Walk, Thames Path and South Oxfordshire countryside, 11.35 miles

25 March

Another 'training' walk today for the British Heart Foundation trek I’ve signed up for in May. First longer walk with the new Nike Pegasus trainers I bought last weekend, specially recommended by the unfeasibly young lad in The Sweat Shop as extra-cushioned for long-distance road walking. Wore them in the week for a few of my usual circa 3-mile weekday walks and they were wonderfully comfortable and positively springy.

Started out from the house and headed down to the river via the new pedestrian footbridge, now named Christchurch Bridge, apparently. Set off eastwards along the Thames Path, passing Caversham Lock and, a bit further on, Kennet Mouth via the Horseshoe Bridge. Continued on to Sonning Lock where I sat briefly to eat a home-made cacao (get me) and almond energy ball (courtesy of  'Deliciously Ella') and watched a hired cruiser make its way into the lock. Crossed the river at Sonning Bridge where the Thames Path changes sides. Continued on for a couple of miles to the boat house below Shiplake College, where I spent a few minutes scouting around for the footpath up to the church that I could have sworn was there somewhere. Did eventually find it, though it's not well signposted from the river bank - was glad I'd taken my OS Explorer map with me as well as the smartphone.

The Great House with Sonning Bridge to the right	Thames walking northeast (downstream) towards Shiplake
Countryside near Binfield Heath	Footpath across field towards All Saints Dunsden

Crossed the A4155 and popped into The Plowden Arms for a Coke and quick bar snack. Then followed Plough Lane/Shiplake Row (passing a pub I once went to for lunch with Mum some years ago when it was called the White Hart - it's now a posh-looking restaurant called Orwells) turning left at the junction by Binfield Heath Stores. Headed down to Dunsden Green and then turned right to follow the road round past All Saints Church and down to Kiln Road, cutting a couple of corners via footpaths. Walked down into Emmer Green and home via Peppard Road. Feet aching a bit at the end but no blisters or anything unpleasant. Slightly nervous though that the full circa 30-mile walk is only about six weeks away.

Map of the route

Below shows my pace (in blue) and the elevation (in red) across the route. Pace seems to have understandably dropped a bit on the considerably more hilly second half (and dropped off completely at one point, presumably while I was queuing in Budgens).

Basket of goods

Originally published on my OU study blog while studying module M140 'Introducing statistics'

Unit 2 of M140 introduces the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the Retail Prices Index (RPI). The CPI and RPI are two of the Office for National Statistics' suite of consumer price inflation indices, which are based on a notional 'basket of goods'. This basket of goods is amended periodically to reflect changes in consumer spending patterns.

This article shows how the basket has changed over time, and contains some fascinating stuff about changing British shopping patterns. I was surprised that the mangle was only removed from the basket in 1962 - that seems recent to me. Condensed milk stayed in until 1987 - I don't think I've ever tried it, though I believe my grandpa used to have it in his tea. The mashed potato substitute Smash was in the basket from 1974 to 1987, when it was replaced by frozen oven chips. 2016 apparently saw coffee pods, microwave rice and computer game downloads added.

Found this article in last Wednesday's Metro, headed Just How Hip(ster) Are You?, which notes that the ONS has taken account of the hipster trend in its annual basket review.

RFID and Beat the Street

Originally published on my OU study blog

Learned about RFID (radio frequency identification) tagging as part of TU100 last year. Recently tried this out by activating a Beat the Street card for the scheme running in Milton Keynes from 1 February to 22 March.

The cards, which are free, have a unique number and an activation code. You enter both while registering on the website at https://www.beatthestreet.me/miltonkeynes and it sets you up an account. The cards are used to ‘tap’ on Beat Boxes, which have been attached e.g. to lamp posts along footpaths across the town. The idea is that if you tap two within a certain time period, it gets registered as a journey and you get points. You can walk, run or cycle between Beat Boxes (I gather driving between them isn’t considered quite the thing).

A Beat the Street card

The scheme is about encouraging physical activity. The company behind Beat the Street is a Reading-based company Intelligent Health (who appear to be based on the Earley Gate side of the University of Reading's campus, near Temporary Office Building 1 where I used to work). They claim to make physical activity a way of life "through expertly delivered, measurable campaigns with long-term, community-wide benefits".

A number of my colleagues were doing this, so I decided I'd have a go. The downside has proved to be that, though it sounds a great idea, I've had very patchy success in getting the Beat Boxes to register my card. Taps on four different beat boxes one day last week only resulted in one actually lighting up, with the result that I didn't get any points. It's been reported that the MK scheme is unfortunately experiencing both technical issues and vandalism. Shame.

A Beat Box

Second Life: part 2

Aha! After a bit of research via encyclopedia Google, I downloaded the beta version of the viewer, and I’m in.

[Caveat: may have had a glass of wine]

Gave up trying to think of an imaginative username that hadn’t already been taken. Eventually settled on ‘Annonny’.

On accessing the site, was faced with the following somewhat disconcerting message:

Luckily my clothes downloaded fairly quickly.

First dilemma: how on earth do you move around? I’m just standing in the middle of the street here.

OK, just narrowly missed being run over by a bus.

Figured out how to walk, with the help of the ‘How to’ facility.

Incidentally haven’t yet met anybody else.

Just got a message saying “You have been logged out of Second Life”.

Logged back in, and teleported to the OU’s ‘Deep Think’ island. It’s lovely. There’s sea and everything.

There’s absolutely no one else here though.

Incidentally my avatar is much slimmer than I am. Perhaps I should make her more authentic by adding a couple of stone?

Second Life

Probably as a displacement activity when I should be studying MST124, I’m going to have another foray into Second Life this evening. Studied ‘Virtual worlds’ in Block 4 Part 4 of TU100 last year (ah, I miss TU100).

I first heard of Second Life in around 2007-2008, when rumours were going around at work that my then-boss had become so addicted to the virtual world that she was spending all night on it, which wasn’t helping her already dodgy work attendance and performance.  So it’s been around for a good while – and has quite probably had its heyday by now.

Here’s what I wrote last year when starting to study this part. The instruction was: “take some time (up to 20 minutes should be about right) to jot down some of your own thoughts about virtual worlds.” As often with TU100, about 1 minute sufficed, but this is what I wrote in response to the prompt questions:

Part of me thinks I’m the type of personality who could really have enjoyed and got into this stuff if I’d been exposed to it. Part of me thinks my personality type doesn’t need any encouragement and I should just get out more.

Section 2 of this part asks the question “What do you think the average game world user looks like?” Well, I’d probably give a stereotypical answer like: Hairy; has their own tankard at the pub with runes carved on it; slightly over-intense in everyday conversation.

Section 2 notes that a survey (Yee, 2006) “concluded that players in virtual game worlds enjoy meaningful relationships and significant emotional experiences, as well as developing skills such as leadership that translate into the physical world.” Well, who wouldn’t want some of that.

Second Life began in 2003, apparently. At the time the TU100 module materials were written, the OU evidently owned several virtual islands within Second Life. An embedded video in this part says that “The Open University is a trailblazer in Second Life”. The video features (former) OU Director of Learning Innovation Niall Sclater talking about the OU’s Second Life activities.

When I first had a go at Second Life while I was actually studying TU100, I only had mobile WiFi, and though I managed to set up an account and get access, it was pretty much a no go – endless buffering and moving in an extremely jerky fashion down a virtual street. I gave up pretty quickly. Now that I’ve actually got a proper broadband connection, let’s see if it works any better.

First off: I had to download the Second Life Viewer, as I’ve bought a new (Windows 10) laptop since I last attempted this. Downloaded it from https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/. Tried to install it and got the following message:

My virtual world attempts seem destined to failure at the moment. Back to calculus.

Further autumn miscellany: part 2

On 19 November Ruth and I went to the former HMP Reading to see the exhibition Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison, run by the arts organisation Artangel. The Victorian section of the prison was designed by George Gilbert Scott and opened in 1844 as the New County Gaol. Latterly it had been a young offenders’ institution before finally closing in 2013. The future of the building appears to be in some doubt, but it’s to be fervently hoped that the Victorian building is kept – it could be a real asset to Reading as some sort of arts/cultural centre, but we shall see.

The exhibition inevitably featured Oscar Wilde prominently, but also included work by a number of other writers and artists. We didn’t bother queueing to go into Wilde’s cell, as it looked exactly the same as all the other cells, but did have a look at his collection of books, housed in the cell next door (Wilde was eventually allowed to receive approved books from outside, to supplement prisoners’ paltry book allowance). There was so much art on display I can’t remember many specifics – bits that I remember included the video by Nan Goldin of George Montague, “the oldest gay in the village”, talking about his experiences, including losing his job as a senior Commissioner in the Scouts after receiving a conviction for “gross indecency” in 1974. Montague finally married his long-term partner in 2015, aged 92. Also several paintings of a glass of water by the German artist Peter Dreher, part of the series Tag um Tag guter Tag - Dreher has painted the same empty glass thousands of times since 1974. The philosophy behind the series is apparently influenced by Zen Buddhism.

Me in a cell

Inside the prison

The exhibition also included some interesting historical material related to the 19th century prison system, including some photographs of prisoners. Interesting to learn about the Separate System, devised by the chaplain John Field and in operation in the prison in the 19th century, whereby prisoners were not allowed any contact at all with other prisoners, to the extent of having to wear hoods whenever they left their cells to avoid eye contact with other prisoners and even having to stand in chapel in individual wooden boxes so that they couldn’t be seen by any other prisoners.

The following day we took Ruth’s aunt for lunch at The Hare at Lambourn Woodlands, a pub I’ve driven past a number of times on the way to her house but never been into. Very nice. Quite posh. The pub is on the junction of the B4000 (at this point part of the Roman road Ermin Street) with Hilldrop Lane, which Mrs Spence observed used to be a back route through to Hungerford in the olden days, before the M4 cut it off.

Went down to Wales for the last weekend in November for a (slightly early) birthday tea on the Saturday for Mum’s birthday on the 30th. Dad and Dave accompanied me on my daily walk, taking in the tiny Deri Road leading from Pen-Y-Pound to the Old Hereford Road.

Mum with Nia

As Hazel was ill on the Sunday we unexpectedly had responsibility for Nia and Alys again – Mum cooked a roast chicken lunch and we took Nia for a walk in the afternoon.

Dave and Hazel’s third child Huw was born on 29 November, at 27 weeks considerably before his due date of, as I understand it, sometime in February. As at today the little lad is still in hospital but seems to be doing well.

Had our work Christmas ‘do’ on 7 December – now that we are a team of around 50 following the recent merger with the Business Performance Improvement team, the hapless organizer had experienced some difficulty booking us in anywhere, with the result that we ended up at the Jurys Inn. The Jurys has very nice rooms, having stayed there once in early 2014, but I wasn’t expecting the food offering to be up to much. Indeed it was pretty mediocre, though cheap, which does seem to be some people’s priority. As per last year, a group of all the best people went on for drinks at Missoula afterwards.

Tracy and Matt at Missoula

Paid a flying visit to Claire in Devon on 10-11 December. Not deterred by the rain on the Saturday we took the train from Newton Abbot to Dawlish Warren and walked from there back to Dawlish, via the path along the sea wall which is indeed quite exciting in windy weather. Had a wander around Dawlish, which seems quite an attractive place, and stopped at a café for a snack. Then hopped back onto a train and got off at Teignmouth, where we had a wander around and a drink in a pub – this one, I think. We returned to Newton Abbot and had dinner at the Rio Grande before going to the Union Inn to hear Audius Maximus. The band, all older chaps, seemed like good musicians but it was all a bit too loud for my taste/comfort. Claire surmised, probably correctly, that I'd have preferred the folk group that she'd seen a week or two earlier. Can't be helped. I did have a pint of Grolsch for the first time in a few years.

Sea wall at Dawlish. Train approaching in the background

Me at Dawlish

The Sunday was a much nicer day and Claire drove me on a bit of a whistlestop tour of Dartmoor, starting with a lovely shortish walk from Venford Reservoir up to a tor (whose name I've forgotten) and back. Absolutely beautiful day and lovely scenery.

Then on to Widecombe-in-the-Moor, where we stopped and went for a look around the church and National Trust shop - to Claire's disappointment the Wayside Café was closed for the winter so we moved on again, to a car park below Haytor where there was a kiosk selling teas and cake. Enjoyed a cup of tea and a quite nice gluten-free chocolate brownie. We walked a bit of the way up the hill towards Haytor, though didn't tackle the crucial rocky bit at the top. Here's one of a number of attempts to take a selfie.

Took the day off the following Friday to do a couple of bits and pieces, as well as taking the train over to Maidenhead to have lunch with Ray's mum Carol and his sisters Sharon and Caroline. We met at The Bear at the far end of the high street, a pub I and my friend Lisa were once refused entry to while out on a three-legged pub crawl many years ago. It's now a Wetherspoons. After a pleasant chat we parted company, them to Sainsburys and me for a mooch back to the station via the shops, including a couple of crafty-type shops that Caz had helpfully directed me to.

Maidenhead appears to be trying to create a posh waterside area out of the formerly unassuming York Stream, which is interesting. This site appears to have the lowdown.

The following day Gail came over with Emily in the afternoon to exchange Christmas presents - Emily continues adorable though was a bit grizzly that Saturday. In the evening Ruth and I went for a pre-Christmas Thai dinner with Ray at the ex-Suwanna, now Thai Table. I need it to offset the turkey.

Christmas 2016

Bit of a round up of unblogged stuff.

As per last year, decorated one of my little artificial trees a couple of weeks before Christmas. Charmed at how pretty it looked with its red and gold theme. Ruth decorated the other one with her eclectic mix of decorations. The display was enhanced by my newly-purchased Waitrose robin and by Lester, a small game bird ornament with real feathers by Gisela Graham Ltd, purchased at Stubbings Nursery a few years ago. Ruth dislikes Lester and claims that he looks at her funny, but this is of course nonsense.

Lester

Spent Christmas Eve with Ruth as she had elected to remain at the house over the Christmas period. Baked a batch of mince pies.

Set off for Wales early on Christmas morning and spent the day and evening with Mum, Dad, Hannah and Henry. Mum cooked a roast beef lunch; in the evening Mum, Hannah and I had a game of charades followed by a group viewing of the Hammer film The Reptile.

A batch of mince pies

On Boxing Day, Hannah and Henry left early to spend the day with Henry’s parents in Devizes, while Mum, Dad and I had a nice walk from the house across the railway and up Little Skirrid. Mum and Dad had planned a turkey crown for a Boxing Day meal; it wasn’t bad actually considering turkey’s tendency to dryness, though trying to arrange it the right way up in the pan proved tricky given its absence of legs.

The following day began with the following text exchange with Ruth – I suspect that boredom had kicked in.

Later that day, we went down to Newport and had lunch with Dave and family and Hazel’s parents Peter and Helen. Nia involved me in putting on a puppet show for Mum and Alys using Alys’ bedroom doorway as a makeshift stage. The show was supposed to tell the story of Rapunzel, though as I am hazy on the specifics of the story, my narration involved a good bit of her whispering in my ear about what was supposed to happen next. Alys and Mum obligingly sat on the landing to watch, though Alys kept coming up to the 'stage' and trying to grab the dolls Nia was using as puppets, which didn’t go down well.

Later on I went with Dave to the Royal Gwent's neonatal unit for a first viewing of Huw. Dave fed him with some of Hazel’s milk via a pipette – at the time this seemed to be going in via a feeding tube down his throat, though I gather he has since begun to learn how to suck.

Dave feeding Huw