Monday 31st May 2010 04:15
A strange thing happened this morning, Tanya and I woke up at exactly the same time, 04:15, or at least that's what I thought. I asked, "Oh, have you woken up so that we can catch the sunrise at Bosham?" She replied, "Errrr… no. I was cold and needed my blanket, but since you asked, yes, let's do it." So we did.
We weren't disappointed either, the pastel colours in the sky were phenomenal and the fact that there wasn't a soul about made it all the more special. The only downside was when the sun finally decided to show itself, a huge dark cloud shrouded the whole event, although Tanya did manage to catch a shot of it glinting in between the horizon and the cloud, before if disappeared for quite some time.
Please click on the thumbnail below to view my 365 image taken this morning.
From there, we then had a drive around the area, stopping off at various places before making the decision to drive up to Portsdown Hill and order some breakfast from Mick's. We always thought that he packed away each night, yet it turns out that they stay open 24/7, except for Christmas Day. It was great being sat in the car, overlooking the city of Portsmouth with the early morning sun catching the taller buildings, almost like watching the city come alive.
When we arrived home, we did very little really apart from chill out in the back garden, soaking up the sun, although by late morning, it had pretty much clouded over.
Much later on, I cracked open a few beers, one of which was called 'Dark & Handsome', a 5.0% ABV dark and smooth creamy ale with hints of lemon, blackcurrant and liquorice undertones. Box Steam Brewery named this beer after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, you'd expect that 'tall' would be associated with the name of the beer, only it turns out that Brunel was a whisker over 5' tall, which probably explained his fondness for top hats.
Anyway, to find out more about the brewery, please click on the logo above.
Sunday 30th May 2010 09:27
On a recent episode of BBC2's 'Escape to the Country', some prospective buyers had stipulated that they'd like to live in North Hampshire, an area of the county that neither Tanya, nor myself, were familiar with. One of the destinations that they viewed a property at was a place called Wherwell, a picturesque village in the heart of the Test Valley.
The village itself is steeped with history, particularly the tale of the Cockatrice, a type of bird-like dragon. According to legend, a duck laid an egg in the crypt of the Abbey, which was hatched by a toad, with the offspring turning into a Cockatrice. It grew to an enormous size, flying from the Abbey with an insatiable appetite, snatching many villagers who were then eaten back at the Abbey lair.
The remaining villagers realised that this situation had to be put to an end and a reward of four acres was offered to anyone who could defeat the Cockatrice.
A man named Green decided he'd be the one and spent hours polishing a piece of steel until it had a mirror-like reflection and then lowered it down into the savage animal's lair. The Cockatrice, thinking it was being threatened by a counterpart, fought until it was exhausted, upon which Green slew the beast and claimed his reward.
Within Harewood Forest is an area known as 'Green's Acres' where no trees grow, this being the land that was reputedly given to Green.
To find out other interesting artefacts about the village, please click on the Cockatrice above.
Whilst there, we had a good walk around and spotted The White Lion Inn on our way, earmarking it for a stop-off and possible Sunday Lunch later in the day. As we walked, we noticed just how impeccably kept the whole village was; the majority of houses are thatched, which automatically confirms that a village is that little bit special. We were dumbfounded with the majority of properties, especially as we kept getting glimpses of the River Test which was flowing at the bottom of most of their gardens.
Just as we thought we were at the very end of the village, we stumbled upon a footpath/bridleway which was a huge wooden bridge, spanning the whole width of the River Test, eventually bringing us out on Chilbolton Cow Common. The whole area is an SSI with sitings of relatively unusual birds such as the Snipe and the Redshank. Popular species include Kestrels, Egrets and Red Kites with the open nature of the Common, Hawks, Owls and Buzzards have been seen eating rabbits.
For more information about the Test Valley and its surrounding areas, please click on the logo above.
After having a good walk around, we had a liquid pitstop at The White Lion Inn, booking a table for Sunday Lunch before heading off for another walk to the other end of the village and a visit to the parish church, St. Peter and Holy Cross. Everything about the village was just idyllic, we were both taken aback with how beautiful it was, and how friendly all the locals had been.
We made our way back to The White Lion Inn for some much-needed food. We'd had a good chat with one of the bar staff, possibly the landlord, earlier who was also more than welcoming and genuinely interested in why we'd made the journey there. Since he'd sang the praises of the home-made pies, we both thought that it would be a suitable enough meal to replenish our energy banks. Tanya ordered the Pork and Smoked Bacon Pie with mashed potato and mushy peas, whilst I opted for the Spanish Beef and Chorizo with hand-cut chips and mushy peas. Yummy… went down very well with half a Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. We also managed a sweet each, Tanya having the White Chocolate Bombe and I went with the Lemon Brûlée.
We left the pub feeling suitably stuffed… isn't that what it's all about? Please click on the excellent logo (both design and choice of colours) above to find out more about the pub.
From there we ambled back home, taking in a huge serving of Hampshire's stunningly beautiful countryside. A superb day.
Saturday 29th May 2010 10:01
Had my monthly visit to the Southwick Brewhouse this morning, this time a double intention drove me there. One was that I was out of real ale, the other was the fact that one of the guys, Al, who runs it is very photogenic… it's the bald head and long beard that do it.
Having visited there on numerous occasions, I felt I had the confidence to ask him whether he'd pose for my '365 - an image a day' photograph, other than tell me to 'fuck off', what's the worst that could happen? Thankfully he obliged, stating, 'not every day though', which I thought was very quick-witted indeed. I suggested that he held two of Suthwyk Ales own brews in his hands, which he could then provide the write-ups of each ale, providing a link to the website.
Liberation (in Al's right hand) - is brewed from Suthwyk barley and the American hop Liberty. The beer is light and spritzy with blackcurrant overtones. 4.2 % ABV.
In 1944 at Southwick House, Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery launched Operation Overlord resulting in the liberation of France, Liberation being brewed to commemorate this. Liberation Ale honours all the members of the Allied Forces who fought so fearlessly to gain victory and freedom.
Palmerston's Folly (in Al's left hand) - Suthwyk wheat and barley, using Saaz and Styrian Goldings hops. Although it has 40% wheat in the malt it is a clear wheaty beer with a dryness you would expect and a hint of honey in the after taste. 4.8% ABV.
Named after the Portsdown Hill forts. Ironically, not a single gun was ever fired from any of these hill forts in anger. By the time construction of the forts was finally completed in 1868, France clearly had no intentions of making war on Britain and the forts had only limited strategic use. Ever since then this massive scheme of fortifications has become known as "Palmerston's Folly."
Earlier on in the day, I was humouring myself with Google Maps, a sort of online application program that I'm sure most of you will be familiar with. Virtually all Britain's roads have been 'caught on camera' by the Google Street Map camera, or whatever it's called, so I decided to visit the village of Blackrod (part of Bolton), where I spent the first 29 years of my life. I started by keying in my parent's post code and then 'walking' through the village, only to find a miraculous feat of engineering and global warming.
As you can see from the first image, it's a dull, shitty day and there are workmen outside the apartments on the corner of Blackhorse Street and Hill Lane.
In image two, Blackrod is now laden with sunshine and, the workmen have gone, a wall has been built and they've even had time to complete the car park and tarmac it. Fast work men, well done.
Please click on the Google Maps logo above, which should hopefully provide the link to the section of Blackrod.
Friday 28th May 2010 19:53
Originally founded in 2003, LinkedIn started in the living room of one of the co-founders, Reid Hoffman, and the site was launched on May 5th of that year. All five founders invited around 350 of their most important contacts to join them and by the end of the first month, they had a total of 4,500 members within their network. Almost a year later and LinkedIn reached its first major milestone, attracting half a million members. Last year, it marked its sixth birthday with 600 cupcakes and 40 million members.
So what's LinkedIn all about? Well, your professional network of trusted contacts helps give you an advantage in your career. It allows you to make better use of your professional network, helping the people you trust in return. LikedIn believe in a global connected economy, connecting the world's professionals, making them more productive and professional.
Once you join and create a profile, you'll be able to manage the information that is publicly available about you as a professional, find and be introduced to potential clients or create and collaborate on projects. As well as this you can be found for business opportunities and find potential business partners and gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings.
LinkedIn has an awful lot to offer - please click on the logo above to find out much more.
Thursday 27th May 2010 07:21
As you may well be aware, at the beginning of this month I started a new project, '365 - an image a day'. So far, I'm up-to-date, having been out and about this morning, taking a shot that I'd done a recce on yesterday afternoon.
I'm thoroughly enjoying the project, especially the discipline, the motivation and the fact that I feel as if it's made me look at everyday things in a completely different light. Not for one minute do I think I'll struggle taking a photograph everyday for a year, however, the idea is still fresh and there are plenty of things to take pictures of… wonder if I'll be saying the same thing come the winter months?
What is also worrying me at present is the fact that I'm planning ahead with my subject matter and because of this, I'm finding that the whole thing is affecting my sleep pattern. I'm eager to take one shot and move on to the next, rather than see what's around during the whole of the day.
Anyway, I created a graphic for my '365' project so that it could sit comfortably on my home page and it's also included above, just in case you're interested in seeing the shots I've taken in May so far...
Back again… later on in the day, after helping Tanya shortlist an image to submit to Amateur Photographer's online forum competition, 'Built' is the set subject this month, I was suddenly inspired to create my very own competition entry… now where did we put our Scrabble® board…?
After what seemed to be several hundred attempts, I finally managed to balance five Scrabble® tiles on top of each other. Believe you me, it's a total an utter arse to get them to balance, particularly as the edges of them are are bevelled. Someone suggested glueing them, all very well, only we had nothing other than superglue in the house and I wasn't chancing ruining the whole game just for a photograph. Bastard bloody tiles.
Anyway, as you can see, the result can be seen above.
Wednesday 26th May 2010 22:14
Yesterday saw the opening of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, first held at the Royal Horticultural Society garden in 1862. Before this, the RHS had held flower shows since 1833 in their Chiswick garden. The event was then moved to Kensington Garden due to there being insufficient transport links to Chiswick and despite it being a success for twenty-six years, it was moved to the heart of London.
Possibly the most famous landscaping and gardening event in the world, the garden show is held each year on five days in May in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The 11-acre area which is attended by some 157,000 visitors is an all-ticket affair, although the show is also extensively covered by the BBC. There are four grades of award presented; gold, silver-gilt, silver and bronze in the following awards categories; Flora, Hogg, Knightian, Lindley and Grenfell.
As a matter of interest, James May's 'Paradise in Plasticene' was a significant garden made entirely of Plasticene and was exhibited at last year's show.
This year's show closes on Saturday 29th May - to find out much more about the whole event, please click on the logo above.
Tuesday 25th May 2010 22:01
Had a seriously squeaky arse moment tonight, and I'll tell you for why.
During April, I spent some considerable time creating outlined illustrations of several SwissBike accessories and, since recently transferring my application programs, artwork files, photographs, this very website, invoices, music and all the other essential stuff from my old iMac to my new one, the one thing I was asked today was to continue with the finalisation of that work.
So tonight, I looked for that work in the folder where it would be… it wasn't there… not to worry, I could always check on my eternal hard drive… no, not there either… hmmm, maybe I typed the wrong name… no, still nothing… feeling rather sick by now…
After a good ten minutes of hunting through the folders, still nothing… the feeling very sick quickly turned into, "Fuck, fuck, fuck… FUCK!!" Nothing was showing at all… this wasn't at all good because we were talking over a day's work here and the trouble was, accessing 'Time Machine' on my iMac would only take me to the 30th April, for that's when I hooked everything up.
Luckily though, 'Time Machine' creates a folder with the extension '.backupdb' and it can be accessed in exactly the same way as any other folder. Within there there were two folders, one of which was called 'Ian Gregory's iMac' whose last modified date was the 29th April… time to explore it.
Within minutes I'd found the exact folder that had sat on my Desktop right until the day I'd transferred all my files (Except that one - Ed) and lo and behold there it was, ready to be retrieved and restored.
Thank fuck for Time Machine is all I can say! To find out more about this magnificent program that also acts as an incredible laxative, please click on the icon above.
Monday 24th May 2010 20:00
Wembley saw England's last match on home soil before heading off to the World Cup in South Africa. Albeit a friendly, Capello's squad needed to prove themselves to their manager to stand any chance of being selected. It may be he leaves out some of the familiar faces and the squad tonight had a handful of debutants.
Their match was against Mexico and, on paper, it wasn't the most difficult of ties yet it certainly wasn't one of the easiest. The Mexicans have a flamboyant style, reminiscent of South American rivals Brazil.
It wasn't England's greatest performance, not by a long way, only managing 34% of the possession throughout the game, yet they still managed a 3-1 victory. If it hadn't been for 'keeper Robert Green making some excellent saves in the first half, the home team may have been looking down the barrel of a shotgun. As it stood, Lady Luck was on their side with Ledley King scoring on his first international start for three years with a simple flicked header in the 17th minute with Peter Crouch doubling the tally in the 34th minute.
Just when it seemed England were cruising, a handful of defensive blunders were made and on the stroke of half time Guillermo Franco the West Ham United striker scored to make it 2-1.
The second half was a bit of a nonentity really apart from an absolutely sublime strike in the 47th minute by Glen Johnson, his first ever international goal and one that I'm sure he will never forget.
Sunday 23rd May 2010 22:30
Did very little today apart from nip to Tesco to buy two small disposable barbecues and a pair of F&F leather mules… sick of wearing heavy footwear in this warm weather, especially as you can have as much air getting around your feet by wearing mules. At £15, you really can't grumble.
Anyway, other than that little trip out, all I did was spend time updating my blog, looking through the multitude of shots I took whilst in Dorset and drinking a considerable amount of real ale.
Luckily, come 10:30pm, Tanya started to watch a brilliant programme on BBC1 all about The Rolling Stones. Entitled 'The Stones in Exile' and introduced by Alan Yentob, it's a revealing documentary that covers the making of the critically acclaimed album released on the 12 May 1972 called, 'Exile on Main Street', the tenth studio album recorded by The Stones. It follows a time when the band fled to the French Riviera after facing colossal unpaid tax bills in Britain and despite life being totally crazy, unpredictable and chaotic, the band still managed to record one of the most influential albums in the history of rock and roll.
To watch the latest episode of the Imagine series, please click on the 'Exile on Main Street' album cover.
Saturday 22nd May 2010 04:31
So, we did it, we made ourselves get up despite the fact that our night's sleep was broken due to some inconsiderate neighbours. They obviously thought it acceptable to make as much fucking noise as possible even though they had several small children. Twats.
Anyway, I do want to make it clear that this didn't detriment how we felt about the campsite, more a dig on the halfwits that are out there to spoil it for the majority.
After getting dressed and quickly brushing our teeth we were off to Kimmeridge Bay. We parked at the top, avoiding the ridiculous charges for parking had we visited there at a reasonable hour, and made our way to the bottom via a fairly steep descent.
Just to enlighten you, (sorry if I start rambling here, it's now Sunday and I'm about to start my third bottle of real ale and it's just gone 2pm) Kimmeridge Bay is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site that belongs to Dorset and East Devon. The rocks at the bay were once the floor of a deep, tropical sea, once rich in pre-historic life and were part of the Jurassic period, some 155 million years ago. Each layer of rock here provides a huge insight into this period of history, allowing geologists and palaeontologists to look back in time, so much so, geologists around the world have adopted Kimmeridgian as the term for rocks of this era.
For more information about the Jurassic Coast, please click on the logo above.
The whole area has involvement from the Dorset Wildlife Trust which was founded in 1961 and has grown to an annual turnover of over £2m. Governed by a council of trustees, the 40 nature reserves that cover around 1,300 hectares of wildlife habitat has over 25,000 members and at least 750 active volunteers. The trust's main goals are conservation work, whether it be wildlife protection or marine conservation as well as inspiring and educating all age groups, including the ongoing issues regarding climate change.
Please click on the rather appealing logo above for further information.
Once we'd spent some considerable time taking photographs of the sunrise we then went on a hunt for some teabags and milk… yes, this is what I was trying to explain about trying to remember everything on a camping trip… you contemplate needing a shit because it's usually a daily occurrence, yet having a cup of tea is kind of last on the list even though it's a regular occurrence throughout the day.
We couldn't find anything in the village of Kimmeridge or Church Knowle, both of which were within spitting distance of the campsite, yet neither had shops that sold the bare essentials. After a four mile drive we came upon Corfe Castle, a village that we were both accustomed to. We found a shop called 'Clealls' that sold everyday essentials as well as a whole heap of real ales I'd never had before… bargain; the only trouble was, we'd have to wait about 40 minutes before it opened. Worth the wait, I was certain of that.
To find out more about Clealls, please click on their logo above.
With it being an absolutely glorious day, we had a good walk around and also sat in the sun, soaking up the atmosphere of the awakening village. Before heading back to Clealls, we'd bought the necessary teabags and milk from a little newsagents in the main square. So, time to see what this shop was selling… it turned out that it had ten real ales I'd not tried before, both from breweries I'd not heard of either, seven ales from the Dorset Piddle Brewery, whilst the other three were by the Isle of Purbeck Brewery.
Unfortunately, the Isle of Purbeck Brewery doesn't seem to have a devoted site so I'll just provide a link to the Dorset Piddle one instead - please click on their logo above.
Back to the campsite for such much needed scran, after all, we'd be up and about since 04:30 and were both famished and parched. Once we'd filled our bellies, we just lay in the sun for quite some time before making the decision to take the tent down and start to make our journey back, taking in a few new places along the way.
It wasn't deliberate but we ended up stopping at Arne, home to an usual landscape where there are vast expanses of open heathland alongside some old oak woodland with a large variety of special wildlife such as the Dartford Warbler, Nightjars and as many as 22 different species of dragonfly. With the reserve overlooking Poole Harbour, there are thousands of wading birds including Avocets, Black-tailed Godwits and Brent Geese in Winter. With so much bird life present, it's inevitable that the reserve is owned and ran by the RSPB.
To find out more about this reserve or others ran by the RSPB, please click on the iconic logo above.
We had one last stop off before continuing homeward bound and that was at the picturesque village of Burley in the New Forest where we bought some Cornish Pasties, a Maple and Pecan swirl and a drink before finding a suitable viewpoint to chill out and eat it.
Friday 21st May 2010 18:43
Tanya had had the slightly pea-brained idea of going camping tonight, in the hope that we could catch a stunning sunrise at Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset. Don't get me wrong, I love camping and have been on some brilliant camping trips in the past, it was just more a case of feeling organised for it all. You have to think about everything… things you don't have to think about when you're in your own cosy home… we're talking about things like toilet roll, extra warmth because the nights are going to be considerably colder and so on.
Anyway, last night we'd both had a hunt around for sites close by and both found a great site on the internet called 'ukcampsite.co.uk', possibly the most informative and comprehensive site of its kind. I guess I'd be stating the obvious saying it covers the whole of the UK but, unlike many other websites that state the whole of the UK, many of them do not cover the whole of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands… this one does.
Not only does it cover the whole of the UK, it has many other assets, such as message forums, features and tips, tent reviews, a section where you can compile your favourite camp sites into your very own virtual brochure and a place where you can announce events and possible meets with other like-minded folk.
We ended up contacting Steeple Leaze Farm, possibly the closest listed campsite to where we wanted to be and by clicking on the ukcampsite logo above, you can find out much more about it as well as navigate the rest of the website.
So, early evening, we headed off to the Purbeck peninsula in Dorset in my newly MOT'd car… yes, since buying it at the end of October last year, this was the first nailbiting MOT it's had to go through. It feels as though the tests become more rigorous as the years go by and, although I hadn't encountered a single problem with it over the past six months or more, I still wasn't holding out much hope for it getting through first time… remarkably, I was wrong, so wrong in fact, the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency deserves a huge mention.
To find out more about the governmental run organisation, please click on the logo above.
Back to camping… we arrived in good time and the campsite was in such an idyllic spot with more than enough room for the 10 pitches that were stated on the website. We still had enough daylight left which meant we weren't tackling the problem of pitching the tent in the dark and, after some logical thinking, the tent was erect and we could enjoy our evening meal whilst watching the sun set and enjoying a few beers… after all tomorrow was an early start, and I mean early.
By the way, for all you budding camping enthusiasts, we were staying in a SunnCamp Platinum Evolution 400 tent, a four berth geodesic dome tent.
Please click on the logo above to find out more about it and other products that the company offer.
Thursday 20th May 2010 21:58
Crikey! This recent spate of 365 photography has meant I've not talked about ale for a week… something is awry and I need to rectify the dilemma immediately.
Actually though, rather than talk about real ale, I'm going to review a couple of rather nice foreign lagers instead. The first 'Singha Lager Beer' is a 5% ABV premium lager brewed by Boon Rawd Brewery, the first brewery in Thailand, set up in 1933 by Boorawd Srethaputra. Full-bodied and light golden in colour, it's a barley malt beer that has a distinctively rich and strong hoppy taste. Not one that I'd go absolutely mental over, especially as I find lagers just too gaseous for my liking, nevertheless it's a great beer for a summer's evening.
For more information about the brewery, please click on the logo above.
So, on to the second of today's imported lagers, this time we visit Poland, the year is 1629 when the Promnice family opens a brewery in Tychy. By 1824, the beer, 'Tyskie' was being bottled for the very first time and by 1861, Jan Henryk XI, the Duke of Pszczyna decided that the brewery needed to be expanded. Near to the turn of the century, a railway line was opened between the brewery and the main station in Tychy which enabled the brewery to become one of the biggest in Europe.
By the time of the early 70s, the production of beer had exceeded one million hectolitres and on the occasion of its 375th anniversary in 2004, the first brewing museum in Poland was opened.
After that impressive resume, I needn't say how good the beer is apart from the fact that it's a beautiful golden colour, has a very distinctive hoppy flavour with a superb thick, white head, oh and it's a respectable 5.6% ABV.
Please click on the logo above to visit the brewery's website.
Wednesday 19th May 2010 20:16
Had a couple of design challenges today and managed to overcome both.
Firstly though, Happy 7th Birthday to my daughter.
The first one was to redraw the Royal Navy's 'rope and anchor' motif. The majority of it was extremely easy, yet the intertwined section of rope was proving to be, what is known as in the business, a bastard. Every time I tried to find a solution, it just ended up getting the better of me, that was until I Googled 'how to draw rope in Illustrator'… the answer to my dreams appeared… a tutorial explaining exactly how it's done, and you know what, I could forgive his Pigeon English.
The tutorial can be found on the Graphic Design Forum which is part of the Mediabistro Creative Network, encapsulating other lifesaving websites such as Brands of the World. There are a whole range of topics that can be discussed via the forum ranging from Web Design, Typography, Printing and Prepress through to discussion boards concentrating solely on application programs such as all the Adobe products, 3D software, Quark and even that shitty arse end program, Corel.
To view the tutorial about drawing rope, simply click on the logo above.
Now for the second challenge… to design a poster for Havant Camera Club's photographic exhibition, 'History & Heritage of Havant'. This will be the summer exhibition I spoke about some weeks ago. Since the exhibition will reflect history, both past and present, I wanted to convey a feeling of ancient and modern so the colours and typography were paramount. There are a good number of landmarks within The Borough of Havant but because the colours I'd chosen were very 40s-50s, I thought that by using my shot of The Orbital sculpture and redrawing it as a contemporary graphic, the two would counterbalance each other.
Anyway, enough of my modesty, click on the thumbnail above to view the PDF, if you so wish.
Tuesday 18th May 2010 13:15
As you may well know, I love the English language, even more so, I love the fun you can have with it. Many of the images in my 'Imaginations' gallery rely on the fact that they're a play on words, some even use object relationships.
I also love the subtle humour you can have with the language and, for some unknown and unbelievably stupid reason, I woke up at 4:30 this morning thinking of circumflexes. I haven't a clue why, I just did. I then thought to myself that if a particular accent had a certain profoundness to it, 'circumflex' would be the one.
Some time ago, I think I actually talked about the various names of the various accents you commonly find with our alphabet such as: acute, grave, breve, caron, cedilla, circumflex, umlaut and so on, well, the collective term for them are diacritics. You don't know? Shows how much YOU pay attention, doesn't it?! Get to the back of the class!
Anyway, in the end, I came up with a statement which I think is incredibly clever, yet it's probably too funny for its own good… and then I designed it as a t-shirt and printed it today.
A visual of what it looks like is above and I wore it yesterday whilst buying a few bits in Morrisons and was met with some very puzzled expressions. Later on, I then wore it at Camera Club and one of the blokes there read it, registered it and then laughed.
Yippee, one person found it funny… time to conquer the fucking world…
Monday 17th May 2010 22:10
I've been as busy as a fish today, working solidly throughout the day, giving myself just enough time to shovel a ham sarnie in my mouth in between time.
Luckily, Tanya had arrived home to take delivery of an exciting object I'd been apprehensively waiting for. I'd ordered this electronic varmint last week and had hoped it would have made its way to me by the weekend… obviously its little legs didn't carry it quick enough.
So there it is, the slimline, aluminium sex wafer… the new Apple Remote. It also comes in its own sexy plastic sheath, although the major downside to it is that it no longer grips nicely to the side of the iMac via the magnetic miracle any more, which, is a pisser.
The original remote was designed to magnetically attach itself to the side of my last iMac which integrated several hidden magnets in the bottom right corner, attracting the battery of the remote. The latest iMacs no longer ship an Apple Remote in the package.
In October 2009 the original white plastic remote was replaced with a thinner and longer aluminium version which was released along with the 27 inch aluminium iMacs and Multi-Touch Magic Mouse. It also adopted a few changes with the six-button layout, one of which was that the buttons became black and embossed within the aluminium.
To find out more about the Apple Remote, please click on the image above.
Sunday 16th May 2010 15:53
Today was a slight nonentity really, mainly because we were recovering from our crack of dawn adventure and the amount of alcohol we'd consumed during the FA Cup Final yesterday. Nevertheless, this gave both of us time to browse through the images we took whilst on our adventure. I knew I had a multitude of images to sort out, including many that I'd taken on our visit to see my parents.
Even though they're all available to view via my 'recent' page, I may as well show them here too, just in case they're missed. So, that's pretty much it really, apart from taking my '365' shot, which can be viewed via the '365' icon on this page, top left.
Please click on any of the thumbnails above to view the gallery's main image.
Saturday 15th May 2010 04:05
Today was all about Portsmouth, in many ways.
Tanya had had the inspired idea of getting up at 4am so that we could explore Old Portsmouth and Gunwharf Quays without the irritation of tourists and shoppers. At 4am though, the idea didn't seem all that inspired, yet we were both awake and decided to grab the bull by its horns.
Apart from having a much-needed cup of tea before driving to the city centre, we set off on our early-morning adventure. We chose to park at Grand Parade car park, literally round the corner from Portsmouth Cathedral. We chose to pay a two hour fee of £2.30, only to find that it's free to park there from 8pm - 6am. Arse.
Grand Parade car park is a short distance away from 'Spice Island', an area of land where great views of the Spinnaker Tower can be seen. That was our aim, to capture the sun rise behind the Tower. Even though it was May, the morning certainly had a chill to it but that wasn't going to put us off.
Once we'd taken the shots we wanted, we then tried to walk around to the Spinnaker Tower, only to find that we couldn't find a way through, so we made the most of The Square, Round Towers and Point Barracks that are along Broad Street. Whilst we were walking around the tops, I noticed an information sign and decided to read it… it wasn't long before I realised that there was a way through to Gunwharf Quays and The Spinnaker Tower on a trail called the Millennium Trail which can be followed via engraved paving stones with a raised chain link pattern in them.
Completed in 2002, Portsmouth's Renaissance project has opened up just short of four miles' worth of promenade walks around the city's harbour, some of which had areas that had been closed off for centuries by naval developments. The waterside promenades have been constructed using high quality materials and the chain motif that has been set into the pavements represents the link between past and present, echoing a time when a chain was drawn across the harbour to ward off invaders.
So, from there, it was just the simple case of following the chain link to The Spinnaker Tower. We took loads of shots on the way there and spent considerable time in and around Gunwharf Quays, taking many shots as we went along.
There are many interesting walks within the Portsmouth area, please click on the logo above to find out more.
From there, we then had some breakfast at the Big Wheel Café at Southsea's famous Clarence Pier and then headed off home for the day's main event… Chelsea Vs Portsmouth in the 129th FA Cup Final, played at Wembley, refereed by Chris Foy.
Top and bottom of it, Chelsea hit the woodwork five times in the first half, one of the shots was saved by David James and appeared to cross the line after he'd tipped it against the crossbar and looked as if it had bounced over the line… luckily, it hadn't. Frederic Piquione also looked as if he'd broken the deadlock after his reflexes allowed him to deflect a shot by Kevin-Prince Boateng; unfortunately Petr Cech's reflexes were an equal match. The teams went into the break at 0-0.
The second half started in pretty much the same way as the first, that was until Pompey were awarded a penalty after Aruna Dindane was brought down by Juliano Belletti. If only the penalty had been taken with the same conviction as the mistimed challenge. Sadly, it wasn't, in fact it had to have been one of the feeblest attempts ever, with Cech managing to save the shot with his feet. Then, four minutes later, in the 59th minute, the game turned when Didier Drogba scored a perfectly placed free-kick, which was the result of Aaron Mokoena's foul on Drogba. His sweetly struck shot hit the post and went in, leaving James no chance at all. Later on in the game, Michael Brown bundled Frank Lampard over, resulting in the second penalty of the final, yet Lampard was unable to convert it and made history by being the first ever player to totally miss the target in an FA Cup Final. So that's how the match ended, 1-0 to Chelsea which meant they'd achieved the double, the first time in the club's history. Even though the outcome was expected, I felt totally gutted for Pompey.
To find out more about the FA Cup, please click on the official programme cover above.
Friday 14th May 2010 14:40
Whilst working on some army-related designs today, I needed to find out what the British Army's camouflage looked like, both in jungle and desert combat. Not only that, it had to be of decent quality so that the visual could be shown to its maximum potential.
After a little scouring around, I found that Manchester's Imperial War Museum is running and exhibition called 'Camouflage' from the 27th March through to the 12th September and admission there is free. Although you may expect it to be nothing more than boring, it actually looks like it's well worth a visit.
The exhibition celebrates the fact that this year marks 95 years since camouflage was first used in warfare by combatants during the First World War. Strangely enough, when it was first introduced, some British soldiers thought it chivalrous.
Over the years, lessons have been learnt from the animal kingdom when creating camouflage patterns. The pattern used by the US Army on some of their uniforms during the Second World War was called the 'frog pattern'.
To find out more about the exhibition or what else is going on in the Imperial War Museum, please click on the logo above.
Thursday 13th May 2010 14:24
Whilst chatting with some of my work colleagues today about real ale, one of them told me about a relatively new wine merchants that had opened in Petersfield some months ago. To say I was dumbfounded that I'd not been aware of it was an understatement, nevertheless, it was an absolute necessity that I went to investigate.
Sure enough, there it was, 'The General Wine Company'… I heard a distant whisper of real ales beckoning me. Although this particular branch has only been trading since November of last year, the company began its life as a single shop back in 1982. Obviously they're mainly an independent wine shipper and merchants whose initial intention was to focus on the wines of France, yet they have now extended their boundaries, so much so, they've embraced the whole world.
I have to say that Hellen, the Retail Advisor who served me, was more than helpful and broke the wonderful news that their real ale stock rotation is frequent… music to my ears.
For more information about the family-run business, please click on the logo above.
One of the beers I bought wasn't actually a real ale, it was a Pilsener lager brewed by Australian-based William Bull Brewery. It was a 5% ABV beer called 'Red Angus Pilsener' and was exceptionally thirst-quenching. The Pilsener that has been brewed using five different malts, gives a different and very full flavour. The spiciness and fruitiness of the ale is down to the use of three classic hops used throughout the process. An excellent summertime ale. Oh, and it comes in a rather sexy shaped bottle too.
Please click on the said sexy bottle to find out more about Red Angus.
Wednesday 12th May 2010 23:20
After several days of talking about the '365 - An image a day' project, I can finally declare that the gallery is officially open. Rather than include it within my main gallery or as a special featured gallery, I thought that it belonged in my blog section. Why? I don't know, so don't ask me, it just does and that's the end of that.
Having designed a special logo a few days ago, I made a few final tweaks to it and, as you can see by the screen shot above, it sits in a special place, all on its own, so even if you choose to view the images in an inebriated state, you needn't worry about your aim.
Secondary to the '365' gallery, I decided it was high time to change the rollover button for the site's navigation… I suddenly became inspired and thought that four arrows pointing to the very centre of the circles, almost stating 'you are here', would be nothing short of a design masterpiece.
Hopefully, these subtle changes won't make you feel as though I've moved the settee against a different wall so that watching the television becomes a strain, just more a case of plumping up the cushions.
Tuesday 11th May 2010 20:23
There was an exceptional talk at Havant Camera Club tonight, given by Brighton & Hove member, Steve Boyle ARPS. He covered the subject of 'justifying images' and what constitutes a valid photograph.
Anyway, during his talk he mentioned many art forms, pop art, impressionist, abstract, surrealism and so on. It had to be one of the most interesting talks I've heard at the club, particularly as it all made perfect sense.
One of the artists he discussed was Henri Matisse, a French artist known for his use of vibrant colours. He was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, France on the 31st December 1869 and died at the ripe old age of 84 on the 3rd November 1954.
Primarily known as a painter, he was also a draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. Along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, Matisse is regarded as one of the three seminal artists of the 20th century, responsible for changing the way art was looked upon and developed.
Incredibly, there isn't an official website for Matisse so I wanted to share one of my favourite pieces of art by him. During the early to mid 40s, he was in poor health and by 1950 he'd stopped painting in favour of his gouaches découpées. Many of them represented female nudes either seated or standing and 'The Blue Nudes' became a major series of Matisse's final pieces of work, known as the cutouts.
Monday 10th May 2010 12:27
Back to work and back to talking to talking about graphic-related stuff… stumbled upon a very cool font site today, one that provides the sort of fonts that seem to continuously evade (and probably avoid) us.
Their message is simple; the site is your best resource for FREE, hand-picked, highquality, commercial-use fonts, even if it means we send you elsewhere to get them. Free fonts have met their match. They know how hard it is to find quality freeware that is licensed for commercial work. They'd done the hard work, hand-selecting these typefaces and presenting them in an easy-to-use format.
To find out more, click on the incredibly cool logo above which, incidentally uses a font called MEgalopolis Special, and is available via the website.
Sunday 9th May 2010 09:14
Whilst taking a cup of tea up to Tanya this morning, I spotted a shot that I was going to use for my '365' project… a quick nip back downstairs with what I'd spotted, used the daylight in the kitchen to its full potential and took about three shots… the one below being my favourite.
Since we'd neglected all household duties for some weeks, it was certainly time for a spring clean and, inasmuch as I'm chief of bathroom duties, I'd decided it was high time I needed a suitable implement to clean the tiles and the floor, instead of looking like some bearded Cinderella with a bald head and beer gut, on my hands and knees trying to scrub piss and clinkers off the very floor I was kneeling on.
A trip to ASDA was on the cards, plus it would mean that I could keep my masculinity intact by buying a mop-like utensil but filling the shopping basket with loads of beers to make me look hard as nails. I came away a happy man for not only had I bought six great beers, I'd also found a mop that looked reasonable. I had a back-up plan in place though, had anyone called me a big girl's blouse for buying it. The story was this… I'm going to go home and down these six beers as fast as I can, the mop's there just in case I puke up. Convincing eh?
Anyway, I ended up buying something called 'Bath Magic System' by Vileda, it has an extendable handle, a swivel hexagonal head and has a detachable non scratching sponge… what more could you ask for? Just in case you haven't had your fill of information, it also has a special anti-limescale reusable cloth and it made up of 35% viscose, 25% cotton, 15% polyester, 25% rubber, abrasive.
For more information, you just know you want to click on the logo above.
Several beers were supped later in an attempt to cleanse myself of being a girl, whilst keeping an eye on the last day of the Premiership season's results come in… delighted to see that Bolton beat Birmingham City 2-1 at the Reebok and finished in a fairly satisfying 14th place, avoiding relegation by a comfortable margin in the end.
Saturday 8th May 2010 14:46
Having 'phoned my Dad to wish him a happy birthday, we set off out on another jolly caper. Out of the blue, I'd suggested we drove around Chidham peninsula, since we'd only ever been around there once before which was back in September of last year.
The Oxford book of place names gives the name Chidham as being derived from the Old English word, 'ceod', meaning a bag or pouch and 'ham' meaning a settlement. Chidham being, the pouch-like bag settlement, probably describing the shape of the peninsula.
The latest publication of the Oxford dictionary of British Place Names can be bought via the Waterstones website by clicking on the logo below. Incidentally, you may also notice that Waterstones have undergone a new corporate identity…
Anyway, back to Chidham and Hambrook, as the area is known. The whole peninsula is home to a network of public footpaths, a beautiful shoreline and the intertidal mudflats of Chichester Harbour. Despite the land being virtually flat and predominantly agricultural, there is an ample variety of wildlife found throughout the area. With beautiful countryside and Chichester Harbour on the doorstep, the peninsula is abundant with popular activities such as walking, horseriding and sailing.
Whilst driving around, we visited The Parish Church of St. Mary's in Chidham which was built with flint and rubble and dates from the 13th century, with evidence pointing to it being constructed around 1210. The Parish have adopted that year as to when it was built and are therefore celebrating its 800 anniversary this year.
In celebration of the 800 year milestone, the Friends of the Chidham Churches have commissioned local artist, Mel Howse, to design a stained glass window. She is based in Chichester and her portfolio includes work for Chichester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, Lancing College Chapel, Boxgrove Priory and many more. She is an Associate Member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and has been a Member of the Chichester Diocesan Advisory Council since 2004.
To visit her website, please click on the logo above.
Friday 7th May 2010 11:33
It was officially the last day of our holiday today so we were determined to do something with it, however trivial it might be. We decided to go with the good old faithful haunt, Emsworth, none more so than the Mill Pond… you see, we have been foolish enough to become roped into what will undoubtedly become an obsession for the both of us.
The mission has been named '365' and now that I've revealed its name, I'm sure it won't take a detective to work out what it might be. On the night that Tanya chose to go to Camera Club whilst I watched the Chelsea v Bolton game, there was a guest speaker named Ken Scott who talked about a project of his called '365'.
As of January 1st this year, he was up to 731 images… and counting. Basically, he set himself the task of taking a picture a day. On his own website he states, "I sense this thing becoming a lifelong habit. Not as a project in itself any longer, but a daily discipline, rather like meditation or yoga or training for sport: essential practice."
So there you have it, we began ours on May 1st, along with eight other friends from the PhotoPortal forum. I've yet to find a suitable area to house mine, although including it as a link on this very blog seems the obvious choice… it may mean I end up having two obsessions now… blogging each day and taking an image each day as well. I'm mad aren't I? (Can't believe you bothered asking - Ed)
At the moment I can reveal the logo (see above) that will grace the gallery and also provide thumbnails of my first week's worth of shots (see above but slightly lower than the first 'see above')… once I'm up-to-date with my blog, I shall concentrate on putting this gallery in place.
Thursday 6th May 2010 12:40
We decided to take today relatively easily, even though we knew that our weekly shop was on the cards. After being relatively unsuccessful with our bluebell hunt in Rivington yesterday, Tanya asked that I conducted an internet search, in the hope that somewhere local would be brought up… sure enough, we couldn't have asked for somewhere more local if we'd tried.
Hollybank Woods is where we headed, literally five minute's drive away, on the outskirts of Emsworth. It's quite some time since we walked in there and, upon doing so today, we hadn't actually realised just how huge an area it covers.
The woods mark the southern boundary of the once extensive Forest of Bere (originally 'Baer', meaning swine pasture in Saxon), and are part of the larger Southleigh Forest. Remarkably, the woods date back to the original wildwoods of Britain (between 7000BC and 4000BC) making it of utmost importance and essential for wildlife species specific to such habitats.
If you would like to find out more about the Forestry Commission, please click on the logo above.
Easily accessible from the top of Hollybank Lane, the woods is the largest untouched natural area within Emsworth, covering approximately 61 hectares of mainly deciduous broadleaved woodland such as Silver Birches, Oaks, Beeches, Hollies and coppiced Hazel and Sweet Chestnut.
The large Oaks, some of which are estimated to be 400-500 years old, grow throughout the woodland and were originally planted close to Yew to encourage tall, straight trunks for shipbuilding, making the Yews some of the oldest in Hampshire, estimated to be more than a 1,000 years old. Other conifers include Norway Spruce, Scots Pine and Western Red Cedar.
For more information about the Forest of Bere and Hollybank Woods, please click on the logo above.
Before we embarked upon the menial task of our weekly shop, we enjoyed a leisurely alfresco lunch at The Pavilion Tearooms within the grounds of Stansted House.
Wednesday 5th May 2010 16:10
As with every visit up north, blink and your time has gone. Yes, it was time for us to make the rail journey back down south. We'd pretty much packed the night before, giving us time to choose somewhere local to visit before heading over to Wigan for our train.
Since the beautiful area of Rivington is right on my parent's doorstep, it seemed the obvious place to go. Even though I'd lived in this area for almost 30 years, there are huge areas of Rivington and Anglezarke that remain unexplored for me and we've since decided that on our next visit, we stick to the immediate area.
We parked up in Rivington Village and walked up to the church. Founded before 1541, a very unusual feature of the building is that it isn't dedicated to any saint or martyr, simply referred to as, 'Rivington Church'. Despite being classed as part of Chorley Borough, it was part of the parish of Bolton until Rev. Thomas Sutcliffe made it a parish in its own right in October 1856.
We were lucky enough to be able to go into the church whilst we were there, something I'd never done before so took full advantage by taking lots of shots of the interior.
We then walked through the village and on to the Lower Barn where we had a good look around the gift shop where Tanya bought a few things. Both the Lower Barn and Rivington Hall Barn are located on land that was once part of the Manor of Rivington, which was held by the Pilkington family from 1202 until 1605. It went on to be owned by several distinguished families until William Hesketh Lever purchased it in 1900, who went on to become Lord Leverhulme.
It was Lord Leverhulme who developed the majority of the woodlands and gardens in the whole of the Rivington area with Lever Park being officially opened on the 10th October 1911. The construction of a scale replica of Liverpool Castle began on the eastern side of the Lower Rivington Reservoir, overlooking Cross' Creek. The castle was built between 1912 and 1925 by a handful of stonemasons and labourers, although with the event of Leverhulme's death, it was never completed, even though it was intended to be a ruin to recreate a period in Liverpool's history. Slightly ironic, I guess. Strangely enough, our walk took us along the main road until we joined the path that leads down to Liverpool Castle.
To find out more about Rivington's Barns, please click on the logo above.
Our walk then took us alongside the reservoir, heading back towards where we had parked. The route took us through an area of woodland that has been developed into a Go Ape! High Wire Forest Adventure Park. Despite there being huge uproar at the time about the fact that 21 trees had to be felled in its wake, the whole area has been done very sympathetically, in my opinion.
There are some 26 courses dotted across the UK with more to follow in both the UK and beyond… their plan is to have 40 courses open by 2012. The idea for Go Ape originated in 2001 when Tris and Becs Mayhew were holidaying in the French region of Auvergne. They witnessed a family swinging through the trees, and from the looks on their faces, they were having a great time… it was from that moment that they decided to quit their London jobs and pursue the Go Ape idea.
To find out more about the course at Rivington, or to find the nearest one to you, please click on the logo above.
We managed to get home, have a quick bite to eat and then it was a case of getting to Wigan North West station in good time so we could catch the 16:10 train to London Euston. We said our fond farewells and boarded the train… hate that moment where we have to say goodbye… always feel teary, especially as it will probably be some months before we see my parents again.
We were fortunate enough to be travelling on a Virgin Train's 'Pendolino', and in a Quiet Zone as well, despite the fact that some pissed up Irishman decided it wasn't a Quiet Zone, stating, "I'll be as fucking noisy as I fucking like". Luckily he got off at Warrington, the only stop between WIgan and London. No sooner had he departed when some knob behind us decided to have a full-length conversation about fuck all with someone… that was until Tanya stepped him and ticked him off. Peace at last.
Anyway, other than the cretins who were out to spoil our journey, the train itself was absolutely amazing, taking just 01:58:00 to complete. Incredible… especially as it takes the same amount of time to travel from Blackburn to Farnworth…
For more information about Virgin Trains, please click on the logo above.
We finally arrived home at around 20:30, just in time for the third episode of Monty Halls' Great Hebridean Adventure.
Tuesday 4th May 2010 12:32
After spending the day in beautiful countryside yesterday, we had chosen to spend today in a beautiful city, Chester to be precise.
Chester is the county town of Cheshire and lies on the River Dee, close to the Welsh border. Although very small in comparison to most cities, Chester was granted its city status in 1541. The Romans originally founded the city as Deva Victrix as far back as 70 AD and suggestions have been made that because the Romans built a fortress far larger than those found in London (Londinium), their intention was to make Chester the capital of the Roman Province of Britannia Superior. Anyway, whether this information is entirely true is another matter, all I do know is that Chester is an incredibly cosmopolitan city.
We started our tour of the city by visiting the Cathedral. I was convinced I'd been in before, only to find I'd not, although a £6.00 entrance was rather steep. Since we'd made the journey, it was only right to part with the cash though.
Chester Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England Diocese of Chester and is a Grade I listed building. Its history spans almost two thousand years and, according to legend, a prehistoric Druid temple existed on this site, which was succeeded by a Roman temple dedicated to Apollo.
There is an absolute plethora of interesting facts that shroud the city and the cathedral yet I shall share some 'did you knows' about the cathedral instead.
There is a huge amount of woodcarving to be found within the cathedral, look out for the Elephant and Castle because the woodcarver has given the elephant horse's hooves, having never seen an elephant.
High up in the clerestory windows of the Nave lies The Chester Imp, a carved representation of the Devil in chains, put up there to warn the Devil off by sending him the message that he would know what would happen to him if he dared to return.
At the west end of the Refectory is a Creation Window, designed by Rosalind Grimshaw. Installed in 2001, it represents the Genesis account of the six days of Creation in the upper lights, whilst the lower ones illustrate a more contemporary version.
For more information about the stunning cathedral please click on the logo above.
It's taken me quite some time to redraw the Chester Cathedral logo because I have since found out that the font used was a bespoke one, designed specifically for every tourist attraction related to Chester. The font, 'Exclusively Cheshire' was designed by Manchester-based multimedia company, Access and the typography usually features alongside a quatrefoil. So there you have it, now you know.
By the time we'd had a good exploration of the cathedral, it was time to fill our stomachs with some much needed food. Rather than spend far too long choosing where to eat, we all agreed that Meze, a Greek/Turkish bar and restaurant looked as good a place as any, especially as it was on the higher floor of the historic Rows which meant we could dine alfresco whilst watching the world go by on the streets below.
Judging by the reviews on the internet, it seems a favourite place to dine for most locals. Although the food was excellent, the service was somewhat poor, nevertheless, it's a place I'd thoroughly recommend.
Please click on the logo above to visit their website - it appears as if it may be under construction.
From there, we all then enjoyed a walk around the city centre and along the city walls, just soaking up the atmosphere and the sun (remarkably, it's been sunny every day we've been up north). Whilst walking around, I discovered another shop that sold alcohol called, Chester Whisky & Liqueur Company Ltd, situated on the top floor of the Rows on Bridge Street (You have a habit of sniffing these places out - Ed). All excited, I had to go in, and am so glad I did… another new brewery discovered, this one being the Frodsham Brewery based at the town of Frodsham in Cheshire. I ended up buying four of their ales, '1'st Lite' ABV 3.8%, 'Aonach' ABV 4.9%, 'Froda's Ale' ABV 4.2% and 'Splash!' ABV 3.9%.
For more information about the brewery, please click on any one of the beer labels above.
Monday 3rd May 2010 21:09
Despite it being a Bank Holiday, we'd decided to head off to one of North Yorkshire's main tourist spots, Malham Cove. Even though my Dad's well-planned route soon evaded us, we ended up driving on a stunning route that took us on a road out of a quaint little town called Settle, towards the village of Malham. In fact, it was that nice, we decided to stop and park up so that we could enjoy the packed lunch we'd taken with us. Before we did though, Tanya and I had a good old exploration of the limestone landscape that showcased the occasional windswept trees.
After filling our faces, we then drove on to Malham, managing to take full advantage of a temporary car park that a farmer had opened with a £3 fee for the whole day. Very reasonable and very convenient, particularly as it was literally a halfway house between Malham Cove and Malham Village.
Since it would inevitably require more energy, we decided to head to the Cove first and even though I visited it as a child, my memories of it were significantly different to what it's actually like. The good thing was, it was quite a marvel, especially seeing the nutters scaling the immense face of it. Just in case you're wondering what the Cove actually is, it's a curved amphitheatre of carboniferous limestone formed after the last Ice Age and stands at over 80 metres high and 300 metres wide, so, in geological terms, it's a big fuck off bit of rock.
My Mum and I decided to brave the 400+ steps to the top so that we could witness the 'Limestone Pavement' that runs across the top of the Cove and since my Dad still hadn't fully recovered from his last chest infection and the fact that Tanya suffers with unpredictable vertigo, they both chose to stay on terra firma whilst we went on the epic climb. The views from the summit were absolutely stunning and worth every step because it's not a particularly easy climb if you run at it like a bull in a china shop.
Since the area doesn't have a definitive website, please click on the Yorkshire Dales above to find out much more about the whole area.
Once back down, we all headed for Malham Village, home to some idyllic stone houses and a handful of shops. It also has the added bonus of having two pubs, despite the fact that it's a very small village, so it was a case of choosing between The Buck Inn (Theakston's) or The Lister Arms (Thwaites)… Thwaites won. Even though The Lister Arms served 'Summat Special', we all opted for a cream tea in the end. I'm at that age where afternoon drinking zonks me out, and as appealing as a pint would have been, I decided against.
The pub is very nice indeed and has a more than reasonable tariff for bed and breakfast, please click on the logo above to find out more.
From there, we had a brief walk around the village, visiting quite a cool gift shop, full of some very interesting things, unlike the usual crap that they're filled with. The journey wasn't complete without a quick visit to the equally impressive Gordale Scar (you are able to do a circular walk from the Cove but it would have meant doing it on my own). Tanya actually preferred this location to the Cove itself and in some respects, I could see why.
The Scar is a huge gorge which was formed during the Ice Ages, where melt water created a cavern that eventually collapsed, revealing the waterfall and gorge visible now, which also includes the smooth rocks formed by Tufa deposits.
Information about the Scar can also be found by clicking on the Yorkshire Dales logo above.
Rather than drive straight back home, we called in on the beautiful village of Grassington. It amazes me that whenever we go and visit my parents, there's always a new place that they find for us to visit. Believe you me, it's not like I didn't explore the north when I lived there, it's more a case of there being some truly wonderful places to visit.
We arrived home quite late and because we'd stuffed our faces so much during the day, we ended up having Potato Cakes for tea… something Tanya had never heard of!
Sunday 2nd May 2010 11:00
We had some free time this morning, so it gave Tanya and I the opportunity to catch up on last night's Doctor Who, which was very entertaining indeed; it was the concluding two-part episode about The Weeping Angels.
Soon after we finished watching it, we all sat down for our main meal of the day since we'd planned to spend the remaining part of the day on the Fylde Coast, in the hope that we'd be able to catch a sunset at Crosby, home of Antony Gormley's 'Another Place'.
Because we were going out that little bit later, it meant that Tanya and I could catch up with last night's 'Prisoner'. Written by Bill Gallagher, directed by Nick Hurran and produced by Trevor Hopkins, the reinvention of the 60s classic cult thriller stars Jim Caviezel as Number Six and Sir Ian McKellen as Number Two.
The original series, which debuted in 1967, was created, produced, written and directed by Patrick McGoohan, who also starred in the lead role as Number Six. For those of you who are too young to remember the first series (I am but became obsessed with the re-run a good few years ago), the storyline follows a man who finds himself trapped in a strange and somewhat sinister place called 'The Village'. He has absolutely no idea how he arrived there and, upon trying to find answers, he soon finds out that its inhabitants have no memory of a former existence. In desperation, he tries to find out the truth behind The Village and some way to escape to his previous life.
For more information, please click on the logo above.
After we'd finished having our heads screwed, we set off out for the day, visiting Ainsdale Beach first. It's part of Sefton's Natural Coast and is famous for having the largest area of natural sand dunes within the British Isles. The coastline stretches out for over 22 miles and is close to the popular towns of Crosby, Formby, Ainsdale and the very popular tourist resort, Southport. As well as sand dunes, the area also comprises of stunning beaches, woodland and farmland and is a haven for flora and fauna.
I could sing the praises of the area for quite some time, yet I think it would be easier for you to click on the logos both above and below to find out more about the area and its local council.
Once we'd had a good walk around the dunes, we rewarded ourselves with an ice-cream before heading off to our next port of call, Formby Point, another area of coastline that falls within Sefton's Natural Coast and is home to a large red squirrel sanctuary, ran by The National Trust. Unfortunately the trip was marred by two things; the first was a lack of red squirrel sightings due to a recent outbreak of the Squirrel Pox virus (I kid you not) so therefore we didn't see a single fluffy-tailed critter, yet the area appeared to attract a clan of teenage vermin, you know the ones… the ones that just don't give a fuck about anything and think it's funny to ruin everyone else's enjoyment. Is it my age or do teenagers possess complete arrogance and total disrespect for anything of any worth? They should all be culled.
Rather than direct you to The National Trust website for Formby Point red squirrel sanctuary, I wanted to promote the awareness of just how critical it is to do everything we can to save the red squirrels from possible extinction. Please click on the logo below to find out more.
Our third port of call took us to Crosby, home of some 100 cast iron figures that all face out to sea and spread over a 2 mile (3.2km) stretch of beach. Each figure is over 6ft tall and weighs over 100st. First exhibited on the beach of Cuxhaven, Germany in 1997, the sculpture was due to be relocated in New York in 2006, however, there was a controversial proposal to keep it at Crosby.
The last time I visited here was with my children and it was one of the very last times I saw them so the visit was poignant in many ways, especially as my daughter will turn seven years old this month. Tanya and I covered virtually every inch of the beach, both of us walking down to the water's edge (it was low tide). The sunset seemed to take an absolute eternity to happen, and when it did, the bastard thing found its way behind some low cloud cover and disappeared for good, nevertheless, we're both absolutely certain we've captured some excellent shots.
We managed to fit a whistle-stop visit of Southport in on the way home, for we'd been singing its praises all day and what better way to view it than when all the lights are on at night. Lord Street looked absolutely magical and we have to spend a day there next time we take a trip up north.
To find out more about England's classic resort, please click on the logo above.
Saturday 1st May 2010 19:31
Before we headed off on our adventure today, Tanya and I visited Blackrod Library, not because we had a sudden urge to hire books out or conduct some research, it was all to do with a collage that is permanently on display there. The large piece of artwork was created by several members of the Blackrod Art Group and depicts a view of Blackrod, Horwich and beyond, including the dominant backdrop of Rivington with its iconic Pike, as well as the television mast that stands on Winter Hill.
Unfortunately, Blackrod Art Group don't have a website to visit so I'll just include an image of the collage below.
Once back, we all went to the small, yet thriving Lancashire market town of Clitheroe which lies just north of Blackburn (What, you and all the Art Group? - Ed). It's strange, because although I've driven through the town on numerous occasions, I'd never actually stopped to have a look around, especially as I'd have expected the appeal of the town to entice me… ah well, all the more for a new adventure today.
We parked up and made our way through the town to the castle. My Mum said that she recalled walking up to it when I was a toddler, since then though, its walls have been opened and you're able to 'explore' the ruin. I loosely use the term 'explore' for it's literally a stone box room with two doors, and that's about it. Nevertheless, the views of Pendle and the surrounding area are exceptional. Whilst at the castle, we all briefly enjoyed listening to a couple of numbers by Wilf Nuttall and his band for it was the weekend of the Ribble Valley Jazz Festival.
In hindsight, I was slightly disappointed that we didn't find more time to sit and listen to more of the jazz so it may be a case of booking the same week off next year, in the hope that we can. For more information about the event, please click on the logo below.
From there, we made our way back into town, on the hunt for somewhere to eat. It was a glorious day, making it impossible not to eat anywhere other than a beer garden… The Rose and Crown it was. We all ordered our lunch, Tanya and I both opting for the Egg and Cress sandwiches, whilst we were all tempted with a Thwaites ale I'd never had the pleasure of tasting before. Named in typical Lancashire fashion, 'Summat Special' is a 4.3% ABV caramel-coloured ale that has a distinct sweet and creamy taste with a superb bitter aftertaste. It has to go down as one of the best ales I have ever tasted… incredibly moreish and most definitely a session ale.
To find out more about Thwaites Brewery, please click on the pump clip below.
After feeling podged and somewhat sleepy from the beer and food, we made our way back to the car, stopping at various shops along the way, one of which was D. Byrne & Co., a fine wine and spirit merchants (Wondered what happened to Talking Heads - Ed).
As we walked in, we all noticed how the bottles were in racks from the wooden floorboard right up to the ceiling… a proper shop. It wasn't long before I had sniffed out the real ale section, quickly realising that a small fortune could be spent, with around 20-30 beers I had never had.
At first I thought, "Bollocks" and had the pressure of some seriously strategical thinking about the whole ordeal, finally realising that not one of the new breweries could be left out, that would be sacrilege. I ended up buying eight bottles, 'Sky Dancer' by The Bowland Brewery, 'Pure Blonde' by George Wright Brewery, 'Tod's Blonde' by Little Valley Brewery, 'Barm Cake Bitter' by Garthela Brewhouse, 'Challenger IPA' by Copper Dragon Brewery, 'Doff Cocker' by Three B's Brewery, 'Pinnacle Blonde' by Naylor's Brewery and finally 'T'owd Tup' by Dent Brewery. It all came to just shy of £16.00 and I left there a very happy man… another visit is on the cards for next time we're up north!
On the way back home, we stopped off at Back-ridge Farm, just up the road from Bashall Eaves, home of Bashall Barn. It's a rather large complex, on a somewhat similar vein to Bashall Barn, welcoming more independent traders as opposed to Bashall Barn. Anyway, we stopped at 'The Plate', a country restaurant at the farm, and each ordered a cake and a hot drink.
For more information about the fantastic retail and leisure destination set in the heart of the Ribble Valley, please click on the logo below.
Later on in the evening, after a long wind down at home, we had our bi-annual meet with friends Ian and Janet and Joe and Vicky; on this occasion it was at Leo's Italian Restaurant in Horwich. Bizarrely enough, I never knew it existed, even though it had been there for a good number of years. I remembered it when it used to be Ferretti's, a sort of 60s style café that had typical American Diner seating and an antiquated jukebox. Their cups of tea and coffee were renown for going straight through you, although one great thing about the place was that you could buy single cigarettes, which, as a schoolchild, was more than appealing. It became quite a haunt for a large number of us who used to walk down there during our dinner hour from our school, Rivington & Blackrod High School.
Anyway, I digress… we had a lovely evening despite the fact that we all seemed to be somewhat subdued. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, yet Tanya was disappointed with her main course. I'd ordered 'Costolette Marco Polo' which were meaty spare ribs in a tangy barbecue sauce, whilst Tanya had the 'Melone', a chilled seasonal melon topped with fruit coulees. For main course I ordered 'Farfalle Romana' a dish with pepperoni, onions, garlic, tomato and a hint of chilli - it was absolutely superb, yet Tanya's Cannelloni Fiorentina didn't live up to her expectations.
At the end of the evening Ian and Janet kindly gave us a lift home and I managed to catch MOTD before retiring for the night.
