Scaffolding in Fleet Street

I took this photo (above) on the 9 Jan just before I went away. I was slightly surprised when I got home and found the scaffolding wasn't complete. But maybe the snow, the wind, the rain, the ice, the winter had held up work some what.

These two photos were taken in Fleet Street one today and one 8 days ago. Not much has change in this short time span, which to my mind is a little bit of a problem because while the scaffolding has enlarged a fair bit since Jan, when the work started, was incomplete 8 days a go and it is still just as incomplete now. Have RC Scaffolding of Exeter run out of scaffold poles or what? Exactly what the 'or what' part of that question in this grim financial period we are all stumbling through I will leave to your imagination. But it does not look good. Scaffold firms like to get in, get the scaffold up and move out and let the contractor get on with his work. Which in this case is making sure lumps of the building don't fall on passers by, as I am an occasional passer by I have a vested interest here. But with the scaffold incomplete the contractors can't come in and make the world a safer place for you and me. So how long will we be dodging amongst the poles that have already been planted. Any bets on summer, by which time the work on Rock Walk should be finished. Any chance the safely barrier there might come down once Vertical Technologies have finished making the cliff face safe for generations yet to come. It would be nice to get rid of that Big Blue Wall that runs along the base of the cliff. I'll probably get a letter some time in the summer from the council telling me the Big Blue Wall is going. Then when I get down there I discover the Wall's been painted red, just for a change,

Fire

We had a big fire in Torquay last night. A derelict hotel, The Dorchester, in the Meatfoot area of the Bay went up in flames. The fire started about 8:30 in the evening and at the height of the blaze fire fighters from all over South Devon were at the scene. Me, I was watching TV and knew nothing at all about it until I turned on the computer this morning and read all about it. So I decided to walk up and have a look. Here is a photo of the building.Four fire engines were still at the scene and parts of the building are still smoking. Also if you click on this link it will take you to the story in the local paper. A lot of readers have left comments, some blaming the local council for preventing the redevelopment of the site when the hotel closed a few years ago.
One thing about this incident is the fact that though I have lived in Torquay for over 10 years now I have never, until today been up to this part of the Bay. Some interesting views of the coast and I will get up there again when the sun is shining even though it is a hard uphill slog in parts. I used to claim I knew all of Torquay provided it was on the number 12 route. Now I have the time I must look about my home town in a bit more detail.


Not quiet the North Face of the Eiger but still a hard slog, a run up here every day will get me fit for my attempt on Mt Warning in 2011.

Rugby and The Mail on Sunday

Yesterday I went to watch the lads take on Newton Abbot at home, my first game for two months. While I had been away they had won most of the games they played and drawn one so I set out with some optimism that I would see a winning game. It was a game of two halves as they say but not in the content of the game. The first half was played in bright sun shine with a strong hint of warmth, quiet pleasant, nothing like the strong winds and blustery showers predicted. Half time came as it does and so did the wind and the rain and it was cold. God, will I ever get used to being cold again? The match started with Torquay all over Newton, a try and conversion came quickly and a couple of near misses suggested the game would be a bit of one way traffic. Then the Newton coach shouted very loudly at his team and the started playing instead of standing about in the sun. Two trys and conversions later Newton were in the lead. Newton attacked desperately but Torquay defended just that bit more so and neither side scored again. Still I enjoyed the game without the victory I was hoping for. I did spend a lot of time shouting, "Pass the ball." but to almost no avail. By the end I was muttering, very quietly, between clentched teech as it were, "Pass the ****** ball" and you can add almost any swear wold you like there. A rugby ball is shaped the way it is so it can be thrown about easily. It can also be tucked under an arm even more easily though.

On may way home I dropped in to the Cider Press, possibly the best pub in Torquay, and the way things are going in the pub trade, maybe the only pub in Torquay some time next week. It was busy but there was a spare seat which I gratefully occupied. On the table next to me there was a newspaper, one of several the landlord leaves for us to read. I picked it up and started to make my way through it. Now I entered to pub in a bright almost cheerful frame of mind, we hadn't won but we had only just lost, the wind and rain had gone and I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Now I don't read many newspapers, they tend only to print bad news which while interesting is still bad news. But a little bit of masochism now and then can't be a bad thing just don't over do it. By the time I had got to page 4, (of 102) I had seriously over done it. Alright I know the world holding a closing down sale, there are "Everything Must Go" signs every where not just in Torquay but I never realised how bad it was. Drugs, prostitution, guns on the street, politicians working to hidden agendas, politicians with the aptitude for the job a goldfish would show in a pool of piranhas, world leaders living on different planets, children out of control, welfare benefits the biggest growth industry in Britain, criminals living the life of Reilly (who ever he/she was) an article which suggested no one gave a s**t about global warming, savings worthless, pension funds about to collapse, football player transfers up to £20million, football players wages up to £20 million. OK, I know all this crap is going on out there but this paper seemed to delight in making manure while the world went down the tubes. Not one single note of optimism except for the story about NASA sending up a rocket to look for planets that might just be able to support human life. It then spoilt it by suggesting that those of us who could afford it book a flight on the first trip to this new world, to get away while they still could. I am of the belief that if this newspaper were to be banned the number of people entering doctors' surgeries and saying, "I feel a bit depressed doctor." would go down quicker than some one jumping out of a window in Wall Street.

Then I went home and watched a recorded TV program about Darwin and evolution and decided there may just be hope for humanity yet. It is just a guestion as to which is faster, global warming or natural selection.

Have a nice day. And I really mean that.

Rugby

While I was away the Under 11s rugby team, supported by Stagecoach Devon played 4 games won 3 and drew one. last Sunday they beat Totnes by 52 pts to nil but I didn't get home until 2 hours after the match had ended. The boys didn't have a particularly good start to the season losing several games in a row but all the hard work they and the coaching staff have put in seems to be paying off. They have a home game on Sunday against Newton Abbot. I will be there but so will strong winds and blustery showers. Welcome back to winter sports in the UK.
Meanwhile here in Torquay more shops have closed down including the Pound Shop in Union Square. If you have any spare cash please come to Torquay and spend it. Now. Please, before the whole place shuts down.



Scaffolding has gone up in Fleet Street so much needed work can be done on the shop fronts there. Last year a lump of concrete came loose and fell into the street. The Romans built concrete structures and some of them are still standing 2000 years later. How come modern builders can't manage to make their concrete last as long. In Burnie ( 4th largest town in Tasmania) there is a concrete building there that is dropping bits of it's self on passers by so this problem isn't confined to the UK. And when you consider the number of concrete building dotted around our town centres I watch your head if I were you.

Burnie, the main car park.

OK. One last blast from the Opera House.

And a little look at Woy Woy and a vicious pelican.
Woy Woy is a small town between Newcastle and Sydney and there I was attacked by this pelican. I was sitting in the shade of a tree trying to decide if I could make the 20 metres to the shade of the Fisherman's Wharf where a fish and chip lunch awaited me. The above pelican appeared and I decided to take a photo. I mean I had never been this close to such a big bird before. With the pelican only a couple of metres away I put my hand in my bag to get the camera. Pelican decided I was putting my hand in bag to take out some food. When your dentist says, "Open wide." you might open a 7 or 8 cms at most. When a pelican opens wide we are talking a metre or so, enough to rip me apart from groin to gob. I desperately and ineffectually waved my camera and gasped, "Shoo." but the pelican was having none of that, it wanted food. Was the last picture I ever took to be me vanishing down this feathered 'Jaws' throat? Then a 4 year old child save my life, or at least my dignity, there were about a hundred people sat around watching this display, waiting for blood no doubt. He, the child just came running up, arms spread wide and screamed. The pelican ran for the sea, I was saved. So I went and had some fish and chips and noticed this.
Pity the pelicans can't read. There were still people feeding them though bits of fish and chips, not bits of hand or other body parts.

Back on the train I heard the guard announce that passengers for Wodabyne must travel in the back coach and let him know they wanted to get off and I wondered why. Is this the shortest platform in Oz? If no one want to get of or on the train doesn't stop.

On all the photos of the Opera House it always looks like one big building but it is actually 3 small buildings.

Photo Album of more Oz photos will appear some time soon. I have been fairly busy since I got back, shivering mostly.