Lego and Duplo Projects!

Thomas *loves* Duplo (*nearly* as much as Daddy) so you can imagine how pleased he was to get this extra little gift (the Duplo Stone Quarry) from baby Poppy (cleverly saved a day or two after she was born - so it would stand out in his memory and act as a nice distraction)...a few other things we have built together (I'll post some other pictures as we continue our constructive adventures - there have been a few triumphs I forgot to take pictures of which I will attempt to rebuild)-

- our latest version of the "Great BIG Castle!!" -

-complete with hollow towers, doorways, battlements and a staircase-

- a higgledy-piggledy Hogwarts Castle (of sorts) -

- Flyingpops' attempt at a giant tower (which kept on falling over until she threw the bits back in the box in a mood) -

- and my hollow Duplo seed-crystal, which Thomas immediately took to pieces to get at the treasures I had hidden inside... ;)

More pictures to follow (when we build something else "interesting" imho)... ;)

Surrey Street Light Improvements

We had this letter posted through the front door the other day (a little bit out of the blue) letting us know that all of Surrey's streetlights are being replaced with environmentally friendly "smart lamps"...interestingly, not only is our little part of Surrey the first part of the county to get them (the rest being rolled out gradually over the next five years), but it turns out that Surrey is the first part of Great Britain to do this...(the words "Guinea" and "Pig" can't help but plop uncomfortably into the worry-centre of my mind)...meh...

There are (admittedly) a lot of positives - All the lights will be (individually) linked to a central giant "dimmer switch" in Guildford, so rather than each light just switching itself off and on in good time for dusk (based on a mechanical timer), when sunset approaches (which obviously varies day-to-day throughout the year) Guildford control center can just issue the on/off command to the relevant area, then, at the sort of time when everyone is usually in bed (2300hrs) they dim the lights to a soothing level (saving lots of energy) until the first early risers might need to be setting off to work (about 0530hrs)...or, and I speculate here, if Police/Fire Brigade/Ambulance service suddenly need to flood an area with light (e.g. to catch an escaping criminal, or deal with an accident) this can be achieved just as easily. So all good (in theory) thus far, but lets take a look at the (predicted) socio/environmental impact-

• The new lights are spotlights, pointing directly at the floor - so much less ambient light pollution should occur
• Lights can be kept bright in areas of need (underpasses/trouble hotspots) and dimmed elsewhere
• Lower electricity bills mean a collective saving of around £12 million in tax (over the next 25 years)
• We also stop 60,000 tons of carbon flooding the atmosphere (same period), which is actually quite a mind-bogglingly large amount when you stop to think about it

Nothing to complain about there then, but there are actually just a couple of things that do worry me - The lights are *white* and are (and I quote) "much brighter" than the existing (yellow/orange) sodium lights we have all grown up with. We'll have to see how this one pans out, but actually I quite like it being dark at night (for no particular reason other than that it is supposed to be dark at night)...I guess I'm just not sure I want the whole of Surrey to resemble the inside of a football stadium...secondly (and lastly) especially as all this is *extremely* new (and Murphy's law states that there is *always* at least one bug) I'm sure there will be "issues" to iron out...how long until the system at Guildford mucks up and plunges the whole of Redhill into complete blackness at 7pm, or we are awoken at 3am by blazing lights shining through the curtains (making us think we are being abducted by aliens à la Close Encounters)...

I'll keep you posted with developments as they occur, but it looks like we'll be all converted (to the most modern street lighting system in the UK) within the next two weeks...oo-er! ;)

Canary Wharf under construction

...woah, bit spooky...! This was One Canada Square (where I work) under construction in 1990, as seen from the (already finished) DLR platform at Heron Quays (which is now located inside a huge building which was obviously built around it! I guess one day someone's going to look at my pictures of the Crossrail station being built and feel similarly!

The Shard...

Took this pic this morning, thought you might like to see how they are getting on with building "The Shard" at London Bridge...it's going to be quite an impressive structure!

Cofferdam Dewatering - London Crossrail

Long overdue for an update on the Crossrail station at Canary Wharf - This is before (well, actually all of this is sort of during)-

- and how it looks now -

Before-

- and how it looks now-

- oh and I actually know the technical term for this stage of the work too (thanks to more very interesting signs popping up at the foot of One Canada Square) it's "Cofferdam Dewatering" (as you probably guessed from the title of this post)-

Actually, as you can see, pretty much all of the water is gone now, meaning pretty much all of the steps in the above poster must have been completed (including the rescue of the fish)...all that remains is the plug the flood (sorry, almost impossible to get a shot of it thanks to it's location behind some stairs)-

- that seems to be coming from the basement of the Bank of America building and they can make a start on the foundations...!

Loads more pictures here, if you like this sort of thing... ;)

Crossrail Canary Wharf - What's going on

Aw, that's nice...Canary Wharf Contractors have put up a series of signs (making me think they must have got sick of all the inane questions) explaining "What's going on"...

...what the final building will look like...

...and the surprisingly noisy process (even from 20 floors up) of "Silent Piling"...

Building Brockham Bonfire

So, as we happened to be in the area anyway (on our way to a kids Halloween party on Saturday afternoon), we thought we would stop over in Brockham and take a look at the preparations for the bonfire/fireworks for Guy Fawkes night in the village (as they usually, weather permitting, put on rather a good show), noting that the last time we actually saw the bonfire during daylight hours was back in 2005 - and it is looking as impressive as ever, however, I think that's about all we are going to see of it this year, as we have a bonfire party of our own to go to at Flyingpops' folks house (although Brockham is only just about 3 miles away from where we will be making merry, so it might just be we can watch the display from where we are)...! ;)

Canary Wharf Crossrail building update

Definitely time for a quick Crossrail project update, the last one I managed was on the 22nd of *July*, believe it or not...! The shot above I took just after coming back from paternity leave...

As you can see, while I have been away, they have been drilling down the tubes (it makes the building vibrate, despite the fact that we are twenty storeys away from the action) and then clean them out with *lots* of water (you can just about see them doing that in the bottom right of this shot) -

- and finally (I guess) top them up with re-enforced concrete (you can see the steel struts sticking out)...

James May Lego House update #2

So Sunday we popped back over to Dorking (to the Denbies estate) to see what the progress was on James May's Lego House project (our previous visit being something of a let down), this time (thankfully) there was *much* more to see, starting with the signs leading you (on a bit of a roundabout) route up to the site of the house itself -

- on a ridge, high above the complex below -

- the walk up took about fifteen minutes I guess (although that is at my brisk walking pace), the terrain is somewhat uneven and rocky and the paths do get quite steep in places (especially when you reach the house itself), so if you are planning a trip it's probably wise to bring some sensible shoes (and perhaps something to drink if it's a hot day) -

- there are a lot of grapes you could try and eat if parched, but I'm not sure Chardonnay grapes are good for eating (I didn't try)...

Anyway, reaching the house itself, it's clear that it's not *completely* made from Lego, if you look up towards the top (where they are still building) there is a very obvious timber frame in evidence (not exactly cheating though, as my normal brick house also has one, I guess) -

- there are also a *huge* number of boxes laying around, which (I'm guessing) used to contain Lego bricks...

If you look closely at the walls, you will notice that they are peppered with "window" bricks, just to afford a little ambient light inside, but also the odd very large crack -

- where the bricks are starting to come apart (possibly something to do with the use of various different colours of bricks, which would, most probably, expand and contract at different rates as the sun warms them up) -

- there was also, inexplicably, one small section where the uniform use of colours has been thrown out the window, and random colours were used...

...oh and (of course) James May's signature on one of the corners (with the year of construction), hinting that the structure might be a semi-permanent feature of the estate, perhaps... ;)
Around the back (necessitating increasingly long looping uphill/downhill walks around long avenues of vines) -

- you can see boxes of the larger blocks used for construction -

- if you check out this shot you get the idea -

- each of the larger (hollow) bricks is constructed from the smaller Lego bricks, they have then been laid in rows around the timber frame and then, perhaps, filled with builders expanding foam (well, that's what I would do, anyway)... ;)

So there we go...if you fancy popping along, that is all you can expect to see, don't think you'll be able to run up and down the Lego stairs or flush the Lego toilet - James May has posted security guards (really) to keep everyone at a safe distance...

Oh, and it was only upon getting back down from the ridge that I spotted the wally trolley (presumably) taking people up to see it in more leisurely fashion...Oh well... ;)

More pictures here on the Lego House Flickr Stream (if you like this sort of thing)...

James May Lego House update

So we went over to Denbies in Dorking on Sunday (didn't bother going on Saturday as it was pretty stinky weather for most of the day) -

- to check out the Lego house...we found some evidence of what had been going on right away, plenty of signs directing people to various car parks around the place-

- and to the location of the build itself (a rather small area just outside the farm shop) and apart from a couple of guys busy packing up tables and chairs, the *only* sign of real Lego we found when we got there was that was a small donation bucket by the entrance...

Not sure how helpful the tiny Lego men and women are going to be in constructing a house, but it was very kind of whoever donated them to think they might be... ;)

Anyway, while Flyingpops and Nanjan sensibly sat down and waited in the sunshine for someone they could ask about what was going on (this chap wasn't terribly helpful)-

- I ran around the place to see if I could find any evidence of the house itself, spotting what certainly looked like some very interesting potential walks in the process (and rather a lot of grapes for that matter)-


- the site being crisscrossed by public footpaths, but failing miserably, I returned to the others to discover that there really wasn't anything to see at this stage - speaking to the guys moving the tables had revealed that apparently all they had done on Saturday was arrange volunteers to build a selection of slightly larger blocks out of the smaller ones (which had then been put carefully in storage) and lay a large concrete foundation (as the house was reckoned to end up weighing quite a considerable amount upon completion)...they had further been told that it could take anything up to three weeks(!) to get to the stage where there's anything close to an actual house to photograph...so my advice? Don't go rushing over there like we did...it'll be much more exciting in a couple of weeks time...

I'm just glad we didn't have to drive very far to find out that there wasn't anything to see...! We were pretty far from the only ones trying their luck too, the place was absolutely full of curious people nosing around - Denbies really missed a trick there - not even the coffee shop was open to take advantage of all that passing trade!

Update - We have had another visit, lots more to see here...!

James May builds a full size Lego House

Oh this is waaaaay too juicy to save for Friday links...James May (of Top Gear fame) is looking for volunteers to help him build a full sized house entirely from Lego Bricks...the kicker? He's building it in Denbies Wine Estate, in Dorking...(about 11 miles from home)...!

Three million Lego bricks were delivered to Denbies last Friday, and building commences *this* Saturday on August 1st... ;)

Think I know what I'm doing on Saturday... ;)

Update - (with pictures) - the Lego house when we went to visit on Sunday...

Canary Wharf Crossrail station progress - then and now

Just a quick update, and a comparison (out of interest), showing how things were when the work first started (and had us scratching our heads wondering what on earth they were doing down there)...

...and how things look now, and actually, if you compare it to the concept drawings, it looks like they have got a bit carried away with putting in these metal tubes (and done a bit of a wonky job to boot)...although it is always possible that they are going to drain a larger section than they need initially (just so there is plenty of room to work)...We shall see!

I just hope they have left enough room to get the barge out! ;)

London Crossrail - Canary Wharf station

Ah, just found out what they are building below my window! It's the new Canary Wharf station for the crossrail service, although interestingly according to the map, this station is actually going to be *underground*, it explains the weeks and weeks worth of digging they have been doing under the water removing hundreds of bargefulls of oily mud (guided by divers) i suppose...what they are doing right now is driving in 90 foot long rusty tubes in a long line (you can see one on it's side on the top barge if you zoom in) and then (presumably) filling them with concrete...so that has solved a little mystery, whether this is to remove the water from one side or another ready to dig the tunnel I'm not sure, but I'll keep my eyes on them and if anything else interesting happens I'll post a picture... ;)

Kings Place, York Way - Finishing touches

Got in super early today, so I thought I would take a quick peek at what's going on with Kings Place (just up the road from my office) and it looks like they are almost done with it, most notably you can now clearly see where they are going to attach the wave-like glass facade to the front of the building, it's certainly changed quite a bit since my last pics, really starting to look like a building, rather than a building site now... ;)

Now that the scaffolding...

...is starting to come down in places, you can start to get an idea what Kings Cross is going to look like when it's face-lift has been completed...

...for now though, the cranes continue to domintate the skyline, and the streets feel rather like a builders convention, it's going to be a rather different place when all the men in HVJs have moved on...

Is the world really like this...?

Why am I seeing this kind of sign with such regularity?

- Guess I shouldn't be suprised by now...crap, isn't it...?