Louise
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uncannyval3.bsky.social
Louise
@uncannyval3.bsky.social
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Vehicle movement driver and language learner, currently learning Arabic as a beginner and persisting with 🇺🇦 (which is slowly, *slowly* improving).
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uncannyval3.bsky.social
Gym view, Rochester.
The keep of Rochester castle in the background behind some trees including a silver birth that has almost completely lost its foliage. A gym contraption in the foreground is apparently some sort of back massager.
November 13, 2025 at 2:18 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
More OS Maps lunacy: a bridle path right across Blackbushe Airport. I very much doubt that is usable. WTF?
Screenshot of Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map showing Blackbushe Airport, with a green dashed line indicating a bridle path going right across the airfield from west to east, including the runway. Absolute scenes.
November 5, 2025 at 7:44 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Dover, yesterday.
Piece of unidentifiable street furniture in front of a public toilet block, on which someone has spray painted “Love Wins” in pale blue. There are a bin and a bollard in the foreground.
October 31, 2025 at 12:52 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Pics from my trip and this morning:
My office view in the Yorkshire Dales (turns out it wasn’t Cumbria after all). Tents on a lawn in the foreground, grey school buildings in the middle distance and sunlit hills beyond against a blue sky. Chilly but beautiful scenery and good facilities for those not enduring the rigours of training as students. Our base was a boarding school. No school is safe, evidently, from the scourge of six-seven. Photo shows an outdoor sports scoreboard showing home and away teams both scoring 67. Door of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s room at YHA Hartington Hall. Dark wooden door with a plaque announcing the name of the famous occupant, white walls around the door. Photo taken this morning while lying on the ground at the outdoor gym and looking straight up. Lots of white fluffy clouds with dark blue sky and a small segment of rainbow between the clouds. Not sure how such a rainbow would form but it was very striking.
October 28, 2025 at 10:56 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Love a hostel.
Old fashioned green metal plaque reading, “This youth hostel is one of many, both in this country and abroad, where young people, regardless of race or creed, may spend the night. The buildings are diverse in character but they have a common purpose: to help all, especially young people of limited means, to a greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside. YHA national office, Trevelyan House, St Albans, Herts.”
October 22, 2025 at 7:10 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Morning Guy and ORCs, from Chatham station en route to today’s collection. This plaque commemorating Asquith Xavier is in the waiting room - he was a Windrush arrival and the first black guard employed at Euston, breaking an unofficial colour bar.
Large bronze coloured plaque behind a clear Perspex sheet, mounted on a grey tiled wall. The plaque has a large portrait of Asquith Xavier and accompanying text telling his story.
October 14, 2025 at 5:59 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Gary Busey looking particularly bizarre, with a caption saying, “When you’re the reason for a new company policy.”
September 30, 2025 at 2:38 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Morning Arm and ORCs! Definitely chilly here, won’t be long before the heating has to go on, I’m afraid. Yesterday’s car only made it as far as Calais, alas. Today takes me to Bristol, with a return drive tomorrow. Have a terrible photo of some seals:
Photo taken through a salt-begrimed ferry window of a bit of industrial area of Calais in the background, with a stretch of smooth beach to the left and almost equally smooth sea in the foreground. There are four tiny blobs near the waterline which I swear are seals. There tide was coming in and they lay there waiting for the water to float them, lazy bastards.
September 25, 2025 at 5:54 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Good morning from an extremely wet Llanelli, where I find myself thanks to a last-minute driving job. Physio went well yesterday, apparently I land on my heels too hard when I walk. I’ve got to learn to do a Mexican wave with my toes now. Have a good day all!
Garage door painted with a Welsh flag, and the words “Welsh Dragon Tyres”.
September 4, 2025 at 6:54 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement tomorrow at 2?
A large wooden trebuchet with the caption, “Into the trebuchet my dude.”
September 2, 2025 at 8:01 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Good morning from a very damp Coquelles! I stayed here as it was almost half the price of hotels in Calais proper and am very close to the Chunnel terminal, although on the wrong side of the tracks, as it were. This thing is on a roundabout here:
Giant metal “cartwheel” object standing on one edge, painted red and with lights arranged along the “spokes”. I suspect it might once have been part of the drilling equipment for the Channel Tunnel.
September 2, 2025 at 6:23 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
“First time” (on the scaffold) meme.
August 30, 2025 at 11:17 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
An angry possum (with human hands for some reason) dressed up as a wizard, holding a wand which is shooting lightning from its tip, with a caption saying “I pay my own bills I can cuss all I want.”
August 6, 2025 at 7:38 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
The landscape looking inland, with some horses. Quite a few goals about, most of them sunbathing. Being a growing foal is clearly tiring work.
View from the top of the inner sea dyke across the reclaimed pasture land towards low wooded hills in the distance. There is a line of electricity pylons on the horizon and a straggly hedge. A few black and white horses are grazing in the middle distance.
July 30, 2025 at 6:39 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Aaaaand here’s why this sort of thing might be a problem - the large bank on which I was walking is being eroded and the path might even disappear in a few years.
View along the top of the dyke looking east towards Cliffe. The earth path is in the centre, with the ditch between the two dykes to the right and the second dyke about 20-30m further to the right. The path is beginning to crumble on the left, forming miniature cliffs above the seaweed-covered river shore. The vegetation is all short grass here, very open countryside. Similar view looking west, back towards Gravesend. The stones that are part of the sea defences are visible on the upper shore.
July 30, 2025 at 6:30 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
And here’s a statue of Squadron Leader Mohinder Singh Pujji DFC. He had an exceptional flying career and his Wikipedia entry is worth a read.
Statue of a man in RAF uniform including an overcoat and turban, standing in a relaxed pose with one foot slightly raised and his left hand at his waist. There are poppy wreaths at the base of the statue and the River Thames is in the background.
July 30, 2025 at 6:18 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Lovely day out walking the Saxon Shore Way from Gravesend to Cliffe. Here’s Pocahontas (buried in Gravesend).
Statue of Pocahontas atop her plinth in the churchyard, with a few fresh flowers that have been laid by her feet. She is walking towards the onlooker with her chin up and her hands in an open posture by her sides.
July 30, 2025 at 6:13 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Behold! Another Anglo-Saxon burial site! Nothing to see here these days, but it’s right on Watling Street so convenient for a quick drive-by funeral.
Avenue Tennis gym, Gillingham, Kent. A large modern green and grey building with a curved roof. A couple of yellow traffic signs indicating a 30mph limit are visible at the entrance to the side street that passes the gym, and the dual carriageway of Watling Street (aka the A2, still very much in use) is in the foreground.
July 28, 2025 at 9:44 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
A bit of context:
The information board left of centre of the picture taken from the other side of a path that crosses the lower part of the photo, with another path leading directly away towards one of the fort’s buildings that is now an escape room. Rochester Cathedral (with the castle behind it) seen in the distance from Fort Amherst, with the River Medway and part of Medway City Estate in the middle distance.
July 27, 2025 at 12:47 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Made a detour from my walk to the supermarket this morning to investigate an Anglo Saxon burial ground within Chatham. The grid reference given takes you to a very nondescript residential street, but there is an information board about the site within the grounds of Fort Amherst.
Information board showing some gold buttons, a glass beaker, some tweezers, a sieve spoon, a lapis lazuli pendant and a gold and garnet brooch. Part of a page from heritage.kent.gov.uk with text explaining that there was a group of small barrows on the hill overlooking Rochester that was first discovered in 1756. Most of the items found are now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The site’s grid reference is given as TQ 7614 6835.
July 27, 2025 at 12:43 PM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Morning Hilary and ORCs! Nice day out delivering from Ashford to Calais yesterday, including plenty of walking and a bike ride back to the ferry terminal. Got lots of reading done too - have started on this, and it’s absolutely fascinating.
Cover of “The Anglo-Saxons” by Marc Morris. Subtitle is “A History of the Beginnings of England.” The cover is red and gold, mimicking some of the jewellery found in graves and hoards.
July 24, 2025 at 5:44 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
Today’s vehicle delivery was to Saint Georges des Groseillers in Normandy. Some photos of the Canadian war memorial on the main road:
Poster from the recent 80th anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings, showing a standing soldier seen from the rear against a menacing fiery sky, with a few other soldiers in the background. Bronze plaque reading (in French) “60th anniversary of the Normandy landings. To the memory of the British and Canadian soldiers and the civilian victims who fell at Saint Georges des Groseillers in June 1944.” Bronze plaque reading (in French) “To the memory of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa Regiment - Wilmer A Foster; North Nova Scotia Highlanders Regiment - Clarence M Byrne, John V Davie, Joseph EA Deveau, Martin Gallant, Donald M Ritchie, Mark J Sampson; Royal Winnipeg Rifles Regiment - Douglas A Evans, James A Keir, Gordon A Kimmel, Thomas Marshall, Napoleon Morin, Clarence W Peck, David H Sabiston, John RM Stewart. They died for our freedom in June 1944. Overview of the monument from across the road. To the left a French flag and a Canadian Flag; there are flower beds and hedges to either side and the monument itself is a stone slab bearing the commemorative plaques. 80th anniversary commemoration posters are on a wire fence to the back and there is a floral wreath on the ground at the front. This is the main road through the town, called “Rue des Canadiens”.
July 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
This has prompted me to have a look at the information leaflet that comes with mine. I thought this must be the same info repeated in several languages on both sides but no, it’s all in English!
A sheet of paper about two feet long and one foot wide that I’m holding up at arm’s length. It has marks where it was folded inside the box and is densely covered in small print.
July 13, 2025 at 7:02 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
I regret to announce I have had a Stonehenge moment.
A red and white sign that reads, “Stop! No cold callers, no canvassers, no sales people, no religious bodies. Thank you.” My hand is included for scale. The sign is approximately 50cm by 30cm. I thought it would be smaller than a postcard. I am stupid.
July 2, 2025 at 5:50 AM
uncannyval3.bsky.social
(Ctd) you have to detach a chain connecting the bike to the bike stand and then reconnect it very forcefully to the stand at your destination. I rode through quiet residential streets in the middle of the day so obvs if you go into town in rush hour YMMV.
Two blue and white rental bikes at a stand outside the foot passenger ferry terminal. It’s difficult to see but each bike is connected by a thick chain to the rectangular box which controls the rental and return process. The box has a small screen and a numeric key pad, with English instructions available.
July 1, 2025 at 1:31 PM