There and back to see how far it is

I took a walk nearby today to Horizon West Sportplex Park; we pass the sign regularly but haven’t know what it’s about – it certainly looks nothing like a “Sportsplex” (whatever that is), more like dirt parking and little else.
It seems close as we pass it from our house, but it took me nearly 20 minutes to walk there (cars go faster than people!); I did more walking within, but never seemed to reach anything except fencing. There’s no signage, so eventually I had to just turn round and head home again, with iPhone keeping track of my footsteps:

Saw some interesting things, including picnic benches, wild plants, and various ponds; when I reached the back of local Bridgewater Middle School, was when I gave up and turned back!

Some online searching now took me to this video announcing the opening of Horizon West Sportsplex Park, mentioning that it’s primarily horse trails, with long term plans to do more – the opening was apparently in December 2010. This web page mentions “plans to connect” so it seems that the Tiny Road entrance is the only way in and out at the moment; and this video states that there were delays because of Sand Skinks! And that March 2012 issue seems to be the end of the development, for now anyway.
Oh, and the post title? It’s what my Dad would sometimes answer on a trip if he was asked where we were going! It popped in to my head when I realized I’d walked quite a while, and was going to just have to retrace my steps.

UPDATE: more than six years later, there’s new plans to develop this area with claims to begin in another year or so …

A screened in deck

Although heavy rains delayed things, very fast work yesterday and this morning has given us a beautiful and fully screened deck area:

Part of the reason for such a quick installation is that everything arrived as a giant Meccano / Erector set: those parts are each between 25′ and 30′ long!

Our upstairs deck is now screened in, too:

 

We just have to wait for all the trapped bugs to die, now! And for Atlas Pools to start making a pool, with everything else done …

Movies and Music

With lots of rooms in our new home, and a desire to still use my big Wharfedale speakers, I’ve slowly set up one room for listening to music and watching movies with good sound; I found on eBay a pair of Wharfedale surround speakers from the same “Opus” family, and bought a second Samsung TV the same as in our Living Room. Finally today, I had acquired enough to finish the room, hiding the rear speaker wiring, and putting up some nice movie posters …

It’s a small media room, with seating for only two – but that’s fine for me, and the smaller room has better sound quality. I hung curtains on the back wall to cover the window and kill echos, leaving space either side of the TV and to the side of the door for posters.

I’m very pleased with the movie posters I got (not originals but nice copies via eBay), including The Day The Earth Stood Still and War Of The Worlds (the original, of course!); the poster of It Came From Outer Space is a bit of a joke (though one of the better “B” movies!).

And beside the door, a nice panel list of “101 Greatest Movie Quotes”; I definitely don’t know all of them!