Cadillac ELR test drive

Robert test drives the Cadillac ELR, which frankly is a boring car, but what is more interesting is the discussion Robert has with Chelsea Sexton who featured in 'Who killed the electric car?':

Poor workmanship in Hampshire - really appalling path and pavement work

Outside a new building (PMC Construction offices) in Cosham near the train station, the builders have done probably the worst job ever in laying paving blocks.

The builders started laying a border of dark grey blocks to edge the red blocks, then when they had got about 80% complete, they just stopped.

As well as that, they used whole blocks near the black block edging and also by the metal drain, and filled the gap with small pieces.

Would have been better to put the small pieces next to the drain, like every other builder!











The same builders aren't to hot on curves either.

But it gets worse!
Here they start with one style of edging, then switch to another. Plus they cut one of the metal drains to an angle but leave the other uncut, which means the angle is very noticeable.
Any normal person would have cut both so that the transition between the two would have been visually more pleasing.

The site manager for the project should frankly be sacked. A DIY home owner would have done a better job.

It's not just Cosham where we have bad workmanship. Here are examples in Waterlooville where a utilities company couldn't be bothered to replace the stones and just resurfaced with tarmac.

 Some examples of how it should be done...

Arctic sea ice heading for record minimum?

Please take some time to view the Arctic ice graph in the right column of this blog.
It is updated automatically and currently shows a massive drop in sea ice extent compared to the 2011-2012 record minimum.

The graph is produced by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

If it continues it will be big news, or should be if the BBC were not so politically biased against climate change news reporting these days!

Chaos at retail park

Years after the Waterlooville retail park was expanded and the primary pedestrian route into Waterlooville wrecked by poor Havant Borough Council planning.
The trek into Waterlooville is still a nightmare with cars driving down the pedestrian and cyclist path.
The silver Audi in the photo is seen having just driven along the path, seconds before I had seen another car drive down the same section of path in the opposite direction.

The local councils (Havant Borough and Hampshire County) between them killed the old road into Waterlooville. The very road which had probably seen a few Battle of Waterloo soldiers on it 200 years ago. Now it's a car park that pedestrians struggle to negotiate. Oh yes, 'Waterlooville 200' is just great!

Related blog posts:
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/waterloovile-pedestrian-access.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/salvador-caetano.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/paints-and-belligerent-car-drivers.html

Waterlooville 200

It is 200 years since Wellington along with Blücher and other allies, defeated Napolean at the Battle of Waterloo.

This year Waterlooville is having it's own celebrations to commemorate that event and the creation of the town, unsurprisingly it's called 'Waterlooville 200'. The project was officially launched at the town library yesterday (are we allowed to call it a library now?) and the planned events include a talk at The Spring in Havant (why is it in Havant??), additional talks and events at Waterlooville Library, a re-creation of the return of soldiers from Waterloo and an open air theatre production commissioned for the event.

The event has got £44,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

It's a shame that all those 19th century buildings that would have made this year a bit special have been ruined by Havant Borough Councils bungling over planning in past decades. As mentioned previously the only building that remains true to the past is Swiss Cottage which is currently occupied by Citizens Advice Bureau.