Cathedral Hopping

All right, so I'm a sad git who's got nothing better to do than wander off on day trips to take photos of large ornate buildings that I don't even believe in the general purpose of.

But whatever your thoughts on the church are (THE church? Sorry, I should say 'religion in general' and not be denominationist!), you can't deny they are magnificent structures with fascinating things in and on them, and are always beautifully decorated. Like Chichester, here, with a detailed little bronze in front of the rather spectacular Chagal window.


(Mildly embarrassing admission: I forgot to take note of the sculpture's artist, so please correct this so that he/she can be properly credited, ta!)

And there's a nice garden round the back (The Bishop's Garden), where you can get a nice leafy view of the spire. Unfortunately you can't get up it, though, unlike Salisbury, which is a pity, but still.

And the Roman stuff at Fishbourne is rather good, too.

So where next?*


*Obviously not Winchester, Canterbury, Bristol, Clifton, Either Liverpool, Rochester, St. Albans, Southwark, Westminster, St.Paul's, York, Either Norwich or Portsmouth. Trips to Chelmsford, St. Edmundsbury and Lincoln are in planning (as Lincoln's a nice city, and deserves a weekend, I think!), and Durham won't let you take pictures and is a way away for a day trip - like Truro. And will be going to Paris soon....

Your suggestions, then?
(Preferably ones that do not have the word 'Off' in them, please)

Puppets!

Ohh look, another of these loony events in London to go look at. and the sun is shining, many yays!

It's the Covent garden May Faire and Puppet festival, to commemorate Samual Peep's first sight of Punch on May 9th in 1662.

- or as we see it now, a good excuse to go take some photos of politically incorrect Punch & Judy shows, clowns and other odd strangenesses, like Maypole dancing, if your tastes run to that sort of thing.

And of course, visits to the pub, because it was very warm and taking pictures is hot work.

And where else do you get to see Goth puppets?

Up To Date. Finally.

For those of you who peruse this morass of bad English via RSS, you may find this, and sod all else. But the posts have been backdated, so go and read them properly.

Go on, get a move on and leave some sarcastic comments...

(Pretty please!)

More Ecclesiastic Visiting...

Ah, a Bank Holiday weekend, the sheer bliss of no work for 3 whole days, much yayness!

And what's this? Christ, it's the SUN. On a Bank Holiday weekend. It's a miracle! This calls for a day out...

And where better than to the lovely city of Salisbury on the train, to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, the city itself, and yes, you guessed it, the cathedral with it's absolutely huge spire. It's rather good inside as you can see from the piccy just over there. No, up THERE, not the one with the dirty great stones in it you fool! Honestly, some people...

Anyway, what a lovely day out. if a bit breezy up that spire. And I should point out the spire tour is well worth it, you get to see and learn about all sorts of interesting bits, see the bells, and squeeze on the the balconies round the spire. Your correspondent had some difficulty with the latter due to being a fat bastard slightly overcorpulent, and carrying a large rucksack filled with camera bits. (And chocolate, naturally).

And even better the Stonehenge (see below!)

tour bus stops at the railway station, so there's not even any effort involved in getting it.
(no - The BUS, you filthy minded lot!)

Actually the day out saw -two- cathedrals, as the foundations of the old Cathedral are still on show at old Sarum. At least the foundation stones are anyway.


So that's 19 cathedrals down*, and err, quite a lot to go. (Exeter, Birmingham, Oxford, Chester & both Liverpools need photographic evidence, so will need re-visiting, and Rochester need to be entered, not just looked at from outside Bah. So that's only a dozen. Bugger. Some more trips for the summer, then)


* The others, for reference are Bristol, Clifton (bleugh!), Both Norwiches, Westmister, Southwalk, St. Paul's, Canterbury, Winchester, Portsmouth, St. Albans, and York Minster. I've probably seen a few others (Chichester, Hereford and Coventry, for instance) but have no clear recollection of them due to being knee high to a grasshopper and and almost certainly not interested anyway at the time)

More Rollergirls!

Two lots of them, in fact, as ahead of the Championship Final (Suffra Jets 97 - 73 Steam Rollers, well played both teams!), we also had the bonus of the Ultraviolent Femmes taking on our German visitors, the Barockcity Rollerderby, who got rather hammered by the much more experienced team (171 -15), but fought gamely and certainly didn't disgrace themselves - Look forward to seeing them back, stronger and hungrier next time.
Mucho credits to all the ladies, and all at the LRG for putting on quite a show. I was privileged to be an official photographer this time, and although not on top form with the camera, still enjoyed it hugely.

you can see the pics on Flickr Here

And some more lesser ones on Facebook Here, and Here too.

Enjoy. I did. (Until I had to heft all that crap back home, of course. And my little S51 compact camera is also missing, so if anyone finds it there's beer money available for it's return. Ta)

Easter Break

It's Easter! And for those of us who don't have religious devotions to attend to, this means a holiday! (And, of course, hollow chocolate things which disappear down the gullet with alarming rapidity, further expanding the waistline).

So where to go? Oh the Isle of Wight looks nice, let's sod off down the motorway in the car to see some of the sights. And what happens? As is traditional, it rains.

Fortunately only on the Saturday morning, though, it was OK on the Sunday and rather nice on Bank Holiday Monday. As you can see from the piccy.

Shanklin beach. Sandy. Sunny. Quiet...

...and the water was bloody freezing!

Light & Magic

A little story for you all - it's on the Flickr page (just click on the photo), I'm not retyping all that drivel here.

And yes, I will backdate some updates soon, with pictures.
And Talking of Pictures, here's the rest from Bexhill

Are you all still there? And Breathing?
No? Ah bugger it ;)