Xplore: A Future Virtual Reality Project

I'm bored of being bored, so therefore I think it's time to set something in motion that I've been looking into for a while now. Tomorrow I should hopefully be receiving my Samsung Gear camera, a first generation "360" camera which are becoming widely known for their use in filming amateur virtual reality content. I'm really looking forward to playing with it and using it to film some hopefully well-received stuff.

So why Virtual Reality? 

Last year I began playing around with the idea of doing video tours of places. The premise seemed pretty straight-forward; I'd head out to places of historical interest and film them and myself waffling on for a few minutes about the historical importance of the place. I did actually start doing it on a previous blog and Youtube account that has since been deleted, but "something" was missing from them. I'll be the first to accept that I'm not the world's best orator, far from it in fact, but I don't think it was me that was the issue. There was something really quite boring about rocking up to an old church or castle somewhere and filming it, no matter how important it might be historically, or how well I worded the facts.

Around the same time I was starting this off (filming with my phone I hasten to add), Virtual Reality headsets like Google Cardboard began to float around and become more prominent. After indulging in a cheap plastic Chinese knock-off, I was instantly interested in the technology, not so much for entertainment purposes, but for education. With a quick look on Youtube today with a Cardboard device, you can experience anything from swimming with sharks, to the moon landings. Even landing on the icy plains of Pluto! The potential for learning with VR in my opinion far outstrips the entertainment value. It also allows us to explore things that we might not otherwise get a chance to do in our lives. 

With the video project I had envisioned before, I suddenly became aware of how much better it could be if it implemented Virtual Reality. Instead of just waffling on with a single frame of a building, event or place, somebody could actually "be there". Unfortunately it's taken me since February to decide on a camera, and the camera I decided on is still not even released properly yet (as it's been ordered straight from the Samsung website instead of from a retailer.) There were a few options available, most of them unaffordable, and those that were affordable were of a totally awful quality. The Samsung Gear kind of sits on the fence between both affordability and quality. But I guess I'll see what the quality is actually like tomorrow.

Aside from the historic places, I also want to do regular camping and outdoors videos (although probably not as regularly as I might want.) Right now on my desk is a notepad with a long list of locations all over the United Kingdom I'd like to go to and film with this camera in the near future, but really if I'm totally honest, this project is merely an excuse to get me out there and visit them. If others can get some enjoyment from them, then that's an added bonus. This isn't totally altruistic though, as I'm hoping these videos might become somewhat popular for books that I intend to write. Ah, capitalism.

Post-Brexit Clarity

So it happened. The British public voted to leave the European Union and now the entire political class is unraveling like a cheaply made Chinese woolen garment. Whilst a period of upheaval, both political and economic seems likely over the next twelve to twenty-four months, I have no doubt that the situation will stabilise and we'll see the British Isles regain some of it's confidence and become 'Great' Britain again.

I cannot help but laugh however, at the total shambles that the two main political parties have become. It's both hilarious and pathetic. So sure was they in their arrogant assumption that the public would fall for for their scaremongering, that they have clearly failed to make any plans whatsoever in the event of the subsequent Brexit vote. Now, after decades of ignoring the public on key issues such as immigration, they're faced with what effectively amounts to a twenty-first century peasants revolt. The working class voter now has their leaders by the bollocks, and they clearly don't like it.

Considering the hasty announcement of Cameron's departure, and the political rows that have ensued since the 24th, a part of me wonders whether they intended to rig the vote for the Remain campaign, but failed to rig it enough. It is strange how often these referendums (and general elections) which have been held across the EU for so long have been so close. So many polls hover around the fifty percent mark, it is only slightly concerning. But hey, who cares! The British are on their way out of a failing neo-liberal fascist organisation, and just in the nick of time it seems, as the EU seems to be pushing hard for federalisation.

There is still the issue of the SNP, which I'm sure will be yet another saga onto it's own, but generally speaking I think the country is heading out towards calmer, open seas. The split in society regarding the various voting factions is in my opinion a greater concern than any economics right now, but I guess we've got all that fun to come when it comes to an early general election! There is the risk that something will try and get in the way of the implementation of Article 50, but the fear of a public backlash over it makes me doubt it very much.

There is a concern that I have, regarding the Brexit vote though. I worry that the big players within the Globalist lobby will use this as a situation to deliberately crash the financial market in order to bring about big changes in the way that global finances are managed. Britain could in theory be the sacrificial goat on the altar of the ultimate globalist objective.

Whilst I don't want to seem a bit David Icke, my personal concern is that there have been many global players (China and the United Nations as an example) who would prefer an end to the US Dollar's reserve currency status. The alternative, as proposed, is a global currency which would effectively be managed by the IMF. I've been watching this subject for a while, and in my un-expert opinion, may well be closely linked with the Climate summit's proposals for what essentially amounts to World Socialism. The proposals which are known widely as "carbon taxes" could effectively be linked with a new global currency, and therefore be levied on all financial transactions regardless of national borders or scale of the transaction. 

Of course, no ordinary person in day to day life would be effected by the 'carbon tax', it would be paid by the national Government when money is printed. Obviously we then pay taxes and have to pay interest on our own personal debt so that is where the money would be siphoned off. Whilst the prospect of "carbon taxes" being sent off to some African village somewhere to pay for their development, or some future investment in alternative energies may seem a fantastic utopian idea, the truth is that a huge percentage of this tax would go off to some United Nations office somewhere, where the bureaucracy would grow until it reached the point where they wanted to Federalise. The whole planet. This may seem far fetched, but looking at the way that the UN's Agenda 21 is being implemented, this way well be closer to the truth than most would give it credit for. When the likes of George Soros bets on a Brexit by dumping stocks and buying gold a few weeks before the referendum, we really should ask these questions. Ultimately though, when it comes to things on this scale, there is little that plebs like us can do about it except post our totally un-backed theories online. Which does fuck all. 

As for me and politics? Well having been on the right side of politics I've been hoping and campaigning for a departure from the Europe Union for a long time. Granted, this vote is still not evidence enough that the country has fundamentally changed it's course from the liberal progressive agenda that it's been on for over a decade, but the sentiment at the moment seems that the masses will push for genuine change better than any "racist" or "xenophobic" mob ever could. I think the mood has definitely changed, and providing our illustrious leaders are kept under enough heat from the electorate, I do believe my role in politics has come to an end. At least for a time. Which is good, because I need a break from it. 

Solving A Housing Crisis - Vote Out of the EU!

Today in the UK, and in South East of England in particular, there has brewed a huge issue that nobody can today deny; there is a lack of affordable housing, young adults are increasingly finding it harder to move out and the housing that is marginally affordable is in short supply. Not to put a too finer point on it, but certain regions in the United Kingdom are now so ridiculously overpopulated, that public services (like schools for instance) are now also stretched to their absolute capacity.

In my local area of Southend in Essex, a modest two or three bedroom house or bungalow that a young family might wish to purchase to get onto the property ladder, may pay in excess of £280,000 just for the privilege of owning their own property. With rentals for the same type of properties being around the £1000 per month mark, renting doesn't seem a viable option for anybody either. For many wishing to start out in life and move away from their parents, or begin a family of their own, these costs are simply prohibitive. This is partly because wages for the most part seem to have been in decline since the banking crisis of 2008, when factoring in inflation. In many ways given that interest rates have been kept at 0.5% since 2008, we're still very much in the midst's of the same, if not another more serious dip in the economy.

The bottom line is that for the younger generations, things aren't getting much better. A "solution" to the problem of a lack of social mobility for the younger generations, is this new "living wage" initiative started by the Conservatives, which in truth isn't going to help anybody. Any wage increases as a result of this new minimum wage are only going to be short-term. An overall increase in money being paid by companies, will simply lead them to increase their prices ultimately devaluing the currency, and causing inflation. In fact, long-term the effects of increasing everybody's wage may end up meaning more people ultimately end up being paid minimum wage as some companies will refuse to pay more, in a sort of squeezed concertina effect. Ultimately the middle-class is being wiped out by rising minimum wages at the bottom and the 40% tax cap once you begin earning over £43,000 at the top. Essentially there is little incentive to succeed or bother with vocational training in this ridiculous system. Being cynical, the elimination of the middle classes is beneficial for our overlords running international finance, but that is a separate debate for another day.

There are in my opinion, three contributing factors to the housing crisis that many communities today have felt, factors which in many ways slot into one another as to make them basically the same issue.

Firstly, one of the biggest contributing factors to house price rises is population growth, and the biggest element to population growth over the last few decades in the United Kingdom is immigration. Over half (53%) of the increase in the UK population between 1991 and 2014, was due to the direct contribution of net migration. As a result, the projected population in 2014 for 2030, is 11 million greater than what was projected back in 1994. This shows an enormous disregard by current and previous Governments to plan for and accommodate the influx of newcomers. The lack of precautions to build an infrastructure to cope is only just becoming apparent as vital public services are today already feeling an immense strain. These figures by the way, do not include 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants who were born in the United Kingdom before the 1990s. A recent European Union prediction expects that by 2060, one third of the British population with be 1st or 2nd generation migrants, once again omitting from this data the impact that families that came to the UK pre-1990s have had. The United Kingdom is already the most densely populated country in Europe with the exception of Malta, the population growth caused by further immigrants having generally larger families will only acerbate this issue, with an expected average of 500 people being sardined into each kilometer in Britain by 2046.

Just so you know, to prevent going off on a tangent I'm not even discussing the issue of ethnic and cultural genocide going on in the UK against those who define themselves as White British on their census forms every ten years. That argument is for another day.

The second reason for the housing crisis is a localised one. Although I personally was born and raised in the South East of England, I am not blind to the suffering of other communities in Britain who suffer for different, although connected reasons. While people living near London struggle to find affordable housing, those living further afield in rural areas, particularly ex-mining or industrial towns, struggle to find work at all whilst the local housing generally remains cheap. In fact, for the price of one family home in Essex you could potentially buy up an entire terrace in an old mining town. Stoke-On-Trent's council, a town long associated with heavy industry and mining, even began selling homes for £1 last winter in the hope that it would kickstart the local economy. Trouble is, nobody wants to move to these places for the simple fact that there's no local jobs, and those who do live there and can move, do move to where there are jobs. When people flock to areas with jobs, they in-turn push house prices higher, leaving those who were born in those expensive areas in a difficult situation where they struggle to buy or rent.

This issue has mostly been bourne out of decades of Government Ministers simply being disinterested in the problems faced by those who live outside counties that border with London. A lack of investment or infrastructure to assist these communities after the UK was essentially de-industrialised starting in the 1970s, has acerbated the decline of old industrial towns. Although on the face of it, investment seems to finally be taking shape, if you look at the HS2 campaign as an example, this once again seems to mainly benefit London's economy by taking workers out of their own localities and placing them into the capital.

Towns with transport links with London do grow faster, but are also responsible for the biggest rise in house prices. Take my area in Southend as an example again. With London being only an hours commute away, the area is popular with people who work in the city. It's far enough out to not be of London, but close enough not to make their commute too long. As a consequence, properties here have become desirable. Towns like this, as they begin to attract more wealthy professional city workers, fall victim to their own success though. This process known as gentrification, makes properties become more valuable at the expense of the local communities. As a result, those who aren't high earners get pushed out of the communities that they may have grown up in. They may end up having to move somewhere where houses are cheaper, but perhaps where there aren't so many job prospects. Whilst there is the mantra that there are always winners and losers in the dirty game of capitalism, the fact that nothing is done to at least limit the affect of this situation which is ruining lives and destroying communities is a disgrace. That's without taking into consideration the massive influx of immigrant workers that have entered this country over the last two or three decades.

The bizarre situation we have now in the UK, is that the Government would rather build more homes in these desirable locations at the detriment to local greenbelt land and local infrastructure, than invest in the building of industry outside the tentacles of the City of London. Entire towns remain practically deserted whilst contractors build on flood plains elsewhere. The entire situation is simply retarded.

Thirdly, and essentially combining the first two aspects of this already long post, is that all of these problems are caused by globalism. It is globalist interests within the EU, the UK establishment and right at the top within organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, Goldman Sachs, the World Trade Organisation etc, that promote immigration as an economic boost.

Whilst it might be true that mass-immigration brings short-term economic gains for top corporations, ultimately it is not these corporations who have to deal with a collapse of public services and all of the social issues, like the housing crisis, that emerge from such ridiculously ill-thought-out plans. Like your Mother always used to say, money isn't everything, and it's true. There are things more precious than simple economic gain for the sake of gain. The real economic argument for immigration as seen by these top corporations, is that it lowers average wages by saturating work markets. As I've already mentioned earlier on in this post, this works against the British people who were born here, and who want to work and succeed.

Globalism is also at least in part responsible for the degeneration of British industries, as the Government sits on its hands with it's head up it's arse as British factories are sent abroad to China, India or Turkey. The fact that our Government's inactivity surrounding protecting our own industry is mostly caused by international regulations, usually at the behest of the European Union, is seldom mentioned by the gutless wankers in Westminster. For instance, it was European Union grant money that actually paid the Ford motor company to move the Transit van plant to Turkey from Southampton.  Look at the recent fiasco surrounding the UK steel industry with TATA on the brink of complete collapse. Not one fuck is given by the UK Government because in all likelihood, it's non-competitiveness was caused by the UK and the EU's collusion with Chinese steel exporters who have made steel manufacturing practically worthless by saturating the market. Nothing has been discussed on the issue of protecting our own industry by placing tariffs on Chinese or other imports. (By the way, the fact that TATA's partial closure was announced the same week that China had an official state visit in London was totally coincidental, I'm sure.)

These issues, whilst they on the face of things seem disconnected, form the main crux of the issue in this country with housing. Too much emphasis is being put on the financial industry and the City of London, and as a result the rest of the country is in economic decline. This is clearly obvious from the fact that London is the richest area in Northern Europe, yet Britain has almost all ten of the ten poorest cities elsewhere in the country. This is what is driving those who can to move to the same areas in the South East.

In those centralised areas like London, those who move are then coming into direct competition with an immigrant workforce, which can only drive wages down. It doesn't take a genius to work out that in this situation, short of getting lucky with finding an exceptionally well paying job, or being given inheritance monies, young adults are effectively being priced out of the housing market.

Whilst the majority of permanent immigrants to the UK were not born in the European Union, voting to leave in the upcoming referendum in June would potentially give the UK the ability to put strict new measures on those who entered the country to live and work. Currently the majority of policies governing these issues are the result of unaccountable European bureaucracy. It would also put a stop on the influx of those born outside of Europe, who are encouraged to come to Europe by the EU themselves.

The only crisis in Europe is that the citizens are not being told that this entire issue with refugees is a ruse. The Syrians and North Africans are being invited! Ironically they're being invited because birth rates in Europe are below replacement rate, and they hope this will act as a stop-gap, however the immigrants themselves also cause lower wages for reasons already discussed. Low wages and high house prices are in part, a reason why many Europeans in their peak fertile age (mid-twenties) can't actually afford to move out of their parent's homes and start a family of their own. News reports recently have been stating that the 'remain' campaign are scaremongering the public by saying an EU exit would cause a drop in house prices. This is surely a good thing!

Leaving the European Union would also remove a plethora of regulations to do with housing, and give at least some control of our economy back to the British Government meaning, at least in theory, that tariffs could be implemented to protect British industry and jobs. That is a big but however, considering that the same types in bed with our national Governments, also pull the strings in the EU. But we can only have hope at this stage. Perhaps ridding ourselves of the European Union would also make the politicians consider their commitments to those poorer areas in the UK too, and hopefully do their part to rejuvenate them instead of spunking all of our money up a wall on nonsense European projects. Whilst entire towns and cities in the UK suffer poverty, the British Government funds art projects in Germany, or Syrian migrant accommodation on Lesbos. The time has come to put our own children first for a change.

Whilst short-term, leaving the European Union may have some economic hurdles, it should be clear that long-term, the best bet for the younger people in society is to get control of our country from Brussels so they can one day own their own property, have actual careers and start their own families.

UK Space Agency Fails To Make Contingencies For Possible Brexit

The only one thing which would upset me if Britain decided to leave the European Union would be the potential damage done to the relationship between the UK and the ESA (European Space Agency.) I believe space travel to be one of the most important projects humanity has ever undertaken, and is something that only collaborative efforts can achieve between nations. The way I see it is that the sooner we can leave this planet, the sooner we can get away from the issues of overpopulation, banker-slavery and inter-ethnic troubles. The technology that we may unlock in this pursuit might also help us lessen the impact on nature here on Earth too, and may well enable us to restore this planet to it's former glory for the benefit of all life.

That however is a pipe-dream, something which at this point we can only live in hope of. Nonetheless, it may interest people out there to know that the UK space industry alone was worth a reported £11.3 billion in 2013, and has been growing at an average 7% year on year with 70% of this trade being exported. Britain is obviously a key part of the ESAs operations, particularly in the field of telecommunications. This status is clearly shown by the fact that the ESA opened the science and innovation campus in the Harwell University here. With Government money as well as BAE's being invested in emerging technologies (like Skylon for instance) anyone with half a brain would assume that this industry was being looked after and protected by the UK Space Agency, the Government's own organisation devoted to the UK's fledgling space industry.

With the potential for Britain to leave the European Union, there is a perhaps a small worry that the politics of the day might have an impact on the UK's involvement with the ESA though. Bare in mind that whilst there are countries who are not apart of the EU (like Israel and Canada for instance,) who are members of the ESA, since the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, there has been a concerted effort to bring more of the ESAs operations under a more Federalised EU structure. Given all the scaremongering about the economy and so on surrounding the Brexit referendum, I thought I would email the UKSA about what might happen to the UK's space industry should we vote to leave the EU.

So I wrote:

To who it may concern,

I've recently started a blog and website which I hope will grow and get people interested in spaceflight and technology, in particular projects being undertake in the UK by some incredibly innovative companies like Reaction for instance.

In any case, I hope it is not too much of a cheek to ask for correspondence with yourselves. As is obvious by the title of this email, I'd like to ask if the UKSA has looked into the implications of a Brexit vote in the EU referendum, and whether it would have an affect on the UK's involvement with the European Space Agency?

Many thanks for your time!


The response was not particularly amazing.


Thank you for your email. The UK Space Agency has not made any contingency plans for a possible vote to leave the EU at the 23 June referendum.

Warmest regards

Trying to dissect this single sentence answer is difficult, but still possible. Personally this answer either shows one of three things:

A) The Government is "psychic", and already knows the result of the upcoming referendum. Therefore it has been telling its departments not to bother doing research into, or planning possible contingencies for a vote to leave the European Union.

B) The UK Government knows that there will be genuinely little disruption to the UK economy and exports, and the UKSA/ESA partnership will continue regardless of the result.

C) The woman who answered me couldn't be bothered to go trawling through documents to give me a genuine answer.

I'm not sure which one I should take more seriously, but it's still interesting. Call me a pessimist but I'm very drawn to option A.

What do you readers think? Leave in the comments below!

The Airlander And It's European Union Grant

The Airlander on it's maiden flight in America.

Being a bit of an "Avgeek" I often read up on the latest aviation news, especially if its research and development happening in the UK. One company that captured my interest recently was a company called Hybrid Air Vehicles. Based in Bedford, "HAV" are currently building a large (as in, it's currently the largest flightworthy aircraft in the world kind of large) concept airship called Airlander 10 which they hope will provide cargo transport in the near future. Incidentally, the hanger it's being developed in was the original hanger used by the Royal Airship Works from 1919 until 1930, when the doomed R101 project being built there crashed horrifically in France killing forty-eight of the fifty-four crew and passengers on-board, effectively ending all further work on airships in the UK. Until now it seems.

The Airlander is unlikely to suffer a similar fate to the airships of yesteryear however as both materials and engineering has come some way in the ninety-odd years! Firstly, something which should seem obvious is that it's not kept aloft by hydrogen. Inside it's aerodynamic body are multiple compartments filled with helium, with the the wing-like shape of the vessel creating around 40% of the lift whilst in a forward motion. The craft will be powered by four, four litre V8 diesel engines, two at the rear and two on either side at the front which have directional thrust which enable it to hover like a helicopter. Although slow by today's airliner standards, the four engines are expected to propel it up to a punchy 80 knots, which might not sound much but considering it's designed to carry ten tons of cargo (hence the name Airlander 10), that is quite an feat in lighter than air (or practically lighter than air) travel. The skin of the Airlander is not the fabric or a thin tin-foil like substance you would expect of an airship either, but is instead a composite made up of kevlar, mylar and vectran, all known for their lightweight but incredibly strong properties.

Whilst the prospect of cargo plodding along at 80 knots may seem strange when we have huge great cargo planes that can travel at over four times that speed, it's role as cargo hauler would come into it's own in areas of the globe where there isn't adequate infrastructure. For instance, it would likely be a much safer option than the 'ice trucker' routes, or provide a much quicker and accessible form of transport for needed aid supplies for remote locations. There will no doubt be some military function these could play too, in providing supplies or light vehicles etc, as well as surveillance or communications which this craft was originally intended for! They would pose somewhat of a vulnerable target though, regardless of it's low radar profile and low heat-signature.

These factoids are however somewhat baseless seeing as the craft has yet to undergo further flight testing. The project started it's life as a joint project between Northrop Grumman and Hybrid Air Vehicles for the US military, but after a single flight test in 2012 it was mothballed. Hybrid Air Vehicles brought the craft back off of the US Government for the small figure of $293,000, and after transporting it to the UK from New Jersey, have continued it's development. The funding for it's continued development has come from a £3.5 million grant from the UK Government, £2 million in crowdfunding and a further £2 million from a European Union grant. Noticing that a significant amount of the money for this had come from the EU, I wondered whether or not an exit from the European Union would affect this companies operation.

Whilst it wouldn't personally change my mind on the European Union vote later this month, it would be an unfortunate consequence if projects like this got derailed by a Brexit vote.

So I emailed them, writing:

I'm a independent blogger writing on politics and technology and I noticed that this project is in part funded by European Union grant money.

I'd like to ask, if next week the UK decides to leave the European Union, do you have any idea what might happen to your funding? Has the UK Government implied that they will step in to safeguard the project at all?

As a side note, I think it would be a shame if this should fall through. Its always good to see some new innovation in the UK, particularly as historically the UK Government has always been somewhat slow to act when it comes to developing tech over the last 50 years or so. Particularly in the aviation/space sector!

Thanks for your time in any case, and I do wish this the very best of luck. I hope to see it at airshows soon!

Hats of to Hybrid Air Vehicles, as they got back to me within a few short hours with a really descent answer which I feel might please some prospective leave voters.

Thanks for your interest.  First of all, my understanding is that nothing happens immediately if the public has exercised its voice to ask the Government to leave the EU.  It will take a while for the process of this exit to be decided and for all the EU members to decide how it is best done from their side too.  We don't simply leave the day after the vote is announced, if it is to leave.

In terms of any contractual obligations we have (in this case our EU Horizon 2020 grant), these remain contractual obligations irrespective to whether we're in the EU or not.  Without looking through the legal agreement regarding this grant, I doubt there is a sort of "force majeure" clause about potential exit of any member state, and I also cannot see the EU revoking a huge amount of EU grants or agreements that are predicated on the UK being part of the EU.  They are typically of limited duration (a few years) and it is likely to take this time for the UK to unravel itself fully from the EU, so I think there won't be an impact immediately.  The impact would be felt longer term amongst SME's, large business and academic communities with restrictions on grant funding and collaborative projects that the EU currently supports.

Thanks for your interest in us.

As you can see, whilst I don't personally know this person's convictions when it comes to the European Union referendum, it is clear that they aren't overly concerned about the impact that it might have on their business, despite having running contractual agreements with them! Either way, to many firms such as this, it looks as though an Brexit would have little impact.

Into the future it is expected that demand for these next-generation airships will grow, and as such Hybrid Air Vehicles are already contemplating building the Airlander 50, which as the name suggests is similar to the 10, except it'll be much, much larger and capable of hauling up to 50 tons of cargo. It has to be said that we should all wish this company the best of luck, and hopefully this technology will usher in a renaissance of air-cruises, the likes of which the Hindenburg etc promised, yet could never deliver.

Walking Route: Solstice At Shoebury

Blame It On The Weatherman 

I had been watching the weather reports with some interest all morning. The rain was pelting down relentlessly in Essex and the MetOffice was saying that that was pretty much what it was going to be like the whole day across the country. Originally I really wanted to go to Stonehenge or Avebury for the summer solstice night, and I even checked the weather reports for the Rollright Stones up in Oxfordshire too, and that was pretty much the same picture according to the weather men.  When it brightened up at 3pm, I decided I wasn't going to let this good weather go to waste, so on a whim I whipped my camping gear up and headed out for Shoebury East Beach by foot to hopefully watch the sun rise over the coast in the morning.

Heading Out

My idea for this walk was to take as many back routes as possible to Shoebury East Beach. In my head I envisioned taking the route out of Rayleigh east through the fields, skimming Hockley Woods and continuing through to Cherry Orchard nature park and then, perhaps, through Rochford and Wakering.

The Journey starts at a path off of Bull Lane in Rayleigh.

Blue Skies all around! The rain had stopped and made for a lovely afternoon.

Southend on the horizon.

A pile of Burdock lies here, perfect for foraging later. I'll have to come back.

Into the Hockley Woods!

A copped part of the wood makes room for some lovely wild flowers.

Like these Foxgloves.

Ancient Ferns.

More evidence of coppicing. 

Black sheep!

Looking from Hockley towards 'The Scrubs' woodland on the right.

Heading through 'The Scrubs'.

A gap in the trees between woodlands.

The Cherry Orchard Lake in the nature reserve.

I did make it to a Stonecircle for the solstice in the end. Albeit it's actually a modern one. And a climbing rock.

I was greeted by a drone while I stopped and had a drink.

Soft Feet

It's been a long time since I did any long distance walking, particularly in proper boots. It probably also didn't help that I was only wearing very thin socks either, but my feet were getting very sore. I realised I was never going to make it to Shoebury in time as my walking speed was a lot slower than I had anticipated because I was in some pain. I instead decided to head through Southend as it was the more direct route but even then, I still wasn't making enough headway. Unfortunately, I ended up cheating and getting the bus from Priory Park to the Asda in Shoebury. I still walked about another mile to the beach though.

Back in civilisation. Unfortunately.

Enough was enough. My feet were killing me.

Sunsets and Strawberry Moons

When I finally arrived at Shoebury East Beach, the sun was already setting behind me. The first thing I did was quickly set a tent up in the corner of the field hopefully where nobody would find it, and by time I had got the tent set up it didn't take long for the full moon to rise up on the horizon which was quite hypnotising. It was the first full moon at the summer solstice since 1967, and because of the haze on the horizon it was dubbed by the media as a 'Strawberry Moon'. I spent a good few hours listening to music on a bench in a sleeping bag (to get away from the gnats) just watching the moon rising up into the sky as the pale light from a setting sun slowly dissipated behind me.

By the time the sea had come in it was too dark to do any photography with my phone. Some people did turn up with a single chinese lantern (perhaps to celebrate the solstice) which when lit, slowly drifted out toward the mouth of the estuary, but other than that it was a peaceful evening. A part from the insects. 

Finally here.

No sea. Yet. Unfortunately high tide didn't come until it was pitch black out.

Summer Solstice sunset. Goodbye Holly King.

Hello rare solstice "Strawberry Moon". (This was the first full moon at summer Solstice since 1967.)

Bit brighter now.

Time for a brew.

Not much of a picture, but this was the chinese lantern heading up into the sky.

My single man tent in the morning which I like to dub "The Coffin".  

A cloudy morning was a bit disappointing.

But soon cleared up.

And became another beautiful day.

The route taken. If you want to ask more details leave a request in the comments section or use the contact
form to the right of the screen.

The Morning

So I woke up at 4.30, but only seeing vasts amounts of mist I thought there wasn't much point in trying to get a glimpse of the rising sun. Later on at around 7am, the cloud dispersed and made for another lovely day. I got the bus back from Shoebury to Rayleigh with not a second to spare. When I got back I was angry with myself that I didn't go to either Stonehenge or Avebury given the brilliant weather they ended up having there, but then again, only a handful of people saw the moon rise above the horizon in the way that I had seen it, and being one of the few in that respect is, I suppose, priceless.

In future, unless I'm going up some massively dangerous mountain range, I think I'll ignore the weather"experts" in future though.

This Solstice walk has a bit more to it to me than simply going camping on a nice evening though. For me this was about using the symbology of the changing face of nature to try and convince me to change my own ways. I'm fed up sitting indoors and eating junk food, and I'm really hoping to turn a page and actually start changing in the ways that I want to. Exercising, going to new places and eating properly are going to be my new vices with any luck, and with a little bit of committment I hope to do just that.

You can watch my introduction video which encompassed basically this walk and my introduction post on here in one video. Thanks and I hope you enjoyed this.

Just An Introduction

Hello there, and welcome to BluPrysm! As is probably customary when beginning a new project like this, I had better write an introduction, despite the fact that there is a very high chance that nobody will ever read it. I guess that's not the point, at least writing an introduction might at least give me that psychological push to actually start doing this properly.

So a bit about me. My name is Jason, I'm in my late twenties and I live in Essex, England. For better or for worse I've lived in this area my whole life, attended a local state school and went straight out to work at seventeen. Whilst I may not have gone to University, I've done multiple jobs in my time, learnt a lot of skills from different work places and have gained a lot vocational education. At home I also do my fair bit of reading on practically every subject, and my interest in almost everything is one of the biggest reasons for writing this blog in the first place because I'd like to share what I've learnt.

The other big reason for keeping a blog is to try and keep me in  practice of writing regularly. I have a selection of Science-Fiction stories I'd like to write, which I intend on starting soon, a lot of which will likely come up in this blog occasionally. When the stories are complete I'm not entirely sure how I will go about publishing, I'll have to wait and see what the best option is at the time, but I'm holding out hope that people would be willing to purchase it.

So what is the blog about then, other than just plugging books that are yet to be written?

Another big reason for keeping this blog, other than simple writing practice is to give myself a some drive into kicking the habit of living a purely sedentary lifestyle. For too long I've sat playing computer games and binge-watching TV Series, and I really would like to make a change to that, especially in the summer months. I'd also like to make a big change to my awful diet too, and as a result will likely be posting healthy cooking triumphs on here (as well as failures for balanced reporting) to encourage others out there to have a go too.

One way to give myself an excuse to get out of the house is to start filming with a 360 camera for VR content on my Youtube account. I intend on getting one very soon (probably a Samsung Gear 360) and it is my intention to travel the country visiting places of interest and traversing mountains etc, to bring beautiful places to life through Virtual Reality for those who for whatever reason, cannot visit them themselves. The whole point is to hopefully cash in on VR content before the industry explodes, and give me some real motivation to go travelling.

Other than these points, I'm also interested in aviation, paganism, nature and wildlife, and intend (eventually) on doing wildlife and aviation photography/videography. This blog will also occasionally include some (hopefully) interesting articles on history and current affairs. Finally, I'm also in the middle of sorting out a gardening company start-up for six months time, so I may well end up posting garden related content too!

Thanks for reading!