Category: Uncategorized

We can see sky! Hoping that we get clear this week.

No sign of the Gas works finishing. They were supposed to be over by the end of October so they have until tomorrow!

We went down to A Listers at Aurora on Wednesday for coffee and chips. Very nice and good value. A Listers are getting ready for Halloween by decorating the place up.

On Halloween, Saturday 28th October to be precise, they have two DJs on – DJ Echo and DJ Humble. I would think that you would need to book.

OK, so on to graduation. The tents for the University Graduation ceremonies are now fully up.

Lastly, we are getting close to being un-wrapped. Being on the 2nd floor of the North side, we will be almost the last ones to see daylight from our balcony. Steve tells me that another 6 or 7 days should see us uncovered. It’s been a long haul from 2nd January, which is when they wrapped us up!

On a trip round on Friday it was good to see that the scaffolding on our side (north) is now coming down. Lets hope that they get down to the 2nd floor soon then we can have our doors open.

Whilst I was out photographing the scaffolding, I saw an old favourite coming into the wet dock. This was the Thames Barge Thistle.

There are two regular ships in the Wet Dock. First off is Queen Galadriel. She is a bit low in the water, though.

The second on is an old favourite – HMC Seeker.

Then we have the graduation tents that are built on the University car park ready for the big day.

Keeping on with the University, there is a lot of working with regard to the cladding issues. Here is the back wall of the student accommodation. See, it can strike anywhere!

They are working on these facades using lifts rather than scaffolding.

Lastly, we are back to two nice cafés now that the Cult has re-opened as The Mix.

Don’t forget that A Lister at Aurora are now open from 10 am and from 16th will be open seven days a week. They will be shortly opening a residents “rewards” system, once their tills get updated. Just another reason to pop there for a coffee.

The fun fair arrived on Friday evening for the weekend. It was a joint venture with the University so the Uni car park was added to the available space give lots of room for people to sit and enjoy the facilities which included the fun fair, a stage and lots of food stalls.

First off, we have the fun of the fair.

Lastly, the Dodgems – which was new for this year.

There was a very good selection of food stalls which were all being well attended.

Plus the inevitable Ice Cream van, which didn’t seem to have too many customers.

There was a full compliment of emergency services to ensure that all bases were covered.

Lastly, there was a sound stage set up in the Uni car park. If you like country music this set was for you.

The A Listers at the Aurora and the new Mix café were both very busy as well. All in all, it was very well attended. It seems that there is going to be another Weekender in December but I am not sure about the format of that one.

Last night, there was a meeting for all the residents of Anchor Street held with EWS, Carters and the consultant engineers. It was quite well attended. Tom Bartlett did the introductions and then Carters gave an overview of the proposed Anchor Street work.

A lot of what was said had already been covered by me with regard to Capstan House so I think that I can skip over a lot of the content. These are the important items:

• Carters will be securing the balcony doors – they will change the lock of every balcony door and keep the key.
• The scaffolding will take around 7 weeks to erect it all.
• The scaffolding will take around 17 weeks to erect it all.
• The walkways between the Podium and Anchor Street will be blocked for the duration.
• The whole thing will take around 70 weeks from start to finish.
• The wrap material will be the same as on Capstan and No.7 as the requirement is the same – not flammable and windproof.
• Some parking spaces need to be taken away for the duration as the roof of the underground area is not strong enough to hold the weight of the scaffolding. Most of these are being given free permits for the large Duke Street car park.

To get a valid EWS1 certificate Carters must prove that there are no combustible elements in the wall spaces. This is done by having inspections at every step pf the process by a national certification body (ORSA) and the council. In fact the work is being done to a higher spec. than this so that the buildings (as for Capstan and No.7) with get the highest rating level at EWS1A.

As you probably know, there is internal work needed. This work is not part of the EWS1 process so it will continue as previously agreed.

That’s about all that is different from that which is known already. If you have any questions that I can answer please contact me on my iwblog425@gmail.com.

If you would like to offer your support to the blog, go to the Patreon Web site and sign up. You will be charged £1 and then monthly until you cancel.

We had a trip down to Felixstowe in our new car on Monday so I took advantage of that to get some shots of the new big wheel on the sea front down there. It isn’t permanent, I think it goes in October.

On the way back, as we crested the hill just before Cliff Lane and noticed that something had changed with the wrapping. Next day, I went down to have a proper look and this is what I saw.

So the scaffolding is starting to come down. Hooray! Notice the people enjoying the view from their balcony!

On the way back from there, I saw that an old favourite was in the Wet Dock. Unfortunately, it had cars parked in from so this is the best shot that I could get. It is UKD Seahorse – a dredger. They have to dredge parts of the Port to keep it fully navigable so it comes in occasionally.

On one of may roll arounds there was, on Friday, an interesting couple of ships/boats in the Wet Dock. First up was a regular – the HM Border Force Cutter Seeker.

I am getting a new wheelchair this week. The important aspect, as far as this blog is concerned, is that it has a bigger battery so I should be able to get around to the Island again )my current battery is wearing out and not holding a charge as long as it used to). That means that I can gets some shots from the other side and not have the edge of the dock hiding some of the boat.

Secondly, as a first for a long time, we had a fishing boat in the Wet Dock. This is one that I hadn’t seen before. It was sitting there drying its nets.

Lastly, a couple of days ago I was having a coffee with my wife and mother-in-law in the Aurora. The new owners are making a good impression. I also met John who lives up the end of Patteson Road. I didn’t quite grasp where he lives so maybe he can e-mail me. Whilst I was sitting there a survey ship came past. I have not seen this one before. This is the MV Northern Wind.

Don’t forget that you can e-mail me at my  iwblog425@gmail.com.

I had a nice chat with Martin from Cadent – and his boss – about the general aspects of what is going on. The big thing coming up is that Anglo Nordern have Suntis coming in on Sunday! They have the right to close Helena Road for a number of times each year and this is one of them. Needless to say, closing Helena Road is going to shut down all access to the waterfront.

It seems that there is a possibility of getting the gates at Neptune Marina end opened so that access to the Aurora will be possible via Coprolite Street. Mind you, Suntis is normally unloaded over Monday and Tuesday then gone . As The Aurora isn’t open on those days, there shouldn’t be a problem. We shall see.

Martin also mentioned that he had spoken to A Listers at Aurora and suggested that they contact me to provide details for me to publicise their new opening hours, etc. To date, I have heard nothing – but then there wasn’t an obvious way to get to me. That had changed in that I have created a new gMail account especially for the blog. So, from now, you can contact me by e-mail to iwblog425@gmail.com.

As it stands, A Listers at Aurora are open from 12 lunchtime until late (depending upon the day) from Wednesday to Sunday. I will correct this if they contact me with the full information.

Martin asked me to check out the passageway through the gas works to make sure that the path is wide enough for my wheelchair – and any other one of course. It is a bit twisty but there was ample space for me to get through.

Mind you, as they had cleared the road, there was ample space the other side of the works.

There was a guy rollerskating to hip hop type music up outside the Cult. He was very good. I tried to take a video on my phone and ended up with 3 seconds of my feet! I did get this image though.

It seems that the Cult is to be re-opened at the start of the Autumn University term as a drop in for students only so we won’t be getting the café back. See the Ipswich Star article.

Lastly, I would like to thank Mark N for being the first person to sign up for my Patreon account. It costs quite a lot of money to keep the blog going year to year and Patreon is your way to help. If you would like to offer your support to the blog, go to the Patreon Web site and sign up. You will be charged £1 and then monthly until you cancel.

Well, the lifts didn’t go too well.. I got in the newly repaired lift – in my wheelchair, of course. Got to the ground floor and the doors only half opened so I couldn’t get out. A trip up to the 4th floor (not my choice) and back had them at least open most of the way. So much for fixing them. Both lift s now clang the doors together loudly when closing. Another email to EWS, I suppose.

The gas work moves on. They are really closing off the road along the waterfront on a daily basis.

I did check on Saturday and everything was a clear for cars to get through to the Aurora, thank goodness. They have laid the new gas pipe along the waterfront so maybe they will close it up and upon the road fully again?