Ahh, now we’re starting to get into the swing of things. We knew where all of the eateries were, and we knew where we can stock up on supplies, we knew how much it was to get into at least 3 of the attractions.

Today was the day that we’d all planned to get up early and attack the Eiffel tower queues. It looked as if you really had to get in there early, or not bother getting in at all. Now, I knew, if we were going to attempt this, we really WOULD need supplies. Definitely water, for a kick off. Thankfully, Shoppy came in handy again, and I picked up three bottles of water. We also had the breakfast this morning. Now you may remember yesterday I mentioned La Terasse, where we’d stopped off for something to eat on the night. Well, that’s where we went for breakfast too.

I forgot to mention we also went for breakfast here on Day 2. I think. See, my mind doesn’t record every single detail on mornings. I just remember getting confused over the following…

Me: “Parlez vous Anglais?”
Him: “No, only French.”

You will just have to imagine my face at that point. No, in fact, imagine my face about 30 seconds later when I got his “joke”. Anyway, one awesome breakfast later, we head off to the Eiffel tower, and joined the queue, at 9:43, and didn’t get into the actual tower until 10:29. There was then a 7 minute wait until we got into the cable car at 10:36 to take up up to the first floor. The question was, would the view be worth it? I don’t think I’ll bother answering that question, as I can assure you, the views are absolutely amazing. Oh, wait. I just answered it.

Seriously though, it’s not until you get up to a high point that you realise how big Paris is. Here is a view of the hotel we were staying in, from the top…

See that “wedge” right in the very centre? That’s where the hotel is.

We stayed up there for ages. It was surprisingly warm considering we were on the top of a ~1,000 metre high structure. After spending quite a while at the top (mainly because there was a queue for the lift approximately a mile long), we went back down to the second level, and began the long walk down the stairs to the 1st floor. It was less busy than getting the lift, obviously, plus it offered a more entertaining view.

The first floor is a lot different to the other two floors, as it has bars, exhibitions, etc. After a quick look around them, we settled for something to eat and to drink. I went for the croissant and a “pint” of Heineken. And although it was reassuringly extortionate, must say, it’sn the most picturesque beer I’ve ever had…

Edit: oops, correctified image.

The chairs, however were a little bit “rustic”. They were made entirely out of old bits of tree, and not very sturdy at all. I think the person that was on the chair behind me almost went arse-over-tit because of them.

Anyway, we ate up, drank up, and began the descent via the stairs again. Unsurprisingly, there were once again vast swaithes of souvenir sellers trying to sell you stuff from their big black bin liners. Sigh.

We headed back to the hotel temporarily for some reason, and headed off to the Arc De triomphe. Now, it’s only 1.4 miles from the hotel On our previous trip there, it certainly didn’t feel like it. It felt a hell of a lot more. Therefore, we decided to use our €16 ticket on the boat again. Now, the only slight flaw in this plan, was that in order to get up to the Champs-Élysées, the boat had to make its way all the way along the touristy parts of the Seine, and then back again This was something that took 90 minutes.

Meh, it gave me an excuse to break the camcorder out, but by the end of it, even I was all camcordered out.

Eventually, we heard the words we wanted to hear… Next stop, “Champs-Élysées”. Awesome. This is where we wanted to be.

Off we jumped, only to realise that we were nowhere near where we wanted to be. In fact, we were still 1.2 miles away from it. Gutted. That means that we’d taken a 90 minute boat trip in order to save one fifth of a mile. I suddenly knew how this guy felt.

As we continued our walk down the Champs-Élysées, we walked past the preparations for the Wall-E premiere. It is unknown whether anyone famous attended, but there were a lot of security and cameramen about.

Eventually, after what felt like a fortnight, we made it to our final destination. It was €9 to get in, and no, we didn’t take the lift. Therefore, it is a climb of 284 steps to reach the first level, which is a sort-of museum. Unfortunately, this turned out to be very sparse indeed, with only a few exhibitions in it. I really thought they’d make more of a song and dance about something that looks so impressive on the outside.

So, after a quick look around, we went up yet more stairs and reached the top of the monument. Again, the view was great.

You also get a great view of the comedy roundabout while you’re up there. It looks even madder from above. I’m honestly surprised we didn’t see a major incident while we were up there, though there were plenty of brake screeching and blaring of horns.

We headed back down, and made our way along the road we should have came in the first place. Once again, we attacked The Shoppy.

Now, imagine the scene. you enter The Shoppy, and pick up a basket, only to find that one handle on it is broken. I attempt to place it back on the top of the baskets. Next, a small woman walks into the store. She thinks I’m actually getting a basket for *her*, and she takes the broken one I was about to put down… She thanks me with a cheerful “Ah! Merci!”… now, although I did French in school, we didn’t learn the words for “this basket is broken”, and I have the documentation to prove it

I tried to explain to her in sign language that the basket was well and truly fucked, and I was simply putting it back in order to get another one.

It failed miserably.

She looked away, and muttered “oh, non merci” under her breath as she grabbed a working basket. It was all so hilariously embarrasing.

First stop after the water aisle was, of course, the beer aisle. Now, you may remember the 7.9% beers I’d bought the day before. Well, I stocked up on these again, and got a few more to last me through the night. I did spy some 9% Leffe, but steered clear of this for the time being.

In our quest to find a cheap pub the previous night, we noted a few eateries to try out. It is unsurprising that we wanted a taste of home, and therefore resorted to choosing a Chinese.

As the night was getting on by this point, we retreated to our approriate rooms, and got ready for the night. On the way down, we had a special guest in the lift…. yes, a bloody wheelie bin…

We entered the Chinese, and found it to be a very nice place. the staff were friendly, spoke perfect English and it was overall a very welcoming atmosphere. You’ll be unsurprised to find that I ordered a chicken curry. Sorry.

SIDENOTE: I know I stated I’d eat horse while I was out there. I didn’t. Though, this was mainly because I could only find one place that sold it, and at €15, I didn’t want to risk that amount of money in something that may have been horrible.

Right, with that out of the way, back to the meal. It was top notch. Me and Chris had the chicken curry, and Jonathan had Chilli beef and noodles. it was all very nice, and although yes, the beer was still expensive, we didn’t mind paying it if we were getting something to eat.

After that, it was getting late so we headed off back to the hotel to talk about the days antics, eventually retiring to bed at approximately 1:30AM.

Technorati Tags: arc de triomphe, basket, boat, chinese, drink, eiffel tower, embarrassing, Food, holiday, paris, walk

I do two things when I’m in a depressed mood. Walk, and blog. So, it’s unsurprising that this is my 4th post in two days, and it probably won’t shock you to realise that I’ve completed an 8.5 mile walk (well, if you want to be arsey, it was 8.41 because I measured it with Google Maps.

As menitoned before, Daddykins has been out at the pub all afternoon, so I didn’t fancy waiting around for him to come in slurring all over the place. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, as he never really gets THAT drunk, I just hate to see him drunk full-stop. And yes, I understand that makes me sound like a hypocrite. Tough.

So, I headed off out of the door, with the intention of not returning until he was at home, and in bed. I took my normal route of King Oswy Drive, right up to the Clavering roundabout and back down the coast road. I took a detour to take in the delights of the King Oswy shops, and also to pick up a bottle of Cherry Coke.

At this point, I tried to phone Chris. he said he was coming round tonight, so just in case he turned up unannounced, I tried to get in touch with him to tell him I was out. In facft, I decided to walk down near his house, just in case he was in, and not answering his phone (as usual).

Chris is one of those people who rarely takes interest in his mobile, so no answer is a normality. I tried a number of times, and didn’t get through at all. I also tried to get through to Daddykins on his mobile to see if he was in yet, as I’d forgotten to hang my washing out.

After about 16 attempts to get though to his mobile, he phoned me. I answer, and whatever Daddykins said was drowned out by someone screaming “JAMIE”. Oh, joy. So he was still out. I terminated the call. He’d already answered all my questions.

So, I decide to ring Chris on his house phone, and his dad said he was asleep. Oh, great. So, I had nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody to talk to, nothing. There was no point going home, so I just kept on walking, and ended up on the Marina. Did I mention I took my camera? Clearly not.

This is the only one I’ve bothered to upload to flickr yet, as a lot of them require rotating…

I shall post more photos on my flickr later, but now I have half a case of Grolsch to knock back…

Technorati Tags: boat, Depressed, evening, hartlepool, marina, photo, walk

Yes, once again, I am totally sick of work. I am currently on my days off, which I am not enjoying at all, thanks to not knowing what’s going to be happening on Monday. Will I be (badly) trained on a contract that I can physically and mentally NOT DO?

As per the usual, I am not going into the details of this contract, and why I cannot do it. Some people know, some don’t, and it’s not something I’m going to discuss on a public website.

Therefore, until Monday, my head is going to be going around in circles. I am already unable to sleep. I awoke at 5AM, this one issue slammed right into my consciousness. Joy.

Money is also another issue. Remember my jury service? I’ve still not been paid for it. I was led to believe that the money would be in my account within “7-10 days” of it ending. No sign. Not a penny. Not even £44 for the 10 days travel. So, I guess I’ll be on the phone Monday to them, then. Double sodding joy.

In a vain hope to counter this feeling of complete and utter shit, I am off to Seaham today. Allegedly, there’s a car boot sale at the Seaham Coast Road, wherever that is, so I shall go there and see if I can find it, and expand my record collection. Failing that, ‘m going to take my camera along and just take photos. I’ve not done that for a while. The last trip was to Durham, with Chris, the other weekend, which I totally forgot to document on here. Basically, it was a re-run of the trip I took with Coatesy last year. He has (once again) disappeared off the face of the earth, which is another thing depressing the hell out of me, but that’s a whinge for another day. Sigh.

Er. Anyway, I once again went photo mad, despite the fact the weather was cloudy and miserable. Warm, but crap, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, here’s a photo depicting such a day…

If you ever get a chance, go and visit Durham Cathedral. It’s absolutely stunning.

We went in, and there was a live orchestra playing. It’s just one of those things that will send a shiver up your spine. Looking around, taking in the architecture and the music. It was awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately, they don’t allow cameras (and with good reason, now that I think of it), so I can’t really show you exactly what it was like. I had to be really sneaky when I took this photo of the courtyard. No amount of laminated sheets with crossed out cameras are going to stop ME getting at least one shot! Ooooh, I feel like such a rebel.

We were going to go into the castle too, but that required an entrance fee of something stupid, so we gave that a miss. It didn’t look half as impressive as Edinburgh Castle anyway, but I did get a few shots of the daffodils…

After that, we went a pub for the traditional “have a pint in whichever town we end up in”, and the pub of choice was the hilariously named “Fighting Cocks”. I expected it to be a dive, but it wasn’t a bad place, and the chairs were probably the most comfortable I’ve ever sat on. Oh, you want to see a picture of the pint?

And that’s where I’ll leave it, because just to add insult to injury, it’s now absolutely pissing it down, so it’s looking very unlikely that I’ll be going anywhere. Triple joy.

Technorati Tags: beer, cathedral, day out, durham, pint, trip

The last few days have been a cavalcade of fun and frolics, and no, that’s not rhyming slang. As I mentied in the previous post, Gary S has now left Employment Palace, and will now be taking most of his time moving cameras about in Middlesbrough City Town Centre. Sounds like… er, fun.

Anyway, on Monday, we had a little farewell get-together for him, involving beer and, of course an indian. We decided to meet up at 7PM in King John’s. Of course, this meant a mind-numbing wait for the bus… needless to say, I took my camera

The bus eventually turns up, and it whisks me down towards our proposed meeting point. I get there, and I think I’m the only one there. After a quick scan of the location, nobody could be seen. However, while I was being served , Gary emerged out of the inky darkness behind the two fruit machines, clutching half a pint.

He pointed towards where he was sitting, in the inky dark void, where clearly not many people ever sat.

Chris S was the next to turn up. He did the same as me, and completely walked past the location where we were sat. I thought I’d have a bit of fun, and call him on his phone, asking where he was, despite the fact I could see him, stood at the bar, looking frantically around, until I eventually guided him towards the fruit machines.

JT was next to show up, however, I was unable to have the same fun with him, due to the fact that he currently doesn’t have a phone, and saw us in the dark corner anyway.

We waited around for a bit to see if anyone else would show up. Glen W (not he of Obscureinternet fame) didn’t, so that left us - the fabulous foursome, for want of a better expression. We drank up, and made our way down to Church Street, and walked into the indian, for what was going to be the start of one hell of a feast. Gary could hardly contain his excitement.

I started off with the Onion Bhaji, something which I’d only had once before, and thought they were truly gorgeous. These didn’t disappoint.

For the main meal, I went with the vindaloo. I normally go for the madras, but I thought I’d try my luck with something a little hotter. My word, it was nice. I didn’t find it that hot, although there was definitely a kick to it. In fact, this is how much I enjoyed it…

Awesome. The rest of them went for a sweet, but I decided against such extravgance.

After that, we left and went our separate ways, luckily, the bus was just pulling in, so I wished all the best to Gary, and I disappeared off into the night. All of the images can be viewed here. Some of them are a bit… well, shall we say… odd?

Tuesday, however, was a complete and utter write-off. I spent all day on the sofa. The curry left its calling card at around 4AM, and from then on, I was awake. I did do a bit of behind-the-scenes work on the site, including partially updating Wordpress to the latest sub-build, and doing a a bit of work on the database, and the gallery too. I then spent the rest of the day drifting off on the sofa, eventually livening myself up around 7PM. Thankfully the Flag-of-Japan symptoms of the curry were no more, but I still thought it was best that didn’t go out that night.

Wednesday was a good day, for more than one reason. Firstly, I got my hair cut. Now, this is a challenge in itself. It’s hard to find enough hair on my head to cut, and secondly, I hate going to the barbers with a passion. I was devastated to find, however that there is a new version of “Something Good” by Utah Saints about to be released. Radio 1 played it, and I could have cried. I have made my feelings very clear on the subject of remakes and remixes. OK, the original track, despite heavily using a sample from a Kate Bush song, did it well. This version, in my humble opinion, doesn’t.

Digging back into the vast, cavernous reaches of my memory, I remember Chad, who you may have noticed has been very vocal in the comments section recently, had “Something Good” on the very first incarnation of “The Best Dance Album In The World Ever!”. In fact, I remeber purchasing a cassette tape from him for 50p with this song on.

Home taping is killing music? No. Crap remixes and remakes are.

Moving on swiftly, after getting my hair cut, I went down the marina to take some photographs. I’d not been down there for a long time (well, except to Coatesy’s, and that was at night), so I thought I’d grab some while I didn’t have anything else to do, and while the weather was OK.

You can view the whole set here

I am planning to go back at some point in the coming months when the weather gets that little bit milder, and I’ll spend a bit more time here.

Yesterday, however, had one crowning moment. Marko, from #speccy announced he had something to show me. Tentatively, I clicked the link, and was happy to find these…

Yes! Asda had started getting cherry coke in again! Or at least they had where he lived. AND, as an added bonus they were 3 for £3. Cherry Coke is the drink of champions. Within the hour, I was down said supermarket, with three bottles of the stuff in my trolley, and a big grin on my face.

Amusingly, it was only a couple of weeks ago that we were discussing its demise, the fact that it became rarer to find than rocking horse shite. So much so, I actually contacted Coca Cola directly to ask if they had indeed discontinued it. A few days before these bottles were purchased, I received an automated response back saying that it was still in production. I can’t help but feel that my email alone made them speed up production, and force Asda to stock it again.

That image is of course, copyright Marko, and used with his permission, though I’m not sure who’d want to steal an image of three bottles of coke, however. Except me.

So, that’s us almost up to date. Today, I’ve spent half the day in bed. I caught many images of a truly awesome sunset, which will soon be making their way onto flickr. They’re still on the camera at the minute, but I’ve not seen a sunset like it for many, many years.

Technorati Tags: asda, beer, bub, cherry coke, curry, Food, gary, haircut, hartlepool, indian, marina, sleep, sunset, utah saints, work

Well, it’s almost 11AM when I started typing this. I really should be sat at work, obeying the new rules of not allowing drinks of water at our desk, but thanks to a hasty shift swap, I don’t have to visit that place for another number of hours. And, that number is 3.

Soooo. By the title, you can guess I’ve spent the last few days taking photos. You’d be right.

On Wednesday, I went to the flea market. IT was a lovely day, yet desperately cold. I wrapped up warm, and headed into the land where CDs are cheap, and second hand underwear are aplenty. I didn’t bother getting any photos, as I already have one. Still I came back with a pile of CDs. One particualr stall were selling albums for 50p each. I had some of that, and I walked away with a handful. Total cost: £4.50. Beauty.

I bought another couple of CDs from another stall, for £2, meaning that I had £6.50 worth of music. Wooo.

It was then, and only then, that I realised, I didn’t actually have my bank card with me, therefore I’d spent what I really couldn’t afford. This cut the day short, naturally, and I headed home, clutching my Netto bag full of music.

Later on in the afternoon, Chris turned up. The day was still bright, if just a little bit chilly. I looked at my camera, looked at the sky outside, and thought “Bugger it, I’m off to take some photos” I donned my coat, and off we went, without any idea of where we were going to go.

Before long, we were heading towards Steetley.

We didn’t go there, however, and instead walked along Old Cemetary Road, and then the beach

Somthing which I wasn’t aware of, is that last year, in July, there was a new gun put in place on the seafront. Now, by “gun” I mean an ornamental gun, not a real one Amazingly, it’s been up for 6 months, and there’s not one sign on vandalism or damage.

Despite the biting wind and freezing cold temperature, I thought it would be a good idea to walk along the Heugh. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the layout and landmarks of this wonderful town, the Heugh is a breakwater, built over 200 years ago to stop the tidal surges from flooding the bay. Without it, the town would be a very different place.

IT was at this point, however, that the sun was beginning to go down, and the temperature to dip even lower, and the wind, coming directly off the sea didn’t help much. It did, however, make for a very nice photo opportunity.

Hartlepool’s very own working class hero “Andy Capp” also had a statue dedicated to him last year. I took photos back in June showing exactly where the statue was going to be, but he wasn’t there. Instead, there was simply just the paving around it, and some orange netting. Thankfully, this time he was there.

Apparently, you have to rub his head for good luck. I didn’t bother. So, we were at the furthest point away from Mercuryvapour Towers. The photo opportunities kept coming, and I kept taking them. After taking some photos of the fish sands, we were both starving. This meant two words. Verrill’s Chippy. I scraped together £2, and bought myself and Chris a bag of chips each, and we sat, in sub-zero temperatures, watching the sun go down. I was OK, but Chris was freezing. Therefore, we headed back to his house. Of course,a photo trip done by me cannot be complete without…

… a photo of a streetlight, or two.

Chris picked up his big jacket, and off we headed, back to Mercuryvapour Towers. in order to sort through and upload the photos. During that process Andrew D appeared, with another disk full of 400 photos, which have now been added to the gallery This takes the total to over 1,900…!

While he was here, I’d learned that Jeremy Beadle had died. I must have been one of the first sites to report this, seconds after posting, I had an influx of visitors, all searching for “Jeremy Beadle dead”…

Anyway, I added the pics, Andrew left, and me and Chris sat there for the rest of the night, deciding that many songs sound a lot better when you play them on a turntable at the wrong speed. If you want to view all of the photos, you can do so here

Chris left, and I fell asleep on the couch in front of what was on TV at the time.

Thursday was a staff night out. After the company “made a slight miscalculation” on the day we were meant to be getting paid, we thought that when we eventually did get paid, that it would be a good idea to go for a few drinks and an indian. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.

8 of us turned up, which is a pretty good turnout. Of course, I had my camera with me, though there’s no point posting the pics from that, as flickr’s been blocked from work. Oops!

EIther way, that brings me up to date. It’s now just after 12PM, the snow is falling outside, though it doesn’t appear to be laying. Just in case it does, I have my camera recharged, and ready for some “soft white stuff action”. Ahem.

Technorati Tags: cds, flea market, flickr, gun, hartlepool, headland, indian, jeremy beadle, Music, photo, steetley, web stats