Three new things
Jul. 27th, 2008 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustOn Thursday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler and I went to a " public meeting" about the "Durham Riverbanks Gardens": quotation marks because I would have described the event as a presentation rather than a public meeting, and because the banks of the Wear as it wraps around the Peninsula are not currently gardens, and the proposal isn't really about turning them into gardens in any conventional sense (I think). A crowd of interested people met at Prebends Bridge for a walk along the river, past the Count's House and round to Kingsgate Bridge, while the Council's Heritage and Design Manager pointed out some of the features hidden under the trees: you can still just make out the walls of some of the gardens which used to slope down from the big houses to the river, but apparently there are four ice houses hiding in there. Then to the Assembly Rooms where we were addressed by a number of interested parties, and there was time for questions and answers, and a questionnaire to take away (which, as usual with questionnaires, doesn't ask the questions I want to answer). I suspect that much of this is simply about demonstrating to the Heritage Lottery Funding people that local residents have been involved in the project, and so ticking a necessary box. I like the riverbanks as they are, half wild and with sculptures scattered about unannounced - or rather, as they have been, before the trees grew so large and some of the paths started to slip down the steep slopes. But if the price of maintaining this is signing up to a scheme which attaches a "new!" label to something that was there all along, I'll cross my fingers and sign.
We swam twice last week at the new pool in the leisure centre, the first time at the introductory bargain price of 5p, the second at full price (£3.40, which I'd call pretty full). The pool is 25m long, but extra wide, so it can take more swimmers without feeling crowded; one side has a shallow slope into the water, which makes the water less choppy; and the end wall is all glass, with an etched (I think) frieze of fossil plants (from the carboniferous era, thus coal and relevant to Durham, which is somewhat clunky reasoning, but visually it works fine) so that you swim in natural light, but the lower part of the window is not entirely transparent. For all these reasons, it's an enjoyable place to swim. The changing area is mixed, but the cubicles are roomy enough for comfort and there are individual shower cubicles for those who wish to remove their costumes to shower (though I for one could do with higher water force, lower temperature). So that's OK. Entry is through two separate turnstiles, which you have to coax to read a bar code on your ticket, which is finicky and annoying, and I hope they will soon either improve or abandon this system. The other big attraction is simply that the pool is open early every morning, not just the three mornings a week offered at Chester-le-Street (our regular pool). If we plan to swim regularly at Durham, we need to buy an annual season ticket, but that's a big expenditure, so we're hesitating - but I expect we will...
Our previous fridge - which we had for years and years - had a defrost button. When it needed defrosting, you pushed the button in, and it gradually melted the ice. It wasn't foolproof - in particular, you had to take care not to remove the ice from around its sensor until the rest of the fridge was clear - but it was a whole lot better than nothing. Our new fridge - well, it's not that new, in fact it's not new at all, but it replaced our old fridge with which I am comparing it - is supposed not to ice up, not to need defrosting, and therefore when it does (and of course it does) there is no mechanism with which to defrost it. You switch off the electricity, and do what you can with bowls of hot water. And it took all of yesterday, on and off.
durham_rambler and I went to a " public meeting" about the "Durham Riverbanks Gardens": quotation marks because I would have described the event as a presentation rather than a public meeting, and because the banks of the Wear as it wraps around the Peninsula are not currently gardens, and the proposal isn't really about turning them into gardens in any conventional sense (I think). A crowd of interested people met at Prebends Bridge for a walk along the river, past the Count's House and round to Kingsgate Bridge, while the Council's Heritage and Design Manager pointed out some of the features hidden under the trees: you can still just make out the walls of some of the gardens which used to slope down from the big houses to the river, but apparently there are four ice houses hiding in there. Then to the Assembly Rooms where we were addressed by a number of interested parties, and there was time for questions and answers, and a questionnaire to take away (which, as usual with questionnaires, doesn't ask the questions I want to answer). I suspect that much of this is simply about demonstrating to the Heritage Lottery Funding people that local residents have been involved in the project, and so ticking a necessary box. I like the riverbanks as they are, half wild and with sculptures scattered about unannounced - or rather, as they have been, before the trees grew so large and some of the paths started to slip down the steep slopes. But if the price of maintaining this is signing up to a scheme which attaches a "new!" label to something that was there all along, I'll cross my fingers and sign.We swam twice last week at the new pool in the leisure centre, the first time at the introductory bargain price of 5p, the second at full price (£3.40, which I'd call pretty full). The pool is 25m long, but extra wide, so it can take more swimmers without feeling crowded; one side has a shallow slope into the water, which makes the water less choppy; and the end wall is all glass, with an etched (I think) frieze of fossil plants (from the carboniferous era, thus coal and relevant to Durham, which is somewhat clunky reasoning, but visually it works fine) so that you swim in natural light, but the lower part of the window is not entirely transparent. For all these reasons, it's an enjoyable place to swim. The changing area is mixed, but the cubicles are roomy enough for comfort and there are individual shower cubicles for those who wish to remove their costumes to shower (though I for one could do with higher water force, lower temperature). So that's OK. Entry is through two separate turnstiles, which you have to coax to read a bar code on your ticket, which is finicky and annoying, and I hope they will soon either improve or abandon this system. The other big attraction is simply that the pool is open early every morning, not just the three mornings a week offered at Chester-le-Street (our regular pool). If we plan to swim regularly at Durham, we need to buy an annual season ticket, but that's a big expenditure, so we're hesitating - but I expect we will...
Our previous fridge - which we had for years and years - had a defrost button. When it needed defrosting, you pushed the button in, and it gradually melted the ice. It wasn't foolproof - in particular, you had to take care not to remove the ice from around its sensor until the rest of the fridge was clear - but it was a whole lot better than nothing. Our new fridge - well, it's not that new, in fact it's not new at all, but it replaced our old fridge with which I am comparing it - is supposed not to ice up, not to need defrosting, and therefore when it does (and of course it does) there is no mechanism with which to defrost it. You switch off the electricity, and do what you can with bowls of hot water. And it took all of yesterday, on and off.
