Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[tikay]

Tom, if you get time, visit Southend Pier, get the train, or even walk, to the end, they do a lovely cheese toastie & tea, & have a nice RNLI Museum, too.

Well worth it.

I've just been looking at the pier. It must be half a mile long.

1.34 miles.

Quite a history, too. There is a reason why it is so long, too. Can you guess, without looking at the Wiki page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southend_Pier

[RED-DOG]

Tom, if you get time, visit Southend Pier, get the train, or even walk, to the end, they do a lovely cheese toastie & tea, & have a nice RNLI Museum, too.

Well worth it.

I've just been looking at the pier. It must be half a mile long.

1.34 miles.

Quite a history, too. There is a reason why it is so long, too. Can you guess, without looking at the Wiki page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southend_Pier

Something to do with the depth of the water?

Answer soon, I want to look at the wiki page.

[RED-DOG]

This looks interesting too.

[tikay]

Tom, if you get time, visit Southend Pier, get the train, or even walk, to the end, they do a lovely cheese toastie & tea, & have a nice RNLI Museum, too.

Well worth it.

I've just been looking at the pier. It must be half a mile long.

1.34 miles.

Quite a history, too. There is a reason why it is so long, too. Can you guess, without looking at the Wiki page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southend_Pier

Something to do with the depth of the water?

Answer soon, I want to look at the wiki page.

Sort of, yes.

Back in the day, "Pleasure Steamers" were the thing, & they took passengers - & of course business - to all the Seaside Towns, increasing local prosperity.

But Southend has a very weird tidal pattern, with shallow water even at high tide, so the boats had to bypass Southend & go elsewhere, where they could safely moor, & so Southend lost all the "traffic".

So they built a longgggg pier. Sorted. Except it burnt down 17 times. 

Very early memory for me, Southend Pier with Nan & Grandad. After visiting the pier, they'd go & quaff ale in Yates Wine Lodge all day, & I'd stand outside, bottle of lemonade & a packet of Smiths Crisps, happy as Larry. 

[RED-DOG]

Tom, if you get time, visit Southend Pier, get the train, or even walk, to the end, they do a lovely cheese toastie & tea, & have a nice RNLI Museum, too.

Well worth it.

I've just been looking at the pier. It must be half a mile long.

1.34 miles.

Quite a history, too. There is a reason why it is so long, too. Can you guess, without looking at the Wiki page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southend_Pier

Something to do with the depth of the water?

Answer soon, I want to look at the wiki page.

Sort of, yes.

Back in the day, "Pleasure Steamers" were the thing, & they took passengers - & of course business - to all the Seaside Towns, increasing local prosperity.

But Southend has a very weird tidal pattern, with shallow water even at high tide, so the boats had to bypass Southend & go elsewhere, where they could safely moor, & so Southend lost all the "traffic".

So they built a longgggg pier. Sorted. Except it burnt down 17 times. 

Very early memory for me, Southend Pier with Nan & Grandad. After visiting the pier, they'd go & quaff ale in Yates Wine Lodge all day, & I'd stand outside, bottle of lemonade & a packet of Smiths Crisps, happy as Larry. 

The pier is a must do now.

I love wiki.

[tikay]

Like all succesful things, Wiki has it's share of haters, but I think it is incredibly good, & far far better, & more extensive, then previously. I think I must visit it 20 times a day, minimum.

OK, some facts are wrong, but just because we read something, we are not forced to believe it.

And it is FREE.

Barry Crater mentioined "sense of entitlement" on another Diary today, but he's spot on. Wiki is free. Don't like it, don't read it. What's the prob?

As you can imagine, I get a fair bit of abuse from Next Door haters. Fine, if you don't like it.........

And yet they bang on, time after time, you are shite.

All very odd.

As it happens, I'm not overly fond of Asda. But I came up with a really great dodge. I stopped going to Asda. Sheer genius.

[tikay]

I was reading somethuing yesterday, & I came across a reference to the Erie Canal. The article suggested that but for the Erie Canal, New York, as we know it, would never have existed. Which sounded like bollox.

But I had never heard of the Erie Canal, lol. A Wiki-ing I went.

And it is TRUE. Without the Erie Canal, New York would not exist on anything like the scale it does.

These chaps decided New York needed that Canal. So they decided to build it.

One slight problem. There were no Canals in America, & they'd never seen a Canal.

So one of them came to England, & walked all 2,000 miles of the English Canal system, to learn how they were built, & how they worked. Then went back home & built a 363 mile long canal, with 83 locks. Easy game. And soon, New York became a thriving City, based around the Port. Which was based on Canal Traffic.

In the process, they came across something called hydraulic cement, which made the whole thing possible. I had never heard of "hydraulic cement", but it seems to be the same as Ordinary Portland (OP) Cement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal



http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-hydraulic-cement.htm

Note.....


It is important to distinguish cement from concrete

[tikay]

Oops, sorry, I got a bit carried away there.

[Jon MW]

This looks interesting too.

Prefer our version

Click to see full-size image.

or an alternative picture to give more context for scale

Click to see full-size image.

[RED-DOG]

Very nice. Where is that Jon?

[Jon MW]

Hastings - took them a couple of weeks ago.

You can walk up as well but the steps take a lot longer

[tikay]

Very nice. Where is that Jon?

Good old wiki......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Hill_Cliff_Railway


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Hill_Cliff_Railway

[tikay]

Bournemouth has one, too.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Cliff_Railway

[RED-DOG]

Two and a half hours of driving for this.

[tikay]

30 years ago, it would have taken weeks to locate that information.

Now, about 3 clicks & 2 seconds.

Incred times we live in.