As Soon As I Posted The Blog,

I was out,

passing the scaffolders that had already started to tear down the scaffolding, 

I made my way out of the park,

to the station where another bin for sending parcels has appeared,

into the station,

and over the bridge, 

looking down the London bound train had already left, hardly anyone on the platform,

walking out of the station the number162 bus waiting,

I was soon speeding past the green,

and the pedestrianised High Street in Bromley, now taken over by cyclists,

I alighted opposite what was once a restaurant we went to occasionally, it closed and has now reopened as a steakhouse,

I walked past the now redundant Town Hall,

and entrance to the station,

and there in the distance,

the end of my walk the testing facility, every year I give a blood sample for testing, in the fight to beat cancer,

sample taken and I was on my way,

I had a look in the coin shop that is in the station,

and walked past the pub on the corner,

that has tiles aplenty on the outside,

I dread to think of the cost of producing these nowadays!

the area is known as Bromley North,

I had a look in the 2 shops selling audio equipment, in one window a turntable, only £3,500, I nearly bought 2 of them!

all they had to do was put the drain cover back so it matched the other 3, was that so difficult to do?

next stop the bank, I had a couple of cheques to pay in,

which took no time at all, past the Partridge and onto a 227 bus and then a 54, 

alighting at This 'N' That,

I had a look at the goods outside,

so much to choose from,

next door,

the florists had a nice display of cyclamen, 

I popped into Kingfisheries to drop off some labels that I had printed,

a bus to the entrance of the park,

in the garden of Foxgrove Lodge, these dahlias a almost impossible red, 

arriving home, work had started on the potholes in the carpark that we all use,

and here they are,

the pothole crew hard at work, well done chaps!

in the afternoon I watched a few documentaries, firstly The Fall of the House of Tutankhamun AKA Private Lives of the Pharaohs, and the Lost City of the Pyramids, both excellent, 

with so many documentaries about Titanic, I would have thought I had seen it all, but this Titanic: Building the World's Largest Ship, had a few surprises about the ill fated ship, for instance one thing I did not know was that the captain of the Titanic, Captain Edward Smith, was captain of Olympic – Titanic's sister ship – when it collided with a British warship on September 20, 1911, less than a year before his famous collision, he was found guilty of causing the collision by the Royal Navy, the Olympic's collision was with HMS Hawke, in which the warship lost her prow, although the collision left two of Olympic's compartments filled and one of her propeller shafts twisted, she was able to limp back to Southampton, captain Smith had been on the bridge during the events. The Hawke incident was a financial disaster for White Star, and the out-of-service time for the big liner made matters worse. Olympic returned to Belfast and, to speed up the repairs, Harland and Wolff were forced to delay Titanic's completion, in order to use one of her propeller shafts and other parts for Olympic. Back at sea in February 1912, Olympic lost a propeller blade and once again returned to her builder for emergency repairs. To get her back to service immediately, Harland and Wolff again had to pull resources from Titanic, delaying her maiden voyage from 20 March to 10 April,

in the evening time for a read,

before a delicious beef stew that Diana had made for me,

'Cheers!', 

I popped downstairs to have a look at the the pothole repairs, a great job done!

later I was out,

walking past the graveyard,

to the 227 bus stop by the Italian restaurant,

I soon arrived at the Moon & Stars where I meet Steve for a beer or three, we chatted the night away, after saying our farewells I was back onto a 227,

and then walking back past the graveyard, arriving home as I entered the park I had a telephone call, "look behind You" Diana had just returned on her bus, so we walked home together, time for a chat and a nightcap before we were off to bed.

A Quick Question,

what is it?

at first I thought it was some sort of game, not being a nautical cove I did not recognise it, it is in fact a Nautical Traverse Board, it was used to keep a record of a ship’s movements, the boards were circular and had a series of holes along lines marking the 32 points of the compass. Pegs were attached to the board by string and placed in the correct hole for the course being steered, normally one hole for each half hour of the watch, as measured by a sand-glass, at the end of each watch the records were written down, usually by the ship’s master, and the pegs pulled out ready for the next watch, back in 2013 this one was offered for sale at Bonham’s, it sold for $7,200, what an amazing piece of kit.

It Is The Latest Strandbeest,

making it's way across the sand,

all images © Theo Jansen, we have featured these fantastical contraptions before, 

they are the work of Dutch artist Theo Jansen, who has been releasing a Strandbeest each year since 1990,

the artists comments, "Animaris Rex is a herd of beach animals whose specimens hold each other as defense against storms," he says. "As individuals they would simply blow over, but as a group, the chance of surviving a storm would be greater." 

the beast is propelled by the wind with a series of large sails, you can see more of his beasts on the artist’s website and YouTube, what an amazing sight it must be to see one in the flesh as it were.

I Am Only Making One Post Today,

as I have a early morning appointment to give a blood sample, 

it is part of a 3 year study into cancer, apparently a few years ago I was in a group that needed to be studied, and if it helps fight this terrible disease I do not mind volunteering for the program, back to Thursday, I had some printing to do for the shop, small notepads and a number of labels for products new in, 

in the afternoon I decided to play with a couple of photogrghs of our trip on the Waverley, starting with the one above, 

I ended up,

with these two,

the same for this one,

I wish I was more experienced in Photoshop,

but there it is, after which a few documentaries, the reception on normal television, where an aerial is used is almost unwatchable with the signal nowhere near 100%, 

 I picked a few programs from our BT box which is working fine, so A Perfect Planet it was then, I watched 2 episodes, beautifully videoed in 4K, 

after my evening meal 3 episodes of Extinct made in 2001, in which a number of 'facts' I though I knew about how the dodo, sabretooth tigers and mammoths became extinct, were turned on their heads, a great series, after Diana had returned home and a coffee and a chat,

 we watched one from Trawlerman, 

and rounded off the evening with a couple from Wicked Tuna, which we had not watched for a long time, after which we were off to bed.