Car Problem Resolved

We have managed to resolve the problem with the car, the fact that the steering-wheel was locked as the ignition key wouldn't turn. It was relieved by a small squirt of WD40. I discovered this when I rang the Hyundai dealer in Stony Stratford. I was told by the mechanic in their workshop that this was a common complain with Hyundai Atos. It usually happens when it is cold and damp, exactly the conditions we've been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. I emailed Carol at work and she bought home a can of WD40 from the Academy.

We decided to go into the Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre to see the Christmas display in the Middleton Hall.  We parked in the multi-storey carpark near Debenhams and then walked  through the shopping centre. This is an annual event in Milton Keynes, and is usually a major draw for families with children. Very colourful and glittery (see last year's display mention in an earlier post.) I can't say it's the best they've done, because it's not, compared with other years. There's the same little train going round and round (we managed to get a free ride on this last year! See the earlier post.) but it seems a bit 'over the top' not a lot of restrain with the twinkly lights. Some of the fairy and elvish models, the animated ones, might actually scare little children. But it was still worth seeing it.

Car Still Not Repaired

Our friend from church came to have a look at the car on Friday evening, regarding the locked steering wheel. He has no idea how to resolve this problem, although he has a friend in the car maintenence business who may be able to rectify the problem. I await a phone call this evening.

As regards the business of other drivers 'tail gateing' (driving right up close to the rear bumper of the car.) I saw an item on television the other evening where they were discussing a criminal act whereby people deliberately run into cars so as to claim insurance. Sounds very nasty, and could cause serious, even fatal accidents. It makes me wonder, having seeing this, if that is what has been going on with me, drivers deliberately trying to cause accidents by driving too close, so when you break they run into you, and then make a claim on your insurance. No wonder car insurance premiums are so high

Writing Now On-Line

I have now managed to upload some of my writing. It is on the website called Booksie. There are, at the moment, three pieces, which are in draft-stage, and incomplete, but I am keen to get reader's feedback, so if you follow this link www.booksie.com/ShandyHall77 and give it a go, and maybe leave some comments, good or bad. I will upload more as time goes by, so keep an eye on the link.

Car Problems and More Rain

Our car has been playing up, to put it mildly. It started misbehaving when I went to the local shop to buy milk. I went to put the key in the ignition and it wouldn't turn in the lock. Generally, if this happens first time, you jiggle the key (is this an acceptable word? The meaning should be 'to move up and down with short jerky movements.' This, from my Collins English Dictionary, Express Electronic Edition.) I thought I ought to define this word, as there are those in other countries who might not be familiar with some words. I also have to be aware that some words have an entirely different meaning in other cultures. Oscar Wilde made the remark about American and English variations of the language when he said 'two countries divided by one language.' Anyway, I digress. I mean, I fiddled with the key to try to get the ignition to turn. It did not, on this occasion. I tried this several times. I also moved the steering wheel several times, but still the key would not turn, and so turning on the engine of the car thus facilitating the driving of said car. After several more attempts it did eventually start and I was able to drive out to the shop. Unfortunately, on arrival at the carpark, I found there was no room to park (I think I arrived there at the wrong time as the primary school, which is nearby, might have been coming to the end of it's day, and the cars might possibly have been those of the parents of the children at the school.) So, as a result, I returned home.

At around 3.30 I went to the car to drive to collect Carol at the Academy, but I could not get the key to work in the ignition. The steering column eventually locked completely, thus making operation of the car totally impossible. I walked to the Academy to collect Carol.

We tried several times more to try to get the car to start, without success. We have since telephoned someone we know at  the Milton Keynes Christian Centre who is a car mechanic and he will come out to have a look at the problem and hopefully resolve it for us.

The day has begun with dark clouds scudding across the sky. This, foreboding more rain. After yesterdays deluge, I see from last night's local news on BBC1 that there has been quite severe flooding in parts of the country.

Heavy Downpour

As I write this, we are in the middle of a really heavy rainstorm. It has gone very dark, and both our  dogs are somewhat unhappy, particularly Alfie, who has decided to decamp to the sofa in the lounge. It's gone a couple of degrees colder also. I just hope this doesn't last too long, otherwise there is going to be flash flooding. The roads around here are very prone to flooding, basically because when they were built they didn't think to have proper gutters and none of the roads have cambers so the rain water drains off. Consequently, you get large puddles which can cause havoc, and mostly it would seem at the many and various roundabouts and at road junctions.

Wet, Cold, and the first Christmas lights

Another wet and cold day. It's raining heavily. 

Our neighbour a few doors along has been spending the past couple of days putting up Christmas lights on the front of their house. You might say it is somewhat over done, 'in the best possible taste', as the late, great Kenny Everett would have said. Sorry, you have to see it to believe it. Really over done, and now it's switched on, really garish. It must be costing a fortune in electricity, and not entirely environmentally friendly. Nodding reindeer, skateboarding elves and flashing Santas are not my idea of any sort of style. I think all these lights must be a danger to low-flying aircraft, bound for sunnier climes.

Speeding Drivers and Dank Weather

The weather continues miserable. Not raining, but grey and over-cast. There was no ice to scrape off the car this morning, which was all very well, but it is still cold. We have had a few mornings with frost, but nothing to heavy. I bought a can of de-icer spray in Sainsbury's the other week, but it seems to make more mess of the windscreen than if you use just a scraper. It makes visability really bad, as you seem to get a blurry image looking through the windscreen. Also, I'm not to sure of the environmental effects of using this spray. It also has a really pungent smell.

Yesterday I took Sam to work. The roads are a nightmare at around 8-9 a.m. I realise that people are going to work, well, those who are working a 9-5 work-pattern, but some people have really no consideration for other road users. The road along side Eaglestone, that is, from near the Milton Keynes Academy to the hospital, is a 40 miles per hour speed limit. I don't think some people realise this, although it is fairly well signed. There are large signs as you enter and there are sometimes illuminated signs that show the speed you are driving at as you approach, and if you are at the correct speed you get a 'smiling face'. Which is actually, to my way of thinking, better than speed cameras, as these just seem to provoke agression in a lot of drivers. I think you slow down when you see them and then speed up again once you are well past. So, in that sense they defeat the object. Also, it can be said that speed cameras are merely a way to make money, from the fines that they generate. As we drive a relatively small car, a Hyundai Atos, and we don't make a habit of speeding around the place, generally keeping within the speed limit, we have found that you constantly get other car drivers coming up directly behind you as you're driving along, and trying to get you to go faster, or, in a lot of cases, trying to get you to move out of the way. Usually these are the speed freaks who have to drive at full throttle everywhere and seem to disobey every rule of the road, including keeping within the legal speed limits. I have driven around Milton Keynes and had people come up behind me and try to get me to speed up or just attempt to push me off the road so they can go faster and faster. This often happens when I have dropped Carol off at the Academy and I turn out into the road and round the roundabout and back in to Eaglestone, and on several occasions I have had a car come up and virtually touch the rear bumper of the car, just to get me to go faster.

We drove to where Sam works, at around 8.45. There was traffic building up to turn into the carpark at Milton Keynes College (where we park when we go to  M.K.C.C.(Milton Keynes Christian Centre),  as you're not supposed to park in the residential streets around the church and use the bus service to the carpark over to the church, run as a shuttle service.) Then there was quite a queue going onto the roundabout for Grafton Street which we got through fairly rapidly. The along Grafton Street and into the industrial estate where Maplins is (where Sam works.) Having dropped him off, it's quite difficult getting back into the traffic system in Grafton Street at that hour of the morning, but I generally turn left and back to the roundabout and down the other side of the dual carrage way and home along Chaffron Way and home. This particular morning, as I have already mentioned, there was a real bottleneck at the exit into the college carpark, and I had to slow down because I couldn't see clearly what was ahead, due to the volume of traffic. Suddenly a car drew out of the college exit, and if it wasn't for my instant reaction, I would have collided with the car. Thankfully the Atoz has good brakes, but it didn't do a lot for my nerves. A couple of feet more and there would have definitely been an accident.

First post written on Samsung tablet

Well, this is a first. This is going to be the first post on this blog that is written on our newly-acquired Samsung tablet. All the others, up until now, were written on the iMac. I have to say that I'm suitably impressed by this and I would say it's definitely a very good competitor to the iPad.

Foggy and Gloomy

Walked to Netherfield along the Redway this morning. Been to buy milk in the Co-Op there and to post a letter. The trees have still got a lot of their leaves, and those are mostly a variety of browns, yellows and in between. Quite vivid. I have taken some photographs are the colours are stunning. No sun out this morning, as there's a thick fog, although by the time I set out to walk to Netherfield the visability had improved. 

We have recently bought a Samsung Galaxy tablet. We had a demonstration of these devices in the Milton Keynes Shopping Centre a week or two ago, and were most impressed by the performance. We then went to John Lewis and had a similar demonstration of the latest iPad, and afterwards came to the conclusion that the Samsung was the better of the two touch-screen tablets. Apple spends a fortune on advertising and publicity. You cannot turn around without there being something about their gadgetry, whether it's for the latest iPad, iPod or iPhone. I have always been an Apple fan and have used them since university, which is where I first used computers and have always used Apple computers (this is written on an iMac, although not the most up to date model, running the latest version of OSX.) But I have to say the Samsung is a very good machine and is perhaps better than the Apple iPad. You get a lot of software already loaded, such as Photoshop photo editing and word processing. There are plenty of apps that run on it, too, and a lot of them are free. It is wifi-connected, and it's relatively easy to set up. We had the thing up and running within minutes of opening the box when it arrived.

I am continuing with my novel. I have at last found a way of linking some of the story-elements together which I hadn't got previously. As I've said in an earlier post, the plotting and story-construction is probably the most important factor when writing something like this. Once you have it in place, the actual writing is surprisingly easy. Just getting something down on paper means you can sort of 'join up the dots' if you like, and the story takes shape accordingly. With so many 'plots' this is quite important. 

I am currently reading 'Les Miserables.' It is an extremely long book, around 1600 pages or so. A lot of different plots, and the construction is a real influence on my own novel. I have seen the stage musical, which I loved, and I'm really looking forward to the film which is due out around Christmas.  Makes you wonder, having read the novel, how on earth anyone would attempt an adaptation. I have seen the trailer, and, if the it's is anything to go by (some trailers don't do justice to the actual film.) the film should be very good. It would appear to have an 'epic' feel to it. The other film that I can't wait to see is 'The Hobbit' although I can't see how such a slight book can be made into three films. I really loved the 'Lord of The Rings' trilogy, perhaps the most faithful adaptation of a novel that I've seen. I have read this 4 times and each time I find something different in it which I didn't find in the previous reading. I just hope these new films come up to expectations. Again, the trailer would suggest that it's going to be very good.

Alfie Loves Smarties

Our little Yorkie, Alfie, absolutely adores Smarties (alright, for those living outside the United Kingdom, I'm referring to the chocolate-centered sweets which come in a range of different colours and similar to M and M's.) Just bring out the packet and he'll do anything to get one. Or two . . . or three. Or more. Even after you've closed up the packet and told him 'no more' he will get as close as he can and touch it with his nose. He'd open it if he could. He's very artful. He's learnt quite a lot from our other dog, Poppy, who can be a complete control freak. She knows exactly when both dogs get fed, usually at 7.30 p.m. and knows the music that ends the 'One Show' on BBC1 and will sit directly in front of me and if I don't get up at once and move to the kitchen to prepare the food she will either sneeze, bark or come and prod me with her paw. Alfie has got into the habit of doing this, and whenever your eating he expects to get a bit of whatever it is you happen to be eating, such as a biscuit, piece of toast or your dinner, and does this so you give him a morsel. Poppy can do a trick or two, such as dancing around on her back legs. This is instead of begging, ie, sitting up with her body upright. She can do a twirl easily and will continue to do so everytime she is offered a treat. She knows that if she can get into your eye-line and you can see her clearly, her tricks will get noticed and you'll do whatever she wants ie, give her a treat or go and get her dinner ready.

Alfie, our Yorkie

Both dogs have a habit of going into the garden, and when you want them to come back in the house, they totally ignore you for as long as possible. To avoid this, we bought some doggy treats, which we keep in a small plastic box, which is usually kept either on the shelf behind the chair where I sit, or on the larger bookshelf. They will generally come in if you shake the box and make the treats inside it rattle. They get one for being good and doing as they're told. Alfie now has the trick of climbing onto the back of my chair and poking the box of treats with his nose and getting my attention so I will open the box to give him a treat. Or, if the box is the other side of the room, on the bookshelf, for example, he will stand and stare at it until he gets your attention or barks at it until you pick up the box and open it. He will even stand up on his back legs if he can see the box. How artful are our dogs? 

Beta blockers don't work, new study finds

 I came across the following article on the New Scientist website. I reproduce it below. As I am myself on beta blockers since having a heart attack (I am on Bisoprolol Fumarate.) so I am now somewhat concerned that these types of drugs don't actually do what they are supposed to do, or so the newest research would suggest. The article is dated 12th November 2012, so it is pretty recent. The article is fairly complex, but it is worth reading it in full to understand what the content of the report says.

  'Beta  blockers are busted- What Happens Next?'

'They have treated heart disease for 40 years but it now seems that beta blockers don't work. What went wrong?'

'IT IS very rare for new evidence to question or even negate the utility of a well-established class of drugs. But after four decades as a standard therapy for heart disease and high blood pressure, it looks like this fate will befall beta blockers. Two major studies published within about a week of each other suggest that the drugs do not work for these conditions. This is a big surprise, with big implications.

The first beta blocker, Inderal, was launched in 1964 by Imperial Chemical Industries for treatment of angina. This drug has been hailed as one of great medical advances of the 20th century. Its inventor, James Black, was awarded the Nobel prize in medicine in 1988.'

'The 20 or so beta blockers now on the market are very widely used - almost 200 million prescriptions were written for them in the US in 2010. They are standard issue for most people with heart disease or high blood pressure. This may now change.'

'A large study published last month in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that beta blockers did not prolong the lives of patients - a revelation that must have left many cardiologists shaking their. (JAMA, vol 308, p 1340.)'

'The researchers followed almost 45,000 heart patients over three-and-a-half years and found that beta blockers did not reduce the risk of heart attacks, deaths from heart attacks, or stroke.'

'While this is not definitive, it's pretty damning, especially when another study - published just days earlier - found pretty much the same thing.( Journal of the American  Geriatrics Society, vol 60. p1854.)'

'The goal of this second study was to examine the effect of drug compliance on death rates in patients who had had heart attacks. About half of patients complied with their drug regimen. Unsurprisingly, these people were nearly 30 per cent less likely to die than those who did not comply.'

'This was to be expected, but there was one big surprise. While the result held for the standard classes of heart drugs - statins, anticoagulants and antihypertensives - it did not for beta blockers. Regardless of whether or not patients stuck to their regimen, their risk of dying was the same. Taken together with the JAMA study, it becomes very reasonable to question the benefit of beta blockers for treating these conditions.'

'To understand what is going on, consider how they work. Like many drugs, beta blockers target receptors embedded in the surface of cells. Receptors are "molecular switches" - when a specific molecule binds to them, they change shape and send a signal to the cell to perform a certain function. Beta blockers target beta receptors, which respond to the "fight or flight" hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin.'

'In humans, there are two principle types of beta-receptor - beta-1, primarily found in the heart, and beta-2, located at multiple sites, including the smooth-muscle cells of the bronchial tubes and in veins.'

'When adrenalin and noradrenalin bind to beta-1 receptors, they signal the heart to beat faster and pump harder. Binding to beta-2 receptors causes smooth muscle relaxation, especially in the airways, explaining why beta-2 activators are used as asthma drugs.'

'Beta blockers bind to both types of receptor, but do not activate the cellular response. This blocks adrenalin and noradrenalin from reaching their target and activating the response. By preventing the normal hormone-receptor interaction, the beta blockers slow the heart and cause it to pump less forcefully, lowering blood pressure.'

'The premise of beta-blocker therapy has been that giving the heart a rest will diminish the frequency of heart attacks. In the light of the two new studies, it is clearly time to question this.

Which raises the question: why has it taken so long to find out? It is worth noting at this point that this is not yet another case of a drug entering the market only to be withdrawn later because of lack of efficacy or even adverse reactions which could have been noticed with longer or larger trials. It is simply a new medical revelation. The authors of the JAMA paper provide a reasonable explanation of the conflict between their results and earlier studies.'

'The key word is "earlier". Most clinical trials on beta blockers took place before reperfusion therapy became standard treatment following heart attacks. Reperfusion involves opening the blocked artery by surgery or pharmaceuticals, and has been shown to significantly reduce damage to the heart.

Damaged hearts are more prone to fatal irregular beats, and beta blockers are useful in controlling this. But with the advent of reperfusion therapy, people who survived heart attacks suffered less cardiac damage, so the frequency of fatal arrhythmias was lower. Put simply, the beta blocker effect was significant before the advent of this improved treatment, but the beneficial effect has since disappeared.'

'Additionally, newer and better drugs such as anticoagulants, statins and antihypertensives are now routinely used in heart disease. These more effective therapies swamp any smaller benefit that the beta blockers might provide, minimising any measurable effect.'

'What comes next is impossible to predict, but we may well be seeing a rare case of medical wisdom being overturned almost overnight. Beta blockers are not dangerous and have been in use for such a long time that it is unlikely that we will see an immediate cessation. But these results are hard to ignore, and cardiologists will be paying careful attention.'

A Few Days Away- Part 3

On Friday, our final day in the North West, we left the hotel early once again, having packed up everything in the car. We went to Salford Quays, to visit the Lowry Centre. This is a theatre and art gallery, named after the artist L.S. Lowry, who lived locally. We had something to eat in a Cafe Rouge and then went to the Lowry, and then we found that it didn't open until 10 o'clock so we spent some time in the Lowry outlet shopping centre. This is similar to the Galleria in Hertfordshire and the Bicester Village in Oxfordshire, both of which we've visited on several occasions and bought stuff such as shoes.

The Lowry, Salford Quays

The Lowry is a somewhat quirky building, looking as if it's made up of oddments and inside it's all bright colours and at peculiar angles. Even the floor downstairs in at a slight angle, it slopes slightly which is somewhat disconcerting. We eventually went up on the excalator to the gallery area where there is a good exhibition of Lowry's paintings and drawings. I was surprised by the variation in his work, imagining that all his paintings were of 'matchstick men'. Anything but. There are a lot of those familiar scenes of industrial landscapes with the classic 'matchstick' figures, but he did a lot of portraits and scenes that aren't so typical.

Media City UK, Salford Quays

Incidentally, Salford Quays is the location of Media City, UK, which is where BBC Breakfast now comes from. It's a very modern looking building and stands out quite distinctively from the other buildings. Quite a lot of BBC shows are made there, including Blue Peter, In It To Win It etc. ITV is supposed to be relocating later in the year, and the Coronation Street lot (the outdoor set) is being built nearby.

So, on leaving the Lowry, we went back to the car, which we'd parked in a multi-storey carpark, and drove out of Salford towards the M6, Milton Keynes and home. It was a long journey as there were long delays along the motorway, and we got back to Milton Keynes at around 4.30.

A Few Days Away- Part 2

 One of the Anthony Gormley sculptures on Crosby beach, Lancs

We managed to walk out to some of the statues on the Crosby beach, but it was getting colder and colder. We took a couple of photographs of them, but, looking inland, there was a very dark cloud looming over everything. The wind was extremely cold and then the rain started. We walked back towards the leisure centre. We saw that there was a cafe inside and then discovered that it wouldn't be open until 10.30. We waited until it opened and ordered hot chocolate and bacon rolls. So we sat and ate in the public viewing area overlooking the swimming pool, where some of the children who had come in the coaches we'd seen arriving as we'd arrived having swimming lessons. The rain began in earnest. We decided that we'd seen all we had wanted so aimed to drive to Liverpool. I asked at the reception desk if there was a park and drive carpark near Liverpool, to discover that none of the staff knew what 'park-and-ride' was. It would appear that this is a concept almost exclusive to the south of the country, whereby you drive to a town or city and park your car in a carpark near the outskirts and then take a bus into the city or town centre, thereby cutting out having to find car parking in the centre. It's generally cheaper and a good deal easier and cuts out the stress of having to look for a parking space. We were told, though, that it would be easier to use the underground train system, the Metro, and to park the car nearby a station and go into the centre of Liverpool that way. So we drove towards the motorway towards Liverpool. We managed to find a Metro station at Waterloo, and parked the car in a carpark conveniently close to the station. Compared to around here, the cost of the carpark was comparatively cheap, £3 for all day and the Metro ticket for the two of us, a return fare, was a little over £6. It was a pleasant journey into the centre of Liverpool, and we chatted to a couple of other passengers. As we've discovered with our holidays in Yorkshire, people in the Liverpool area are very friendly and always go out of their way to help you if you are in need of help, such  as the direction to a particular place. We got into the centre of Liverpool and walked down one of the shopping streets. As I mentioned earlier we hadn't bought coats with us, so we went into a branch of Primark and bought ourselves a coat each. We're due to have a branch of Primark open in Milton Keynes near the football stadium before the end of 2012, along with a large Marks and Spencer, and with our visit during our Liverpool excursion, no doubt we'll be visiting the local branch.

I worked in Liverpool in the early 1970's, when I was an A.S.M. at the Playhouse. I haven't visited since, but from what I saw it has changed out of all recognition. There are a lot more shops and modern, bright and clean shopping centres.

We were going to a couple of the art galleries or museums whilst we were in Liverpool. It was a long walk to the Walker Art Gallery, which I think I may have visited before, but we found we were closer to Liverpool Tate and the Slavery Museum, which are on the Victoria Docks site, so we began to walk there.

On the way we found the Cavern Club, which is where the Beatles made their first appearance, so we stopped and took photographs. As 2012 is the 50th anniversary of the release of their first single, this seemed quite appropriate. It was raining quite heavily, so we kept walking. We arrived at the Victoria Docks. I recognized this as they were used by I.T.V. as the location for the studio used for their "Good Morning" television show for many years. We went into the Maritime Museum, which had an exhibition in connection with the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. We spent quite a while wandering around a really interesting exhibition and then left, before we went into the Slavery Museum. I have to say it was very moving and well presented. We then visited Tate Liverpool. We have visited Tate Modern in London, so we had an idea it was going to be modern art on display. We stopped to have a snack and a cup of tea in the cafe before heading back to the Metro station and the car parked at Waterloo.

A Few Days Away- Part 1

Carol has been on Half Term for the past week. We haven't had a full week's holiday away, but  instead we went away on Wednesday and came back on Friday. We stayed in a hotel in Salford, near Manchester. We had a really good drive up on Wednesday morning, and visited  Rufford Old Hall, a National Trust property a good deal further north near Ormskirk. There is a link with William Shakespeare, which interested me as I have an interest in both his plays and his life. He was alleged to have performed in the Great Hall there. It was fairly bright and sunny when we arrived, but when we were inside it had begun to rain and the weather generally deteriated into low mist, rain and gloom. As it was Half Term they were doing Hallow'een things for children, which rather spoilt things for us. We had gone for the historic connections, not some over-blown superstitious nonsense which seems to have taken over in this country at this time of year, unfortunately. It's mainly, if not entirely, to do with shops making money out of the rubbish they sell connected with this so-called festival. When I was a child, November 5th was the thing, or Guy Fawkes Night, but it seems to have been overtaken by the other event, unfortunately.

Rufford Old Hall, National Trust property near Ormskirk, Lancs

Carol wanted to see the Anthony Gormley statues at Crosby Beach. It's something we've both seen photographs of, those mysterious statues staring out to sea, some partially submerged in the sand and others in the sea. As the weather was so awful, we decided to leave it for another day, although it wasn't too far from Rufford Old Hall. Another reason for  not going there immediatley was that the light was going. So we drove back to Sallford to find the hotel.

After driving down the MK motorway and leaving at the exit for Salford, we discovered that the place has a really nightmarish road system. It's one mass of duel carriageways, and the hotel itself is in the centre of a sort of knot of roundabouts. This is within walking distance of Manchester United Football Club's stadium. Sorry, I'm not that interested, but we did go and have a look. Having found the hotel and parked the car, making sure we had a parking permit on display inside the windscreen when we left it (otherwise we we likely to get clamped and would have to pay to have the car released.) we unloaded our luggage and then decided to go out and find something to eat, as there was no food available at the hotel.

We wanted a restaurant, not too expensive. Coming out at the roundabout we saw a  branch of Harry Ramsden's  (one of the famous fish restaurants.) the opposite side, but it then took us around 15 minutes to actually get to it as the traffic was so heavy. We decided that this was where we wanted to eat and so went in and found the place virtually empty except for an older man and a little boy. We had our meal and left and went back to the hotel for the night.

We were up early and out around 8.30, as we wouldn't get breakfast and decided that we could get something to eat as we drove up the M6 away from Salford and Mancester on the way towards Crosby where the Anthony Gormley statues were installed (for want of a better term.) We had found them on Google Maps, so had a vague idea what to expect. We were guided by the Crosby Leisure Centre, which we could see on Google Maps as a quite striking building which looked for all the world like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a sort of U.F.O. crash-landed on the beach. We found a car park, as we had followed the signs from the main road, but it would mean a long walk along the beach towards the statues. It was by now beginning to look as if there was a rain storm brewing, with very dark clouds drifting in from the land. Also, there was a bitter wind blowing making it very cold, and we hadn't brought coats with us, unfortunately. We drove a little bit further, as we could see the leisure centre in the distance. We got a lot closer and eventually managed to park outside and saw bus-loads of schoolchildren arriving as there is a swimming pool within the leisure centre.