Running

A redway

Running. Until this winter, I’d barely run since school and in recent years had dismissed running as the preserve of strange sinewy obsessives who wanted to collapse prematurely from a heart attack/have to have a hip replacement at 50. The fact that several keen runners I have known always seemed to be nursing injuries didn’t help. However, this January I threw previous reservations to the wind and joined a beginners' running course run by Milton Keynes-based club Redway Runners, an impressively well-organised outfit of over 2000 members. The name of the club refers to the mixed-use recreational dark red-tarmacked paths that criss-cross MK.

The motivation was a desire to improve my cardio fitness, prompted partly by the struggle I’d had getting up Snowdon last June. While I do walk regularly, and walking is great, there’s only so much I can do to stretch myself sufficiently several times a week as Milton Keynes is relatively flat. As I don’t like gyms and can never really seem to get going with cycling, and as a number of people at work had recommended the Redway Runners, I decided to give them a go, so signed up for the 6pm Tuesday course starting the second week in January.

Although I didn't manage to attend every session, I attended most of them and found the group leads very encouraging, particularly Lisa C who was often responsible for the 'tail' and assured me that the coolest place to be was at the back (just as well). The club operates a great system for beginners runs – as well as somebody leading, there’s always a tail runner to ensure no one is left behind, and faster runners have to ‘loop back’ if the group gets too spread out to allow the group to bunch back together.

Redway Runners January 2019 beginners 'graduation' - me circled

The 10-week ‘course’ ended with the group – as well as all the other beginners groups; there were 6 or 7 – doing the Milton Keynes 5K parkrun on Saturday 30th at Willen Lake. Hai had kindly offered a while back to run with me, which worked quite well though I suspect she might have liked to go faster at certain points. My priority, however, was maintaining a constant slow speed with the intention of avoiding having to walk – albeit that the group leaders had assured us beforehand that it didn’t matter if we did have to walk bits. In the event, I managed to get the whole way round without walking, which I was very pleased about.

My time – I’m not proud – was 45 minutes. Never come 840th in anything before. I was cheered to learn that there were evidently 63 people who came AFTER me, though realise some of them may have been walking the route.

A number of photos were taken, most of the ones I've located highly unflattering. Here's one such.

Very taken with the parkrun idea. The Milton Keynes parkrun is a pleasant single-lap route taking in the canal broadwalk, passing the Peace Pagoda and then doing a circuit of Willen Lake. Planning to have a go at the Reading parkrun this coming weekend.

Redway Runners have a whole load of group runs every week, aimed at runners of varying speeds. There are 'step up' runs several times a week for newly-graduated beginners, plus 'gentle step ups' for those of a particularly sedate speed (40+ minutes parkrun time). I've already been out on a couple of the latter and quite enjoyed them. The club seems to have runners of a whole range of ages, sizes and speeds, which is really encouraging. I had some reservations about taking up running at 50 but so far all seems good, and I am mindful of not rushing into it headlong and overdoing it (frankly that's not all that likely; I have no problem in adopting a 'moderation' approach to exercise, unlike to, say, chocolate biscuits). My boss Judith started running only around 10 years ago and is now a keen triathlete who has won her age category at the Ironman Wales for the past two years. I’ve no intention of doing triathlons, but it’s certainly encouraging to know that you can safely take up running at any age.

Walk in Maidenhead, about 5 miles

Sunday 10 March

Another walk with Ray. We'd actually planned a while back to do the route of the Maidenhead Boundary Walk, a circular walk of about 14 miles, but wimped out of that. We also had to make an early diversion to Ray's employer's property to remove some branches from the road after a tree had fallen in the heavy winds. After that we went over to Norden Farm for a cup of tea and a sit down - I'm sure I remember there being a much better cake selection the last time we were there, but on this occasion had to content myself with a Stroopwafel.

After refreshments, we parked on Bridle Road and turned down Harrow Road past Furze Platt station (a stop on the branch line between Maidenhead and Marlow) and what was the Farmers Boy pub, now closed. Came out onto Cookham Road almost opposite the parade of shops that used to contain a Ritz Video, where Ray and I rented a LOT of Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes at one point in the past. Turned right onto Garretts Lane, which soon becomes a footpath leading onto North Town Moor. We followed footpaths for a while before coming out onto Ray Mill Road West.

This part of Maidenhead has a whole heap of roads with ‘Ray’ in the title: Ray Mill Roads West and East; Ray Park Avenue, Ray Lea Road, Ray Drive, Ray Street; the charmingly-named In The Ray. There’s a biggish house Ray Lodge, now converted into flats. I lived briefly (before falling out with the other tenants) at Ray Lodge Mews in the early 1990s. A brief bit of digging suggests that ‘Ray’ was the surname of a once-prominent local family.

We walked to Boulter's Lock and crossed over onto Ray Mill Island (there the Rays are again). I didn’t know, but there’s been quite a bit of development here on this stretch between the Thames and the new(ish) Jubilee River – there’s a new footbridge and a shedload of new houses and flats ('Taplow Riverside'). As well as all the housing there are also some nice new pedestrian walkways. We spent quite a while mooching around here.

The new footbridge

Walkway and the Jubilee River

Housing at Taplow Riverside

We walked past what used to be Skindles and is now posh new housing and a posh-looking restaurant called ‘Roux at Skindles’. When I lived in Maidenhead in the early 1990s it housed the Studio Valbonne nightclub, where I clubbed a few times in the days when I did such things. The club’s heyday was way before my time; this source has some interesting snippets about its glamorous history. The new Roux restaurant's Skindles History page notes that ‘in the 1990s, Skindles became a rundown venue hosting discos’ which sounds about right from my memory. It closed in the mid-1990s and the building stood empty for 20 years before being bought up for redevelopment.

We walked into the town centre via Guards Club Park. Access to the island is closed at this time of year because of nesting birds. We had lunch at Funkywood.

The footbridge leading to Guards Club Island

Our route shown in red. It doesn't show as circular because I stopped the tracker when we stopped for lunch.

But here's the rest of it. After leaving the restaurant we walked through Maidenhead's uninspiring town centre (though it's not as bad as Bedford's), across Kidwells Park and along roads back to Ray's car.

Walk around Burchetts Green and Littlewick Green, 8.5 miles

Saturday 12 January

Weekend walk with Ray, christening the ’50 Walks in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire’ book that I’d bought myself for Christmas (have definitely reached middle age). We ended up combining two walks in the book: the ‘Around Burchetts Green’ walk and the ‘Littlewick Green and Maidenhead Thicket’ walk.

We parked again at the Butterfly Trail car park and joined the walk route at Robin Hood’s Arbour. Maidenhead Thicket was, apparently, notorious for highwaymen in olden times, and at one time outlaws in general were apparently known as ‘Robin Hoods’. Robin Hood’s Arbour is an Iron Age earthwork. Ray reminisced somewhat bitterly about how, as a small boy, he had been sold a longish walk to RHA under the guise of its being a ‘fort’, which had led him to expect battlements, drawbridges etc, rather than underwhelming humps and ditches.

We followed the path to Stubbings House Lodge, crossed the road and followed the footpath across fields to the posh village of Burchetts Green. We crossed the road by The Crown and headed up Hall Place Lane. We stopped briefly by a large white house called the Dower House for Ray to Google what this actually meant – it seems that the term referred to the house on an estate that was gifted to the widow of the estate owner after he had died, presumably to allow her eldest son to move into the big house. Doesn’t seem a bad deal.

House with dovecote, Burchetts Green

At the end of the lane, we crossed a field and headed down the drive towards Hall Place, a red-brick Georgian mansion that forms the centrepiece of the Berkshire College of Agriculture.

Crossing a field

Hall Place

We skirted round to the right of Hall Place and walked along North Drive to the statue of Diana, before turning briefly left and then right across fields towards woodland (High Wood). We continued through the small wood to its end where the book told us to enjoy the views north over the Thames Valley, so we did briefly. Then back through more of the grounds of BCA where we turned right and passed the Dew Drop Inn before entering Ashley Hill Forest.

Walking through High Wood

Ray by a carved wooden thing

In Ashley Hill Forest

There seems to be a single house at the top of Ashley Hill, an isolated property by UK standards. As a lad, Ray used to be friendly with the son of the landlord of the Dew Drop Inn, and he and this boy would then enjoy exploring around what was then apparently some sort of abandoned hunting lodge. It’s clearly been rebuilt since then as a large though architecturally uninteresting private house. I took a picture of its gates.

Gates to 'Clifton'

Aerial view of Ashley Hill, showing 'Clifton'

We came down Ashley Hill by a different path and made our way back to Burchetts Green. From there, we made our way south, crossing the A4, to the village of Littlewick Green. Have driven past signs to this village for over 20 years but never been in to the village before. It’s very attractive. We stopped at The Cricketers for a light lunch.

Littlewick Green

After lunch, we headed south out of the village and turned left along a tarmac track running alongside fields, coming out on Cherry Garden Lane. Turned left and headed north back to the A4 and then through the Thicket back to the car.

Our route shown in red:

My Birthday 2018

Well, still can’t quite believe I’m 50, though I’m slightly more reconciled to it than I was for the few months – OK, few years – beforehand, largely through, I don’t know, having no choice and all. These photos sum up my mental turmoil beforehand.

At the beginning of 2018, Ruth and I had been entertaining thoughts of booking some significant trip to mark my half-century, but unsurprisingly given our collective feet-dragging over holidays, that didn't quite happen. We did have a bit of a peruse of Hurtigruten’s Nordic cruises, but couldn’t quite decide on the best time of year to go. The Snowdonia trip we took in June was vaguely intended to be for my birthday – though the idea of climbing Snowdon was Ruth’s – as was the yet-to-be-blogged canal trek in September.

There was no concealing my age from the office, in part due to my own whingeing about the impending birthday for some while beforehand. So, in the custom of birthdays with a zero at the end, I was duly presented with a card and some presents – a bunch of flowers and a generous Amazon gift card, plus a bottle of bubbly from Jill. Judith gave a speech including quite a number of stats around the percentage of my adult life I’d spent at the OU, etc etc.

Around 10 of us went out for a lovely pizza dinner at Murati’s in Wolverton the evening before my birthday. Although I’d arranged this, it hadn’t been intended as a birthday meal but just as an ex-Information Office get together, but it happened that the 15th was the date most people could make. Very nice evening, enhanced by the staff appearing with a cake and singing Happy Birthday to the accompaniment of tambourines. Turned out Sara had arranged the cake, which was very sweet of her. I don’t think she’d necessarily banked on the tambourines.

I had the day itself to myself in MK, some of it spent having an Autism Diagnostic Assessment, of which more – maybe – in a later post.

For the weekend, Ruth and I booked a relatively last-minute (by my standards) city break in London, staying at the 4-star Dorsett City, a hotel we’d seen featured in The Times Weekend’s 'Cool Hotel Guide'. The hotel, part of a Chinese-owned chain, is on Aldgate High Street between Aldgate tube station and the church of St Botolph without Aldgate. It’s an unassuming-looking building from the outside, quite a contrast with the gaudy interior (faux gold everywhere).

The Dorsett City to the right of the church

The hotel boasts a ‘destination skybar’ on the 14th floor which does indeed have pretty good views of the surrounding cityscape. As we were keen to try it I’d booked us an hour’s slot early on the Friday evening, which worked out well as we ended up with a great table out on the terrace looking directly out at the view. Here I am with my 'City Sky Line'.

Cocktail at the Jin Bo Law skybar

View down onto the tower of St Botolph's

On the first night we had dinner at the hotel’s ‘Shikumen’ restaurant, which was very nice though practically empty, which we were a bit surprised at. I think both of us would have liked a main course of the colourful dim sum and to have scrapped the rest, though it was all nice enough.

Dim sum at Shikumen

One of the things I noticed was that the hotel’s lift panels didn’t give the option of selecting floor 4 – which immediately got me thinking that floor 4 was some secret mysterious floor along the lines of the fifth floor of the Yanggakdo International Hotel in North Korea.

Ruth and I decided to investigate this by going down via the stairs, but there genuinely seemed to be no fourth floor. Googled this and apparently the number 4 is unlucky in Chinese culture and thus it's common for hotels and office blocks to lack a fourth floor. So there you are. There's a note here about the Dorsett City and its absence of a floor 4.

On the Saturday, I went for an early walk to Tower Bridge. We breakfasted both mornings in the VQ restaurant adjoining the hotel, which was OK though nothing special.

Ruth had a yen to visit the Thames Barrier, so we took the DLR all the way to Woolwich. The DLR part was fun but clearly we hadn’t researched the distances accurately, as we then had a dreary walk to the Barrier, relieved slightly by hopping on a bus partway (Ruth commendably takes charge when she senses I am about to lose it). 

We made for the Information Centre café, through a massive throng of cyclists annoyingly taking up the path. I SHOWED THEM by pushing through them irritably. Once in the café, I found a table while Ruth nobly queued behind a line of cyclists. We had a look around the interesting exhibition. The TB Information Centre had been closed for a while beforehand for a refurbishment, though I have to say it wasn’t hugely obvious to me what the money had been spent on.

Ruth then came up with the idea of crossing back over the river via the Emirates Air Line cable car, which I’d never even heard of. We had a bit of difficulty locating where we were supposed to queue to get on, but once on board the ride was enjoyable though and an alternative way to cross the river, though there is something slightly white elephant-y about it and it seems unclear whether it’s actually getting used by commuters as much as was originally planned.

On our second evening we had dinner at Emilia’s Crafted Pasta at St Katharine Docks – lovely food and we managed to bag a table outside, which was lucky as the place is tiny.

Dinner at Emilia's

The Times Weekend's piece on the Dorsett City:

Bedford and the Marston Vale line

Booked yesterday off for no particular reason, other than fancied a long weekend after being in charge of the Returns team for a month while Judith was in Australia visiting her daughter (she’s back on Monday, thankfully).

Decided to take the train to Bedford, for no better reason than I’d never been there. This is the Marston Vale line, a little service (my outward train was only one carriage) between Bletchley and Bedford, a marooned still-open stretch of the former Varsity Line that ran between Oxford and Cambridge. There seems to be a plan to re-open the route, as part of the East West Rail project, but I’m not sure how far it’s progressed. Currently, you can get a train from Oxford to Bicester (this stretch was re-opened in the 1980s and then upgraded a few years ago by Chiltern Railways, with the creation of the new Oxford Parkway station and trains through to London Marylebone) but the stretch between Bicester and Bletchley was closed in 1967 so you’d have to walk that bit. I believe the track is still in place for most of that route, as evidenced by lots of pictures like this one.

Teeny train waiting to leave Bletchley

From Bletchley, you can travel as far as Bedford, stopping at a number of tiny stations, but then that’s it – the stretch from Bedford to Cambridge was also closed in the late 1960s and evidently has been built over in a couple of places, which would presumably hamper its re-opening.

At Bletchley station, there’s a concrete flyover which was apparently built to carry the Varsity Line over the West Coast Main Line. I can't quite make out whether it was ever used for passenger services and I ran out of energy for the internet research. This YouTube clip shows a driver's eye view going over it.

Flyover coming in from the left and crossing the main line further down

Bedford town centre is distinctly underwhelming. Thankfully, after a dispiriting mile’s walk from the station past branches of Poundland and Cash Converters, I arrived at St Paul’s Square, where things improve with some attractive old buildings and access to the riverside walkways and footbridges, which are pleasant.

While walking along the river I passed the Boatslide hydro power facility, which, according to the information board by it, features something called an Archimedean screw turbine. It looks rather as though it would mince anything going through it, but the board assures passers-by that fish are safe.

I walked eastwards along the river for a while and then turned up through some pleasant residential streets just north of the Embankment. Walked past the Panacea Museum, which I went into out of curiosity as it was free entry. I knew nothing about the Panacea Society and equally little about Joanna Southcott's Box - the latter is referred to in a Monty Python sketch (the Epsom Furniture Race) but I'd never bothered to look up what it actually was.

Joanna Southcott lived in the second half of the 18th century and claimed to hear words from God, which she interpreted as prophecies. She wrote these down and stored them in a box. She left instructions that the box only be opened at a time of national crisis and in the presence of all the bishops of the Church of England. Shortly before her death, Southcott seems to have claimed that she was pregnant with the messiah but, disappointingly for her followers, this didn’t come to anything.

Snip from larger picture here

About 100 years later, interest in Joanna Southcott’s Box was reignited by one Mabel Barltrop, who found that the suffragetty atmos in the early 20th century formed a receptive climate for ideas that the coming of the messiah might be heralded by a woman. Barltrop founded the Panacea Society in 1919. The Society apparently funded a national advertising campaign to have the Box opened, involving posters such as the one shown above. The real Box is, apparently, still in a secret location, but the museum contains a replica (pictured below).

The Idler piece from which the billboard photo above is taken is amusing, if mocking. This BBC piece from 2017 tells the story of "a cult of women who thought they could avert Armageddon". At the least, the Panacea Society all sounds rather fun. It seems to have flourished up until the Second World War, when membership tailed off a bit. The museum is free admission, very nicely laid out and well kept, in a large Victorian house, so there's clearly still money somewhere. The exhibits are over two floors and it looked as if you could also go out into the garden, though I didn't as I was mindful of train times by then. It's a diverting enough place to visit.

I walked up the nearby Castle Mound to take a photo and then returned to the station.