Wessex. 22nd July 2014.

It was time to visit Stonehenge once more.
Not the stones, you understand.

It is the visitor centre that fascinates me.
Every surface is non-stick.

And yet something of the old, messy, confusing and temporary Stonehenge remains in the absurdity of the land train...

The film is a mix of static and moving.
No dialogue.

My written notes made at the time, are transcribed below the film:

10:00 am
Service station.
We left the M5 and stopped at the service station.
Non stop flow of cars into the car park
Amazing blue sky.
... a Polo mint..

11:50
Barberry Castle.
Sitting under a tarpaulin. The sound of a plane, crickets and a few distant voices. The sounds of gun-shot from the shooting school located just a little way from here, further on down the narrow road.

11:52
String failure
The black tarpaulin flaps like a disconsolate crow around my head.

4:15 PM
Stonehenge.
After navigating the queue to cross over we sought privacy and shelter from the sun. The surrounding grass land isn't grass. No trees, no grass. The ground sprouts clover and sorrel and the promise of thistles. Eventually we come to rest on some concrete steps, close to the land train station. The similarity to a shopping mall, almost always a shopping mall has a bus station, is making me feel distinctly depressed. A shopping mall is designed for flow to create a need to consume. Likewise here we are subtly pressurised into feeling uncomfortable for contemplating eating food that we have not purchased here, but elsewhere.

The design of the building funnels air towards us, sucks air through the gap between restaurant/gift shop and museum. As the day is so hot, this wind-tunnel effect is very welcome.

The corporate flexi-shrine, slippery and impenetrable; new Stonehenge makes me want to give up! This is of course how I am meant to feel. Thousands of pounds have gone into designing a place to make people feel hollow, and empty inside; to create within us all a discontent that can only be filled by buying stuff...For some stupid reason, we fell for it too and bought coffee. Horrible, machine made. A mistake!

The land trains are still operating. There doesn't appear to be any direct or even indirect way to walk to the stones unless I walk along the road. The land trains move at the speed of a hearse, no doubt to give the impression that the stones are impossibly distance both in time and location.

7:05 PM
The Sanctuary
The concrete markers have been repainted. A tanker is parked in the lay-by. The sun shines hot on my back as it begins to set. I am very glad to be away from Stonehenge.

8:35 PM
The Inn with a Well.
An old house with a hole in the floor! The well is now covered in glass and is the blue disc in the film. It is just a bit disconcerting to walk over it. I am so hot, sipping a glass wine, waiting for a bowl of curry....