Actorworks Summer Fete

A quick plug for the Actorworks Drama School's Summer Fete next Thursday. It's a great cause and the school's students have helped bring the Wapping history walks at the Shindigs to life. I know Daniel Brennan, the school principal, and he is a thoroughly decent chap. Also, Mulgrew, a friend of mine will be baking - her cakes alone are worth the admission. I've been to a few of the Actorworks' monthly quizzes and they are fun, but also with some decent questions.

All-in-all a great cause.

The "Summer Fete" Fundraiser

Thursday 1st August 2013 at 7.30pm.

Raine House, Raine Street, Wapping, London, E1W 3RL

There'll be bingo! There'll be a raffle! There'll be Daniel's Old Tat Tombola!

There will be The Ultra Quiz!!!

You can have a hot dog, but leave room for Mulgrew's Cake Stall.

Ten Minute Tarot. Relaxing Hand Massage.

And, what's more, Gilly Spencer is back on piano for...

The BIG Gilly-oke Sing Off!

Entry is £5 and includes nibbles (probably Mini Chedders) and a raffle ticket.

A sure way to make money? Move Shoreditch 300m

Back when I first moved to the area, Wapping had an underground station and it served me well - Whitechapel for Sainsbury's in the north, and Surrey Quays for Tesco to the south. If I wanted to mix it up, I'd get the DLR to ASDA on the Isle of Dogs. At each extremity of the old East London Line were stations I never ventured to - Shoreditch, New Cross and New Cross Gate. Shoreditch was a bit odd, because I was pretty sure that trains ran there, but I was just never sure when, and as at the time we lived just north of The Highway (bad Wapping) we would just walk to the Brick Lane environs or get the 100 bus to Bishopsgate rather than walk to Wapping.

It may then seem churlish for me to care about the location of the replacement of Shoreditch Station - Shoreditch High Street station.

When TfL closed the ELL and gave us a phantom replacement bus service, I made a deal with TfL. I never told TfL this, but we had an unspoken arrangement. Part of that deal that I made with TfL in my mind about closing the ELL to extend it, was that I would give up the luggage racks and umbrella hooks of the old rolling stock in exchange for untold adventures that would be accessible to the north, in exotic places like...Brondesbury.

Shoreditch High Street
sneaks inside zone 1

Back when Red Ken was king, the idea of Orbirail was thought up - an orbital railway which would allow passengers to avoid zone 1 using largely pre-existing railway lines.

Well, that was the idea anyway. What actually happened was that someone got scared that extending the ELL would remove passengers (and thus revenue) from the South Central franchise operating out of London Bridge (currently operated by 'Southern'). As a result, Shoreditch High Street Station having moved 300m was required to be classified as being in zone 1 as a condition of DfT giving money to TfL for the extension. I'm not fully convinced by the logic of building infrastructure to provide additional capacity to alleviate overcrowding and then price it to ensure that it doesn't alleviate capacity constraints on the busiest part of the network as fully as it could, but this is by-the-bye.

The issue of Shoreditch's location in zone 1, is not new and has been discussed at length since 2009. Various campaigns were run to try and get it moved back to zone 2 but to little joy.

I almost always use 'pay as you go' (PAYG) on oyster, as my sporadic travel (such as walking to and from work) and holiday patterns means that a season ticket doesn't give me a clear economic benefit. So, whenever I touch in and out, I  keep an eye on my balance and how much is being deducted. Most of the time, I either stay within one zone, or go from one zone to another and I know how much these journeys will cost me. However, PAYG works on the basis of which zones you pass through, not just the start and end points. This is where the designate zone of Shoreditch High Street becomes important. All but one station on the Overground's circle is in zone 2 (Hoxton is in both).

I've done a table showing the various fares that you can be charged travelling between a few of the stations between Highbury & Islington, and Canada Water. Now, we know that all of the stations other than Shoreditch High Street are in zone 2. So surely, there are two journey types - zone 2 to zone 2 and zone 2 to zone 1 (which includes going through zone 1). This however is not the case. There are actually 4 fare types, three of which have differential pricing dependent on what time of day you travel.

Pay as you go fares for stations on the ELL

When travelling between stations which are south of Shoreditch, or north of of Shoreditch one pays £1.60 a journey in the peak and £1.50 outside of the peak.

Now, something slightly odd. If travelling from Wapping, Shadwell or Whitechapel to Shoreditch (we'll refer to these as the southern group shortly), one pays £2.10 for a single. But travel from Rotherhithe, it will cost you £2.40 in peak or £1.90 at other times. So people coming from south of the river pay a £0.30 premium in peak, but get a £0.20 saving off peak! The same relationship exists for stations between Dalston Junction and Hoxton (the northern group), compared to those further north.

And if you want to travel between what I've labelled the 'southern' and the 'northern' groups of stations? You pay £2.40/£1.90, but if you want to travel outside of these stations either side of Shoreditch, your fare jumps again, this time to £2.80/£2.10. [Update: TfL have informed me that the different pricing on these stations is due to it being a 'national rail' zone 1-2 fare rather than a standard TfL zone 1-2 fare]

What I'm trying to get across, perhaps very well if what I've just written isn't clear, is that TfL has successfully managed to make travel between these stations very confusing if you're on a budget. I've seen people who only keep the bare minimum on their oyster cards getting emotional at Shadwell when they discover that the zone 2 to zone 2 journey that they thought they were making and which they budgeted as costing £1.60 actually cost £2.80 (or 75% more than expected!) meaning that they don't have money to get home.

One way around this is to go on the Jubilee Line or DLR to Stratford and then take the spur of the Overground to Highbury & Islington, using the pink validator, but certainly during the peak, sharing a train with commuters to Canary Wharf doesn't necesarily make for the most pleasant journey.

The financial impact on Londoners

Having noticed these odd pricing patterns I thought I'd find out what the impact of Shoreditch High Street being in zone 1 was. So I submitted an FOI request to TfL which revealed:

• A total of 7.3 million passengers board or alight at Shoreditch High Street.
• A total of 9 million passengers pass through Shoreditch High Street station but do not alight.
• An extra £7 m per year is generated by Shoreditch High Street’s location in zone 1 rather than zone 2
• There is no plan to reconsider which zone Shoreditch is in

So. Passengers are paying an extra £7m a year on PAYG credit just to pass through a single station in zone 1. The actual cost to commuters will be even greater as people using travel cards will have been forced to pay for a travel card including zone 1, even if their start or end point isn't in zone 1.

[Update - a note of caution: I asked what the cost to passengers who pass through Shoreditch is, so I assume this is what the £7m is, but no details of the calculation were provided. I've asked for clarification on which passengers this relates to. However, even if it includes those alighting at Shoreditch, it's still likely to be significant]
What is key to this issue is the funding agreement with DfT: to obtain £24m to fund the extension TfL agreed to put Shoreditch in zone 1. So not only did TfL receive £24m free of charge from the government, they also get an additional £7m per year than had they stumped up the cash and done the logical thing of putting it in zone 2, or zone 1/2. I could understand keeping Shoreditch in zone 1 if the additional fares financed the extension, but in fact it just goes into TfL's coffers, punishing the residents of East London who seek to avoid the much more crowded underground.

Any old iron?

Despite not being a Cockney, and being a mere economic migrant to these fair lands, I have decided to get into the spirit of the Cockney Heritage Festival. There are many things about Cockney culture I don't get*, however, music hall is one I do appreciate.

So in a tenuous linkage I asked Tower Hamlets if they had any old iron?**.

So what is the answer? Disappointingly it's, yes/no/maybe.

I asked this question, inspired by @olopoto's curiosity, on what happened to metal railings when they were removed by the council. I asked the council about the quanity of railings that had been removed (linear metres of railings, weight of the scrap metal etc) over the past five years.

However, LBTH don't keep a record as they state that most railing removal is ad hoc. I (and I think @olopot) had assumed there was a financial impetus to removing railings, as the metal would have scrap value which would give rise to the likelihood of an organised removal to generate some cash, but this appears not to be the case.

The Council's full response to my question:

We do not have details as to the quantities of metal that have been removed in total as this is generally carried out as part of much larger highways / parks improvement schemes on an ad hoc basis. The cost for the removal of railings has been subject to competitive tendering and varies according to whether items are fit to be recycled or reused.We would expect that the tendered cost includes for scrap value and as storage costs for items set aside for re-use, we only store higher cost items for re-use: if we cannot re-use other items promptly disposal would be the most economic option.

So it looks like the council haven't considered the value of the metal in their street furniture and play it somewhat by ear as to whether to retain, recycle or sell.

Similarly, we also wondered about the recent programme of bin removal, which has seen metal bins replaced with plastic bins. I assumed this mass replacement was again a way of realising the value of the scrap metal. However, this does not appear (fully) to be the case, with a small number of them being redeployed elsewhere in the borough.

The response on the matter of bins was:

We do not have historic data but most recently we can advise that in August2012 a total of 7 metal bins were removed across the Borough. From January 2013 there were 25 metal litter bins removed from Wapping area. Although the bins may appear to be in good condition many of these bins had corrosion from the base. This deterioration makes the base unstable, the doors then become loose making themu nsightly and unsafe for use. Approximately 4 or 5 bins will utilised and have been earmarked to be used in a Tower Hamlets park. The unusable bins are currently in the process of being scrapped with best achievable prices being sought.  The weight of this type of bin is approx. 52 kg.

So how much would the sale of bins for scrap have been for?

We have 20 bins scrapped, each weighing 52kg, which gives a total of 1,040kg, or just over a tonne (metric). Given the number of stories about metal theft I was surprised to discover that steel isn't all that lucrative for scrap (unless it's stainless steel) and you're looking at getting around 15-30p per kg of  scrap, which translates to a miserable £156-£312. How much do plastic bins sell for? About £100-250 depending on design, so this bin refresh was not the lucrative exercise we expected or suspected!

*Coming from a culture where the pie is venerated and would only be sacrificed in a Judgment of Solomon situation, I cannot fathom why denizens of the East End tolerate such abuse of their baked meat goods. Whenever I've walked past a pie shop, or seen one on TV, I look at the almost universally blackened top of the pie and question at what point did it all go wrong. I can understand eel and parsley liquor going on an eel pie (which they were traditionall), but why this continued into the post-eel epoch (with or without eel in the liquour) I cannot comprehend.
** There are theories that the song 'Any old iron' is in fact a covertly gay work. (Iron hoof=poof; any old iron=are there any gay men)

It's semi-official Wapping is not a violent crime hotspot*

The blog 'Less Crime' has published a map of violent and sexual crime hotspots using police open data. It focusses on hotspots of violent crime. The full map of London can be downloaded here (PDF) and the blog post discussing the map is here. I recommend a read.

I've taken a screen grab of the map showing Tower Hamlets. The numbers in black circles relate to the ranking of the worst hotspots in London - Shoreditch is teh second worst and Whitechapel is the fifth. The data relates to 2012-13. All of the 20 hotspots on the full map have more than 750 violent crimes in a 1km radius in one year.

What is striking is how there is very little colour south of The Highway. There's a little colour around Prusom Street/Wapping Lane/Wapping High street, but because of the way the data is recorded (and further how the map is generated), location of crimes on the map isn't a true representation, but shows that Wapping is not like much of Tower Hamlets.

It's useful to note the caveats on the Less Crime blog on the wide variety of crimes that fall under the violent and sexual crime banner, but I think it's a very useful tool to understand that underlying crime rates for certain areas may be driven by spillover from certain hotspots and by presenting hotspots, the data is more readily understandable than the Police's own mapping.


*I say semi-official because it's based on official data, but analysed by a competent third party.

Alsatian cuisine

Alsace is a thin region of France running north-south along about half of the French-German border and at its southern tip touches the Swiss border. As a result its food is influenced by regional cuisines from these three countries.

Tarte flambée

Also known as flammekueche in Alsatian and Flammkuchen in German. This is a cousin of the pizza, though is distinctive in the use of crème fraîche in place of tomato and typically a thinner base than a pizza. The toppings I saw were some combination of onion, lardons, mushrooms and munster cheese. The bread dough is leavened, with some recipes I've seen using bakers yeast and others using beer, though bizarrely the recipes didn't remember to mention not to use pasteurized beer.

We had them a few times on our trip, but look pretty much identical.

If you fancy one and you live in London, visit Flammbelle at the (up)market in the Truman brewery building on Brick Lane on a Sunday.

Spaetzle

Spaetzle or Spätzle is an egg pasta, which is common across Alsace, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary under various names. Properly made, there should be 7 eggs to every kilogram of wheat. It has more flavour than most pasta and feels a little denser. The pasta is formed in a variety of ways, such as using a special grater or forcing the dough through a colander. It has a nice flavour in its own right that is akin to yorkshire pudding. Different restaurants sell spaetzle in a variety of styles and thicknesses and ranged from very thick long noodles to thinner trofie style pieces and gnocci esque balls.

I tried it with meat and a sauce and as a gratin - my favourite serving was with a turkey schnitzel and some pepper sauce.

Meat balls and mustard sauce

With lardons

Gnocci style as a gratin with ham, munster cheese and spinach

In Germany, schnitzel with a side helping of pepper sauce (not shown)

Choucroute

More properly, choucroute garnie - or dressed sauerkraut. Essentially this is some sauerkraut served with various cuts of pork and served with potatoes. However, this doesn't do this justice - the sauerkraut is heated in some wine, typically a local Riesling layered with the pork and baked in a casserole dish.

The best choucroute I had was at the Hôtel De Rohan (first photo below) - the inclusion of a roasted ham hock was a particularly tasty addition but what made it was the colouring on the sauerkraut (not visible) where it had caught on the bottom of casserole which gave some variety to the very large quantity of cabbage.

Galettes de pommes de terre

The galette de pommes de terre doesn't appear to have a standard recipe and exist on the continuum of potato pancakes. The ones we had tasted like they had flour and eggs in them with a doughy texture, whilst some recipes I've looked at are indistinguishable from a simple grated rösti. The rösti we tried in Germany was rather good, served with pork in a red wine sauce.

Galettes de pommes de terre au jambon fumé et au munster
(potato pancake with smoked ham and munster cheese)

Rösti with pork in Germany

Assorted onion
We also tried two onion based dishes - one the onion soup that needs no introduction and the other, the onion tart. When we ordered an onion tart, we were slightly surprised to note the liberal serving of bacon with it (novice vegetarians beware), which led to some confusion over the difference between the tarte and the quiche Lorraine also on the menu. Essentially the difference is simple: the addition of onion. In reading up on recipes I've subsequently discovered that the tarte à l'oignon is infact also known as...a quiche alsacienne.

Best of the rest

We had a few other interesting dishes which I don't think you'd commonly get in the UK. First up was this salade ancienne, which is basically a pile of cold leftovers from a pot au feu (a very simple traditional stew) served with some grated cabbage, carrot and potato. In the hot summer sun, it was a refreshing lunch time meal.

After my salad, I couldn't decide on a dessert, so I went for a gourmet coffee, which is a coffee...but with four desserts - I would quite happily see this introduced into the UK. I got a creme brulee, a macaroon, a fruit brochette, a slab of mousse and to my delight, a traditional British trifle.

And finally, what trip to France would be complete without a diabolo in this case, mint. Slightly odd, but quite enjoyable. Other syrup based beverages sampled included a Monaco - a lager shandy with grenadine.

Strasbourg Cathedral

West End at night

The Cathedral held the honour of being the tallest building in the World for over two centuries, though interestingly only because the Great Pyramid eroded, and three other taller churches (including Lincoln Cathedral) suffered the loss of their spires as a result of lightning strikes. So although the majority of the cathedral was built by the 13th century it was only in the 17th century that it achieved this feat.

The cathedral is also somewhat odd as it only has one tower. This in itself isn't odd, but when looking at the Cathedral from the West the asymmetry of the building becomes obvious. I'm not entirely sure why the second tower was never built as I've read contradictory stories. According to Wikipedia during the revolution there was a plan to actually demolish the tower because it was an example of inequality.

The church is largely gothic, but there are also Romanesque bits but the highlight is the gothic West end which is covered in perhaps hundreds of carved figures. I didn't have a long lens with me so I haven't included any details of the carvings, but it is rather impressive to stand and look at.

West end during the day

The inside was less exciting, with the exception of an astronomical clock and a scene of the crucifixion. With a better guidebook I might have got more out of it, but there are no tombs, relatively little artwork and no crafty side chapels, or at least not immediately obvious. What I found particularly annoying was the channelling of visitors around the cathedral in a clockwise direction. There is nothing that turns a church more into a tourist attraction than setting out guide ropes and essentially turning the church into an exhibition. There is no awe to be had when you spot a detail on the opposite aisle and can't go to look at it without going against the flow- it's the ecclesiastical version of Ikea without the secret shortcuts.

Astronomical clock

Lucky dog - rub its nose

Detail on clock

Detail on pulpit

Font

East window with subtle EU motif at top

We saw a quarter hour chime of the astronomical clock in the cathedral but to see the full show on the hour you have to pay some cash to the cathedral, which is an arse, but on the other hand you don't have to pay to enter.

You can climb to an observation platform, which gives a good view to the Black Forest and the Rhine but given the 30 degree weather I decided not to pursue this. Subject to good weather when we hope to return this winter, I will try having a climb up.

During the summer months, there are sound and light shows in the evening, we were 'lucky' enough to catch the first night which included an organ and choral recital, which was a little tedious. The actual light show was quite good, but I thought would work really well with some opera. On the way back to the hotel however, we ended up in a bit of a crush, which it transpired was due to 6 British people stood in a circle on the main exit route oblivious to the constriction they were causing.

Review - Hotel du Dragon Strasbourg

We didn't originally intend to stay at the Hotel du Dragon, but a lack of availability at our first choice of hotel meant that we had to look elsewhere. We found out about the Hotel through my sister-in-law, who had a voucher for a free night's stay with breakfast.

The hotel is located very centrally, just to the south of the island in the Ille that the old parts of the city are sat on, on a road that runs down to the River Ille. It's 300m from Porte de l'Hôpital tram station, which has frequent (every 5 minutes) services up to the central train station for TGV connections. Location wise, it's as convenient as you could reasonably want, and is broadly halfway east-west between the Cathedral and 'Petit France' (the World Heritage Site). Being on the corner, we had windows on two aspects, and could make out the line of the river.

Our room was on the second floor, on the north-east corner of the hotel (you can see it in the first photo below, underneath the European flag). Despite the 30 degree heat, our room was cool, thanks to the shutters on the windows. Our room didn't have air conditioning, but the tall electric fan provided coped ably with the temperature.

In between the two wings is a lovely courtyard, and we were able to enjoy the warm night air over a cold drink before bed.

The room was what you would expect from a 3 star hotel; the bed was comfy, there was a bath tub (big plus for me) and a large built-in wardrobe with good space to put a suitcase away. Breakfast was a continental affair, but enjoyable. Service for cutlery and coffee was a little slow, but I think because there was a large group of German golfers having breakfast separately in a room on the other side of the hotel, which may have led to more toing and froing than might be the norm, but not annoyingly so.

Pricing varies seasonally, but expect to pay around €120 per night for a room like ours - there are some bigger rooms and some in the attic that look nice, and connecting rooms are available for famillies. It's quite pricey compared to some chain hotels, but given its location in a very popular tourist spot, and outside space I think it's quite reasonable. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone.

Website: http://www.dragon.fr/ (English)

The view approaching from the river

The entrance to the hotel, through the courtyard

Our room (the morning after, with my shoddy bed making skills)

The view from our window - the river is behind the trees on the right

The courtyard

Rainbow Trust Independence Day

My aim in life is to do at least one good thing a week.

Identifying what doing a 'good thing' is, is tricky. I've set the benchmark as having a noticeable beneficial impact on at least one person. What I've realised though is that this is actually very difficult to achieve if you're not paying attention; life passes you by.

On a bad week I like to think that  telling bar staff that someone else had been waiting longer than me at the bar when I'm asked for my order makes the grade, but it doesn't really. Similarly if there's someone at the supermarket with only a few items and I have a trolley full, I will always let them go first; but again, is this enough? These things are good manners, but do they make anyone's life any noticeably better?

The closest I come to almost achieving my aim on a regular basis, is to offer directions to anyone looking up for a street name whilst holding a map, occasionally chasing after them if I think I've given them poor directions, but this is just run of the mill stuff.

So in this context, when my twitter stalking revealed that the Rainbow Trust were organising a 10km race in Wapping, I thought volunteering would give me a big tick for this week's altruism (I'm not sure if it's actually altruism if you've got targets).

A week or so later I find myself leaving work early, and jumping on the Central line, dashing home to get out of my suit and into some jeans, knocking up the beginnings of a curry with some left overs for @potoft's dinner and popping it in the oven to finish off before heading over to Wapping Gardens.

Missed photobombing opportunity. Credit: Andy Newbold

I found a row of marquees with fit folk queueing up, registering for the run, collecting t-shirts and time chips. I was directed over to Anna from the charity who was organising the event. Waiting initially to avoid photo-bombing the charity's photocall of volunteers. On making myself known I was duly presented with my official red t-shirt and which I can exclusively reveal is, other than a rogue pair of socks and boxers, the only red clothing I own (amazing fact eh?).

Soon after I saw a stovepipe hat emerge from behind a bush and I realised that Abraham Lincoln was joining the proceedings. When working as a lawyer, travelling around the court circuit he became known as 'Honest Abe' for his integrity. Perhaps the stench of tabloid journalism that wafts over Wapping drew him in.

Abraham Lincoln or Captain Ahab

More sinister than a zombie president though was the slightly creepy bear posing for the photographer, in the energetic way that only someone with shattered hopes and dreams can do before reflecting on the circumstances that led to wearing a bear costume. I wasn't quite sure what the link with the bear was - wondering if he was mean to be American wildlife or perhaps joggy bear. However, more about him later.

Credit: Andy Newbold

I popped into the John Orwell Centre to put on my tshirt to become part of the team (I was somewhat nervous that the chap who I thought was Abraham Lincoln was actually the late Gregory Peck, and wasn't going to risk  the sight of my bloated white flesh leading him to reprise his role as Ahab and start chasing me).

As we waited for our briefing, I stood in the park listening to the other volunteers, who all seemed to know each other, chatting away. A trip to East London for these folks, was akin to the 19th century 'Lure of the Orient', or going on the Grand Tour, a rite of passage; for some this was very much a Byronic expedition full of danger and excitement. One lady expressed  the view that Wapping wasn't really in the East End as it was 'nice', though another chap concluded that anything East of Bishopsgate was bandit country and he would readily jump in a taxi to Chelsea.

Gradually more and more runners in various club and company shirts filled the gardens, when I noticed a new flash of colour, a quartet of blue and red pleated skirts and crop tops turned up - it was cheerleaders arriving from Crystal Palace (the Overground apparantly has its uses). Despite both my sister-in-law and a cousin being keen Cheerios at points in their life, I've never really understood why sportspeople need women in skimpy outfits to encourage them to perform, but what do I know? What I do know is that when you see male cheerleaders they don't have to show off their midriff or arse cheeks. But hey, I'm a grumpy old man and I'd rather be that than a dirty old man.

Queueing

Abe and Joggy Bear Credit: Andy Newbold

I led two volunteers to their positions in Wapping Woods, explaining a bit about the area's history and the creation of the woods from the in-filled dock. I'm not sure they were interested, but having dropped them off, I headed onto my marshalling point.

Getting the crowd going. Credit: Andy Newbold

 As I walked over to my position on Glamis Road I noticed a group of youths drinking at the end of the ornamental canal. I've never had trouble from Wapping's secretive drinkers but I'm informed by my chum @olopoto that a steward stood near them was sufficiently worried about them becoming rowdy that they felt that they had to call the police.

Stewarding. Credit: @olopoto

An impressive outfit for the occasion. Credit: @olopoto

My position was on Glamis Road, just by the end of the Basin, directing those on the 10km to turn onto Garnet Street and the 5km runners to turn-back at a traffic cone, about 15 metres away from me. Unfortunately, this meant I had to direct two groups of runners. Depending on what distance the runner had signed up for their number was a different colour. However, as runners don't come in a slow steady flow, I had to distinguish whether there were any 5km runners who had overshot the cone on reaching me. The biggest problem is the rise of the mp3 player - a large number of runners weren't able to hear me shouting at them, even when they passed within two feet of me.

Trying a different approach (I assumed someone shouting 10 k and 5k sound alike when you have headphones in), I tried shouting Red or Blue. A small number of runners forgot what colour number they were wearing, so as I shouted 'blue number turn round' they kept coming, but stopped confused as they expected to turnaround. I had to explain that their number was blue and not red as they thought.

By the end of the evening I dealt with some very narky runners having a go at me. I also got  arsey comments about the length of the course being greater than 10km, and others who complained about the lack of water stations. Nothing to do with me, but I had a hi-viz jacket on, so they had a mandate to shout at me.

There are some aspects of the race that could have been improved, but I hope it comes back, with some slight tweaks. I'd certainly volunteer again.

My marshalling point. Cone in the middle distance

Wonder Woman on the way out

Wonder Woman on the way back

So what about the creepy bear? Well it transpires that the bear was actually meant to be Bungle from TV's Rainbow, which explained why a bear was there. However, I only realised when I was cheering 'Bungle' on without his head, when he showed me he was carrying Zippy's head. Neither Bungle or George made it to the 2.5km mark.

Zippy! Credit: Andy Newbold

The Rainbow Gang