The Boating Pool

Last night Gavin and I watched a brilliant film on Netflix called The Swimmers, it is a true story about two swimmers who escaped from war torn Syria. Apparently it received a four minute standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival - I can highly recommend it.

This morning we went back to Bushy Park to walk Xena, she enjoyed it so much yesterday that I thought it was worth returning today. There were a few miniature sailing boat enthusiasts at the Boating Pool, where I took this photo. Not as many birds in that pond as usual, I think the boats scared them off! Today was more overcast and it felt cooler. 

After we got home Gavin got busy working while I pottered around doing various chores around the house. He leaves for New York tomorrow so will have another busy week.

I found out today that the proposal to extend the ULEZ (ultra low emission zone) area around London has been approved, so from August 2023 the area will now include a much wider circle around London including Surrey. Our village is excluded but if I want to go to Bushy Park it will cost me £12.50 per day. It also includes if I go 2 miles to the garden centre in Chessington to get dog food. No good for those in favour of this like Green Peace to be saying, well you should use a bike or public transport, areas like the home counties like Surrey do not have an extensive public transport system as London does, and I would never consider cycling around Surrey with the lack of cycle lanes and our heavy traffic. In the UK from 2030 all new petrol and diesel vehicles are banned from sale, so we are all going to be buying electric vehicles sooner rather than later. However, we are not sure that electric vehicles will be exempt from the daily congestion charge going forward, so the £12.50 per day is just another form of tax regardless of the car you drive.