If I’ve somewhat over-Photoshopped the images taken on my first visit to the Battersea Power Station development, my excuse is that it was a dull, grey day and the pictures needed some assistance – an artist’s privilege.
Viewed from a train, the development looks horrible, but once you get on foot onto the site it’s not so bad.
The residential accommodation seems ok and there’s lots of water and shrubs, though it can only been seen through a gated, steel fence. The overwhelming impression of the site is one of size. The former power station is enormous and it will be interesting to see what’s inside once this part of the development is complete. My little camera was ill-equipped for capturing decent close-up images of the huge structures. All images are clickable.

There was an excellent interview with the film director Wim Wenders on Thursday’s Channel 4 News. In it he talks about the Polaroid snapshots he has taken throughout his life. He also  comments on the part he played in the career of the now disgraced Harvey Weinstein, as well as taking a dig at Trump whom he refuses to call by his name, preferring instead to call him Mr. 45. (Trump is the 45th American president).

[Wim Wenders’ best known film is Paris Texas, which I was a huge fan of, though whenever I tried to watch it again I always fell asleep. It’s long and slow-moving.]

Trump is in the news today because it seems that the Renoir painting that he has on display is in fact a fake, the original being in the Art Institute of Chicago! Worse still, he insists it isn’t a fake!! There’s an interesting Vanity Fair article on this by Trump’s biographer Tim O’Brien.

In other news about fakes, Marina Hyde writes in the Guardian about how she may have unwittingly started the false claim, which has fooled social media, that Trump was accompanied on a recent trip by a look-alike wife.

Strange times!

Talking to 3½ year old Chloe about her favourite this, her favourite that, I asked her what she would order if she went to Max’s Italian café. She said

a large tomato,

a spaghetti carbonara,

and a margherita pizza!

I couldn’t think of anything to write so I’ve resorted to that good old standby, a Photoshopped image! The original image, taken in our holiday cottage in Fowey, looks decidedly dull next to the enhanced one below. I like how the triangle formed by the curtain mimics the triangular yacht sails.

A few weeks back I used a bank’s cash machine to withdraw £100. I put the money in my wallet without checking the amount, and waited for the receipt, and waited. The machine was whirring away which is probably why I looked down and noticed a tiny piece of paper wedged in the cash slot. I must have realised what was happening because I checked my wallet and confirmed I had been short-changed £20 by the machine and now the machine was still trying to give me the rest of my money. I tried to encourage the tiny piece of paper out (my £20!), but to no avail. Eventually the machine gave up trying to eject the note and after some more whirring it retracted the jammed note and concluded the transaction by spitting out the receipt from the receipt tray.

So I went into the bank, which was not my bank, and told the story to a member of staff. She informed me that I would need to take it up with my bank! And this I did, using Internet banking. My bank’s system has a menu item for just this situation, so it obviously happens more than occasionally. It would take up to 19 calendar days, the system said.

Well the 19 days passed and I had heard nothing, so I fired off a chase-up message. But almost immediately after doing this I spotted a mysterious £100 credit to my account, with a description containing the date of my original cash machine transaction. So it looked as if I was no longer £20 down but instead I was £80 up!

Being an honest person, I fired off another message to my bank apologising for my earlier chase-up message and pointing out that I appeared to have been recompensed, not for the missing £20 but for the whole transaction! So how did my bank respond?

“Thank you for your message. £100 was sent to us from the other bank. Have a lovely day!”

The fairly short but steep walk up Box Hill in Surrey is a popular walk, but I’m not sure it will remain so. There was a large amount of cattle dung on the face of the hill, which is where most people walk. We caught a glimpse of the cattle and it was hard to believe that just seven creatures could excrete so much! My guess is that there are ecological reasons for introducing the animals to this space, but I can’t say I’m a fan.

My wife noted the unreassuring use of the word “often” in the poster sentence “They have a gentle, placid nature often ignoring walkers and dogs”.

On the spur of the moment I decided to visit my aunt. She lives in the tiny village of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in Mid/North Wales, where there is only one bus per day in each direction.

I needed to plan the connections with great care if I was to catch the sole bus into the village at 1:30

It’s a lovely little village with half a dozen shops and three pubs, and is famous for its waterfall, Pistyll Rhaeadr.

I had a lovely time with my aunt as well as seeing two of my many cousins. And all of the transport connections worked out perfectly!