January 14th – I experimented in an area where Panasonic have always been streets ahead – very long exposure. The interface for this on those cameras is so much nicer than the Canon, but there is one caveat: if you have the device set to silent – meaning it uses electronic shiutter – the mode is castrated. That confused me last week and I couldn’t work it out until I read the manual.
The toll road was quite busy as I shivered and stomped in the cold.
I’m really not well.
October 14th – A terrible, awful down day marked by frustration, local tragedy and blustery, unfavourable weather. A late ride our to Chasewater taking in a loop of Brownhills rewarded me with suitably sombre views, the gathering dark gradually enveloping the town.
Some days, you’re just glad to make it back to bed in one piece.
March 13th – Up onto the Chase via Pye Green over Brockton Field and down into Sherbrooke Valley: over to Milford, then onto the Shugborough Estate and the canal, returning via Rugeley and Longdon.
A remarkable, beautiful, mist shrouded sunset – and Sherbrrok Valley was as wide open, deserted and cinematic as ever.
I really missed this.
February 14th – Also caught in the sunset was the M6 Toll, Britain’s toll motorway, recently put up for sale by it’s banker owners, presumably because this botched, badly conceived project isn’t making enough money.
Frequently next to empty, people never flocked to use it as the tolls were considered too high, and the whole misadventure – which was at one time to be the future of such roads in the UK – does little except illustrate the folly of a country where we can no longer invest in anything for the common good.
When everything – even the most basic infrastructure schemes – have to turn a profit – then this is what we end up with. We need to stop thinking about price and get back to value.
May 5th – one of the flattest, smoothest stretches of tarmac in the UK. Gorgeous, and lovely to ride, too (I rode the length of it the M6 Toll the night before it opened), mainly because few use this white-elephant toll motorway. Crossing it on Chase Road last night, I counted 4 cars in a ten minute period. At 8pm on a Saturday.
An utterly misguided project, making money hand over fist for it’s operators, who don’t want the cost of maintaining it, so have consequently priced it beyond use. Bizarre.
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