Wendover Woods - Firecrest Trail

 

Walking in Wendover Woods today, I followed the start of the parkrun course downhill, and left it to turn down a sharp left intersection to take me further downhill. I then missed my usual turn near the bottom and found myself on the track out of the woods. However, there on the right was a sign for the Firecrest Trail which I had never walked before. 

This is a great narrow path through the woods, no horses or cyclists allowed. It is well marked and a very attractive route. This ended, for me, at the steep ascent for parkrun and I followed this all the way back to the start. Some superb views on the way. Overall a distance of close to four miles. Beautiful on a warm sunny day. I met Alison at the finish for tea and cake in the café. Wonderful.

Next time I will try the full trail. 

Sunday 12th June: A full walk of the trail with Alison. I found I had walked all the other paths on the route many times before, and the part above was still the most interesting and attractive section.

Coombe Hill and Dunsmore Walk

 

For my walk on Sunday, I found the last space in the Wendover car park (free on Sundays) and at 10.50am headed for the climb up to Coombe Hill. In passing the road down to the railway station, I saw a large group of walkers approaching who had obviously just disembarked from the train. So I put on a spurt to take me well ahead for the walk up the hill. As this was the first time I had been on this route for ages, I had good views of the HS2 works in the vale below. 

At the top I had a rest at the monument. The walking group caught up and I had a nice chat with one of the ladies who had come on the train from central London. I headed for the car park that was not as full as I had imagined on a Sunday. As I was going through the gap into the woods, a couple stopped me to ask about whether there was a circular walk. That would be difficult without a map or instructions, so I suggested a there and back the route down to Ellesborough and across to Chequers.

I ploughed on through the woods of  Low Crubs and ended up at the village of Dunsmore. On the way I had seen a poster for Sunday teas at the church, but when I arrived I found they only start at 2.30pm. I tried a different and far nicer route back along the outskirts of the wood. I didn't stop at the monument on the way back down Bacombe Hill and was glad of my walking pole for the steep bits.

Reaching Ellesborough Road, the cottages have now all been vacated for HS2. The photo below shows the route of the new line, now much further away from Wendover than all the indicative routes I spent too long searching. I went left down the right of way to have a good look at the works in progress. If I am right, the green tunnel will mitigate the noise from the outskirts of Wendover. I will take my camera next time I'm there.

 

Northern Ballet - The Great Gatsby at Milton Keynes Theatre

 

Having loved the book and the film, I had no hesitation in going to see a ballet version of the story. The review in The Guardian suggested that the first half was far better than a disappointing second. However I felt the opposite was true. The earlier switches in time didn't work for me, even knowing the plot. Gatsby's gangster roots (where he made his money) were well portrayed but having two dancers playing Gatsby (one as a soldier) felt strange. 

But then the second act burst into something magical. The Pas de Deaux was accompanied by a beautiful theme from Richard Rodney Bennett, whose music is used for the entire score. The orchestra is at it's best as the sound sweeps quieter then louder to match the dancer's movements. This is followed by a group tango that was well choreographed. 

The twenties costumes looked good, and the sets, lighting and sound were spot on. Just listening to the live orchestra was a treat. I had a perfect seat, all the more so as the three rows in front of me had gaps for the three technicians with their tech stuff on the front row. I actually prefer classical ballet to this more modern stuff, but the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald was destined for the stage.

Operation Mincemeat, Everything Everywhere All At Once and Benediction

 

An all star British cast in Operation Mincemeat made the best of a less than great script, all except Colin Firth who seemed to melt under the main role. Or was that director John Madden trying for pathos and failing. It seemed more like a TV movie with a very limited budget. The story was just not gripping and the sentimental ending was out of place. The story was bolstered by a poor romance between the sixty something Firth and Kelly McDonald doing her best. I wasn't sure about having a narrator in the shape of Ian Fleming. 

But for the remaining cast, it was spot the star. Penelope Wilton was terrific as ever, as were Alex Jennings, Mathew Macfadyen, James Fleet, Paul Ritter, Jason Issacs,  Simon Russell Beal, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Bonner, Mark Gattis and Hattie Morahan. And Johnny Flynn in a strange supercilious performance as Ian Fleming. So whether it was Michelle Ashford's adaptation of the book or John Madden's ponderous direction, they did not make the best of the amazing talent at their disposal. Which was a shame.

There was great family story in Everything Everywhere All at Once struggling to surface in an ocean of multiverse type fights. Which I try to avoid. The flashing editing was OK once or twice, but the repetition made my brain hurt. Michelle Yeo was great in the lead, and Jamie Lee Curtis at her surly best. Otherwise I should have ignored the positive reviews.

Benediction (a strange title) was a high class piece of filmmaking, almost theatrical in it's presentation. Terence Davies has written and directed a bleak, sombre yet gripping biopic of Siegfried Sassoon, the World War 1 poet. The scenes are mainly made up of two characters talking, and it could have been equally good on the stage. However, that would never have attracted the acting talent in this movie. And you may miss the close ups of the characters expressions that are never less than outstanding. 

Jack Lowden is fine in the lead role of the younger Sassoon, but for me, the supporting cast have given the performance of their lives. Ben Daniels is quite brilliant in the small role of Dr Rivers. Peter Capaldi, Anton Lesser, Simon Russell Beal, Kate Phillips, Jeremy Irvine (highly obnoxious as Ivor Novello), Geraldine James and Kate Phillips are equally great. The screenplay is full of the gay characters' sharp and clever wit. For the ending, I preferred the one cinematic ploy as characters faces morph from one to another. But we have to endure the heart rending face of Sassoon instead.

Snow, Ever After and Still Life

 

For a detective murder investigation, this is very well written as befits a Booker prizewinning author. There is some great dialogue which is fortunate as this is mainly a series of interviews by Detective Inspector St John Strafford. The best of these was with Lettie (short for Lettuce), an awful teenager expelled from some expensive boarding school. Nearly as good was when Strafford has to go to see the Archbishop.

The dead man is father Tom and we are given a huge clue early on as to the motive. However, this is strangely never really mentioned until much later. About three quarters through, the book goes back ten years, with a change of tense from third to first person. This individual takes us into their confidence, an amazing nearly twenty pages with sentences such as one from an old priest "that's what God is there for, to forgive us our sins".

However I felt the ending was predictable and the story turned out to be highly unsavoury. I have never read anything like it before and have no wish to do so again. That is despite the literary merit.

Our 52 year old narrator is in a mess. In such a mess that he messes up his own suicide. Why, when he has inherited great wealth from his stepfather that gave him a fellowship at one of the best universities. Graham Swift has made his narrator fiercely erudite (I'm beginning to sound like him) as he joins those elderly (if not ancient) dons: "A few dubiously nimble brains, in a few desiccated, enfeebled bodies". Swift's introduction in the first few pages is one of the best I have ever read.

So here he sits in the college garden, ruminating on what brought him here. "The gardeners giving him a wide, respectful birth". He has emerged from hospital "a fully reconditioned if fragile specimen". He is "a refugee from show-business and grief". I do think that the story of his marriage to his actress wife Ruth is the bast part of the book. Less so, the study of the notebooks of Mathew Pearce from 1854. Much less so.

Can I just sling in some of the vocabulary that is new to me? "my paradisaical surroundings" - "the auguries of happy-ever-afters" - "my stepfathers maledictions" - "Sam's annunciatory visit" - "purlieus of knowledge". And a note about Darwin: "I have dipped into Darwin. It's heavy going. The prose thick, grey and formidable, like porridge".

Our narrator (we don't learn his name until page 173) tells us about his childhood and his exotic mother. "But the past they say is a foreign country, and I fictionalise (perhaps) these memories". Then "It was my mother who first warned me ..... against the ruinous desire to outwit mortality". So this is quite a philosophical book, punctuated by events with those close to him. I preferred the latter. And we are left with the question from my first sentences ... why?

This is such an emotional book, full of witty brilliant dialogue. All the characters are wonderful, I especially loved Pete, the pub's piano player. "He could have gone to the Royal Academy, everyone knew that. He moved seamlessly onto Wagner, a sure sign the evening was turning bitter". Ulysses Temper is the main character and the elderly duo Cress and Evelyn Skinner are magical.

But it was Alys (or kid as she is called at first) that I found irresistible as she was born only a few months younger than me in 1944, the year the book starts. Alys grows up, well so does everyone else, as the location alternates between London and Florence. When the poet Constance Everly appears I really thought she was a real person. A great story, written with style and panache. I could not stop reading to make notes, it was that good.

Ashridge Walk

 

It was beautiful sunny weather when we chose a walk at Ashridge for one of the days when Michael and Sara were visiting. It was the route I had walked many times before I started running, so I knew the way. All except when we approached Stocks Golf Club where we should not have adjusted our route and ended up going all the way round the course. There were the remains of the bluebells in the woods, but not as nice as these.

Aldbury is close to the end of the walk, and we found a table at The Greyhound pub, actually where the people on the right are sitting in the photo below.

We enjoyed our beers and lunch and the service was exemplary. Possibly because a large funeral party arrived shortly after we were served. We were pretty tired after the long haul up the hill at the end that called for a stop at the National Trust café

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Continuous Flight Auger Piling at Tesco / McCarthy and Stone in Aylesbury

 

Having in the past negotiated and prepared contract documents for many piling companies, I was very interested in the works next to Tesco in Aylesbury. They have sold part of the car park for McCarthy and Stone to build retirement apartments. The piling rig was in full swing when I last visited the store. I recognised the works as continuous flight auger piling and found this explanation from P J Edwards and Co on their website.

CFA piles are formed by drilling a continuous flight auger into the ground. The sides of the hole are supported at all times by the soil filled auger, eliminating the need for temporary casing or support fluids.

Upon reaching the required depth, concrete is pumped down the hollow stem as the auger is steadily withdrawn. Reinforcement is placed immediately after withdrawal of the auger and into the fluid concrete.

CFA piles are drilled in diameters up to 1200mm and to depths of up to 41.0 metres.

The CFA pile is essentially a non-displacement bored pile. Hence, there is little risk of damage to adjacent foundations or underground utilities from ground displacement or densification of loose sands, as can occur with displacement piles.

Another advantage is that CFA piles are installed with little vibration or noise. Should problems occur during pile construction, it is relatively simple to re-drill and install the pile at the same location, thereby eliminating the need to redesign the pile group or the pile caps.

The use of on-board computers provides the piling contractor and the client with excellent information on the strength of the soil bored and the pile construction in the form of a computer generated log.

Most importantly CFA piling is very fast and therefore the most economic way to install piles today.