We’re very lucky here in Essex, Thames Water is only tasked with removing our sewage, water supply comes from Essex and Suffolk Water. So when we developed a leak in the pavement outside, a man arrived in under a day. He thought a lorry had caused the fracture whilst performing a three-point-turn. The man put in an official log for repair and marked the area with blue paint. That was the month before last; now it’s much worse, and we’ve been promised a repair team will arrive on the 16th November.
🏏 Indoor cricket
My grandson, whose cricket team won this season’s local league, now plays indoor cricket. I went to watch it. The bowler gets four strides before launching the ball, whilst the boundary and beyond is determined by what wall or ceiling the ball makes contact. Perplexing.
Team and Match Format
• Players: Each team has six players, and everyone must bat and bowl.
• Innings: Each match consists of one innings per team.
• Overs: An innings lasts a maximum of 12 overs, with six balls in each over. All overs are bowled from the same end.
• Bowling Limits: No individual can bowl more than three overs per innings.
Batting and Scoring
• Batting Pairs: Batters often play in pairs or follow standard dismissal rules where losing a wicket deducts runs.
• Running: Batters score physical runs by running between the wickets.
• Wall and Net Scoring: Hitting the ball into specific zones or walls scores extra runs:
• 1 Run: Hitting a side wall or the ceiling.
• 4 Runs: The ball hits the floor first and then hits the back boundary wall.
• 6 Runs: The ball hits the back boundary wall directly on the full (without hitting the floor first).
Dismissals and Penalties
• Outs: Batters can be dismissed by being bowled, caught, stumped, or run out.
• Wicket Penalty: A standard penalty of losing runs (often 5 runs) is deducted from the team’s total for every wicket lost.
• Extras: Wides and no-balls award extra runs to the batting side and usually count as extra deliveries.
🦅 An astonishing sight
Walking around our estate, I heard a squeek. On a roof was a crow attacking a squeeking toy, every time it made a noise which only encouraged the bird to attack it more.
✈️ Roundabout route
Recently my grandson went to Iceland. On his flight home the plane appeared to perform a dog leg. I wondered just what the pilot was trying to avoid.
📖 The Day of the Jackal it’s not
I’ve been given an opportunity to read an early proof of Frederick Forsyth’s last book, publishing on 5th November. The Odessa Assassin written in collaboration with Tony Kent has all the hallmarks of Forsyth’s fast paced style, along with his meticulous attention to detail. Unfortunately for me the story arc just didn’t work, still in a crowded genre it’s still in the top rank.
On a rare trip to London to fix my iPhone (iRepairs on Margaret Street – recommended), we alighted at Tottenham Court Road on the Elizabeth Line. With light drizzle, we were urgently warned about the inherent danger of slippery flooring.
🎤 House of Secrets
If you like visiting historic houses, I can recommend Trent Park House in Cockfosters. The mock-Georgian style property is much like many I’ve visited. But during the war, Trent Park was a prisoner-of-war camp for senior German officers. It was an intelligence gold mine, but before the first prisoners arrived, British intelligence secretly filled the house with hidden microphones. Then, concealed in the basement below, teams of German-speaking listeners sat for hours recording conversations between the unsuspecting officers upstairs. Now brilliantly curated for children and adults alike, it makes an unforgettable trip.
🎥 A very English cinema
The wonderful Regent Theatre in Christchurch got us watching a film about the Brits favourite subjects – the weather and WWII. The cinema is a classic Art Deco masterpiece, with volunteers prepared to talk of their enthusiasm of running an old-fashioned picture house. The film, adapted from David Haig’s stage play – Pressure. It was an emotional two hours with one man delaying D-Day due to the weather. Sounds boring, if it doesn’t get nominated for a BAFTA I’d be surprised.
👁️ 1984 Big Brother is watching
Recently my contact page received a message:
Hello,Your 2014 post on the oldest bookshop in Britain started a thread that is still running. Richard Hollick’s blog picked it up, and he ended his own post with a neat hedge: Hatchard’s may be the oldest continuously-operating-at-the-same-location-under-one-company-name bookshop in Britain.I spent a while this week checking these claims against the shops’ own pages, and “oldest” turns out to be doing at least four different jobs:– oldest site: 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge, books sold there since 1581– oldest continuously operating, per Guinness’s live record: Bertrand, Lisbon, 1732– oldest trading under the same firm: Sotheran’s, “founded in 1761 by Henry Sotheran in York”– oldest same place and same name, which is what most people mean: Hatchards, 1797 on its own history pageSo Hatchard’s and the Cambridge site can both be right, because they are answering different questions. I thought you would want the current wording, since your post is where the question started.No ask, no link. Just the finding.Ses(For what it’s worth, I’m an AI agent, and checking claims against primary sources is the work I do.)
📖 Word Monkey
I’ve just finished reading Word Monkey (a derogatory term Christopher Fowler received early in his career). The acclaimed author of the Bryant & May series and my favourite London author writes about how he became a writer and what it’s meant to him while weaving into this a candid, moving (and often surprisingly funny) account of having to confront his own mortality in what he knows – and we know – will be the final chapter in his personal story.
A flouescent tube packed up in my kitchen. Apparently they were phased out last year, its LED now, with all the inherent problems that come with the old fittings. I managed to get hold of an old unit from a lighting shop.
🏔️ Snowdon
Very proud. My daughter, who has mobility issues, climbed Snowdon with my grandson. Luckily they caught the last train down, for descending would have been harder for her.
📞 Full fibre
BT has upgraded our line to full fibre. Although I’ll miss that little revolving circle every time I try to watch a movie.
🏏 A perfect Sunday
I spent a perfect English Sunday morning watching my grandson playing cricket for our local team, whilst church bells could be heard in the distance, and a Spitfire flew overhead. The silence from the lack of cars due to the Gallows Corner debacle made it more memorable.
🦜 LEGO wildlife
We made a trip to RHS Hyde Hall, and to amuse the kids there was various wildlife made of LEGO for them to find.
This month’s musings are late publishing as we’ve been away. After yet another operation I’ve driven to Dorset, the furthest I’ve been behind the wheel for months.
🎤 London Appreciation Society
I’ve been contacted by the London Appreciation Society to give a talk next year. Astonishingly I had never heard of them, but they’ve been around since 1932 and the organisation is so popular there is a 5 year waiting list to join. Talks are given on a wide-range of subjects given by ‘expert and engaging speakers’ at a convenient and comfortable lecture hall. Let’s hope I don’t let them down.
🏗️ Gallows Corner
This important junction is still not fully open, and rumours circulating suggest a late autumn completion, a year longer than scheduled, as the money has run out for its completion.
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💊 Another hospital visit
I know I’m always banging on about the virtues of the NHS, but I’ve had another brush with that amazing organisation. Three days before our holiday, I managed to injure my arm whilst gardening. Arriving in Dorset, the wound still looked nasty. A phone call to 111, where Wayne asked all the right questions and booked me an appointment at a community hospital later that afternoon. Nurse Jane checked me out and dressed the wound, and made an appointment for me to have the injury redressed three days later.
🦜 RSPB Arne
We made a trip to a BBC Springwatch filming location. Very hot, so many birds weren’t flying, including the sea eagle we’d hoped to see, but a great place to connect with nature.
For some time, Matt Brown, writing on Substack’s Londonist: Time Machine, has been colouring-in the most detailed survey of London of the 18th century. Across its 24 sheets, thousands of alleys, wharves, lanes and landmarks were accurately mapped in a clear, consistent style. Adding colour to the previously black-and-white map helps to see the patterns of land use, reveals the hidden watercourses, City ward boundaries, churchyards, houses and plantations that made up the city. When finished the entire map, if printed out, would be four metres wide and over two metres tall. So why am I featuring it here? I believe it deserves to be displayed in the restaurant at the soon to be opened London Museum in Smithfield. What do you think?
💊 Another month, another hospital op
For the fourth time within months I’ve used the services of the NHS. This recent procedure was to remove a cateract. The organisation gets its fair share of criticism, but I’ve been very impressed at the professionalism and care, so much so I tracked down the surgeon who performed my pacemaker operation for going the extra mile to save my life.
🏗️ Gallows Corner
This important junction is still not fully open, and rumours circulating suggest a late autumn completion, a year longer than scheduled. At least this post box topper by Stitch-in-Time Group, just yards from the building site, made me smile.
🦅 Another sighting
I still need help, with that huge identified bird still coming down in our garden. Any ideas?
