Done

Yesterday, at number 10 Downing Street, our Prime Minister Theresa May signed the letter formally signalling the UK's desire to leave the EU. That letter will be delivered today by hand to the European Council President, Donald Tusk. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of leaving the European Union and the single market, this is a momentous day in the history of this little island inhabited by 65 million citizens.

Mansion

Took a walk this evening around Prospect Park in Reading, where the old Mansion House is situated.

In recent times it has become a family restaurant, leased to a well known British chain and before that had stood empty for a great many years. I can remember as child wondering who might have lived in such a grand building and been fortunate enough to have such entensive grounds near the centre of town? Of course in truth, when it had been constructed it was a fair distance from the heart of the much smaller Reading, strategically sited on the London to Bath Road (now called the A4).

And thinking of Prospect Park and my childhood, when we had good snow, mum and dad would take me there for sledging and also skiing plus the odd snowball fight. Happy times.

Not So Small Change

Ahead of the introduction of the new UK £1 coin, I was amused to read about the recent theft from Berlin of a gold coin with a face value of Can$1m. The story from the BBC is here.

Spring Forward Into Summer

Our clocks change tonight, so an hour of sleep lost as the UK enters British Summer Time. On the other hand, at least from tomorrow there should be more daylight into the evenings. Lots more opportunities for exploring the area.

Value For Money

Over £6 (about US $7.50, AU $9.50) for an extremely poor quality, tasteless hot dog, you have to be kidding right?!? And they had even run out of onions for goodness sake.

Should have complained but guess what? Sometimes I am far too polite and British for my own good.

Sorry I Was Late

As far as reasons for not getting to work on time go, the following might possibly rank as one of the best and probably one of the most unusual.

My way to the office takes me through some quite rural areas and quiet villages. Certainly at around 7 in the morning it is mostly peaceful and traffic jam free. Not today. My journey was delayed due to the police catching red handed two "gentlemen" unloading their flatbed and fly tipping at the side of the road. It's rare someone is actually caught in the act and fly tipping rubbish has become a real issue. You can blame council cuts and reduction of opening hours at waste processing sites all you want but fly tipping is illegal and also a poor reflection on our society.

So well done to the girls and boys in blue for responding so promptly but also thanks to (I assume) the member of the public for calling the police and tipping them off*.

* Feel free to decide if the pun was intended LOL.

Hot Cross

First this year, mmm. Not both for me though.

Victorian Serial Killer

I think many would agree we've come a heck of a long way regards how the police treat criminal evidence. Reading's very own serial killer Amelia Dyer is believed to have murdered hundreds of children. Some of the evidence it seems was taken home and stored in an attic by one of the investigating police officers. It has just been rediscovered and now placed in a local police museum. Read more from the BBC here.

Old Folks' Home

Had a call from Dad and SM last night: they are now nicely settled in the care home, where they are set to spend up to the next ten weeks, while all the floors in their flat are ripped up.

They had a pipe burst over six months ago which the contractor has been unable to adequately deal with. Due to his dementia Dad has been finding it particularly upsetting and unsettling. Now the contractor thinks the only solution is to empty the flat and dig up all the concrete floors, replace the pipework then put everything back. So off they have been packed to a residential care home. Simple LOL.

I hope they will get a taste for this life- no worries about preparing meals, laundry etc and knowing there is always someone on call should they need assistance. Maybe once the flat is sorted they might be encouraged to sell up..?

What's This?

It's been a while since the Sun put in a proper appearance LOL.