Month: July 2022

We had a meeting last Thursday evening where Carters, the appointed contractors, gave us a run down on what is expected to happen. I do have their slide show but am awaiting their permission to publicise it. I get it, I will post their slide show in its entirity. Carters are a very well respected building contractor. Locally, they did all the work on the Winerack, including incorporating that spiffy German car parking machinery, and The Hold.

In the meantime I will give a quick overview of the information. They are taking the balconies down as a first action, using a crane. This will be interesting to watch is it will have to be a pretty impressive cherry picker to get to the eighth floor! They intend to lock each patio door with a replacement key and put a bar across the opening. Seems sensible.

The Aurora carpark is to become their home for the duration with portacabin offices, restrooms and storage plus toilets. The scaffolding will then go up (around 9 weeks – remember that they are doing 7 Anchor Street at the same time). A 2.7m security wall will be placed around the base of the building keeping everyone off the scaffolding. The work will then commence. They are taking down the white render and the red(?) tiles to get to what is underneath. As there is no Operation and Maintenance (?) or OM manual available, they have to take an investigative approach to the problem. The walls that are made up of wood all have to be replaced with composite materials that are fireproof.

Once all this has happened, the scaffolding will come down and the balconies will be replaced. Each balcony will be tagged so they go back whence they came. Some of the balconies (I think on the dock side of the building) have wooded decking so this will be replaced, at the same time as reinstatement, with composite equivalents. This is expected to be around May time in 2023. The project manager from Carters is hopeful that they can finish early as there are penalty clauses on the project. He did say that they have ensured that all the money from Persimmon to pay for this has already been paid and that all of the tools, equipment and supplies have already been acquired so there is no danger of delays due to lack of anything.

Well, that’s pretty much it. If I get clearance from Carter’s, I will post the full slide show. Until next time…

Some time ago, I was down in St. Peter’s St. buying some fabric from Crafty Baba, my goto place when doing my favourite patchwork sewing. I took the opportunity to go into St. Peter’s church. Normally, when I get down this area, it is on a Saturday and the church is closed but today it was open. This is a bit of a photo shoot and not too many words so here goes.

As the poster says, there was a display of “charter hangings” or tapestries to you and me. This made me even more eager to go in. I did check if photos were allowed so, off we go.

The town is always proud of its association with Cardinal Wolsey.

Well, that’s it. If you get the chance, why not pop in and have a look round. Better still, go to the regular music sessions that they hold. Check them out HERE

You can see bigger images by right clicking on any one and selecting “Open image in new Tab” or “Open image in new page” to see a much bigger version.

It’s around 32c – 90f. We are lucky that we are on the north face of the apartment block, which is 10 stories high and have one apartment between us and the south face. This means that no real heat gets through from radiation. We just get warm air. Anyway, this is what it looks like out there.

Quick edit later in the day – 95f – 35c out there. Not going anywhere.

My saxophone lesson has been cancelled due to the heat so I wonder how much across the country has been stopped. Glad I am retired and can just sit here and watch.

First off, a little bit of an issue with my car. When I am in and out I tend to leave my car parked on the road as it is easier than getting my wheelchair through the underground car park. However, there appears to be a risk attached to that. My next door neighbour called me last night to tell me that someone had parked in my allotted place! He kindly put a notice on the car. The morning I had a visit from Carter’s – the builders (about that later) – accompanied by Dwain, the caretake – concierge. I told him of the issue and he has put the following notice of the offending vehicle:

When my mother-in-law moved into 310 upstairs, the previous tenant had left a car that was “dumped”. The landlord eventually removed it to his own garage but it took him two years to get the DVLA to agree to him disposing of it. I hope that isn’t the case here. More to come, no doubt.

We had a visit today by a group of people representing Carter’s. the local building firm that built the Winerack and The Hold. They know what they are doing! They wanted to inspect the balcony to get to grips with how they might come down. Well, I hope that they learned something. I certainly did. They don’t appear to have permission yet to use any of the land around the block (the freehold of 51 Patteson Road only covers the footprint of the building). It also seems that they need an assessment of the possible impact of cranes on the ground and so on. Also, they have yet to obtain a storage site to store the balconies. We wait with some trepidation. It would seem that early autumn might be the start date so better than the summer. It is expected to take one year to complete but we are assured that the cladding material won’t by solid plastic sheet so there is some hope that we will be OK for air.

We have a family of swans in the Wet Dock. At the moment, they have seven cygnets. This tends to go down over time, unfortunately but we will keep our eyes peeled.

Now the song. Those of you that are, shall we say, world wise (known as older – grin) will know of the song “Red sails in the sunset”. Well, here was last night.

Spooky!

I went out this morning, into a 75f day, to take some photos for this blog. As not much is happening at the moments I thought that I would try some “street photography”. This, as I understand it, is just taking the natural view of the street, or in this case the Waterfront. Right, without comment, here goes:

What do you think? More of these? They are numbered so tell me which ones you like and which ones you don’t!

That you get now and then…

When I just wander around and tell you about the little things.

First off, they are replacing a lot of panels in the ceiling and then sealing them all up with some “intumescent” sealant. All part of the big push to protect the building from fire. It seems that the work that has been done over the last couple of years hasn’t been to the right standard so we are off again. This time it needs both Fire and Building Control approval from Ipswich Borough Council before they close anything up. Maybe this time is the right time? Anyway, we haven’t seen panels like these ones before so maybe they are the right ones.

Also, I am somewhat confused as they are working on 210’s front door. 210 is the mirror of our apartment. I did take a picture but first off it was a bad case of builder bum and secondly it was out of focus. Teaches me not to rely on my phone but to take my camera with me everywhere I go. He told me that he wasn’t replacing the door, but refitting it and replacing all the surrounds to include some more “intumescent” sealant. (I am beginning to be able to type that word without thinking!). I asked about replacing keys and he said No. So, I am confused because we were quite clearly told a couple of weeks ago that we were having a new door and new keys. They even said that they would do the same to the cupboard next door where I store my wheelchair. Oh well, we shall see.

Now back to the Waterfront.

Another Owl has arrived.

My wife, Valerie, has noticed building materials being sent along the Waterfront so asked me to check out what was going on. Nothing much; just some paving stones being relaid by the looks of it.

Three boats worthy of mention. First up is Fenland. This has been a stalwart of the Waterfront since we have lived here – 10 years in August – but it has been missing for a few months. It is nice to see it back again.

Next up is a “mini” Thames Barge. She is known as a “half sized” barge. She is a lovely little thing and sits below the Quayside here. I couldn’t get a shot of her as she is too low. As it was, I had to get under the quayside chain fence to get a picture of the rear.

Following on from my recent post about “Bob”s here is a shot of Blackthorn’s. Again, not as good as usual because it is a highly enlarged phone image.

Lastly, I was ignoring one of our normal residents and suddenly realised that it was a newcomer. H.M.S. Trumpeter is normally here in its berth. As it says on the RN web site “HMS Trumpeter is an Archer-class patrol vessel attached to the Cambridge University Royal Naval Unit (URNU). Her role is to provide Officer Cadets with the skills and attributes they need for a career in the Royal Navy.” On a second look, I realised that it wasn’t Trumpeter but H.M.S. Express – one from the same class.

This is what the website says “HMS EXPRESS is one of the 14 Archer-class patrol vessels that form the Coastal Forces Squadron. Versatile and able to operate in confined waters she conducts many roles including Maritime Security, Support to NATO Operations and assisting in the training of future Warfare Officers of the Royal Navy.” She is normally berthed in Penarth Marina, Cardiff Bay. I wonder what she is doing so far from home. Trumpeter is currently off Ramsgate, out of interest.

Well, that’s it for today. Let me know if you found this of interest.