DARTing around Suffolk

On the drive from Stansted airport up the A120 and over onto the A12 heading towards Ipswich, there are a number of things I expect to see on the road.

There's the funny sculpture - Essex's answer to the Angel of the North - on the right hand side heading towards Braintree. There's the skateboarding park on the way into Mark's Tey in which I've never seen a skater. And the signs for Gnome World leading down a country road that I've haven't quite found the time to investigate.

About five miles out of Ipswich, some familiar and green passed by on the other side of the dual carriageway. A DART carriage. Must have come off a boat in Felixstowe docks.

And then heading up to the Copdock roundabout (perhaps easier to distinguish as the Toys'R'Us roundabout) there were another two low loaders carrying DART-liveried carriages - this time heading towards Ipswich - or perhaps ready to turn up the A14 towards Cambridge.

Bizarre. A team of lunatics driving them around Suffolk while their GPSs search for the right way to Dublin? But hopefully good news for Dublin commuters. Shiny new trains on their way.

And at least this week's trip to Ipswich was less eventful than the last time I was there.

Ipswich - early morning pictures of Sky

An early morning Ipswich sky. The black blob near the right hand side is a TV news helicopter, one of two hovering above Nacton this morning.

Another early morning picture of Sky - Sky News this time.
Sky News are "proud to be" powered by Microsoft’s Virtual Earth mapping software as they show the various scenes of Ipswich crime, as well as assisting in the explanation of less bloody stories.

But with Sky’s recent deal with Google - where Google got a lot more than Sky - it’ll not be a shock when the reference to Microsoft is dropped. Though I can't see it being swapped for Google Earth!

Ipswich

Camped out working in Ipswich this week, lots of familiar place names from hotels and roadsigns have hit the headlines as the tragic murders of local prostitutes across the region dominate the news.

Nacton - Copdock (near the Toys'R'Us roundabout at Tesco) - Hintlesham (home to Hintlesham Hall).

Driving back from work tonight we past the end of a closed off road at Levington, with blue lights on the parked police cars flashing, and the Salvation Army emergency response van catering to cold and hungry police who were at the scene of the latest two body finds.

The city of Ipswich in the county of Suffolk isn't the normally the most newsworthy. Ipswich Town Football Club has runs of good and bad luck; Sir Alf Ramsey was a successful England Manager, and has a road named after him - Sir Alf Ramsey Way - right in the middle of Ipswich red light zone.

It sounds like a cliché when each news bulletin suggests that Ipswich is dominated by the news. But truly, the locals are constantly talking about the drama that is unfolding on their normally quiet doorstep. And the tragedy is rightfully overcoming their disapproval of the victims' occupation.

Now getting a hotel room booked in Ipswich was already proving difficult when our teams organised their travel plans last week. We're spread out across six hotels.

Some of our crowd are staying out at Hintlesham Hall. An up-market, out of town hotel that won't let you in to eat dinner unless you're wearing a jacket and tie. (Spare jackets and ties will be provided if you don't have any!)

Unimpressed with this nonsense - I'm sure some will enjoy getting dressed up, but at the end of a long day, it feels like a step too far - we negotiated to have dinner on our knees in "the Library" - no dressing up, but out of sight of most dressy guests.

A colleague had taken ill, and was unable to fly across from the US. We discovered that he hadn't cancelled his booking. Normally, a hotel would quote the 24 hour cancellation policy and charge for the first night. Not so tonight in Ipswich. There's a waiting list of TV crews all looking for rooms.

Our cancelled room will be hosting a couple of ITN journalists - they're all having to double up due to the shortage of rooms, and also the price they're being charged. Extra beds are being hastily built by weary porters.

Also slumming it in the Library for dinner was a Norwegian TV crew! As I left, dinner was being extended with crews arriving at 11.30pm after finishing their live coverage for the late news bulletins - bet they quickly run out of spare jackets!

Let's hope and pray that the body count gets no higher, and that the killer is caught soon. Being trapped in circumstances that make prostitution a viable alternative is serious enough without the added pressure and uncertainty of being a target for a murderer.

One final observation - I called in Tesco just after midnight to pick up some food to keep us going during the long hours we predict we'll be working tomorrow. Ahead of me at the checkout was a man with 300 packets of raspberry jelly - costing a mere £25 or so. The cash till queried "Are you sure?" when the checkout lady punched in 300! I only wish I'd asked what he was going to do with it all.

Choose Suffolk - Why?

From the bottom of the escalator in a central London tube station (can't remember which one).

Begs the question: "Why?"

Apologies to any readers with East Anglian postcodes. But Suffolk Development Agency did put pay for the posters and the Choose Suffolk website, which states:

"With easy access to central London, Cambridge, Stansted Airport ..."

Let's get this straight. Perhaps the most unreliable rail link I've ever used is between Norwich/Ipswich and London Liverpool Street. The A14 up to Cambridge is a race track ona good day, and a virtual car park whenever there's an accident (how many times a week?). There's no direct way to Stansted, except by driving the hour and a bit down the A12 and (admittedly much-improved A120).

Not a great selling point.

Has the Loch Ness Monster retired south to East Anglia?

A story in the Weather Eye column of today's Times caught my eye. Plain bizarre. I include the full story ...

On August 26, at 4am, a teenage driver reported being chased in her car by floating lights as she drove across the Orwell Bridge on the outskirts of Ipswich.

According to a report in the Evening Star, Ipswich, two spinning lights appeared about 3.7m (12ft) above the windscreen, each about the size of an orange, and appeared to be a dull, diffuse sort of light, of no particular colour. The driver who wished to remain unnamed, said: "They definitely seemed to be staying with the car. I've never been so scared."

At about the same time that night, similar mysterious lights were seen by other eyewitnesses just over a mile away in Ipswich.

Perhaps the driver wanted to remain anonymous since they'd been sampling the local East Anglian barley-juice just before it happened! And the other witnesses had spilled out of the same party!

But I'll keep an eye out when I'm driving across the bridge on Tuesday!