Why This Is Hell

1

Despite SouthEastern, Saturday was a good day out in Gravesend, in which three hours turns out to be about right to wander around. I must investigate the Tilbury ferry and potential for Essex escapes.

Trivia: Gravesend has the oldest surviving metal pier in the world - although slapping a restaurant on top on it doesn't necessarily show it off at its best. Especially as it blocks the upriver view.

I took a photo of the view of the Heritage Quarter which appeared at first glance to be black and white, but for the splashes of yellow and blue. Very odd, and not manipulated in Photoshop.

Found the statue of Pocohontas.

I had a chat with the Julian Graves shop assistant, and came away content with the world - although she appears not to have given me the fifty per cent discount announced in the window. Bum.



2
Autumn is distinctly with us, and I had half an hour wandering around the campus on the hill (aka the European campus) looking for arboreal evidence of this. I was also trying to work out whether I found the bit where the railway used to be, but I'm not sure.

The labyrinth is causing some controversy, and no one is prepared to say how much it cost (at least two academics would be a good estimate). I had a wander around it, and am pondering whether my photo should go in my Mazes set, or whether I need to create on for Labyrinths.

Someone the other day predictably confused it with the movie, and curiously thinks precisely the same song that shows they cast the wrong period of David Bowie (post-Thin White Duke, pre-Tin Machine) is great. (Yanno, the one that rhymes who do/you do/voodoo. Puhlease.)

3
At the risk of (re)entering a a world of pain I ordered two Americanos in the Carbuncle café. On neither occasion was I offered milk. Apparently most efficient and human thing is to treat them like a robot going through a programme and not specify you don't want milk - black coffees being ordered provokes an offer of milk. Someone else will have to see what happens if you order a white Americano.

N and I had been talking about wanting to do a proper maze, the one in the Dane John being impossible to get lost in even if a) it's dark, b) there is rain all over your glasses and c) you are drunk. I know because I tried. I even tried drunker. It needed something bigger for that maze experience, so he searched his memory and I searched the net and we both came up with Crystal Palace Park. After a certain amount of negotiation we found a window that suited both of us, and we headed for his place which would be the start of the expotition.

( Hey and away we go )