side of Newbury

29 October 2010

Greenham House

Caught bus number 1 from Blagrave Street and enjoyed about an hour's meandering journey to Newbury Bus Station, via Theale village and Thatcham. On leaving the bus station on Market Street, I briefly considered popping into the Empire Café for a hot chocolate - this little café on Cheap Street has been there for years although I never remember frequenting it much - but decided to get going instead.

Crossed the railway and wandered into the grounds of Greenham House, which appear still to be a public park and looked well kept. The house itself was looking a bit scruffy but still there. I can't remember its official function during my childhood, but I remember my brother and sister going there for eye tests so it must have been used as a clinic of some sort. It seems now to be some sort of family centre. According to a Google search, the house was built around 1845 and bought by the Corporation of Newbury in 1920 when it was turned into a children's clinic and the grounds turned into Greenham Park. When we were small children, I remember there being caged budgerigars, and quite possibly other animals, round the back of the house, but these went years ago; there used also to be a children's playground.

Left the park and walked along St John's Road to the junction with Catherine Road, where I took a quick pic of these flats (left) that have replaced our old family doctors' surgery, evidently now demolished. After a bit of web scouting, discovered that the practice itself seems to have moved to Monks Lane (along with both Newbury College and Newbury Rugby Club) and is now called the Falkland Surgery.

Looking down Howard Road

Turned up Tudor Road and then left into Howard Road, the eastern end of which has since the 1970s ended abruptly in the Sandleford Link road, a new bit of the A339 built in 1979 (here's a picture of its construction). Prior to its being built, I have dim memories of a tarmac footpath leading from the end of Howard Road, though I can't remember where it led to - over to Greenham Road I suppose. I walked through the subway that goes under the A339 and came out by The Blue Ball pub, which used to be a favourite watering hole of my father's and grandfather's when we were children (probably because it must have been about the nearest pub to our house). The pub is still there, although I don't actually think I ever went into it. According to this, it won a stay of execution in 2008 after being threatened with demolition and replacement with flats.

Turned into Racecourse Road and was pleased to discover that the lovely line of poplars is still there. Continued to the end of the road and bore right into New Road and the Westwood Road estate, where I remember visiting a number of people as a child. I have to say New Road looks a bit bleak today, although I don't remember the estate appearing so as a child. Continued along to the point where the road ends in a short footpath (although today it also ends in a development of large executive homes, just to the left of the footpath) that comes out by St Mary's Greenham. I might have had a quick wander around the churchyard but there was a man loitering in the gateway so I continued on up the road, past the entrance to the vicarage. Unfortunately this can't be seen from the road, but I swear I remember my family going to view it once when we were house-hunting. It was in serious need of renovation at the time and I can't really believe my parents were seriously contemplating buying it, but perhaps they were just curious for a nose around. The main thing I remember about it is that one of the rooms had a hole in the floor. Found a photo of the vicarage here taken in 1987 - this would have been several years after my family viewed it. I wonder what happened to it - whether it's still there, and whether somebody renovated it.

Newbury Retail Park

Came out onto Pinchington Lane and trekked along to Newbury Retail Park and the large Tesco opposite. The Tesco has a branch of Costa inside on an upper level, allowing you to sit and look out over the shop floor, which I did over a cup of tea and a ham and cheese toastie. After lunch I had a quick wander around the retail park, built in the mid-1990s - never been there before but apart from M&S it's pretty lowbrow (Matalan, Peacocks and Poundstretcher Extra all next to each other). It was also packed with cars and people so evidently does well.

Houses on Monks Lane

Crossed over the A339 and briefly admired the new Newbury College buildings on Monks Lane, where it's been since 2002 after moving from its old site at Oxford Road, on the north side of the town. Wandered a little way down Newtown Road and noted that a new development called The Oaks has replaced the Sandleford Rise development - according to this from Sovereign Housing, it forms the third social housing development on this site. Evidently Sandleford Rise itself replaced a 1950s development called Camp Close. I have a dim (and quite possibly incorrect) memory of this name applying to the row of council properties that are still at the eastern end of Monks Lane (see right) - maybe these are vestiges of the former estate. The houses are very similar to those in the Skyllings development on the northern side of the town.

Despite being a bit footsore by this time, decided to walk the full length of Monks Lane and then down the Andover Road back into town. Passed the new development Heather Gardens, which must have been built in the back gardens of houses in Tydehams - cursed infill. This Geograph photo confirms that. I just hope the residents of Heather Gardens feel SUITABLY ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES.

Tydehams, one of Newbury's most exclusive roads, contains the impressive Internationale Moderne mansion 'The Haven' (1929, by Thomas Tait). This house fascinated me as a teenager and I managed to snap a picture of it during a wander down Tydehams in about 1990 (see above left). A bit of a tragedy that it's evidently since lost much of its garden to the Heather Gardens development - this Google Earth shot from 2004 (right) would seem to confirm that. The Haven is in the centre, top half of the picture. Here's an awesome back view of it from around 1930. At least the house is still there, and I have to hope that the money gained from the loss of the garden has allowed some kind person to do it up sympathetically. Here's hoping.

Walked down Andover Road past my former school. The Luker building (seen behind railings in the photo) was threatened with demolition a couple of years ago, but seems judging by this to have won a reprieve and is going to be converted into flats. According to the Newbury Today article, St Bart's new 'sustainable school', built with a Building Schools for the Future grant, is scheduled to be in use as from this academic year. The Willow Close development of retirement bungalows opposite the City Playground appears to have been razed to the ground, judging by this hoarding (left), which claims confidently that it's providing homes where people want to live. That's nice. At the roundabout, noted that St John's Post Office, a frequent stop-off point for sweets years ago, is still there.

Made my way back into town and called at Griffin Butchers on Bridge Street for bacon and a game pie.

Cosy conference; Notting Hill; mobile movements

Went up to London on Friday to attend a conference organised by the Further Education Research Association (FERA), a charming organisation that has apparently been around since the 1960s – from the approximate ages of the committee members present, that’s probably when most of them joined. The conference was held in the Regent’s College Conference Centre so involved a pleasant walk through Regent’s Park – the Nash terraces looked to have been recently repainted and were positively shining in an appealing clotted-cream-type fashion. The conference wasn’t well attended – about 30 of us – but that made for a friendly and pleasant gathering. Met up with my friend Amelia from Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Lifelong Learning Network (try saying all that when you answer the phone) and discovered over lunch that Amelia had dropped out of the University of Warwick aged 19. Shared that I had dropped out of Durham at a similar age, and we decided that at least we dropped out of good universities. Always best to be a dropout from a prestigious institution ....

As Ray is currently working on another contract in Chelsea, I accepted his offer of a lift up to London in the morning, even though this meant being ready for 5.45am. We had a rather indifferent breakfast at a branch of Eat on King’s Road and I then made my way over to Baker Street, but was still so early for the conference that I was forced to go for a second breakfast at the Base restaurant on Baker Street (much nicer, but left deservedly rather over-stuffed and caffeine-d).

Went up to London again on Saturday to meet up with Sarah again, this time at Ladbroke Grove tube station. We had a wander around Portobello Market, which is fun but so crowded on a Saturday that you have to concentrate more on fighting through the crowds than on actually looking at things. Sarah observed that there had been a big increase in the number of stalls selling fur, and theorised that fur seemed to be becoming acceptable again. We did indeed see a number of fur stalls and a couple of women looking at fur coats - I had assumed that fur was still not quite the thing to wear but perhaps public opinion has relaxed a bit on this. I can't say I've personally noticed more fur around locally, but probably Reading isn’t the sort of place where many people wear fur coats. We walked down to Notting Hill Gate and took a while to locate a suitable café for a cuppa given necessity of finding somewhere that served soya milk (Sarah is a vegan), but eventually discovered that Caffè Nero does. Later we met Sarah’s partner Chris in the Earl of Lonsdale and had a pleasant catch-up. The pub serves vegan-friendly stout (this is apparently a trademark of drinks from the Samuel Smith Brewery - though I’m not sure what stout generally contains that makes it not). Declined this as I’ve never developed a taste for stout but had a couple of pints of Sovereign Best Bitter.

Minor triumph on Monday as have had a paper accepted for publication in ‘Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning’. Yay me. It is, admittedly, co-authored with the person who actually did the work the paper reports on. A fair division of labour, I feel.

Seem to have finally managed to sever myself from 3. Received a phone call at work on Monday apologising for the telephone customer service, and transferring me to a chap in the cancellations department who had apparently been instructed not to offer me any deals. Subsequent call went fine and I was duly issued with the PAC code, but blimey, what a palaver. Have just made my decision and signed up for a Galaxy S contract with Vodafone. Looking forward to receiving my new phone and exploring its capabilities, which hopefully include brewing my morning coffee, contacting aliens etc.

Gay gags; social media; call centre frustrations

On Saturday night, Ruth and I went along to 'Laugh Out Proud' at South Street Arts, part of the Reading Comedy Festival 2010. It was MC-ed by the excellent Rosie Wilby and featured Julie Jepson, Shelley Cooper and headlined Tom Allen. Wilby and Allen were brilliant; Jepson was OK in that traditional dyke sort of way; Cooper seemed fidgety and nervous of the audience (echoed in this Edinburgh Fringe review from 2007) and her act at South Street contained little about the transitioning process, which you would think would provide fairly rich material for a comic.

Spent Monday afternoon in a >3 hour training session on social media and its applications for businesses. Was briefly introduced to lifestreaming, mashups and Delicious, as well as other more familiar stuff. We were given some academic references on social networks, and there was talk of interconnected nodes. Ho hum.
Recent talk of smartphones, apps etc has made me fancy upgrading my phone, so have been browsing online for deals. My boss Fay has just acquired an HTC Desire, which she claims not to know how to use yet, but it looks pretty. Kate spent some time at our last dinner showing me her Galaxy S, which looked jolly nice. Should probably restrain myself and be a bit sensible though. In the meantime, am currently spitting feathers at 3 Customer Services after two abortive phone calls in the last week or so. On the first occasion, I called to check the end date of my contract. The call went something like this:

Me: Hello, could you tell me the end date of my contract please?
Call Centre Drone: How are you today, Ms Thomas?Me: I’m extremely well, thank you. Could you tell me the end date of my contract, please?CCD: Before I tell you the end date of your contract, let me just say this: You have been a wonderful customer.
Me: Thank you.
CCD: I would like to tell you about some deals we have that may interest you.Me: I don’t have time for a long conversation. Could you please just tell me the end date of my contract, please?
The conversation continued a while longer in this fruitless vein before I hung up and sent a message through My3 asking the question, and received an answer a day or so later. Foolishly, I tried to ring them again yesterday to place a request for a PAC code pending imminent likely switch to another network. CCD2 (although it could well have been the same person) refused to action my request until he had had a chance to tell me about all the tempting deals available that might induce me to stay with 3. Another hanging up ensued and have put in an electronic request for the code. Telephone contact is evidently best avoided.

More Raja Yoga; substandard art; crafting

My new Alce Harfield painting is now ensconced on the living room chimney breast. Am mightily pleased with it.

On Saturday, went to Part 2 of the Raja Yoga course. As is the way of these things, several people who were at the first session had dropped out, including two overly religious types, which made for a pleasanter atmosphere. Marginally more time was spent practising meditation, and some of the lecture was interesting/useful - we were introduced to the concept of 'sanskaras' which seems to relate to the standard positive-thinking-book advice of using positive affirmations to overcome subconscious thinking patterns, though it sounds more poncey to say it in Sanskrit.

While killing some time before the class I went for a wander around part of the new West Village, a housing development that's being built on the former site of Battle Hospital, along with a mammoth new Tesco. According to this piece from 2007, it's intended to be "a vibrant 'happening' place to live". Not sure about that. I've certainly seen the Oxford Road referred to as a 'vibrant' and 'colourful' area, but sometimes suspect that to be a euphemism for 'high crime rate'.

Tesco caused a certain amount of controversy while preparing the site a few years ago by felling a large number of trees that were protected by Tree Preservation Orders - and presumably then just going "Oops, sorry" when challenged. I sent them an outraged letter of complaint at the time together with my cut-up Clubcard and since then have only shopped there when there's no alternative - not that I imagine that bothers them in the slightest. There's little remaining of the old hospital buildings apart from the entrance gate, which seems to have been kept. I was, my mother tells me, born in Battle Hospital, though I don't remember it myself.

Trekked up to St Joseph’s Convent School on Sunday (via Burger King to address Ruth’s low blood sugar) to support the 3rd Annual Reading Art Exhibition & Sale. We paid our £3 to get in and spent a while browsing the exhibits, which were mainly paintings with a few ceramics thrown in. Apart from a few cute pots, didn’t see anything that particularly grabbed me, and some of the stuff was truly frightful – series of paintings of cutesy animals in clothes, sort of cross between Beatrix Potter and Sylvanian Families, and ghastly New Agey fat nymph/angel surrounded by stuck-on flowers and glitter. In fairness, I think it was open to both amateurs and professionals.

The school itself looks somewhat in need of a refurb – one wonders if the decision to accept boys as of this year, and the change of name to ‘St Joseph’s College’, is part of a drive to improve its financial position. They do have a pleasant garden out back with some mature trees, and what looked like a grotto-type area with a statue of the Virgin Mary. The exhibition featured presumably recently-produced bannerstands with pictures of boys strategically inserted.

We made our way home via the Forbury Retail Park and a peruse of Hobbycraft, where Ruth surprised me for lingering for quite a while looking at technical drawing equipment, while I hung around aimlessly feeling somewhat footsore. There are an amazing number of magazines dedicated to crafting, it seems. Was also intrigued by an entire book devoted to designs for knitted toilet roll holders. Have been vaguely ruminating for a while over the idea of taking up sewing, thinking that it would be useful to make one’s own clothes – though I daresay it takes one a while to reach the necessary degree of proficiency. May attempt to acquire a secondhand sewing machine and learn the basics – may set an initial target of making a kaftan out of an old duvet cover.

On Tuesday we duly trooped up to view Temporary Office Building 1 and were entranced by the sheer drabness of Spur K, the ‘wing’ that is to be our new home. At present it looks as though it was last occupied around 30 years ago, but apparently an express paint and refurb job is planned prior to our arrival.

Sulham Valley; Raja Yoga; impending new premises

Parked up with Ray at Sulham Woods early on Saturday morning for the first in what is supposed to be a regular series of once-a-month walks to aid with general fitness (in between all the other good things I am obviously doing, like going to the gym, Pilates, running on the spot etc). We had coffee and bacon rolls in the car park off Sulham Hill while watching a whole crowd of militant-looking dog walkers arriving and striding off into the woods, and then ambled off the other way down the hill to the left turn into Nunhide Lane, a public bridleway running north-south from Sulham down to Theale. It was misty when we started out (about 7.45am) but once the sun broke through it turned really quite nice. Saw a number of pillboxes (including this cute one that appeared to have a tree growing out of it) which Ray thought could have formed one of several 'stop lines' of the little concrete cuties; this document suggests that an anti-tank ditch was dug from the Kennet & Avon Canal through the Sulham Gap to the Thames at Pangbourne, so I guess they were probably connected to that. Anyway. Military history not really my thing. This person appears to have done a whole photographic study of pillboxes in the Sulham Valley, which apparently offers rich pickings for pillbox enthusiasts.

The walk passed Nunhide Farm, which has a beautiful old farmhouse (not the house that can be seen in the Geograph link - that's just a regular house although probably it belongs to the farm) which looked to us as though it was empty and in need of some TLC, and then off up behind the farm passed the listed dovecote known as The Pigeon Tower, built by a local Reverend for his lady love so that she could see it from her house and think of him. The walk skirted the edge of Tilehurst and down Pincents Lane, past Pincents Manor and the now-defunct Pincents Manor golf course, to the retail area that has, really quite excitingly, been acquired by IKEA, although nothing further seems to be happening at the moment and there seem to be the usual objections on traffic grounds, although as the site is just off a motorway junction and not near a residential area it would seem more than ideal, but maybe I'm missing something. Anyway, the rest of the walk took in a footbridge over Sulham Brook and the Moor Copse nature reserve, which, along with approximately 2,000 other places locally, is reputed to have provided Kenneth Grahame with inspiration for The Wind in the Willows and, rather more interestingly, has apparently been the scene of some woodland naughtiness, although I can't say we saw anyone lurking about hopefully. We walked down a section of the old A340 over Hogmoor Bridge and Ray spotted the cat's eyes still in the old road. We then made our way to Tidmarsh and then across country back to Sulham Woods.

In the afternoon, I went along to Battle Library for the first session of a three-part 'Introduction to Raja Yoga Meditation', run on behalf of Brahma Kumaris UK by the charming Clive and Esme. Rather more academic than I had expected and rather less time spent actually meditating, but I shall go along next week and see how it pans out. Met Clare, who seemed to share my view that we were just hoping to calm and focus the mind, rather than being particularly interested in God, the soul, etc. Our homework was, among other things, to spend the week repeating the affirmation "I am a being of light".

Our team's office move to Temporary Office Building 1 is getting ever closer and is now scheduled for mid-November, although it seems to have run into a number of hitches. Despite having been scheduled over a year ago, the 'new' building apparently still has no computer points and has water leaking from the ceiling in one place. In addition, several of the rooms are apparently locked and the keys cannot be found. Given that the university owns the buildings, why the locks can't simply be changed is a bit of a mystery, but there you go. Not starting to pack quite yet.

Crusty pubs; Cardiff; Millennium trilogy

The electrical work is now officially complete, except that I think some tweaks are needed to the new porch light's motion sensor. Probably need to consult the manual I was left, though Adam has offered to come back and tweak it if need be. The new LED downlights in the upstairs hallway and stairwell look great. Just need to do up the rest of the décor to match now.

After an unrewarding meeting at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College last Friday afternoon, met Claire at the Hobgoblin where we met up with some friends of her boyfriend, who has recently returned home to the US. The Hobgoblin is a small, quirky pub, very real ale-oriented and with a strictly-enforced rule about not using your mobile phone inside - one girl near me who tried to received a bellowed "Outside, please!" from the American barmaid. A number of people seem to have their own tankards behind the bar - unfamiliar with this but I guess it goes on. Spotted one woman sitting at the end of the bar with a handle-free tankard with what looked like Elvish runes on it. Probably sums up the clientele. I had a pint of something quite nice that I've forgotten the name of.

Had lovely long weekend with Mum on another UK city break, to follow on from our trip to Manchester last year. Cardiff was this year's destination, suggested by me as I thought Mum might enjoy visiting her hometown; also not too far to travel. We met at Cardiff Central station mid-morning on Friday and went straight to The Plan in the Morgan Arcade for a second breakfast. We then went and dumped our bags at our hotel, the Premier Inn Cardiff City Centre, before walking back into the city and picking up a map for the Cardiff Centenary Walk, which began with St John's Church (where we were accosted by an enthusiastic young woman asking if we wanted her to pray with us) and then moved on to Cardiff's indoor market which still has rabbits and kittens (among other things) on its upper level. Resisted the urge to a) become extremely depressed; b) buy all of them and take them home with me. The route also took in the Animal Wall that runs alongside Bute Park (apparently a programme to restore the animals kicked off in July of this year, which will include restoring the anteater's missing nose) and the exterior walls of Cardiff Castle. We gave the Great British Cheese Festival a miss as it was £8.50 to get in - you'd want quite a few free cheese samples for that.

The walk then took us to Cathays Park via a quick peek at a little stretch of water that was the dock feeder for the defunct Glamorganshire Canal - the pedestrian underpass that leads under the main road was formerly part of the route of the canal. Apparently the towpath is still visible, but we couldn't see it. After a look at the impressive civic buildings at Cathays Park we went to visit the National Museum of Wales, where we tried to find the leatherback turtle that Mum remembered from previous visits, but discovered on enquiring that he was in one of several galleries closed for refurbishment. We were able to admire the impressive entrance hall and staircases, and have tea and cake in the ground floor café.

We had dinner on the Saturday evening at Giovanni's, a long-established Italian restaurant that Mum had heard good reports of. Kitschy decor, largely involving Giovanni in poses with assorted minor celebrities, and over-loud music which Mum gamely asked them to turn down (which they did, ever so slightly). Had a delicious seafood pasta.

Sunday was mainly spent visiting Cardiff Bay - we decided to walk from the hotel down through Butetown, which Mum remembered as an area of densely-packed terraced housing but which apparently underwent a massive clearance and rebuilding in the 1960s. The area to the west of Bute Street still looked depressed to us and as though it hadn't been significantly uplifted by the new Bay development. After some difficulty we located the Butetown History & Arts Centre, which appeared to be undergoing a refit and consisted of only a smallish number of books and photographs, but did come complete with a chatty elderly man who regaled us with stories of the history of the area before talking Mum into buying a book.

We went for lunch at the lovely Bosphorus overlooking the Bay before walking out along the Cardiff Bay Barrage Coast Path to have a look at the Barrage, and then back to Mermaid Quay (the main hub) to catch the Waterbus back up the Taff into the city. In the evening we went for a curry at the Juboraj, which apparently enjoys the 'very enviable position of being at the pinnacle of Bangladeshi and Indian cuisine in South Wales today'. Hmm. Meal was nice enough though we were the only diners in the restaurant, which never adds to the atmosphere. Made our respective ways home on the Monday morning after another breakfast at The Plan.

My Book Group has just romped through Part 3 of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, which seems to have been a major hit with all of us except Claire. We are, of course, all completely in love with Blomkvist - which I can't help now pronouncing musically Blooom-kvist after seeing the Swedish film of Part 1. Also had a surprisingly OK Singapore chow mein from the Chinese takeaway across the road from Lesley's.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Hairdressing angst; bleak suburbia; messing about in boats

Rant for the week: prices of ladies’ haircuts. Have realised that I may be forced to move on from Alison Hair, the suburban pensioner-friendly salon at the end of my road that charges me a reasonable £21, as the lovely Lisa has substantially reduced her hours and the salon owner looks a tad too much like Bet Lynch for me to fancy booking in with her. This means though that if I want to pay less than £40 for a cut and blow dry I’ll have to either find another old-lady salon or cut my own hair. Ruth recommended Karin, the mobile hairdresser whom she and Helen have been using for the last 10 years or so, but although Karin seems a pleasant woman and does a good job on their hair, I fear her ditsiness and my anal-retentiveness would be an explosive combination (she seems to manage to get lost each time on the way to the house and sees nothing wrong with changing their appointment times at short notice, often to something patently obviously in the middle of the working day).

Visited four town centre hairdressers to get a representative view of the going rate, but was quoted around £40 by all of them, despite the fact that all I wanted was an inch off the ends. One of the salons I visited, Kirokara Hairdressing on Duke Street, apparently offer state-of-the-art Shiatsu massage chairs, but even that wasn't enough of a lure. They also have the cheek to offer something called 'Pamper Me Mondays' at only 'a credit crunching £80' – obviously some kind of merchant bankers’ credit crunch. Also the stylist I spoke to looked as though he had a gammy eye, but I guess that shouldn't be held against him. I ended up having a dry trim at Heidi's on Union Street (aka Smelly Alley) for £21, which covered not more than five minutes in the chair with a supremely uninterested stylist. Came home and booked in for the next available Saturday with Lisa, in a month's time. There's nothing for it but to be better organised.

Paid my first ever visit to South Ruislip last Friday to visit Sarah, a friend from PhD days whom I had not seen for about six years, partly because she’s been living in Paris until recently and I’ve been too slack to get around to arranging a visit. Had a great few hours’ catch-up though we had to postpone our planned evening drink in Notting Hill as Sarah had woken up with a frozen shoulder. From what I saw of South Ruislip it’s a rather bleak pebble-dashed suburb the centre of which seems to consist of a row of Chinese restaurants, tanning salons etc flanking the main road from the tube station. Sarah and her partner Chris are currently living cheaply in a house owned by a friend but I gathered that, being city people, there was some doubt as to whether they would be likely to be able to bear living there long-term.

Went to the Royal County of Berkshire (aka Newbury) Show on Saturday, for the first time in about 15 years. Watched the heavy horses doing their thing and then what I gather is called a pony scurry. We met up with Ruth’s aunt for lunch, who got us guest access to the Members’ Enclosure where we had hog roast. After lunch had a bit of a wander round to look at the animals, including llamas, pigs and chickens but managed to miss seeing the cattle so no marvelling at enormous bulls etc. I was hoodwinked into buying a far too large tub of feta-stuffed chilis, which I will now have to spend the next month or so eating.

Had the excitement on Monday of a trip down the Thames on Ray’s boat. He and his friend Alan have now completed a boat-handling course and took the boat out on its maiden voyage last week. Seems to be going well although I gather some things (e.g. rope throwing) take a bit of getting the hang of. They picked Ruth and me up from alongside Christchurch Meadows and we had a lovely pootle down the river to Pangbourne, where we moored up for a second breakfast, and then on to Goring, where we turned round just before the lock and returned to Reading. Saw quite a number of herons and Ruth claimed to have seen a kingfisher. We both had a go at steering – takes a severe degree of concentration at first but presumably gets easier.

As of today (Wednesday) Adam from AHL Electrical and two colleagues are thumping about in the house doing the various tasks that form part of ‘Electrical work 2010’. Still not sure I’ve bought the right bulb for the new porch light but hoping they will advise me. Corraling the bunnies safely has proved a bit of a challenge. Methinks they will go for a couple of days’ board at Reading Rabbit Rescue the next time we have any work done.