Bracknell; Richmond; neighbours

Struggled my way to Bracknell last Thursday for Book Group at Sarah’s new house. In fairness, it was only the last bit that was a struggle, as I spent about 10 minutes being fired helplessly around ring roads never seeming to be in the right lane. Made it eventually and admired Sarah’s increased amount of space, though her husband Tim seems to have had a substantial hand in decorating their living room, given the c. 50-inch plasma in pole position in the centre of the wall. I’m reasonably fond of technology, but that sort of thing does turn the entire room into a home cinema. We stocked up on carbs and discussed Douglas Kennedy’s The Pursuit of Happiness, which all of us had enjoyed.

Surprised to note last weekend that Christchurch Meadows had actually flooded and then frozen, something I haven’t seen during the time I’ve lived in Caversham. Some keen type has already put a photo on Flickr. Here's a measly photo of mine too.

Ray and I went up to Richmond for the day on Saturday – we had originally intended to do a six-mile walk along the river to Ham House and Petersham, from one of my London Walks books, but the wet ground deterred us from that idea and instead we had a general wander around the posh suburb and its park, which I’d never been into before. Pictures here. Started with breakfast at the Carluccio’s on Kew Road, then walked down across Richmond Green and down to the (full and fast-flowing) Thames, where we walked along the river frontage for a bit before turning up Richmond Hill where we stopped for a quick gander at the view from the top of Terrace Gardens. Then headed into Richmond Park where we had a pleasant walkabout, though in deference to Ray’s recent knee injury and the danger from slippery ground we left the park at East Sheen Gate and walked back into Richmond via a bit of a snoop at the big houses on Fife Road. Had a lovely lunch at Don Fernandos before heading back to the train.

The only blight on the day was the interminable journey home, allegedly due to emergency engineering works caused by a broken rail at Ashford. Whatever the reason, it entailed us getting off the train at Staines and hanging around on a freezing platform for over an hour, in the company of other increasingly irate people, until a train to Reading finally turned up. I now, most unfairly, never want to visit Staines again.

Our Caversham neighbour Terry has been in an uncharacteristic frenzy of doing work on his house just lately, as he leaves for Australia within the next week to join his Australian wife Louise, who ended up being deported from the UK a year or so ago after living and working here for several years. Seems inexplicable to me, especially given that she was working as a social worker, hardly a career on most people’s wish list, but no doubt there must be specifics that we’re not aware of. On the other side: Nicki shows no signs of returning from South Africa, but we are considering emailing her about the parlous-looking state of her middle chimney stack, as we don’t relish the thought of it falling into our garden. Her current tenants look to be in the process of moving out, so we await to see whether new ones appear. The ideal would be someone who enjoys feeding other people’s pet rabbits and doesn’t own a car.

Surprised to wake on Wednesday morning to snow in MK - either it hadn't been forecast or I hadn't paid attention to the forecast. Not very deep, but still snow. No signs of any more of it at the moment though. Snapped a couple of obligatory photos, including one of this pretty cottage in Simpson, which has adorned itself with tasteful Christmas decs.