Walk, Marston Vale, 13 miles

24 March 2018

I suggested this walk, which I’d cut out of The Times’ ‘Weekend’ supplement a while back, as it explored countryside to the east of Milton Keynes, which is not a side of the town I’ve explored much since living here. Hai, Matthew and Rebecca were also up for it, which was nice, so I collected Rebecca and Hai early on the Saturday morning – Matt, in typical hardcore fashion, reckoned he was going to walk from his home in Willen Park to the Marston Vale Forest Centre, where we were starting off - a distance of around 11 miles before the walk even started.

Drove via Marston Moretaine – whose dismal Travelodge¹ I stayed in during the Travelodge Year, though I seem to have confined myself to reasonably positive comments about the neighbouring Little Chef – to the Forest Centre, and parked.

The Forest of Marston Vale seems to be being established on around 60 square miles formerly occupied by a brickworks and some landfill sites. This walk followed the Timberland Trail.

We started by walking south west from the Forest Centre to the village of Lidlington, over an irritating freshly-ploughed field. Then turned east – quite hilly – passing the boundary of Millbrook Proving Ground, which I hadn't known anything about but Matt filled me in. It's the circular area on the map below.

Matt crossing the ploughed field

Part of Millbrook Proving Ground

After stopping for a sandwich, walked through Ampthill Park past Katherine's Cross. After that, through Laurel Wood and past the ruins of Houghton House. Hai and I slowed down a bit on the second half of the walk, while Matt and Rebecca continued to power on - Matt did reassure me afterwards that it wasn't a race, which I guess was comforting.

Ampthill Park

Laurel Wood

Ruins of Houghton House

Then a longish final trek across country to the model village of Stewartby, and from there around Stewartby Lake back to the Forest Centre, where we had tea and cake.

According to Matt, you used to be able to walk around the disused Stewartby Brickworks, but they've now been closed off. There seems to be a move afoot to demolish the remaining chimneys on the site, though according to this BBC News article they are listed structures.

Matt and Rebecca walking through Stewartby

Map of the route in red, showing the start and end point at the Forest Centre:

¹ In fairness, it looks from the hotel's website as though it has now been upgraded. Good thing too.

Feast days; gas; assorted spam

Today’s ‘Trending now’ section on Twitter has the following:

From the ‘World Bee Day’ website, this would seem to be the first World Bee Day. 20 May was apparently chosen because it’s the birth date of a renowned Slovenian authority on bees (it was apparently Slovenia who proposed having a World Bee Day).

Today is also, apparently, Pentecost, which marks the Holy Spirit descending upon Christ’s apostles. It’s also known as ‘Whitsun’ (for Whit Sunday). ‘Whitsun’ is one of those calendar dates that has never meant anything to me, though either Ruth’s mother or aunt (or possibly both) have referred to it as a time when they apparently got a holiday from school. Tomorrow is marked in my Google Calendar as ‘Whit Monday’ – apparently this was a holiday in the UK until 1971, when it was replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May. 

Pentecost/Whitsun is determined by the date of Easter – it’s the seventh Sunday after Easter, apparently – and thus moveable.

Changing the subject: I hate dealing with utility providers, due to my own lack of patience and the inherent boringness of the topic, though I appreciate it's a really good thing to fully engage and research best provider and tariff, etc. Did have an online chat with npower a month or so ago, to draw their attention to the actual reading on my gas meter, which was nothing like the inflated estimate on the bill. The conversation led to my being put onto a different tariff which I was assured was the best one available to me, though as my monthly direct debit has since gone up from £5 a month to £118 a month, I’m not convinced of this, so will have to have another conversation with them in due course.

The following suggests an admission that they may be over-charging me somewhat:

On to some communications I have received recently. Mr Liu Jun gets straight to the point:

While Mother Teresa Stang is more circumspect:

This one, purporting to be from PayPal, was more convincing, but fell down on the salutation:

Baffled as to why anyone bothers sending these things. Surely no one actually replies to them?

Lido; gums; stiff rabbits

Earlier this year tried out the fabulously renovated Thames Lido (as it is now). Formerly the King’s Meadow Baths, it closed in the mid-1970s and had stood unused and increasingly derelict ever since. There had been various attempts over the years at fundraising and at trying to get the local council to do up the baths and re-open them, though it became increasingly clear in recent years that council money was never going to be spent on this. Reading is very poorly off for public swimming pools¹, though if council money were going to be spent, it would be more usefully spent (IMO) on refurbishing the dilapidated Central Baths rather than a small open-air pool.

Thames Lido. New extension on the left housing the restaurant

Anyway, the pool has been restored by the same people who did Bristol Lido, and it opened last October. I treated Ray to a trip as a late birthday present, booking us both in for a weekday morning ‘Swim & Breakfast’ package, at a cool £35 each. It’s pricey but the refurb is stunningly beautiful. We did a bit of swimming and then I did a bit more swimming while Ray basked in the hot tub and sauna. Our swim was followed up by a two-course breakfast in the restaurant that overlooks the pool. I had the toasted fruit bread and maple butter (what a wonderful concept) followed by the Turkish poached eggs; Ray had the sourdough toast followed by a vast kipper. Very nice indeed. Given the cost it’ll be an occasional indulgence, but I’d definitely like to go again.

The pool from the restaurant

Man and kipper

The baths apparently started out as the Ladies' Open Air Baths; there are some interesting bits and pieces here including a pic of the baths in use for a water polo match in 1904. There was evidently also a men's pool nearby - that's not there anymore but it looks as though it was on the opposite corner to the surviving baths. According to this it was closed in the mid-1950s. This interesting photo, nicked from https://www.lostlidos.co.uk/2002/04/07/kings-meadow-ladies-open-air-baths/, shows both pools (the men's pool is above the ladies' pool in the picture; there's now housing on the site):

Have paid two or three visits to my new dental surgery Dental Works since the beginning of the year, partly because of some trouble with a wisdom tooth – these have been partially erupted since my 20s but are clearly never going to move any further. Was prescribed the antibiotic Metronidazole for what the dentist theorized was a gum infection. Not something I’ve taken before – not that I take many antibiotics, but the usual go-to seems to be Amoxicillin. The Metronidazole prescription was handed over with a stern warning not to consume any alcohol while taking it, including avoiding mouthwashes containing it. As you would, I duly went straight to the internet to check this out, and inevitably found views veering from “I drank pints and I was fine” to “Don’t drink anything ‘cause you’ll be really really ill and possibly DIE”. I played it safe and avoided alcohol for the five days of the course, though did have a mini-bottle of wine with my dinner the day after I finished the course with no ill effects, giving the lie a bit to the advice I found in several places to additionally lay off it for 48 hours after finishing the tablets.

Dentists do seem to hand out antibiotics far more readily than GPs do – I haven’t had an antibiotic from a GP for decades, but have now had two lots from dentists within the past few years.

Oh, and as a footnote: the Metronidazole did clear it up. Fair enough then.

Our house bunny Harley went for a check up at the vets earlier this year and was prescribed a daily painkiller to take after the vet noticed that his hips seemed a little stiff and probably painful. Whatever the mixture is, he seems to like it and hops up to Ruth eagerly to take it. From our observations it seems to be doing him some good; he has seemed livelier, even to the extent of chasing the much younger Catherine Howard around the room friskily each morning.

Although we don’t know Harls’ exact age, he was believed to be around a year old when we adopted him in 2009, so should be about 10 this year, which is a respectable age for a rabbit though no doubt living in a centrally-heated house has helped him.

I do find it bizarre that rabbits have such a fast metabolism that they can take a medicine intended for dogs, twice a day. Fascinating creatures.


¹ Soon to be even worse off: I passed Bulmershe Leisure Centre on the bus the other weekend and it appears to have been fenced off for demolition. Article here.

Spotify

Decided to try out Spotify – or at least, the free version – as even Ruth is using it. I’ve never been much of a music buff but thought I should keep up with the latest trends. Though actually, streaming music is probably no longer a new trend by this point. And we’re going to Forest Holidays again in June and they’re so high-tech they expect you to bring your own HDMI cable and stream things from the services you’re signed up to.

Logged in to the free version with my Facebook account, and was presented with an interface that included this:

No idea whether this is the initial choice it gives everyone, or whether it’s somehow detected that I might be pleased by jazz and folk (and possibly even a spot of New Age, though I keep quiet about that). Which indeed I am.

Walk near the A4074, 5.67 miles

24 February

Decided to explore country roads around the exposed Chilterns section of the A4074 between Wallingford and Woodcote. Took the handy X39/X40 bus to the relatively isolated Braziers Park Turn and walked down the little road opposite towards Braziers Park.

The northbound bus stop at Braziers Park Turn

Distant view of the house at Braziers Park

Had a look at what I could see of the house. Since the 1950s Braziers Park seems to have hosted some sort of commune (the School of Integrative Social Research). Its homepage states that it’s “a continuing experiment in the advantages and problems of living in a group”. According to Wikipedia, Marianne Faithfull lived there for a while (her dad was a member of the community) and had Mick Jagger to stay over. Currently it apparently has a smallish permanent residential community and at any one time a number of volunteers who stay for up to three months and work for their board and lodging. See their page on living and working in the community. It sounds rather intriguing, though difficult not to be amused by the reference to their regular "sensory meetings" at which they "‘contemplate’ any issues on the contemplanda".

Turned north from Braziers Park and headed up towards Ipsden village. At the crossroads by Cross Farm, turned left along a straight stretch of road (Church Lane) leading back to the A4074. Noticed that the right turn at this crossroads is signposted to Well Place. I had vague recollections of there being a Wellplace Zoo – indeed there was, though I never went to it (it closed in 2006).

The crossroads

On returning to the A4074, crossed and headed down White House Road via Newtown to the Thames-side village of North Stoke. Noted from the map that the stretch of the A-road here is called Port Way.

Looking north; the turn to North Stoke

Village hall, North Stoke

From North Stoke, walked north along a portion of the Ridgeway to the village of Mongewell. The buildings of the former Carmel College, a boarding school that closed in the 1990s, still seem to be lying derelict around Mongewell, giving it a bit of an odd air - e.g. this building seen through trees.

From Mongewell, continued along footpaths to Wallingford, coming out by the bridge. Ate the sandwiches I'd brought sitting by the river. Pleasant walk.

Lunch by the Thames

Route shown in red: the finish point in Wallingford at the top.

New flooring; long distance walkers; breakdown cover

New hallway flooring and built in mat area

As of January this year, we have super new flooring in the living room and hallway at the house (and the same purchased for the dining room, though not laid as yet). We’ve subsequently moved Ruth’s bookcase into the living room and I have to say it does round off the room quite nicely. We managed to have a bit of a purge of books and a consignment of some others to the attic. Spirited little Harley has now mastered the new flooring and is able to come skipping into the living room of an evening, though Catherine Howard hasn’t.

In January, went on my first walk with the Beds, Bucks and Northants section of the Long Distance Walkers Association, after joining on Matthew’s recommendation and in a fit of New Year enthusiasm. Mustered with Hai, Matthew and a cluster of LDWA members (a few around my age, but most of them older) in the car park of The Caldecotte on a particularly awful morning of cold sleety rain. The walk leader had changed the route on account of the weather, so in the end we ended up going for a walk up around Caldecotte and Willen Lakes and Campbell Park – pleasant, though mainly territory that I know quite well already so perhaps not as interesting as it could have been.

The weather got progressively worse as the walk went on, becoming a semi-blizzard at one point. We huddled in a bandstand by Willen Lake to eat our sandwiches. Was glad of the flask of hot tea I’d brought with me. A brisk pace was set by the group members; I certainly felt well exercised afterwards. Total distance 14 miles.

Mustering at the start. Me third from left

Lunchtime sleet

 By the MK Rose. Me centre of pic with red rucksack. Think that was Hai on the left

Our group in Campbell Park. Me second from right

Walk route, showing start and end by Caldecotte Lake

Being a cautious type, have had breakdown cover for all of my driving life, albeit some of it as an extra name on Ray’s cover. Always with the AA until this year, when Ruth persuaded me that the AA was expensive and I should shop around. Indeed the renewal quote I got was quite expensive, but with hindsight what I should have done was phone them assertively and ask if they could do me a better offer. However, didn’t do this and Ruth found me a – certainly much cheaper - quote from Green Flag via a price comparison site, which I took up, albeit with some reservations about how many vans Green Flag actually have, whether they are indeed a proper breakdown service etc etc.

Having done the above, irony happened. A week before my AA cover was due to expire, I had occasion to call the AA. Started to back out of parking space at the OU and immediately suspected that all was not right with the car on account of the loud banging coming from its front end. After attempting to inspect car myself for trapped branches etc, gave up and used the AA’s delightful app to report a breakdown. How much simpler is that than in the old days, when you had to ring and attempt to explain where you were (well, and find a phone as the first step, in my earlier driving days). Got a pretty much immediate response from the app to say someone was on their way, and was able to track the progress of the AA vehicle from its starting point (somewhere near Bradwell Abbey) to where I was. AA man quickly diagnosed a broken nearside suspension (coil) spring and informed me that it was “a recovery job”.

Quite a long wait subsequently for the recovery vehicle, though once he'd arrived the nice driver did allow me to sit in his cab to warm up. Warned me that the hooking up of my car and towing it to the garage of my choice was going to be a slow process, so left him with my keys and called a taxi home.

Called Anglos the following morning to double-check that they did indeed have my car. The resulting bill to replace the spring was around £120, which I didn't consider too bad. Have actually never had to be towed before, so not bad going over the course of c. 30 years. The AA man theorised that broken springs are often caused by speed humps, though I blame all the damn potholes.

After this positive eleventh hour experience with the AA, am now with Green Flag. Huh. Thankfully the car has been fine so far, but my experience of GF has already been tainted due to the fact that, as I took out my cover via a price comparison site, I don't have access to the Green Flag smartphone app. As I had been considerably impressed by my first use of the AA's app, this is extremely annoying. Haven't quite decided whether to cancel my cover and crawl back to the AA.

Christmas and New Year

At the OU we’re lucky enough to get the days in between the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day bank holidays as Closure Days, on top of our already quite generous annual leave entitlement. This year I also booked off the rest of the week that included New Year’s Day, I think in the vague idea that we might go away somewhere for New Year, though in the end (as has happened before) I did some brief research, decided it was quite expensive and then didn’t actually book anywhere. Anyway, even though we didn’t go away, it gave me a full fortnight’s leave, which was nice.

On the Friday evening pre-Christmas Ruth and I went for dinner at Ray's, which was adorned prettily with a red glow as per below.

On the Saturday I baked a batch of mince pies and in the evening our neighbours Kris and Laura came round for dinner, bringing with them an extremely impressive cake.

Mince pies

Kris and Laura's cake

Spent Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day morning at Dave’s place in Newport, which was lovely. Nia lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve, which added to the sense of occasion. The tooth fairy left her a quite generous £2, though did emphasise that this was only because it was her first wiggly tooth.

On Boxing Day everyone came back to Mum and Dad’s where Hannah and Henry joined us for a roast beef lunch. We walked over to Bailey Park with the children where they had a bit of a play.

Huwie looking adorable on a swing

Impressed by little Huw’s feisty behaviour during the stay – suspected he was keen to be walking, as he was not at all impressed by just sitting on people’s laps or being put down on the floor. Amused by the level of fury that can be emitted by such a tiny creature.

Nia had acquired a ghastly game called ‘Gassy the Cow – Will She Moo or Will She Poo?’ which Hannah and I nobly spent some time playing with her, though much of our time was spent trying to unblock the plastic pats from the back end of Gassy as she didn’t seem to be expelling them as per expectations. Here’s Nia with a couple of the pats.

I returned to Reading early on the 27^th, collecting Ruth from her aunt’s house on the way. She seemed to have spent a pleasant few days with Auntie, including lunch at her uncle’s house on Christmas Day and a walk to the Boxing Day Meet the following day.

Then spent an enjoyable few days in Caversham going for some strolls. Ruth and I went for a walk up around Green Park, a business park near the M4 that opened in the late 1990s but latterly has had some residential development added. It was originally rumoured that a new railway station might open there, but to date this has never happened and I don’t know how likely it is. According to this, plans were approved in 2015, but I’m not aware that construction has ever begun. As the name suggests, Green Park’s buildings all have green credentials and there’s a central lake, the Longwater, which has evidently been designed as a bit of a habitat for birdies etc.

Office building at Green Park

Went for a walk with Ray around Maidenhead on the 29th Dec, taking in some of the new riverside development by York Stream, evidently part of the Waterways Restoration Project. York Stream used to be little more than a ditch, though I remember Auntie Barbara having a bit of a carry-on re how the water had been drawn off by the Jubilee River project. Unsure what Babs would think of the latest development. To my mind, it’s quite a big improvement and definitely makes that end of town a bit snazzier.

We did a bit of a circuit and then walked back up around some of the smart roads to the west of the town centre, including spotting this striking house 'Kynam' on Boyn Hill Avenue – one to preserve, though heaven knows whether it will be.

'Kynam', Boyn Hill Avenue

Further along Boyn Hill Avenue we passed 'Brocket', an Arts and Crafts-influenced early 20th century house that was until recently a Pupil Referral Unit - not sure what's going on with it now.

'Brocket', Boyn Hill Avenue

On New Year’s Eve Ruth and I popped into House of Pine and Oak in Caversham and inexplicably purchased a new dining room table and chairs. Well, Ruth did. My new Habitat set at the flat is MY table and chairs. As at the time of writing, we’ve had it for a couple of weeks (delivery was somewhat slow) and it’s very smart.

Met up with Claire at the Jolly Anglers on New Year's Day afternoon, though it was rather a sombre gathering as one of her friends had just died.

The week after the New Year, Ruth and I went back down to Wales to spend a few more days with Mum and Dad. Did the walk up Blorenge on 3rd January, Ruth's birthday, followed by tea at the Angel Hotel. The next day Mum treated us to lunch at the Chapel café - never been there before but very nice, if artsy. On the Friday Ruth got the train back to Reading while I drove back to Milton Keynes.

The Chapel on Market Street, Abergavenny

Judith greeted me on the Monday by saying I looked relaxed. Perhaps should take a fortnight off more often.