Author: bish
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The Joy of Balloons
We made it down to Bristol for the last dawn ascent of the Balloon Fiesta. We had tried for the evenings previously, becuase let’s face it, who gets up at five in the morning to watch balloons? Ok fine, but not me, generally. The evenings had all been cancelled, because of the apparent turbulence up […]
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estarlie e28 ebike: an owners review
First proof reading… corrected version.Second edit Sept 2020 after the first 300km Was it the urge to get fitter or a desire to be less carbon heavy in my fun, or let’s face it, the pain of the increased fuel prices? Well, a little of everything, probably. Anyhow, I’ve returned to pedal power, but with […]
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Solar Update 30MWh…!!!
One hundred and four months into the journey and less than halfway through the life of the FIT contract and we passed another milestone. Since December 2013 – wow that feels a long time ago now – we have generated thirty MegaWattHours of electricity using our 4kWp roof mounted solar array. We will certainly have […]
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Free Public Transport
What if it was all free at the point of use? All of it. How bad would that be? Establishing the overall cost of public transport (not the profits, the actual basic costs) ought not to be impossible. That’s how much we need to find in some form of taxation. Easier; make it regionally free […]
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A change to my photo portfolio
You might recall, my lovely reader, that I was musing a little white back about why in these times I still have a vanity web site and to what use I should put it. I said at the time I might focus a little on my photography – a key part of my day is […]
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It (still) isn’t easy being green
A lot of my time at the moment is occupied by an impending planning application in my village. It’s for a new railway station, and there is a large part of me that goes, yes! Public transport, accessible in the village, has got to be ‘a good thing’, right? Buses come and buses go, and […]
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On your marks, get set, go!
I gave my old pushbike away last month. It was over thirty years old and went to a good home – in mainland Europe as it happens – boxed up and reassembled to be used again as a commuter bike. It was checked out after assembly by the local bike technicians who whistled appreciatively and […]
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Reimagining
It’s a cold and wet day, following a sultry hot one yesterday. I’ve done all the simple things that occupy an indoor day and I’m frantically trying to put off starting some of the more difficult jobs I’ve been setting aside for a rainy day – like this one. Like a curious tongue prodding away […]
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All the Peoples of the World (Lisbon 3)
Views from atop the Monument to the Discoverers, or Padrão dos Descobrimentos, built in around 1960 at the height of the Salazar dictatorship. This is on the river edge overlooking the Tagus, near the Belem Tower and self evidently across the road from the Jerónimos Monastery. I loved how the people on the encompassed mappa […]
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Rooftop Tiles and Tiny Alleys (Lisbon 2)
On day two we acclimatised to hot hot weather, ridiculously steep hills, narrow cobbled and graffiti’d streets and so many people! For the past two years we’d avoided people; at the start of the pandemic we stayed in the house, slowly venturing into the woods and fields around us but never ever into the cities. […]