Monday was an unusually sunny bank holiday. I went for a wander along the Gloucester and Sharpness canal to visit the Purton Hulks.
Apparently Britain's largest ship's graveyard, between 1909 and the early 70s 81 boats were deliberately beached on the thin strip of land between the Severn and the canal to shore up the bank and fight erosion.
Over time they've filled up with silt, rotted away, and generally been reclaimed by nature. It's quite fascinating.
Some boats - particularly the concrete barges - are still mostly intact. Others have completely vanished, or are just a few bits of wood sticking out of the ground. Every wreck has its own little 'gravestone', thanks to the Friends of Purton society who work to preserve the site.
I spent last week on Malta, having my first proper foreign holiday in a very long time to not involve a canoe club. Here's some of what I got up to, in no particular order:
Lots of balconies
I did a lot of wandering around various Maltese towns. They certainly like their balconies!
Streets tend to be narrow, and for some reason a lot of the pavements are very shiny. I lost count of how many times I nearly slipped and fell over - walking on the road often felt safer. (the locals seem to agree)
balconies in Mdina
The citadels of Mdina and Victoria, and Valletta, are possibly the most impressive with their huge fortifications. A must when you're a small vulnerable island.
The Sliema and St Julian's area is a lot more modern and built up - lots of hotels (some much nicer looking than others), shops and bars/nightclubs. A stroll along the front at Sliema was basically half a mile of being hassled to go on a cruise around the two harbours, which was a bit off putting. Until that point I had been considering it..
...and churches
Malta is a very catholic country. You'd struggle to walk more than about 10 metres in any of the towns without seeing a church, shrine, or other miscellaneous religious stuff.
Both Mosta and Xewkija (on Gozo) claim to have the third largest unsupported dome in Europe. At least one of them is lying - both are huge and dominate the skyline, but Xewkija is bigger by volume, although taller and skinnier which I think is where the confusion comes in. Mosta had a bomb go through it but not explode in the war, which was obviously a miracle rather than just dodgy munitions... ahem.
Anyway, lots of churches. I didn't go inside any - partly because I am a dirty heathen, but mostly because I had far too many other more exciting things I wanted to do!
Marsaxlokk
"oh, you must go to Marsaxlokk and see all the fishing boats!"
eyes of Osiris on a Luzzu in Marsaxlokk
So I did - and indeed the Luzzus are very pretty and photogenic, but there wasn't much else there to see or do! Great if you want to sit by the sea eating fish, but I don't, so I didn't stay for long.
Mellieha
I stayed at the Solana hotel in Mellieha. I picked this over one of the 'resort' towns because I wanted to be somewhere a bit quieter and more relaxing. I think I chose well - the hotel was lovely, my room was huge, the restaurant was good, and it wasn't too busy.
On my first afternoon I walked down to the beach, where the sand was quite hot on my bare feet. Air temperature all week was about 23°. Don't think Britain ever gets that warm! And I could definitely justify some gelato before the walk back up the steep hill to the hotel...
On Friday morning I visited the... continue reading »
In January, I found myself with an unexpectedly healthy post-xmas bank balance, so treated myself to yet another new gadget - an ereader. I chose a Kobo Mini, in white.
Three months later I've read 33 books in about 135 hours. It's great! e-ink is very natural to read from, and the reader itself is small and hand sized. Definitely better for taking on holiday than a stack of paperbacks.
Why Kobo? Or more to the point, why not a Kindle? I only need three letters to answer that: DRM. Amazon can shove their proprietry locked in files and 'whispernet' up their arse - I'd much rather deal with epubs and calibre (which I've got tweaked to handle bookshelves and 'convert' to .kepub for extra reading stats. useful).
However the downside of buying a 'non standard' size is that it's nearly impossible to buy a case for it without spending lots and lots of money. I also didn't want one of those permanently attached flip cover things, as all that's doing is adding bulk, and thus defeating the point of buying for size!
For a while it lived in a sock, then eventually I bought a £3 neoprene slipcase, chopped it up a bit, sewed the pieces back together, and stuck some velcro on for a flap. It's working well so far, even if the stitches are a bit wonky!
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