Earlswood Sunrise today

...another incredible view, knew it was going to be special the second I opened the front door...this was taken just as I crossed the road towards the new car park at East Surrey Hospital...only lasted for five minutes, sky was blue by the time I got up to Royal Earlswood Park...so there is something to be said for the alarm going off super early! ;)

Surrey Floods!

Oh my goodness, what a morning...I actually heard the rain through the double glazing...I mean, for a start, that doesn't happen very often...!  It's got to be pretty bad....

Decided to brave it, headed out suited as best I could for the conditions, got as far as the first field (before the hill), stepped to the side to dodge (what I thought was) a big puddle (in the dark), and my feet completely vanished under about 6 inches of water into the *proper* puddle lurking right next to it (hidden in some deceptive grassy material)...the rest of the walk was dodging (making sloshing sounds with my trainers) floods and rivers or various sizes and trying to pull the soaked flapping jeans away from my freezing legs...

By the time I got to Earlswood (bear in mind this was just about 25 minutes after checking everything was okay (from the warmth of the sofa) and leaving the house just expecting (just a bit of) a drenching) - my telephone was steamed up (as you can tell from the picture), the station was flooded and pretty much every train (that has been showing "On Time" was now delayed or cancelled (by up to 120 minutes and there was talk of bus replacements)!

Honestly, if I hadn't set off precisely when I did I don't think I would have made it at all!  Still, second day in a row that I get free rail travel thanks to "Delay Repay"... ;)

Earlswood bike locking policy

Spotted this when I got to the station this morning, little paper signs attached to 3 or 4 of the push bikes on platform 1 warning the owners that they had been reported to station staff as "dumped"...they certainly didn't look like they were dumped, making me wonder if the owners have left them there while they have gone off on holiday or something?  Or perhaps don't like riding them in the rain (which it has been quite a bit lately)?

Anyway, being fair, I decided to check on the cycle policy and there is no mention of a time limit on storage of bikes - although it does say that if you don't own a folding bike they would advise you to keep one bike locked up at each end of your journey (which would explain why some of these bikes never appear to move - if the owners travel earlier/later in the day than most commuters) - interestingly, the station facilities section for Earlswood station notes that there are no bike storage facilities available (although it also says there is no ticket machine, which is there clearly is)...so perhaps their web site is just horribly out of date...

Wonder what is going to happen to these bikes?  Especially if the bit of paper blows away in an Autumn gust... :s

Travellers at East Surrey Hospital - Update

A quick update - not a lot had happened in the meantime (by any authorities) - but plenty of laudably energetic progress by the traveller folk -

- they have constructed a very nice (and perfectly effective) bridge over the ditch and have begun making a nice little camp right by the children's play area in Whitebushes (also right where the football coaching takes place on a Saturday morning for all the local tweens)...

I know it's Friday afternoon, but does anyone have a bit of time for some action now?  Other than the demonstrably industrious?

@surreymirror
@BramhallNatalie
@InspHaycock
@RedhillCouncil
@SaSHDirector

Update - Tweet from @RedhillCouncil - 
Council officers on site and working to have them evicted - fence was damaged to gain access.

Update - Tweet from @BarbaraT09
police have arrived to Whitebushes Common


Update - Happy ending! Great job everyone! Tweet from @colh8756
police have just removed 9 travellers from Whitebushes common

Tongue-Tie...

...or Ankyloglossia (as it is uncommonly known), is apparently an extremely common condition in the newborn - basically, the normal membrane under the tongue is unusually short or thick thus preventing normal movement of the tongue. It fixes itself (the "wait and see" approach) in the vast majority of cases between the ages of 6 months and 6 years, but can also treated medically if there is a (good) reason to do so...

Poppy was tongue-tied, it was picked up (right away) upon her first visit to Baby Cafe (where Flyingpops had taken her as feeding was proving unusually painful) by Anne Humphries, who referred us right away for treatment, but the first available appointment on the NHS was two weeks away...! That would seem fairly reasonable under normal circumstances, but Flyingpops really had been through enough already and some of the gasps and exclamations being issued during feeding were frankly worse than those during childbirth.

We tried her on expressed milk in a tiny baby bottle, but she just didn't know what to do with it (with hindsight that was also almost certainly symptomatic of the ankyloglossia). Not having the inclination to wait two weeks (let alone months or years) as we were rapidly running out of ideas - Poppy *could* feed, but it was *extremely* painful for Mummy and gave Poppy terrible wind -we turned to private treatment options.

The place we started with was the LCGB (the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain), specifically their list of private Tongue-Tie dividers (chopped up (*SORRY*) broken down by county). Flyingpops started the process of checking through the list and was lucky enough to stumble upon Lynn Timms (the designated divider for Sussex) after speaking to our local one (who quoted £110 plus £15 petrol and wouldn't be able to see us for 5 days), Lynn said she *could* see us, but she would have to travel all the way from Portsmouth (she quoted £75 plus £30 train fare and would be able to see us in 2 days) but she suggested we speak to Anne Dobson who covered London just in case (but Anne quoted £160 basic plus petrol which we couldn't even politely entertain)...So, Flyingpops booked in Lynn and we settled down for an uncomfortable few days wait...

Amazingly, the very next morning at 9am the telephone rang, it was the NHS offering us a cancelled appointment at 4pm that day (if we could make it to Dorking)! Flyingpops frantically cancelled Lynn (who was *still* kind enough to call us back offering advice - so can't recommend her enough - find her website here - if you do need to take the private route and are in her catchment area) and at the appointed time we all bundled into the car and headed off to Dorking (dropping off Thomas with Nanjan and Pops on the way)...

When we arrived the centre was completely deserted, the two ladies running it sat twiddling their thumbs (so I think they probably could have admitted a few more people to attend today rather than sending them off seeking private treatment!)...

It started with a brief description of the procedure to come - a quick snip with a pair of surgical scissors through the lingual frenulum - apparently nerve endings are rare or non-existent in this section of membrane at this stage of life and healing takes place during the feed that takes place immediately after the procedure (so in literally a couple of minutes)-

- and then we popped behind a small barrier for *two* snips, a lot of crying (and a little bit of blood) followed by Flyingpops taking baby Poppy off for a feed (which looked a lot like some sort of twisted vampire fantasy)-

- while I was presented with the (extremely nice) surgical scissors "as a memento" as otherwise they were just going to be incinerated (they live in the first aid kit now-thanks!)-

- and then we were on our way! The whole process actually taking longer to explain than complete...had we paid £160-odd quid for someone to come to the house and do 3.5 seconds work, I might have been (just a little) taken aback...but it's one of those sort of any-amount-of-money situations when your baby can't feed... :(

Anyway, to conclude - all's well that ends well, Poppy is feeding perfectly now, can cope with a bottle (on the rare occasions we are using expressed breast milk) and can stick her tongue out far enough to lick her nose (if she wants to)...as for the process? Try and get it on the NHS, it's such a *simple*, ridiculously quick thing to have fixed (I can't imagine how there is a two week waiting list in Surrey - those ladies at the Medwyn Centre could probably do 40 babies an hour (if they put their mind to it) rather than 7 per day (unless I am missing something here))...?

More snow in Whitebushes...

...it's been coming down pretty steadily since 0700hrs (when Thomas decided it was time to get up and watch his new Peppa Pig episodes on his laptop - zzzz), so from 50% clear last night everything is starting to get a hearty dusting again...thought we had seen the back of all this! Oh well, it's a good excuse to post a couple more pictures from Friday I didn't pop up at the time-

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! ;)

Playing in Priory Park

Here we go, just a few shots from the park -

- walking along with Flyingpops (like such a big boy) -

- swinging on the swings -

- climbing the climbing frame -

- playing on the seesaw -

- appreciating the works of art (and finally, a first) -

- walking along in his new shoes -

- taking a little tumble -

- and getting back to his feet without having anything near by to hold on to -

- oh and exhibiting all the signs of separation anxiety (not)...bye then Thomas! ;)

Volcanic Sunset

So last night, with the promise of a spectacular sunset on offer (thanks to all the particles of sulphur in the atmosphere) I ran out with the camera to see if I could get a snap...and while the sunset wasn't actually much more impressive than a normal one, I did get a couple of shots I was pleased with...apart from that I also managed to attract rather a lot of attention (sat, where I was on top of the sign at the entrance to our estate)...namely one curious footballer, two suspicious traffic policemen in a patrol car and two neighbours kids (to be precise), all of whom (thankfully) were satisfied by my reasonable explaination...

It's actually affected me slightly personally, this volcanic event, as two colleagues from the bank of desks next door to mine are trapped in Madrid (having flown there for a meeting with not even a change of clothes - whoops!), so I felt inclined to do a bit of research...apparently the last time this happened (about 200 years ago) the eruption continued for over a year and 23,000 people in Great Britain died from inhaling deadly poison gas...so a couple of days of disruption is actually not so bad, in the great scheme of things... ;)

Oh and that first screen grab was about half past two yesterday (showing all flights actual positions) the one just above here was taken this morning...

Now that's not the sort of thing you see every day... ;)

Hello Sunshine!

Ah...can't tell you how good it is to be leaving the house in daylight again...and for bonus points, not in the snow or rain! In fact, it's been so nice my mind has been turning to thoughts of al fresco dining on charcoal cooked meats...just a shame it's absolutely freezing cold with it, or I'd be out poking the BBQ with a stick to scare off the spiders and pulling on my apron... ;)

Only bad thing is, BST starts at the end of the month, and then we'll be back to square one (in the morning, anyway)!

Earlswood Crime Scene

Oo-er! Got to the railway station the other day, only to find that it has been transformed into a crime scene! Desperate (and obviously rather strong) villains managed to pry open the front of the ticket machine and steal all the pennies (and perhaps more importantly, the blank tickets - if they can get a good font match, that is)...

...probably not much chance of catching whoever did it either (apart from the fact that whoever is investigating put the tape on upside-down), the CCTV in the area has been vandalised so often they gave up replacing it and put up a mirror instead (for all the good that will do) - update - there are now in fact some cameras, up by the Indian Restaurant, so there may well be some footage...very unusual for there to be any sort of brush with the criminal underclass in our neck of the woods, it's normally such a lovely, quiet sort of place...how exciting!

Sunset time Redhill

Oh well, that's it...over the weekend local sunset time crept (it moves by 2-3 minutes per day) sufficiently backwards that I now conclude my bus journey through Redstone Hollow in almost total darkness, so Autumn is definitely upon us (even though British Summer time doesn't officially finish until the 25th October - when the clocks go back I'll be sat at my *desk* in the pitch black)...I don't normally mind this too much at all (as, of course, there is Christmas to look forward to), but this year I'm really loath to wave goodbye to the summer sunshine (probably because we've only had a couple of very short breaks to actually enjoy it)...

Anyway, we're going to have a go at getting out to show Thomas the trees starting to change colour on the weekend (and probably take some pictures too)... ;)

Denbies Vineyard tour

Okay, back from holiday now, but certainly not quite back to "normal", I'll continue updating as and when I can, it just seems that all my blogging time is vanishing into a baby shaped hole at the moment! Anyway, let's go back to the start of last week, on Monday (to celebrate Nanjan's birthday) we arranged a visit to Denbies to do the wine tasting and land train tour -

- having had our interest piqued when we went to check out James May's Lego house...We arrived just in time to miss one of the tours starting times (on the hour, every hour until closing time, despite what it says on their website), so opted to go and have a drink and a snack in the (rather nice) canteen -

- after which we had a little look around the gift shop (more signs of the Lego invasion in evidence) -


- and then waited in reception until it was time for our land-train ride around the vineyard -

- that bit of the tour cost us £4.50 each (which was reasonable considering the length of the ride was just under an hour)...

Anyway, when everyone finally managed to climb aboard (a surprising number of fellow riders were present, considering this was an overcast Monday afternoon in term-time) -

- we headed off up into the Surrey Hills (for a rather bumpy ride) dragged along by a Land Rover while listening to some reasonably interesting commentary on the history of the site (and wine making in general) -

- pausing at the top of the hill (briefly) to admire the site from above (actually a staggeringly impressive sight with Box Hill in the background) -

- and then halted again for a slightly longer amount of time for a short talk by the driver -

- about the previous and current owners of the land and how the landscape ended up with grapes all over it (won't spoil the story)...

On the way back down (the land-train does a loop at the big house), we stopped to admire the Lego House (still no roof on it, some technical problems apparently, meaning they are getting rather behind schedule)-

- and learned that when they are all done, James May is going to come and do his filming (trying to actually live there for a few days) and then the whole thing is going to be shipped to the Legoland theme park..So the window of opportunity to return to get a shot of it in a completed form is pretty slim! Oh well, I'll do my best, but no promises...here is one more shot, just to put the house in context in the valley -

- and then we were whisked back down the hill ready to join the wine tasting tour starting shortly!

More later on... ;)

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)...