The humble drain cover. A large slab of perforated metal, whose sole purpose is to rid our pot-holed streets of rainwater, syringes, condoms and car keys, yet still keeping important objects such as feet and ankles from plunging into the sewerage system.

Chad, who you may remember, enjoys leaving comments on this very website under the name of Vince, left another one, stating his disinterest in the subject of streetlighting. Aw, shame. His closing statement was that “[he] must go and start taking pictures of drain covers and roadsigns”. Suddenly, I remembered. Both of my brain cells lit up like Blackpool Illuminations.

N Downing And Sons, the company who made that very drain cover, were based in Railway Street, Stockton-On-Tees, and formed in 1880 when the owner, Mr. Nicholas Downing, dissolved his partnership with Mr John Matthew Henderson. It closed 100 years later in the early 1980s. The last family owner, Dave Downing, is now living in South Africa.

You might be wondering how I had an image of a drain cover to hand so readily. Back in August, I was outside Mercuryvapour Towers, waiting for Big Phil to pick me up and take me to Rievaulx Abbey. Unfortunately, he was running late, so I had a bit of time to wait. While I was waiting, I thought I’d test the camera, just to make sure it was working. I looked down at my feet, and noticed the drain cover below. I took the photo, and was happy in the knowledge that the camera was working perfectly. However, instead of deleting this image, I kept it on the camera

After returning home, I downloaded all of the images from the camera, and came across that one. Again, I didn’t delete it. Instead, I filed it away, in the hope that somewhere down the line, I would be able to blog about it. I have done that now.

Technorati Tags: boring, chad phillips, drain, n downing, stockton

They cut the streetlight down.

I’m gutted, yet delighted at the same time…

Firstly, “They’ve” finally removed the only working SOX lamp which was visible from my house. It’s been on the chopping block for months.

A couple of days ago, I noticed they’d placed some cones on the central reservation on which the SOX lamp resided, but there didn’t seem to be a lot going on. New posts were erected in February, painted black in March, abandoned since then.

Anyway, I finished work at 8AM, and am thankfully off for the next X days, so I decided to stay up, and do some stuff on the computer. I had some MP3s I wanted backing up, along with my ~10Gb Photos directory, therefore I’d be up for a bit. To while away the time, I played online scrabble.

After getting trounced (20, double word score), I looked out of the window, to notice something odd. The SOX lamp had just been switched on, still glowing red.

The view of the post itself was slightly obscured by bushes, but I could see high-vis jackets busily doing stuff at the base of the post. Surely they weren’t going to take it down?

I watched, as the post wobbled. The lamp turned from red, to orange, and then off. Dark, and black, like the very pit of my soul. Its life terminated, like so many of its fallen bretheren who once lit the depressing streets of Hartlepool.

The post shaking began to get stronger, and eventually, the lantern clips gave way, allowing the polycarbonate bowl to swing softly in the autumn air.

A mechanical grabber begins to rise from the street below, carrying some primitive machinery designed to keep the post in place, as it is severed from the base by a circular saw. The cutting disc eventually begins to make contact with the post. Sparks fly, as shards of white-hot metal spew out from the blade, emitting a display reminiscent of a Catherine Wheel on November 5th.

Within minutes, the post is in two. A final shudder finds one half still buried deep into the ground, the other half now hanging in mid air. The grabber gracefully performs an act which sees the fallen streetlight being delicately lowered to the ground, before being sliced into smaller pieces, and placed into the back of a low-loader.

Hmmm. Maybe I can get on with my life now.

Technorati Tags: cut, down, removed, replacement, streetlight

It’s been a while, but I’ll update you on the streetlighting situation on Easington Road. It looks as if the old posts are finally going to be taken down. I went out today, on my way to Employment Place, and noticed that there were cones laid on the central reservation.

Over the last few days, I’d noticed that they had also carried out some on-the-fly repairs to the existing posts - the broken post which once provided illumination to Mercuryvapour Towers had its tube removed. Presumably, it was still good, and had been removed to relamp another post somewhere.

I took a quick glance at the situation this morning, and, at the minute, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal going on…

Yes, for those who are new to the blog, I physically went out, and took a photo of the central reservation. With cones on it. And, for those who are old hands when it comes to reading this blog, I’m sure you expected no less. I will keep an eye out, and post even more photos as soon as I get some.

No, really, I will.

In other news… er, there was none. It’s been a desperately quiet period. Went to Nottingham on Saturday. Needless to say, I took my camera. Unbelievably, I only took about 10 pictures, therefore, it remained pretty much unreported. Those pictures can be viewed on flickr if you’re Chris, or Daddykins. I hope you’ve remembered your logins!

Technorati Tags: hartlepool, lamp post, replacement, streetlight

I believe I have found it. The one thing I have been looking for since I started playing online “games”. And that website is www.scrabulous.com. I don’t quite know how it’s not been taken down, as it is clearly a breach of patent against the makers of Scrabble, yet I think it’s brilliant, and I hope it’s there for years to come.

Current statistics are, played 8, won 4, biggest scorer = “REVALUED”. Sign up and give me a game, my user name is mercuryvapour, or if you want to play by email, it’s webmaster@mercuryvapour.co.uk

I’m off out in a second, but I’ll post more about this later.

Technorati Tags: board, challenge, game, scrabble

I’m running the latest version of the gallery software too, which should help with a few issues I’ve been having with the site slowing to a crawl when I do certain things with it. Feel free to have a look around. I’ll be adding some new streetlight photos shortly. I bet you can’t wait.

Technorati Tags: gallery, upgrade, website