A Day

Perhaps it helped that I had looked forward to these days off with some relish. It probably also helped that I was in Hampshire and not Scotland. This meant that I had slept in my beautiful home and not in my car. This meant also that I was able to stay in my pyjamas as long as I pleased. I probably would not have had them in my car although, during the 'recent unpleasantness' (as a US historian might term it), I was well prepared. The day dawned clear but, unsurprisingly, very cold. We went to do Mum's shopping. She has been unwell but cooked a fish pie for lunch which betrayed no loss of culinary energy or ability.

We went to Southampton where the cruise ship season is continuing later than last year. I was pleased to see and photograph 'Balmoral' and to be able to compare it to the much smaller 'Saga Pearl 2'. Millbrook Freightliner is another matter altogether and I still have not worked out how I shall photograph Class 66s there. Any excursion at this time of year is a battle against failing light but today we were fairly lucky. Leaving Southampton, as we had arrived, via the M271, I got Greg to drive me to Adanac Park, site of the new Ordnance Survey headquarters. That produced photographs of both general and architectural interest. Light did not matter for our next stop at Rownhams (services) where we made substantial gains on the machines. This was a bit of a lift for Greg who made me smile several times today just by being.

I cannot decide whether Julian Assange is a force for good or evil but I would say, on the balance of probability, that he is being well and truly stitched up by one or more governments; I doubt that the charges against him have any substance but they have got him off the streets. Time will tell. Wouldn't it be nice though if governments and corporations were more open and honest instead of spending 99% of the time grubbing around in the shadows? We have had about 5-6000 years of various forms of civilisation but, in those millennia, very little in human relationships has changed. If there is a God I imagine he's gone off somewhere to start another universe.