Fleet Street Closed To Buses

Santa came to town today and Fleet Street was closed to all traffic, including buses. A little demonstration for anyone who thinks buses should be banned from Fleet St. Chaos reigned in case you are wondering, but only on the buses. The rest of the town was going to be closed later for the procession to celebrate the switching on of the Christmas lights. Sorry there aren't any pictures here of the lights but I have seen most of then before. Anyway there are 4 bus stops in Fleet Street, each one had a notice explaining the problem and the solution, i.e. where to catch a bus from. Now these notices were placed over the timetable Stagecoach conveniently place on their bus stops but the difficulty here is that regular bus users don't look at timetables, they know when the buses are due and there for might not notice the notice. To this end Stagecoach had someone on duty to watch for people waiting uselessly at the stops.

As soon as someone appeared to be waiting she, the young lady who was on duty when I was down there would go and explain the situation. I noticed that on some occasions the people waiting took a little persuading, "Are you sure? I always catch the bus here."

Anyway I didn't wait for the main parade, just the Mass March of the Santas in aid of "Torbay Hospital League of Friends." It was headed by the most unlikely Fairy Godmother I have ever seen.

Dear Kate and William

So Wills and Kate, you are thinking of having the big do in Westminster Abbey. Come on, guys. Spread the jam about a bit. Your loyal subjects down here in in deepest damp Devon wouldn't mind is you used one of the many churches or even the registry office Torquay has to offer. I even know where there is an empty hotel handy for the sea front you and your entourage could move into for a few days while you were here. Think of the delights we have to offer, you could go for a balloon ride, not as exciting as a helicopter but much safer. (Something a married man has to consider). Once back down to earth you could have a look round Torre Abbey, built in the 11th century and quick glance at the Spanish Barn, used to accommodate 400 Spanish tourists back when the First Elizabeth was on the throne. Next day a bus ride to Brixham ( £4.50 for a day explorer, each that is, were not that generous). A trip round the Golden Hind, the new Fish Quay that everybody loves and maybe a look at Berry Head with stunning views of Torbay and visit the Napoleonic Fort. The council are doing it up at a cost of £0.6 million even though it is practically inaccessible to all but determined dog walkers, your grandmother would love it. Then there is Babbacombe with Bygones, a Victorian Museum followed by a stroll hand in hand round the Modal Village then down to Oddicombe Beach on the Cliff Railway, buy return tickets, much cheaper. On the beach watch out for falling rocks, the cliff down there is unstable but that just adds to the excitement.

For some shopping you could catch a 12 into Torquay. Ask the driver to put you off at Castle Circus so you can walk down Union Street, Torquay's very own Regent Street with many, many shops. Lots of them are closed at the moment but we do expect they will re-open at some time before the next ice age turns up. Try the charity shops by the bus stops, there's quiet of few of them so there is a big choice. Then there are a couple of big shops, try Primark before heading down Fleet Street past the recently to be opening soon Coyote Ugly pub. If it is open, it should be it's been 'Opening soon' for a long time, go in and have a dance on the bar, that's what it's there for. Go on, enjoy yourself. Anyway even if that isn't to your taste head down Fleet Street to the busiest shop in town. No, not Tesco's, not even the Edinburgh Wool Mill. The shop we are after is a bit further down on the right. Just before KFC. That's it, Poundland.

Well, that's just a few of Torquay's attractions. Before you dismiss it from your mind as not really practicable, I mean there is the problem of the Kingskerswell Bye Pass, why don't you pop down and have a look round. Millions of other people have, you might even like the place.

PS Next time you see your grandmother could you ask her to mention the Kingskerswell bye past to that nice Mr Cameron next time he pops over to see her. I believe he does come fairly often nowadays, there's nothing going on there is there? No, of course not, silly me.

Storm, rain and flooding

We had a bit of wind and rain down here in the South West. Mostly in Cornwall, here in Devon we got to slight edge of the rain. In some parts of Mid to South Cornwall over 50 mm of rain fell in a few hours. That kind of downpour can have only on result. If you have been watching the news today you will have seen the devastation caused. So far, thankfully it would appear no lives have been lose but many people have had their homes flooded and belongings destroyed.

Is this a sign of climate change? Well it could be, or maybe not. I've been around a long time and don't recall from the fifties and sixties the number of reports of flooding that have occurred in the last 15 years. What I do remember from when I lived in London about 20 years ago is a drainage engineer on TV who was concerned about the vast increase in the number of cars now on the roads. His concern wasn't the polluting or greenhouse gas effect of all these extra cars but the fact that so many households were moving toward two and three cars per house (even more by now) and the covering over of front gardens to provide car parking space would mean water ending up in the drains that previously would have been absorbed by the gardens. Could it be that the increase in the size of roads and urban spread is having a similar effect on a much larger scale.

Anyway as the photo shows we did have a lot of water on our roads here in Torquay, didn't slow the cars down much though.

PS Average rainfall in Cornwall is 850 mm per year. That's 70 mm per month so a lot of rain fell.

PPS I got soaked taking the photo but the camera was OK.

 

Yearly Medical

Today I went for my medical. I have to have one every year now I am over a certain age. When I worked for Stagecoach the company paid for my medicals but now I am on my own so to speak it can cost a lot of money. My own doctor's group practice charge £105 but I found a place in Teignmouth that does it for £45. So a phone call (01626 777730) to arrange a time and date and a free bus ride later I have had my eyes tested and my heart listened to and a couple of other things there is no need to go into here and the medical was done. The doctor, a delightful lady who is even older than me expressed a desire to see me in a year's time and I expressed the same desire to see her also in a year's time. At home I checked the application form to renew my licence and posted it of. In a week or two I should get a licence back that will allow me to drive until next December.

Teignmouth beach and Pier on a beautiful November day.

Cockington Hall

My walk to day took me to
Cockington Village, get the number 12 from Torquay or Paignton to Livermead Cliff Hotel and walk up Cockington Lane. It's about a mile and very slightly uphill and an easy, mostly road free trip. As well as the village there is a large park with Cockington Court at the centre. There are renovations going on but there is still something to see. One of those things I had a brief walk round was the organic kitchen garden. There was a sign proudly proclaiming the compost used was peat free and an other suggesting, quiet strongly that buying a water butt would be a very green idea as the average house could catch enough water to fill a water butt many times over in a year and help to save water and therefore the planet.

There was also a small cafe selling drinks, sweets and other odds and ends. So I decide to have a cup of coffee. £1.50 and served in the cup you can see in one of the photos. It took me about 10 minutes to drink the coffee and a few seconds to throw it in the bin provided. It will from there head to a land fill site where it will last for ever. Now that's what I call consistent.