Where In Sussex

Ah….. summer has arrived (again, following a false start at the beginning of May).

Because of the large amount of rain that we had at the beginning of the grass pollon season, I'd forgotten that I get mild hayfever sometimes (I know, careless of me!). Last night I sent my cat packing because I thought she was making my eyes itch, but then this morning when I saw the pollen forecast, after waking up with a "cold", I realised what was going on!

I'm quite lucky, and I don't really suffer the symtoms much druing the day, so I can get on with doing "stuff". Today was a lazy day, didn't get up until 10:30, which is quite late for me. Guess I needed the sleep! Just dozed about all morning and then came to work after lunch…. which is where I am now.

---

For those of you who don't know, I work 35 miles/50km from my house, which is a journey I don't mind making, but only when everything is flowing well. In the summer though, there are bad traffic jams going in to Hastings, so I take the "scenic" route, which is about 5km further, but saves me up to 30 mins on a bad day. This is usually through a village called "Hooe" (pron: "who"); but today I chose a different route. I don't think the time was any different, but it was nice to see a different view. I was a bit late, so I didn't have time to take any pictures, but I have stollen some all the same

The place I'm talking about is Herstmonceux Castle, which was home to the Royal Observatory for most of the post war period until 1990, when it moved to Cambridge.

You may think "so what?"; well, the Royal Observatory in Herstmonceux housed the clocks and instruments that set "GMT" (or UCT as it is now known). When you set your computer clock, you have to tell it the time zone, + or - from GMT/UCT. The observatory at Herstmonceux is very near the 0° longitude line, which is where all times are measured from. This line actually passes just 2km from my house, so I really do live in the middle of the world!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the castle and observatory, which I passed on my way to work today!

[[popup:rgo-herstmonceux.jpg:(thumbnail):Click to Enlarge:inline:1]][[popup:herstmonceux_castle_aerialview.jpg:(thumbnail):Click to Enlarge:inline:1]]