Occasionally I deliver friends to Tilehurst Station for trains to Paddington and have sometimes been caught out by minor differences in time, meaning hanging around for a few extra minutes or a dash across the footbridge.

(Two weeks ago one friend very patiently explained how I could swap data to a new phone, making me feel old and stupid.  I was quite pleased and relieved when before leaving my house  we both checked to see if the next train was on time. Her interpretation of the National Rail website was that the 1659 was due at 1556, whereas mine showed all trains were on time.)

There was this sad case a few years ago at a ford between Greenham Common and Headley.  I used the footbridge last year. Barriers now block the ford, but presumably can be unlocked by local farmers using agricultural equipment.

There are also many videos on YouTube of drivers failing to get through Rufford Lane Ford, now closed because of the number of emergency callouts.

I took  part a couple of times in a cycle race that started and finished in Totnes and went along the road. I also did some recreational cycling in the very hilly lanes (on one occasion a brake cable had snapped, which made descending a bit dodgy).

On the news last night there was a reference to the tank park where, presumably, Ken Small's tank  is still parked.

I still have a large sea shell from the beach.

Talking of East Devon, is there still a "water lane" near Ide or Alphington, close to Exeter (pedantically more in South Devon)?  Back in 1965 I drove my Mini Countryman along one in the Cheddar area and stalled it half way along; luckily I got it going again.

(A water lane is/was a stretch of road along which a stream or river permanently flows - except in times of drought. Put it another way, it's a length of river that has a road under it. It's NOT a ford. IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly') the Cheddar one was 150-200 yards long.)

Canadian vehicles in trouble, Elston Lane, Shrewton, Wiltshire January 1915

For several days there's been a bit of yellow rubbish in the hedge opposite my house. When I put out my red recycling bin this morning, I peered at it and discovered it was an admonition about the wrong items being put in a bin - from Herefordshire Council,  a hundred miles away. (I conscientiously put it in my black bin.)

(Earlier this week, I did an 80-minute perambulation of Tilehurst and was shocked about the amount of litter, mostly recyclable.)

I was walking past Aldermaston Wharf this morning and went across the station footbridge. On either side was a small blue notice and a much larger yellow banner displaying a plan showing where replacement bus services for both directions stopped - about a hundred yards away

Sometimes I examine the contents of redundant telephone kiosks that have been turned into book exchanges and usually find a book or two that I want to read. If I know I'll be passing one, I might take a couple of books with me to leave, though I usually select  those that are a little grubby, donating the better ones to charity shops.  I'm usually scrupulous about the swop: two paperbacks for one hardback, say.  Sometimes there's a discrepancy: currently the box (not a kiosk) in Purley-on-Thames owes me one, and I owe one to the kiosk in Hampstead Norreys, though when I "confessed" the latter to a former parish councillor who can be a little peremptory he said not to worry as there would be plenty of donations after Christmas.  Once when I was rummaging in the box at Purley a resident walked past and said he'd always wondered what was inside it. (It's on the verge of a side street and is made of wood with a felt-covered lid; some of the contents are a little damp.)

In Whitchurch-on-Thames the kiosk includes a container for used blister packs, with a request for anyone going into Reading to take a handful to leave with Superdrug.

On a couple of occasions before Lockdown I turned up at Tilehurst on a Sunday hoping to catch the first train to Paddington, only to find there was a replacement bus. On the first occasion I naively assumed that the bus would draw up on the station forecourt where there was a delineated space for buses that at one time provided a service direct to the station during the rush hour. Only the first time the bus stopped on the main road. A year later there was also a replacement bus, so I hovered hopefully outside the station, only to see the bus whizz past me and stop at a regular stop 200 yards down the road - too far for me to run to catch it.  Subsequently the electronic board at the station did direct one to that stop.

My favourite restaurant, the Beetle & Wedge at Moulsford (where there was once a ferry across the Thames) had a makeover several years ago, with its car-park rejigged and spaces re-delineated.  Trouble is that they're designed for traditional cars.  In the summer a friend drove me there in her Jaguar SUV and despite all the beeping gizmos to help had trouble parking it.  When we got out, the front was six inches from a wall, with two feet of its back outside the marked space.

I suspect that some visitors park in the nearby cul de sac, no doubt causing chagrin to the residents.  When I drive there in my Vauxhall Corsa I leave it in the village car park several hundred yards away - less challenging for me.

When my friend arrived at my house for the first time in the Jag she noticed the look of disapproval on my face.  She's complained of having to squeeze it into the hedge in the lanes close to her house when she meets oncoming traffic.  Dunno why she needs such a large car, as most of the time she's the only occupant.

A  new YouTube video  (just two days old) about the Highworth branch.

OK, there are lots of "old railway" videos, but I'm mentioning this one for two reasons:

1. the amount of surviving track, now obscured by vegetation.

2. in the summer my cousin-criminologist from a Welsh university was discussing with a senior officer at Wiltshire Police a meeting so she could research something sensitive.  There was some confusion as to whether this would take place at Devizes or Swindon, and some discussion between us as to how she would get to either place by train, though we agreed that it would make sense for her to travel to me, stay overnight, and then I could drive her to either place. (In both cases the routes would be very scenic.) I pondered how I would amuse myself during her meeting. Had it been Swindon I might have killed time in Highworth. Now I realise that the overgrown track was very close to Swindon police station - and I might now explore it next year.

As it happened, no meeting took place, possibly because her research would have related to over-sensitive areas.

Earlier this year I bought a new microwave from John Lewis and understood from the company website that it would take my old one for re-cycling. Not so, said the salesperson.  My council offers some sort of limited collection service for heavier items, but it's always fully booked.

Then I discovered that Curry's would accept that sort of thing, even if it hadn't been purchased from them, and would even give a £5 voucher (IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly')) against a purchase.

A week after I'd handed in my microwave, another one was fly-tipped close to my house. For a while, no-one did anything about it, though my neighbour said that he'd reported it to the council. Eventually I took it to Curry's - for another voucher.

I guess that proposals for development around Micheldever, between Basingstoke and Winchester, will return - IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly') they've been rejected a couple of times.

Every time I drive past Theale I wince at the  large development on its western edge, including three-storey houses.  And it can only be a matter of time before the area between the eastern edge and the M4 is built on. Very close to J12, and a reasonable walk to Theale Station,  (Years ago there was a plan to build a hotel there, but that's yet to happen.) And just the other side of the M4, beyond IKEA, there have been several proposals to build close to Pincents Lane, on the eastern edge of Tilehurst.

A friend and I were at Tilehurst Station this afternoon for her to catch a train to Paddington. She noticed that the temporary fencing had been removed and took me around the "tower", for us to discover that the lifts were in use.  She insisted that we try them out. Impressive inside and to use,  though we both wondered when would be the first case of anti-social use.

Is that the line taken by VIP (and other) visitors to Ukraine? I have the idea that some/most fly into Poland and take a cross-border train, rather than fly direct to Ukraine.