by
lyndlj
@ 2006-07-21 - 07:48:07
I went for a walk last night. Nowhere speacial. I went to the supermarket first to get a few bits I needed and then,after depositing those in the apartment, I went for a little wander. mainly to clear my head for the heavy duty studying/writing of essays this weekend.
Sometimes when I am looking at places,I can see them as they were,as well as how they are now. Its like superimposing one image on top of the other. There have been so many changes since I arrived in this Town,and I look at it and wonder if it has improved it any? In some ways it has,advancement and change is good for a community. But in other ways it hasn`t. Modern buildings can look so ugly stood next to the graceful lines of Edwardian and Victorian Architecture. So cold,and sharp.
Where I used to live still has some of the old cobbled streets from yesteryear. And as lovely as they are to look at,they are treacherous in winter. And why do people insist on painting their houses that mucky cream colour? I suppose it is better than pink,and yes someone did!
The town while in parts has improved with the modernisation,in others where they have ripped down the old churches and put up office blocks,I cannot call that an improvement.
A few years ago they wanted to build a bypass from our town to the next major town and they decided that they were going to put it through the middle of the woods. Yes the very woods where I wander. We argued with them,but they were determined,then through a bit of digging we discovered who actually owned that land. We had always been told that it was basically free land,the council said it was theirs,therefore they could build a road if they wished. Well it happened that it belonged to a Duke.The Duke of Devonshire? So the people that lived there wrote to him.
We didn`t hold out much hope,the Duke was renowned for selling his land off for roads and office blocks. But as it happened the old Duke no longer had it,his son did. The new Duke had apparently stopped the selling off of land and had instead been replanting the land that they owned with new trees,fencing it off and planting huge feilds full of trees. Way to go Dukey!!
He not only saved the woods,but replanted the feilds below it with new trees. He sent in experts who thinned out the woods and took away all the very old diseased trees,they built a picnic area at the top of the woods,and while his improvements were in some ways good,it was hard seeing the old woods being transformed this way. Strange thing was he never touched the bottom part of the woods,where it overgrows so much in the summer you need to fight your way through as in a jungle. I wonder if he saw the deer there and thats why he left it? Whatever his reason,I and many others now have a new ( not so new now mind) and an old part to wander in,and that can only be good.
Of course the world must advance,there is no point in standing still,but not all change is good or even nice. Now they have preservation orders on some of the old buildings,for instance the one I live in,while the landlord was allowed to do as he pleased inside the building,the outside had to remain as it was,we are not allowed,tv ariels,sky dishes or any other attachment on the front of the building. No new fancy double glazed windows,or anything else that would change it in anyway. Sadly a lot of the nicest buildings had already fallen under the demolition bulldozers and been replaced with carparks and office blocks,some of which now stand empty and awaiting demolition themselves.
Its nice to remember things as they were sometimes,it can make you view the here and now a little differently.
And it is Friday,again. still warm but a tad cooler today. Who cares it is the Weekend
I dont wish to upset you poor people out there but I have seen it with my own eyes it was horrible,gut wrenching. I am sat there saying ..No..No it cant be.. I have just seen the Fonz,the coolest guy ever commit...Fraud...Attempted Murder...Conspiracy to Murder..and..and Bigamy.. Sob,my life will never be the same again
I even chatted to the IT guy at the crisp and chocolate machine. For some reason the machine wouldn`t take his money,so I put a coin in for him,it wouldn`t take that,then he put his coin back in and it took it,I said look my coin woke it up. He just laughed and said that he wasn`t sure he was hungry anymore. I get the feeling he doesn`t like me very much, always seems to want to get away in a hurry? 
Ah well,these things need saying sometimes.