Nine to Three Thirty

It’s been quite a fun week.  I’ve been out quite a lot and been to all my usual things, but part of me wonders how long that will go on for in the current situation. We shall see.

I’ve been going swimming as usual: 50 lengths probably about 3 times a week, which in this pool is a little short of a mile each time I go.  I do love our local pool and it’s a fine looking building.  Sadly though the council have been a bit neglectful on the maintenance.  I guess, as I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone spectating in this pool, that the seating area isn’t a high priority.

Yoga is my other main  form of exercise.  We went out after one of my yoga sessions to celebrate a classmate’s birthday.  This is a cup of apple and cinnamon tea in a local cafe that serves middle eastern food and drink.  Lots of talk about the news, but no one really knows how things will shape up. It looks like H’s school trip at Easter (to the first world war battlefields of France and Belgium) will be cancelled which is a shame, but it seems a bit counter intuitive that he can still go into school every day.  Happy to cancel anything really if it keeps people safe.

I went on a ghost tour this week.  It was in the underground tunnels of a local swimming baths which is well known amongst ghost hunters.  It’s a building that was extensively used during world war two and it is built on top of a black death mass grave.  Apparently they have a whole list of workmen and contractors who refuse to go down there to work,  as there have been some very strange experiences.  Apart from the ghost walks they regularly do longer ghost hunts where you can stay down there overnight.  This was some wartime graffiti from a room that was used as an air raid shelter.

A weekend in Worcester for me.  The flooding is the worst I’ve seen there and it’s clearly down from the peak in these pictures.  The row of trees on the left of the building normally line a riverside path and there is a signpost under water until just below the signs, so you can see how deep it must be there.  The swans seem to be loving it though.  Loads of people were down by the river taking pictures of them and I’m sure they were getting fed too.

This is the cricket ground in central Worcester.  You can just see the lines on the driveway in the right hand corner.  It was like a lake and quite deep.  There’s nowhere for the water to go.  At least in Worcester they are used to it and are sensible enough to put things like the cricket ground and the racecourse near the river.  That said it must be a complete pain in the neck.

This is the main bridge in the city and the water is still pretty high.  As you can see a load of debris has been washed down river and got stuck there.  That white thing on top of the pile of wood and other bits is a fridge or a freezer.  I spoke to a few people in pubs and shops and they were all clearly sick of the water and just wished it would go away.

During the week I was in Bromsgrove, also in Worcestershire, for a shopping trip and this pub sign caught my eye.  The pub is in a former post office.  H was nearby too one day as he went to a Worcestershire Skills event at Chateau Impney, which is an opportunity for school children to meet employers and find out about what skills, qualifications, etc.  they would need to get jobs with local employers.  H spent time talking to a bank, Worcester Bosch and someone who seemed to fly expensive drones for a living.  He’s still only 12, so who knows what he’ll really go into.

Another trip out to visit a Hotter Shoes shop.  I’m doing some work with them at the moment and I went along to try out their foot scanning technology and to pick out some new footwear. I won’t say any more about that as there will be a blog post coming soon.