Skips

There was a skip with house clearance stuff in it. On top was a nice bit of wood (pale, straight grained, 2×4 about 2m long, machined surfaces, nice wood).
I stood looking, pondering taking it home, but it was a bit too big and too much of a faff to get out.
A bloke came up to me looked at the skip and said “nice wood, you after it?”

We chatted briefly about the wood as two blokes looking in a skip are prone to. He had his eye on the wood, but thought it a faff to get too.
As I left, someone else came up to the other bloke and looked at the wood.
The wood wasn’t in the skip this morning.

Bhutan or Bust

For work reasons I’m in Bhutan. It’s a small kingdom in the Himalayas close to Nepal and India.

Awake at 4am. First 4am of the day.
Left home 9:30, home to Mile End then Central line to Liverpool Street. Fast change to Standstead express.
Arrive at Dubai around 1am local time. Pass security to collect bags, exit airport in search of taxi to terminal 1.
Check in with drukair
Depart at 4am local time second 4am of the day.
Sleep a while on the flight. Twitching legs. Flight almost empty. 20 people max. After 2h breakfast is served.
Should land around 10am local time (4am GMT) 3rd 4am of my day.
Spotted Everest!

Mount Everest (the central peak with the cloud)

Landed in Paro after an exciting descent though the valley.

Welcome to the Kingdom of Bhutan (Airport Arrivals)

Old Signs

It’s interesting when walking around to take a look and see if you can work out how long something has been in place. Some things are easy, a church or other public building may have a dedication stone; you can estimate how old a tree is from its size. How do you work out how long a shop front has been in place, without resorting to google street-view (if it even goes back far enough)?

The other day, I spotted this strip of tape around the bottom of the door in a local shop. I know the shop hasn’t changed significantly in at least 25 years, but I was surprised to see the 01-London telephone number on the tape – given that it went out of service in 1990, this shopfront is at least 35 years old.

Old shop fittings
Barking Shop Fitters tape with a barking dog logo and two 01 telephone numbers.

2025 / 365

I’m a long-term user of the Flickr photo sharing / social media site. I joined some time in 2005, so it’s 20 years this year. I’ve 29,198 images on there, of which 2,813 are public. These numbers are accurate right now, but will be inaccurate very quickly.

I’m going to take a photo per day this year and upload it to a specific album, so I can document the year though photographs.

If the embedding works, the album should be below.

Frosty Latch. 4/365

2024 – N/S/E/W Up and Down

I did quite a bit of travel this year, getting closer to both poles of the planet than ever before. How did this year fare?

North
In Transport South Greenland
On Foot Reykjavik Iceland (64.14414470677431, -21.926072275395274)

South
In Transport Paradise Bay, Antarctica
On Foot Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina -54.826000, -68.344000

East
In Transport Saxmundham 52.2139015355 1.4935505485
On Foot Snape Maltings 52.2139969672, 1.4933598289

West
In Transport Minneapolis 44.920 -93.262 (bus)
On Foot Minneapolis 44.920 -93.262 (bus stop)

Up
In Transport 11.5824 km (Aircraft)
On Foot 160 m BT Tower Restaurant

Down
In Transport -26m ASL (Waterloo Jubilee line platforms)
On Foot -26m ASL (Waterloo Jubilee line platforms)

If all goes to plan in 2025, I should get a great deal further East and Up.