On the train to Dorking I really got into James Rhodes’ Fire On All Sides – this is going to be a great read. I took a dozen books to the Oxfam bookshop and bought three (A Gate at the Stairs – Lorrie Moore, The King is Dead – Jim Lewis, and the non-fiction The Death of Expertise – Tom Nichols). I deserved the coffee and pain au chocolat at the very pleasant Dorking Deli. Incidentally there’s an amazing bike shop just a couple of doors down.
Walking back to the station I was recognised by a man, or possibly misrecognised (I wouldn’t have thought there was such a word, but there is!). We passed in the street, he looked at me as if he knew me, I pointed at myself (asking are you looking at me, should I know you?), the distance between us increased and we moved on. I’ll never know if we knew each other.
There was a man with a tail or very long hair.
At the station there is some colourful art and a helpful message on the platform.
For me, this was an incident packed morning.
We were on our way for a walk along the Thames when a phone call brought the terrible news of an ex-colleague’s death. She had taken over my role when I retired. She wasn’t sure whether she was up to it and I also had my doubts – it was a sometimes technical role. But she accepted the position, and despite requiring my help every once in a while for the first couple of years – I don’t think she ever really mastered database queries – she was a success in the post. She was always bubbly and cheerful, which makes her taking her life all the more shocking and hard to comprehend. Things change, but I wish I could turn back the clock.
In the centre of this picture, taken today, is a branch of Strada where two or three times we met in a reunion of the team. A colourless image seems appropriate on this very sad day.
On a grey and windy day, some pictures from a morning visit to the National Trust’s Polesden Lacey. I’ve no idea who the gentleman in the hat is, but I liked his look. We took the tour, which was extremely interesting, before ambling through the rooms.
And my favourite image….
It may be part of a London Borough but Cheam still seems like a village.
Another iPhone picture, saved in RAW format.
Just a couple of hundred metres from Milton Keynes station, all pictures were taken with the iPhone and saved in RAW format. There’s quite a bit of noise, but they’re more than OK for viewing on a screen.
The Dawn Wall is a wonderful and astonishing documentary following the attempt to climb the Dawn Wall, a 3,000 foot rock face in Yosemite National Park.
Informative, exciting and emotional – don’t miss it. You can watch it on Netflix.
