Tag: buildings

Gamla Stan

The latest post in my series about my holiday in Sweden.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. Readers of my previous post will recall that I alluded briefly to a waterside walk that started and finished at Gamla Stan. This post tells the story of that walk. I also included some pictures from the city of Stockholm in the first post in this series.

AT GAMLA STAN

Although it is on what is classed as an underground railway the station at Gamla Stan is actually slightly elevated, so that you exit it by going down to street level. It had always been in my plans to do some exploring around Gamla Stan and the sight of the waterside was enough to decide exactly what I would be doing…

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THE WALK

I crossed the water and was delighted to find a waterside path on the other side, which I duly set off along it.

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The bridge in the distance became my target – I envisaged crossing it and heading back along the other side.

Another facet of Stockholm well shown up during this walk is how many cliffs there are.

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Approaching the bridge that I had marked out as my first target I found the water narrowing…

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As you will see from the next set of pictures the view from the bridge gave me reason to believe that I could fulfill my plan of walking back along the other side of the water.

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Although I located this path without difficulty it soon swung away from the water, and not long after that it became plain that the only waterside route was the one I had already taken, so I crossed a small pedestrian bridge to head back along that path. I paid close attention to the boats this time round, rather than picturing just a few…

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I crossed one last bridge and headed back to Gamla Stan station to resume my travels, having thoroughly enjoyed my exploration of the heart of Stockholm.

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How’s that for making the bridge accessible?

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Exploring Malmo

The latest in my series of blog posts about my recent holiday in Sweden.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my recent holiday in Sweden.

STARTING THE DAY

Once I had followed instructions for ensuring the cleaners knew that my bed was reserved for another night and made sure that none of the stuff I was leaving in the dorm room would get in their way it was time to set off to explore Malmo, although my first photograph of the day was taken before I had left the building:

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HEADING TO THE CENTRE OF MALMO

The first major building I spotted on my way towards the town centre was the public library (Stad Bibliotek in Swedish):

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Arriving at the first of many waterways I took a brief walk in the opposite direction along it to the one I was ultimately going to be headed in (deliberately so)…

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Then I faced a choice between staying with the road or going by way of the Gamla Kyrkogarden (old churchyard – gamla = old, kyrko has the same meaning as the Scottish kirk, and the g in Swedish is usually pronounced as an English y, giving ‘yarden’ or removing the last two letters, yard), I naturally chose the latter)

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This building, spotted as I was leaving Gamla Kyrkogarden was very impressive:

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It was at this point that I got my first sight of a notable feature of Malmo…

BRONZE SCULPTURES

I have not seen anything quite like these elsewhere:

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At this stage I was heading towards the station, to visit the supermarket to buy food before continuing my explorations. However, I was not by any means hurrying, and was still getting plenty of pictures…

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This remarkable clockface is in the covered market adjoining the station, by way of which one can access the supermarket.

Leaving the supermarket I headed for more water, deciding to see as much waterside as I could contrive…

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Still envisaging being able to make this a circular walk, avoiding retracing my steps, I continued on, sticking as close to the water as possible.

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I was not ultimately able to stay at the waterside the whole time – I soon found myself in a light industrial development and obliged to temporarily head away from the water, but I got back to a waterside location to eat my lunch…

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I began to head in the general direction of the hostel, although my day’s photography was by no means done…

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My first photo of the day was taken at the hostel, and so was this, my last photo of the day.

 

 

Preparing for Inlandsbanan – Stockholm to Kristinehamn

The long-awaited resumption of my series of posts about Sweden. This one sets the scene for a number of posts about my travels on Inlandsbanan.

INTRODUCTION

It has been a long while since I last created a post, but I am now ready to go again with my accounts of my trip to beautiful Sweden. Having spent a very enjoyable few days in the company of my cousin and his fiance (see here for more details) it was time for me to make use of my one-country inter-rail pass, allowing up to eight days worth of rail travel in Sweden.

THE PROLOGUE TO INLANDSBANAN

My first journey on my inter-rail pass was a short hop of just over two hours from Stockholm to Kristinehamn where I would stay overnight before experiencing Inlandsbanan on days two and three of this part of the holiday (the distance from Kristinehman to the northern outpost of Gallivare, pronounced yell-ee-vara, is 1,364km which converts to roughly 850 miles).

At this stage I had not booked anything in advance, a mistake that I learned from after the experiences both on the train and at Kristinehamn, where I paid far more for a room than I ought to have done. Indeed one of the things I did in my room in Kristinehamn was make use of the wifi to book seats on three legs of Inlandsbanan and rooms in Ostersund fot the following night and then for two nights in Gallivare, although this latter did not work out, of which more anon.

The difficulties caused by my failure to reserve a seat on the train notwithstanding, I did get some pictures on the journey…

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KRISTINEHAMN

I did some exploring in this pretty little town once I was settled. Here are my pictures from Kristinehamn…

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Many Swedish stations feature this kind of diagram somewhere.

Having produced this little post I will start, probably tomorrow, on a succession of posts detailing the Inlandsbanan experience…

A Spectacular Recovery

An account of the dramatic finish to yesterday’s ODI between England and Sri Lanka, some links and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post is about the closing stages of yesterday’s ODI between England and Sri Lanka, which I listened to once I had got home from work.

A DISTANT PROSPECT

When I switched the commentary on Sri Lanka had made a respectable 286, which by that stage was looking positively mountainous since England were 39-4. When skipper Eoin Morgan was out for 42 to make the score 73-5, and Moeen Ali also fell cheaply to a poor shot the situation looked even grimmer for England, as Chris Woakes walked out to join Jos Buttler…

A GREAT PARTNERSHIP

Buttler and Woakes fared better than had seemd posssible when they came together, and gradually victory moved from the realms of fantasy to a distant but imaginable outcome to a genuine possibility. Two wickets in quick succession, Buttler and then Dvaid Willey seemed to have once again settled things in Sri Lanka’s favour, but Liam Plunkett (surely the most talented batsman ever to be at number 10 by design) played well alongside Woakes who established a record score for a number 8 in an ODI. In the end it came down to…

A SPECTACULAR FINAL OVER

At the start of this final over 14 were needed for England to win. Good bowling restricted England to seven off the first five, meaning that unless a wide or a no-ball was bowled England could no longer win. Neither was forthcoming, but Liam Plunkett did hit that final ball for six to level the scores and earn England a tie after a come-back of epic proportions.

LINKS

My first link, just to tie up the loose ends from the first part of this post is to an official account of yesterday’s ODI, courtesy of cricinfo.

My remaining links are all on the subject of referendums and one referendum in particular. I start with David Hencke’s post about why he will be voting for remain.

My next two links are both to posts from that legal eagle of the blogging world jackofkent, first a detailed analysis of what he sees as the flaws of referendums, and second, acoompanied by a screenshot below and some subsidiary comments of my own afterwards a proposal for banning referendums:

JoK

I would change clause 2 of the above act to read:

2. This Act can only be repealed by a unanimous vote in the house (for the purposes of this Act abstentions and absences count as votes against).

PHOTOS

For anyone who has read all the foregoing text here is your bonus in the form of some recent photographs:

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Although the day rider plus that is my standard bus ticket specifically excludes the coasthopper whose route map is pictured here, coasthopper buses sometimes run other routes, notably the X8 between King’s Lynn and Fakenham.

 

Many Things

Some pictures, a mention of a DPAC public meeting in Norwich, some stuff about the London Mayoral Elections, and some autism related stuff.

INTRODUCTION

I have many things to cover in this post and some photographs to share.

KING’S LYNN PICS

The first few pictures I shall be sharing are from earlier in the week, but yesterday morning, with Saturday being treated as Sunday because my mother is travelling to Tonbridge today for an 11-week return to teaching, I went for a walk before going to my aunt’s for the journey to East Rudham, and that is where the rest of the pics in this section com from.

My Brunel £2 coins in their new niche.
This is the last of pre-saturday pics.
A very large earthworm (according to the folks behind “What on Earth Evolved the signle most important animal species on the planet)
An angled shot of Hanse House
Two of the ground-floor windows of Hanse House – the completeness of the blocking of sight through these windows creates suspicion as to what exactly is being done inside this grade 1 listed building.
The upper floor, which juts out over the street.

 DPAC PUBLIC MEETING IN NORWICH

DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) are holding a public meeting in Norwich on Thursday 21st April. I shall definitely be attending. A jpg of their official poster for this meeting is below:

DPAC Poster

INTERLUDE – EAST RUDHAM

A few things caught my eye while at my parents house for lunch, and here are some pictures from there…

A display on a small ledge above the stairs.
A close up of the blue stone slice
This wall-mounted shell took three attempts before I was happy, starting with this one.
Attempt 2
Attempt 3 – success!
This was taken from an oblique angle, and led later to…
This front-on shot showing the original three things and a couple of others. The two pottery pieces are of the same design as my parent’s regular crockery, although these are purely for display.

THE LONDON MAYORAL ELECTION

Although it is nearly 17 years since I last called the city home, I have been keeping an eye on the London Mayoral Elections (after all, the fact that I run a London transport themed website is evidence that I still retain some interest in the place), and there have been several interesting developments. The full list of candidates looks like this:

London Mayoral Elections List

Of these, seven have done nothing  to merit being taken seriously, namely David Furness, George Galloway, Paul Golding, Lee Harris, Ankit Love, Sophie Walker and Prince Zylinski. Of these seven, I would hope that Furness and Golding finish at the bottom of the heap, and a severe kicking for Mr Galloway would be no bad thing either. Now to move on to the big five:

Candidates

Peter Whittle is as despicable as one would expect a UKIP candidate to be. Caroline Pidgeon has some good ideas but is standing for a party whose credibility is utterly shot after a disastrous five years in cahoots with the Tories. Sadiq Khan, the bookies favourite, also has some good ideas, and a win for him would be a good result. Sian Berry has run by far the best campaign to date, and has lots of good ideas. To borrow some terminology from the great bridge player and writer of the distant past S J Simon, a win for Sian Berry would be the best possible result for this election, while a win for Sadiq Khan would be in the category of a best result possible. I have left to the last Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative Party candidate. He and has team have run a despicable, divisive, negative campaign and deserve to have a disastrous result. I have two links relating to Mr Goldsmith’s failings:

My first is to a New Statesman piece in which a long-standing Conservative Party activist gives a crushing analysis of everything that is wrong about the Goldsmith campaign. The other link is to a Huffington Post piece regarding a spectacularly inadequate performance by Mr Goldsmith when quizzed about the city of which he wants to be mayor. Goldsmith achieved a risible 5 out of 9. When I took the similar quiz that Huffington Post produced to for  people to measure their own performance I managed 8 out of 9, with the one question I got wrong being about a TV program set in London that  have never watched. Those who follow the link and take the quiz are welcome to comment on their own scores.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS

This Friday, April 15th, is the day of NAS West Norfolk’s Positive Autism Awareness Conference, at which I shall be presenting a photographic display. Thursday April 21st as already mentioned is when the DPAC public meeting in Norwich takes place. Wednesday April 27th is James and Sons April auction, for which a full catalogue can be viewed online. On Saturday April 30th I will be attending a training session at the National Autistic Society’s London HQ. This is base closed to Angel station, and therefore within walking distance of King’s Cross, as the map with which I finish this post demonstrates.

NAS

 

Six Nations and Photos

INTRODUCTION

This post does exactly what the title claims. The photos are all from yesterday, which has the distinction of being the first day in 2016 on which I ventured out without putting a coat on (yes folks, it has been a long wait but spring really is on its way)

TOP AND BOTTOM SETTLED
WITH A ROUND TO GO

This weekend saw the penultimate round of the Six Nations rugby tournament. Ireland, coming into this round with a draw and two defeats to their name, faced Italy who had lost all three of their matches. Ireland racked up 58 points in the end, to open clear daylight between themselves and the foot of the table. England played Wales at Twickenham and at half time the score was 16-0 to England, probably should have been 23-0 and had it been 30-0 Wales could have had no complaints. Wales played much better in the second half, but had left themselves too much to do to get back in the match. In the third match Scotland faced France and followed their victory over Italy in the previous round with another in this match. The key try that put Scotland out of reach was a brilliant solo effort from Duncan Taylor.

The effect of this action was that England with four wins out of four are now uncatchable at the top of the table and head to Paris with their sights firmly set on completing a grand slam. This is a mightily impressive first campaign for new England coach Eddie Jones. As well as leaving England out of reach at the top, Scotland’s win over France left Italy marooned at the bottom with no way of avoiding the wooden spoon. Of the teams in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, separated by just two points, Wales have a massive advantage because not only are they currently in second, they finish their campaign at home to Italy. Scotland and Ireland face each other, while France have an England team with confidence sky-high to contend with.

PHOTOS

These photos were all taken while out walking yesterday and are presented in the order in which they were taken…

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I took this picture because I was so annoyed that this had been left lying around.

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The cormorants were out in force.

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There will be a long post about various autism related issues coming either tonight or first thing tomorrow.

 

 

Buildings and a Petition

Some more pictures of buildings in and around King’s Lynn, plus a link to an important petition.

INTRODUCTION

This post can be seen as a sequel to “Buildings of Kings Lynn” and “More Buildings of King’s Lynn”. However, as you will see, this one has a slightly wider focus.

IN KING’S LYNN

Our first building of the day is sadly not being used for anything. It used, in the days when such things existed to be our main Post Office (we now have the services of a few cashiers at WHSmith instead), and no subsequent use has been found for it.

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Now we have some buildings near the train station…

Portland Street

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The first of the two pictures I combined to make the ‘juxtaposition image’

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The Fenman Pub – there is lots of railway memorabilia inside (it is directly opposite the station)
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St John’s Vicarage

From here, since we are at the start of St John’s Walk, we enter the parkland area…

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The Guanock Gate

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The South Gate.

On our way from the South Gate to the Great Ouse we get a glimpse of the Baptist Church.

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Looking across the river, we get a glimpse of West Lynn Church (one can use the ferry if one wishes to get closer, or walk down to the road bridge and cross there)

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Near Marriott’s Warehouse one can see the Rathskellar wine bar…

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The Rathskeller, with a side wall of Marriott’s in the background.

We finish this section with a few quirky images from the town centre.

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In spite of the size of this poster the map is next to useless – I know the Hardwick Sainsbury’s well, but could not find it using that map.
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The side of Boot’s .
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Close up of the metalwork.
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The top of the guildhall. The green structure projects the light show on to King’s Lynn Minster at night.

GAYWOOD AND PLANNING PERMISSION

My aunt had noticed a cause for concern in a planning application for something in Gaywood, and as we were heading for Sunday lunch with my parents in East Rudham anyway we went via Gaywood. We actually saw no evidence there of the planning application that had caused the concern, but did see another, for an extension of the pub. The original planning application that had been brought to my aunt’s attention was for a small new build, and these photos from the area in question show, a plain concrete box which is what apparently was on the table would have been very inappropriate.

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The planning application that was on display in Gaywood
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Two brick houses with distinctive features.

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Trees that may i danger of being knocked down.
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Not brick and flint, but (like the library) brick and Carr.

A PETITION TO THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT HEDGEHOGS

Dedicated followers of this blog will know that yesterday I put up a post supporting a team4nature thunderclap. I am finishing this post by linking to an official petition to the UK government to give hedgehogs better protection. The petition can be viewed here (note and apology to my international followers – you have to be a British citizen to sign petitions on this site).

Tory HQ in Massive Blunder (Again)

Before I get to my own stuff I have a plethora of wonderful links to share with you.

LINKS

http://www.advicenow.org.uk/

http://www.autismdailynewscast.com/press-release-minister-bergen-addresses-autism-leadership-summit-highlights-harper-government-support-canadians-living-autism-spectrum-disorders/25314/pressrelease/

https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-david-cameron-mp-please-listen-to-the-attached-recording-of-my-father-93-years-old-blind-and-deaf-who-fought-for-our-country-so-that-his-unbeliveable-gut-wrenching-avoidable-agony-will-not-have-been-in-vain?utm_campaign=fb_dialog&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt&post_id=1319562568_10206441204731804#_=_

https://mnosal49.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/autism-awareness-should-be-about-action-not-reaction/

https://saritsa.wordpress.com/ A very interesting Indian site.

https://tompride.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/londons-fire-engines-are-now-owned-by-one-man-an-old-etonian/

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/31/8322545/visit-indy-lgbt-rfra

https://www.change.org/p/parliament-prime-minister-chancellor-mps-introduce-a-windfall-tax-on-banks? recruiter=102059100&utm_campaign=signature_receipt_twitter_dialog&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition

http://paper.li/AspieTravel/1307413001?edition_id=bdf2dfd0-d858-11e4-ae26-0cc47a0d1605

https://fullfact.org/

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/04/01/heres-a-multi-signature-letter-that-deserves-much-more-exposure/

http://www.brockpress.com/2015/03/undermining-and-over-mining-the-antarctic-food-pyramid-333/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/01/nick-clegg-will-lose-sheffield-hallam-suggests-poll_n_6983612.html?1427887814&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

http://www.votebooster.org/

http://act.nhscampaign.org/lobby/6

http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/2015-04-01/last-ditch-effort-to-save-waltham-forest-disability-centre Two of the people who run this centre talk about it in a must-watch clip.

http://scvincent.com/2015/03/31/more-than-best-friends/

https://sdbast.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/the-tories-are-the-party-of-benefit-scroungers/

https://theyhavewidescreentvs.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/the-tories-are-the-party-of-benefit-scroungers/

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2015/04/telegraph-business-leaders-letter-samantha-cameron-friends/ A minor contribution to the discussion of that letter.

http://faradayscandle.com/2015/03/31/thriving-in-extremes/ A very interesting piece about micro-organisms that flourish in sometimes very extreme conditions. A shining example of the gems that can be discovered via twitter

http://pro.psychcentral.com/mentally-ill-and-locked-up-prisons-versus-inpatient-wards-for-psychiatric-patients/007210.html

http://leftfootforward.org/2015/04/quentin-lettss-class-war-on-hampstead-left-hides-the-mails-real-hypocrisy/

 THE LETTER

This morning a letter was printed on the front of the Daily Telegraph. Appended to a few lines of body text about why they would be voting conservative were the names of 100 business leaders. Even if this had been entirely genuine, it would have been no more convincing than a letter to the Daily Mirror signed by 100 prominent trade unionists explaining why they were voting labour. However, it was not very long before it was discovered that the letter had been drafted in Tory HQ, and that a sizeable portion of the signatories were already known Tories, in some cases even Tory peers. As the day progressed, this was compounded by somebody noting the presence in that list of a 100 of a number of Mrs Cameron’s cronies (yes, they really are that stupid/ arrogant).

Various people made suggestions through the day about other selections of 100 people with a linked trait who could sign a letter about why they were voting labour (disabled people, and food bank users were two suggestions).

This letter was intended to boost the Tories and harm Labour, but I suspect that like the now legendary “Road to Recovery” poster that started the year its effect will be the reverse. The letter (unsurprisingly since it came from Tory HQ) was riddled with factual inaccuracies, as well as the problems already documented with the so-called signatories. It started out as a non-story given ridiculous air-time (“100 rich b**t**ds are going to vote Tory”) and un-ravelled from there.

Frankly, the use of this kind of tactic suggests desperation. To end this little section I have a couple more links to analyses of this story…

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/04/01/why-we-should-all-ignore-that-letter-in-the-telegraph/

http://leftfootforward.org/2015/04/revealed-the-fat-cat-pay-packets-of-the-100-tory-supporting-bosses/

Now for some pictures…

The first three pictures were taken through the window of a moving bus.
The first three pictures were taken through the window of a moving bus.

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four birds in the picture, each of a different species.
four birds in the picture, each of a different species.

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The Red Mount Chapel
The Red Mount Chapel
A close-up of some brickwork, Red Mount Chapel
A close-up of some brickwork, Red Mount Chapel
The Vancouver Garden viewed from near the Red Mount Chapel
The Vancouver Garden viewed from near the Red Mount Chapel

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These tiny ducklings may have been out on their first ever swim.
These tiny ducklings may have been out on their first ever swim.

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The most famous facade in King's Lynn.
The most famous facade in King’s Lynn.

I hope that you have enjoyed this and I encourage you to share it widely.

The Mart, Birds and Other Stuff

One of King’s Lynn’s greatest traditions, The Mart, kicks off this Saturday. I saw some of their advertising today, and I have to acknowledge that it is quite impressive, as is the fact that this is the 811th King’s Lynn Mart (the first of a series of annual fairs that closes with the Nottingham Goose Fair)…

Advertising for the Mart.
Advertising for the Mart.

I was at the river front at the right time to catch this image a fishing boat…

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There were plenty of opportunities to photograph sea birds, including when my main targets were actually other things (check out pic 1 in this series for an example)…??????????

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As usual I spotted various architectural features that I deemed camera worthy…

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The birds were their usual exuberant selves, starting with a mallard drake and ending with a large bird I could not quite identify (had the colouring of a swan but the neck was too short)…

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Before sharing my final images, I came across this today on CosmosUp, @cosmossup:

http://www.cosmosup.com/earths-inner-core-has-an-inner-core-of-its-own. I thought of a title for this idea: Russian Doll Earth!

One of this final selection of images is there because my twitter account is approaching the milestone of 1,700 followers…?????????? ?????????? ?????????? ?????????? ??????????