Friday 30 September 2011

Parking Wars

30 September 2011

Last day in September already ... my, how time flies by.  And how bad my memory is getting as time goes by!  I've had a spotting scope and tripod on eBay which was due to finish yesterday but I forgot all about.  This morning I checked my MSN mail account and found a couple of emails from the guy who bought it.  That' when I remembered it!  Oh dear ... senior moments again.

A few days ago I wrote about car parking near to schools in Dorktown.  Well, a similar situation has arisen in various roads around the George Eliot Hospital and around the 6th form college in the town centre.  Folks are parking in the streets around them and not in the car parks provided.  Parking charges at GEH are pretty steep so I can see why they park outside the grounds and walk the rest of it.  The problem comes when residents are not able to park outside their homes.  The county council is now looking at it and it seems they are going to bring in residents parking permits.  That's fine, but we live in a street just off the town centre and we have the same problems here but with shoppers not willing to pay the charges in town car centre parks.  It's not that easy though.  There are not enough parking places for those wanting to shop so where else can they park if not in 
the street around the area?       

Some years ago they were looking to set up residents parking only areas in Norman Avenue, Bracebridge Street and Marlbourgh Road.  The idea then was that residents would pay for the permits.  OK, fine ... but the permits didn't guarantee your parking space.  Letters were sent out and a such a cry of protest went up they let idea drop.  Hopefully they will have learned from the last time.  But again, it's not quite that easy is it?

There's two of us here and we both have a Motability lease hire car.  There's in one space in front of our house so the other one has to be parked elsewhere.  Next door to us there's another two cars.  Not far up the road there's one family with four cars!  And so it goes up and down the street.  Most of us are tolerant because we know what the problems are but the single biggest complaint in the street is directed firmly at MI Taxis who's drivers park anywhere they like and expect not to be challenged over it.  On day I drove up the street and there was 15 of their cars parked in the street.

At the bottom of Bracebridge Street there's a pharmacist on one corner, a chippy on the other corner and within 50 metres of the junction with Queens Road there's three takeaways - a balti, a pizza place and a Chinese.  The pavement on the corner by the pharmacist is regularly blocked by inconsiderate parkers.  Using a scooter can then become very difficult and sometimes dangerous too even though the road is now a one way street. 

Well, it's a nice bright sunny day here in Dorktown and we need to go into town this morning in case the guy who bought the scope comes this afternoon to collect it.  Later I shall get some more photo's of Dorktown edited so I can post them tomorrow.  After that I hope to get some work done on Happyman.               

Thursday 29 September 2011

lenz-a-bob

29 September 2011

Is it just me or is Euroland going nuts?  They are about to loan even more money to Greece yet Greece can't repay what it owes already,  So how do they expect them to repay even more.  Sounds really stupid to me.

A day out


29 September 2011

Yesterday we had a day out and a very good day it was too.  Even being held up in traffic on the way home didn't cause any problems - in fact it led us to take a different way home and dropping into a pub where I had a really nice pint of Bass.  See, a good all round ;-)))

The plan for yesterday was drive to the London Wetlands Centre for a spot of birding and then off to Richmond Park to do some snapping.  We managed both - and got a year tick for Red Kite on the way down the M40.  We actually saw 9 of them during the day, very nice too.  The birding wasn't all that good really with no new species for this year's list but it was still good to be out in the fresh air.  Then we set off for Richmond Park.

This beastie was found at LWC.





Parking up we got our scooters out and off we went.  But even before we left the car park we had one of target birds, ring-necked parakeet.  I did get a shot of one but it's not very good at all, sorry.  OK, Londoners may be sick to death of them but here in deepest Dorktown they are not seen at all.  Off we went to snap the stag we had seen as we drove through the park.  It was about 400 metres away so it didn't take long.
As nice a lump of venison as you wish to see.

Once we were done there we headed off to the lakes to see if there were any mandarin ducks there.  Last time we went there we saw about 20 of them - not one yesterday though.  But I did see a kingfisher which peeved Jan cos she missed it.  Making our way around we also got a couple of Egyptian geese ...
 ... and the further on we came across a large herd of deer including a stag busy defending them.  

Once back to the car we set off home and were pleased with ourselves because we had missed the London rush hour ... opps ... ... ...

As soon as we joined the A45 off A46 at Coventry we hit solid traffic.  From that junction to the island at Binley, about 4 miles I think, we crawled along taking around 30 minutes to cover it.  Jan was driving at that point and she decided that we would turn right at the island and go home via Brandon and the back roads.  At that point I remembered a pub, The RoseyCombe ...

and that's where we stopped off for a drink.  We were both ready for one at that time anyway.  By the time we got home we both very tired but as we'd had a good day we were not worried about it.

Now this blog is about Dorktown News, but yesterday was a far better to report on than anything Dorktown can produce.  So we will be back the dross soon enough.       

Monday 26 September 2011

I'm puzzled ...


26 September

We now have 6 men in custody charged with terrorism charges.  It's one of the other charges that puzzle me though.  One is charged with 'with holding information'.  OK, but what do they mean by that?  Is it not going to the police and reporting what he knew?  Or is it that he had been asked and said he didn't know anything but it was then found later that he did?  See what I mean?  I've no idea.  If it's the former how do they prove it?

Here's some up to date photos of around Dorktown.
The Ropewalk shopping centre on Queens Road.
Market Place; the Town Hussy pub is on the right there.
The Town Hussy by John Letts.
One of Dorktown's nutters.



A man in the market.
Another candid.
Another candid ... and last of all ...
Some very orange berries.  There's loads of these around the town.