Haze fought with sunshine and, for the most part, sunshine won to produce a pleasant day. It took us a while to get going and a while longer to leave the Havant area but now the holiday had begun. Little Chef, Liphook is one of the last outposts of a ragged and volatile chain which has always offered reliable food but with variable service. Today it was interesting to compare it with some of our probable US destinations in the next two weeks. America almost always offers good if rather stereotyped and rehearsed service. In the UK we too have reached a state where service is mostly pleasant and, on occasion, sincerely so. Where we do not compete is on price and portion size but this, perhaps surprisingly, is only half of a bad thing. Prices are scary and that is inevitable with the government gobbling 20% VAT from every plate for no effort. This, in conjunction with sometimes modest portions, can create an impression of poor value but there is an upside. A typical eating place in, say, Palm Springs, will offer portions of a size so ridiculously large (a bit like many Americans, in fact) that waste is inevitable. A meal is enjoyed less because to order two courses is a risk and to order three, futile gluttony. While there are people on this planet who starve or are undernourished, food waste is a sin and all those associated with it should be ashamed.
There is nothing like seeing something for yourself, so I seized the opportunity today to clarify in my own mind mystifying media reports from earlier in the week when the Miss James bridge segment of the A3/Hindhead Tunnel project opened. Based on what I had seen previously, I doubted the descriptions of dirt and plantings across the bridge. Today, I came, I saw and I concurred. My inevitable photographs are on Flickr.
Neither of us wanted to dabble in London before heading for the familiar Heathrow Renaissance. I left Greg in our rather ordinary room and went into the central area to photograph without any real theme. I was pleased with the results. Heathrow can now compete with JFK and to a lesser extent LAX for its tiresomely endless redevelopment which turns almost all of it into an incoherent and cluttered mess. Precisely the problem of such loudly trumpeted investment - which may well be ready for the Rio Olympics but certainly not those in London - is that the aesthetics of the new can never be enjoyed in the chaos of the journey to the next. Heathrow must be one of the largest sponsors of the UK construction industry and pours more concrete than all the mafia families of the US combined. There was, in fact, one exception to my exasperated observations. The outside of Terminal 3 departures is now splendidly attractive partly because the milling traffic does not come right up to the old curb line now mercifully lost in a much extended frontage.
The implacable march of progress will (I believe) lead in turn to the demolition of the iconic control tower building, best known for being my workplace from 1983 to 1991. I photographed that today and perhaps shall not have another opportunity. My photography may not be brilliant but it is determined and I walked a long way today to photograph the Emirates A380 model at the Heathrow entrance having previously done so only from above.
In the evening we shunned the hotel restaurant on grounds of expense but, ironically, ended up at the Sipson Tandoori, not our original intent and not cheap, although the food is good. When we went out we encountered nightmare traffic and, in a notably Asian area, I felt that some sub-continent driving styles had impinged upon our roads. I fancied pizza but the Hayes Pizza Hut was hopelessly busy and a long drive brought us back to the once favoured haunt of LATCC diners. Our car is at 0655 and we have familiar seats on our LAX flight. My next post will be from BST -8.
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