The Emerald Isle via Manchester

 Day 1 - Mon 28 Sep - Oxfordshire to Manchester

Multiple connections today so we set off from Jan's BnB in Oxfordshire in good time.  No crawling through country lanes - we're on the M40 to London and for the first and last time I can use cruise control as the little Yaris sits on 70mph.  Traffic's a bit thick in places, but it's an easy drive.  The English are a bit more insistent that traffic keeps left though.  Sitting in the middle lane at the speed limit as you do in NZ can be met with aggravation if there's space in the left lane.

We need to top up the petrol before handing the Yaris back.  Hmm - pay at pump - it doesn't accept our Wise card.  Nor does it accept my NZ Visa card.  Into the office and I insist the pump is authorised for £10 cash and we're finally on our way to Enterprise Rentals in Southall.

I point out the issues with the car and get a token goodwill credit, and we get a ride to Southall station.  On balance the Yaris has been adequate.  It's done 2,300 miles (3,700km) without major issues, but I wouldn't choose to hire another one.  And the legendary Toyota build quality?  Not with this one.  Noise, vibration and rattles made it feel 20 years old, but at least Carplay worked.

Into Tottenham Court Road, then the Northern line to Euston Station.  We've been conservative with our timings and have an hour and a half to kill before our train for Manchester departs.  This is not the time for my Saily data eSIM to give trouble, but of course it does.  Auto top-up didn't work, the SIM is dead and the Helpdesk unhelpful.  Who needs a Facebook update anyway, and Pauline's eSIM works.

Our BnB in Manchester is one of those old warehouses converted into trendy apartments.  Trendy as in the walls are dark, the kitchen is dark, and minimal wattage lights make it not much better than a dimly lit cave.  We need a torch just to illuminate things in the corners of the rooms.  Adequate for two nights, but I couldn't live in one.

Time to pop into Sainsburys Local for supplies, and interesting to compare the price of sirloin steak.  Back in Vancouver I saw it was $C30, but as I looked closer I realised that was per pound, not kilo.  So that made in $NZ81/kg.  At Sainsburys we're paying £29/kg - that's $NZ68/kg.  And the cost in NZ?  Had a quick look online at New World and we're paying $50/kg.  

Perhaps NZ prices aren't so bad after all, and our problem is that we don't earn enough NZ dollars.  I'm all for ComCom investigating monopolistic practices and creating a level playing field for new entrants, but arbitrarily breaking up the supermarkets may not yield significant price reductions.

I asked AI to put a little average wage summary table together to test my hypothesis:

Country	Average Annual Wage (NZD)
Canada	≈ $81,000 NZD
England (UK)	≈ $82,000 NZD
New Zealand	≈ $63,000 NZD

So I think I have my answer, but on anecdotal data!  One thing I can confirm - English sirloin is so expensive they need security tags on the trays.

More time with the Saily Helpdesk and the eSIM springs into life.  I kindly offer more ICT consultancy advice to Saily at no charge.

The same goes to the wifi providers at the apartment.  While I at least have a secure SSID connection, I can't establish a VPN connection home as their firewall blocks the ports needed.  They apologise but can't fix it, so I either put up with reduced wifi security or use 5G.  Not as bad as this Dilbert cartoon portrays, but it pays to be careful wherever you go.

Day 2 - Manchester

Who an earth would want to go to a big industrial English city?  Visions of hopelessly choked streets, pollution, hordes of people, poverty, satanic mills, crime...

Well surprise!  It's not that bad, particularly if you're on two legs rather than four wheels.  We set off for the Science & Industry Museum - it's only a half hour walk away across town.

Ah - there's Alan Turing again in the Sackville Gardens near the gay part of town.  He's holding an apple - representing Newton, the tree of knowledge, and forbidden love.  An old Amstrad computer is buried under the plinth as a tribute to "the Godfather of all modern computers".  After Bletchley Park he moved to Manchester and went on to develop the first digital computer, nicknamed Baby.  

Interesting that in 2003 the Journal of Psychiatric Medicine published peer-reviewed research evidencing that on diagnostic criteria Alan would have met the criteria for autism diagnosis.  The research concluded how different his outcome might have been had he had appropriate supports in place.  And if course if there had been no indecency laws criminalising homosexuality.  As well as receiving a royal pardon in 2013, he is now commemorated on the £50 banknote.

But our main reason for a day in Manchester is to see the Science & Industry Museum.  It was recommended to us by John Nick - Pauline's brother - and it aligns perfectly with my interests as well.  I promise Pauline this will be the last technology experience on the trip.  Unless of course we stumble across one in Ireland or Singapore.

As we step in the door I'm met by another of the world's great physicists - Stephen Hawking.  What I hadn't realised is that he's also been immortalised by The Simpsons, having appeared in a number of their episodes.  In one, he considers stealing Homer's theory of a "doughnut-shaped universe".  The creators of The Simpsons gifted Stephen this jacket as a fitting memento.

An interesting observation about the museum is that it has a strong social conscience,  As much as we see examples of Manchester's scientific and engineering prowess we also see the downsides.  Living conditions in a rapidly growing city were intolerable, but led to improvements in water supply and sanitation.  Child labour and poorly paid women were noted, along with laws to improve conditions, and inspiring modern stories of women in technology.  Much of Manchester's cotton came from slave plantations in the Americas, so a considerable section was devoted to abolition and noting recent achievements of African immigrants.  The huge amounts of CO2 released by the coal-burning factories is highlighted, along with recent initiatives to embrace renewable energy.

We see a working replica of Baby, the first programable electronic computer built by Turing's team in 1948.  It weighs nearly one ton, uses 550 vacuum tubes and consumes 3.5kW for a speed of  1,100 IPS (not MIPS).  My iPhone is measured in BIPS.  We've come a long way in 70 years.  The next 10 years will be even more remarkable/dangerous given the evolution of AI.

A 1900 ribbon loom with a Jacquard head, the forerunner of punched cards for computing.

Donation boxes suggest we fill the world with scientists, engineers and inventors.  A subject close to my heart - I'm looking forward to continuing my STEM ambassador role on returning home.

Perhaps the most fascinating exhibit was a working steam engine, 1864 vintage.  It produces a gentle rhythmic thump-thump throughout the Power museum which both Pauline and I felt quite soothing.  Love the elegant governor on top - you wouldn't want this beast getting away from you with a full head of steam.

After the working steam engine, the cutaway of a steam locomotive was fascinating.  If all you see is a big boiler on the outside, how exactly does the steam drive the piston?  All is revealed.

The AV displays were excellent.

Imagine greener ways to power your home.  That's tricky.  

I've already got an all-electric energy-efficient home with solar panels, battery and an EV in the garage.  I can't think of much more to add.  Replacing the Forester with another EV with V2H/V2G capability would be a possibility.  I could put up a wind turbine - it's certainly windy enough near Te Aroha - but small ones aren't cost-effective.  Better to add more solar panels, and rely on the huge scale of wind farms to provide grid power.

So all up a great morning spent at the Science & Industry Museum.  Thanks for the recommendation, John.

Walking back through Manchester offers a fascinating blend of old and new.  Gleaming towers are framed quite happily between red brick Victorian buildings without seeming incongruous.  Tramlines criss-cross the roads keeping the cars at bay, but take care - trams have a habit of sneaking up on unwary pedestrians.

It would be interesting to see the design behind this cantilever.

A local magpie shows off its plumage.  These guys I can handle.

Little pockets of old Manchester free of cars make for a great pedestrian experience.

Back to the BnB and time to update the blog.  The image makes the room seem brighter than it is.

Day 3 - off to the Emerald Isle

Our trip is half way through.  That's England done and dusted, now for the land of shamrocks and leprechauns.  Neither Pauline nor I have been to Ireland before, and it's been the focus of our planning before we left.

Back to Manchester Piccadilly station and we're on the train to Holyhead, so we take in a tiny sliver of Wales along the way.  Signboards are in English and Cymraeg, which is just as well.  The Welsh language is so cryptic it's unintelligible apart from the borrowed words.

As we travel along the coast I see a huge windfarm in Liverpool Bay.  57 200m tall turbines pumping out up to 348MW.  Did I mention that pretty much every journey we took - Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Oxfordshire - we saw wind turbines.  Now admittedly the Brits have to work harder at decarbonising their electricity generation than we do, but their commitment to the task is evident wherever you go.  Ok Steve, stop rabbiting on about wind turbines...

Smooth crossing on the ferry to Dublin, but the taxi ride to our BnB was disconcerting.  It wasn't the drive through rush hour traffic, it was the driver warning us of all the places in Dublin not to go!  When walking Manchester we never felt unsafe, and only saw a few vagrants and minimal graffiti.  As we step out of our BnB are we going to be confronted by drunks, drugs, violence, beggars and gypsy pickpockets?  Perhaps he was overstating things and just wanted to ensure we had a safe experience in his home town.

Our BnB is unassuming, cosy (ie somewhat cramped) but it's all we need for three nights at a price we can afford.  We're in the land of the Euro here, and it seems we're spending them at a rate of knots.  

Stay tuned for our time in Dublin.  Will we want to stay longer, or be pleased to escape?

Cradles

Day 1 - Fri 25 Sep - Industrial cradle

We could easily have spent another day or two around Brewood and at our Old School BnB in Blymhill.  But we have some key dates in our itinerary and need to head south and closer to London to return the car.

On the way we take in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire.  It's a deep, wooded valley carved by the River Severn through multiple geographic strata, providing rich deposits of coal, iron ore, limestone, minerals and clay.  UNESCO calls it “the cradle of the Industrial Revolution” and “the Valley of Invention.”  With its easily accessible natural resources and river for transport, I can see why.

First stop is the Jackfield Tile Museum.  I remember when choosing tiles for our new house back in 2018 I didn't give their manufacture a second thought.  Just look at all the tiles on display, and concur with Pauline as to which we'd have.  Back in the 1700s they were pioneering encaustic, slip casting, moulds, painting and subsequent firing and glazing to produce a huge variety of tiles to meet growing demand, including the colonies.  I've still no idea how ours were made.

Stepping through the door and Pauline's in seventh heaven already.

Butchers' shops were particularly amenable to the improved hygiene tiles provided.

Pubs too.

And for decoration in children's hospitals,

Exquisite artistry, and increases in mechanisation meant the factories could ramp up production to millions of tiles per year.

Next stop is the Iron Bridge, erected in 1779.  

It was the first cast iron bridge ever built and became a global symbol of engineering progress. 

But first you need to produce the cast iron, and that's where the improved 1708 Coalbrookdale blast furnace came in.  All thanks to the creative genius of Abraham Darby who realised that using coke (processed coal) instead of charcoal would result in cheaper fuel costs and continuous large scale production.  This breakthrough effectively ignited the Industrial Revolution.

The remains of the blast furnace behind me.  We can peer inside the furnace, and see where the iron was run off.  Unfortunately the water wheel which powered a pair of enormous bellows is long gone, but easy to visualise from the pictures.

The Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron has a wonderful collection of exhibits, including cast‑iron cookware, steam‑engine components, structural ironwork, agricultural machinery, housewares and decorative pieces.  A shame we already have a dining table.  This one rather appeals.

This press would be perfect for my cheese-making.  I so wanted to touch the "Please don't touch" sign for a cleaner photo.

Here's a shop Pauline couldn't resist.  Genuine world famous Shropshire pork pies.  Sadly the taste belied the promise - they were so salty as to be almost inedible.

When in Brewood we asked the locals which football team they supported.  It is of course Wolves, being so close to Wolverhampton.  If I make a quick trip north to a Telford sports store I might be able to pick up a shirt.  Perfect for on the bike or the John Deere ride-on.

Unfortunately they weren't licenced to sell them.  A trip to the Molineux Stadium in the heart of Wolverhampton wasn't feasible, so I'll have to pass on this memento.  Saved an exorbitant £54 too.  Nor am I ordering online and having it posted to NZ - that would add another £25.  $180 for an orange shirt - I'll pass.  But go the Wolves!  They need encouragement - they were recently relegated to the EFL, and need support to get back to the EPL.  Just not not my financial support.

Jan’s Guesthouse in Oxfordshire is a long way south.  Pauline's driving so I take the opportunity for a snooze instead of assisting with navigation,  I can normally get away with it, but after a wrong exit from a confusing roundabout I'm prodded to stay awake.

It's another delightful rural cottage.  Time to settle in, plan our next cradle, and get a not so early night.

Day 2 - Educational cradle

Oxford is one of the world’s oldest university cities and widely regarded as the cradle of English university scholarship with teaching stretching back to 1096.  It's a must see, particularly if you come from an academic background, but even just to admire the honey‑coloured stone architecture that makes up the bulk of the halls, colleges, libraries, and museums.  Think Dunedin on steroids.  Ie a university town, but imagine it with the beautiful architecture of the railway station replicated every which way you look.

You can't just drive into Oxford and park.  Vehicles in the city centre are heavily restricted, with most of the space reserved for residents' vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.  There's also a Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ) where EVs are free to enter, but ICE vehicles pay between £4-10 depending on how dirty they are.  Compared to London which only has congestion charging, this makes the city centre an absolute delight to walk around in with no noxious fumes belched into the air.  Somehow I can't see an EV scheme like this being implemented in NZ any time soon.

The Park and Ride takes us into town on an EV bus, and it's a short walk to the Information Centre.  Pauline has a migraine threatening but likely in retreat, so she's happy to book our Oxford University Walking Tour With University Alumni Guide.  Come back at 2pm.

This gives us time for a walk.  Pauline's been reading, and just like I'd read a fictionalised account of Bletchley Park, she's read a novel about book binders in Old Oxford.  It didn't take long to find this part of town.

Heading back to the centre of town we see this.

I've come all the way to England to see Newton's office.  How can I not see Einstein's blackboard?  A quick dash in.

And I know the physicists are hanging out for closer views:

Piece of cake, eh Ben!

Apparently there was a second blackboard, but the story goes that an overzealous janitor wiped it clean :-(

A couple of images take me back to Engineering School.  Yes, we did initially use slide rules.  I'll have to explain to the grandkids how they and logarithms work.  I still have a slide rule in my desk drawer.

And the very first engineering calculator I used, an HP25, is on display in a history museum.  Makes me feel like an historical artifact myself.  

Old habits die hard.  The HP25 used RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) for calculations.  Note there's no "Equals" key.  The calculator app on my iPhone also uses RPN.  So much better than messing around with brackets for nested equations, but impossible for anyone else to use.

And in keeping with my interest in time pieces, a fine old clock.

But it was Oxford itself that we'd come to see and hear about.  Our guide Alex was up to the mark.

He's read English as a mature-age Oxford student, and is enormously knowledgeable about Oxford itself and English history, with an almost non-stop patter over two hours.  Things were pretty brutal in the middle ages.  During the Reformation, Catholics were executed by beheading.  During the Counter-Reformation, Protestants were burnt at the stake.  Alex points out the spot where one prominent bishop met his fate.

Unfortunately there was a capping ceremony underway and we couldn't go into any part of the Bodleian Library, including the Radcliffe Camera reading room.

For the scholars, the Bod is the oldest, largest, and most important library in the world with over 13 million items.  For film buffs, the Divinity School section was used for Hogwarts’ Infirmary in three of the movies.

How would you like to study with these guys all around you?

They are idealised “Emperors” or “Philosophers”, based on ancient Greeks & Romans, not real people.  They symbolise wisdom, learning, authority and classical knowledge.  Personally I find them more intimidating than inspiring.  You've been accepted to Oxford - the pressure to excel is enormous.

If there's one thing that's annoying, it's all the bloody tourists around when you're trying to get a decent photo.  Here's Venice's Bridge of Sighs reproduced, linking two halls.

But Alex's tour took us inside quieter places where the great unwashed can't go - one of the colleges.  For us today it's Magdalen College.  So you don't embarrass yourself, it's pronounced MAWD‑lin.  And it is stunning.

Fancy dining here?  Though not often if you had essays to write or rowing practice early the following morning.  Alcohol flows freely well into the night.

Magdalen produces results too - 10 Nobel laureates, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and writers such as Oscar Wilde and C.S. Lewis.  Alex points out features which seem to have directly inspired The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Bob Hawke, Rhodes Scholar and later another Australian PM, is also a notable Oxford graduate, though he was at University College.  He set a Guinness‑recognised beer‑drinking record at the time by skolling a yard of ale in 11 seconds.   Didn't do his political career any harm.

NZ PM David Lange didn't study at Oxford, but what connects him was his famous 1985 Oxford Union debate, where he argued for New Zealand’s nuclear‑free policy and delivered the celebrated line:

I can smell the uranium on your breath.

He won the debate, which certainly didn't do his career any harm either.

Wrapping up Oxford I have just two recommendations.  Go there, and watch for errant cyclists going a bit fast who ring their bell too late.  Pauline's nerves can attest to that.

Day 3 - Arts & Craft cradle

Our final day in Oxfordshire and we have options.  Head for the south coast?  Buckler’s Hard (Nelson’s shipyard) and Winchester Cathedral built on a swamp with an interesting engineering story as to how it was stabilised?  A bit far, and we've done Nelson already.

Or perhaps up to Stratford-upon-Avon to take in some Shakespeare?  Been there, done that 40 years ago.

What about a tour of the Cotswolds - the cradle of England's Arts & Craft movement in the late 19th–early 20th century.  And we can take in those gorgeous honey-coloured and thatched cottages as we go.

Burford's a nice little town, and Pauline's in her element.

We also get a reminder that we're in Jeremy Clarkson country.  Diddly Squat farm isn't far away.

I never had much time for him when he was presenting Top Gear, but Clarkson's Farm is presenting a different side of him which I find strangely compelling.  We see real farming activity - failures as well as successes, animals giving birth, emotion and empathy when animals are in pain or die.  As much as I enjoy Country Calendar, it feels sanitised in comparison.  If it had been early on a wet weekday morning the Diddly Squat farm shop might have been worth a visit, but on a busy Sunday there would have been queues for miles.

As there were at Stow-on-the-Wold - a lovely town if you didn't queue for half an hour to find a non-existent car park.  We press on to Hidcote Manor Garden.

And this is where we hit the jackpot.  Away from the touristy towns we stumble on Ebrington via the back roads.

Love the duelling hares on the roof.

Thatching in progress.

We arrive at Hidcote Manor Garden and need to grab lunch in the cafe as we've left our carefully prepared sandwiches on the bench in the BnB.  "Where's my phone?", asks Pauline.  No, we haven't been to a supermarket this morning, so it must be around here somewhere.  Pauline backtracks to the car.  Not there.  She checks in at reception.  Ah - there it is.  Some honest person handed it in after it was dropped beside the car.  I think this is telling us something.  It's a Samsung Galaxy a few generations old.  The screen is cracked, and battery life marginal.  A brand new one as we come back through Singapore might be on the cards.  So long as it has a lanyard.

The gardens are exquisite, and a fine example of the craftsmanship and design philosophy embodied in the Arts & Craft movement.

A sign in the garden described the garden's relevance to the movement as follows:

This espoused values of simplicity, craftsmanship and beauty.  Between the 1890s and 1930s the movement produced gardens all over Britain whose designs, redolent of a lost golden era, had worldwide influence.  These designs were engaging and romantic combinations of manor-house garden formalism and the naïve charms of the cottage garden but from formally clipped topiary to rugged wild borders, nothing was left to chance.

A croquet lawn had been there in the past, but sadly it hasn't been maintained.  The mural is so lifelike it looks as though Pauline could step into the scene, though not quite dressed for the occasion.

Hidcote Manor is also home to a Brambly Hedge exhibition - the beloved children’s book series by Jill Barklem about a community of mice living in the English countryside.  

The grandkids will know all about Brambly Hedge as Pauline gave the books to Emily a while ago.  This of course gave us an excellent opportunity to weave the mice into Monkey's travels.

 It is also important to point out that the Cotswolds is the cradle of England's medieval wool economy, primarily due to the Cotswold Lion sheep.  They're considered a rare breed now.  This one isn't quite representative, nor did it find its way into my suitcase.  The birds around our place don't need any encouragement to nest close to the house.

Back to the BnB to pack up and get away early tomorrow.  I'm about to inflict more science and technology on both Pauline and long-suffering readers of this blog.  Stay tuned.