Heh, just woke up from an amusing dream. I dreamt that a gypsy woman was trying to sell me domain names. Glen was there too, and when her selling tactic didn’t work on him, she tried to get me to buy some. I kept replying with “No, not listening”, things link that telling her that I wasn’t interested. She tried to hold my hand, I told her to leave me alone, and that it was assault. I even went to one of the government websites to look up the laws of assault.

Eventually, she said that she was the worst person I’d met. In the end, I challenged her to a game of I Spy, while Glen stared out of the window and began counting a jar full of loose change.

Just before I woke up, I dreamt I’d left the house just in time to see her turquoise Volvo be towed away.

That’s it, I’m officially weird.

In other news, the demolition of Steetley Magenesite is resuming. The large oil container that has remained on the site is about to be pulled down. This means that there’s very little left remaining on the site still standing. Thanks to a series of amazing coincidences, I was able to take a trip around there.

It started off yesterday, as a Flickr user posted to my Steetley group stating that work had recommenced on the site.

The following day was a lovely summers day. The sun eventually managed to break through the clouds, and I was itching to go for a walk. I haven’t done any of my stupidly long walks for a while, as I’d lost the headset for my phone, but seeing as it turned up in the washer a few days ago, I decided to go on one.

A stiff breeze was blowing, which made visibility excellent, therefore I decided to head down to the Headland and collect a few more photos.

While I was taking this photo, a car pulled alongside me. By sheer coincidence, it was Phil! You may remember him being mentioned on the trip to Rievaulx Abbey last year.

He was down the headland too, dropping someone off. We both went our separate ways, and I carried on walking. Just as I headed onto Durham Street to take a stunningly interesting photo of my doctors’ surgery, Phil pulled alongside me again…

“I’ve got my camera with me, fancy going up to Steetley?”

Wild horses wouldn’t have stopped me. Despite the amount I talk about the place, I’ve never actually been up there and had a really good look round. Most of the photos I have of the place are actually from Chris, and not me. Also, seeing as they were pulling more of it down, it was probably one of my last opportunities to get up there.

The first thing clearly visible were the large chunks missing from the oil drum…

We then explored the site in detail, taking photos of the desolation and decay left behind. I found it highly amusing to see some of the stuff left behind in there, including parts of an old Dell 316SX

The specs of this machine make interesting reading. It dates from 1991ish.

I took pleasre in photographing all of the old, smashed up concrete streetlight columns that would have once illuminated the roadway through the complex.

It was at that point we headed back to the car. Phil dropped me off at home, and I began the process of uploading all of the photos I’ve yet to see his photos, but they’ll probably be better than mine!

Technorati Tags: dream, flickr, hartlepool, headland, Photos, steetley, walk

I don’t suppose you read the site anymore, but I thought I’d just wish you happy 25th birthday here, just in case!

For the rest of you, hello! I’ve been on another one of my silly walks again. Yes, I’m quite aware that all I seem to be blogging about these days are these walks I often do, but to be quite honest, it’s the only thing that’s keeping my mind occupied. I’m pretty much obsessed with taking photograps at the minute. This was why I was out, at 4AM, taking photos.

I have always wanted to lay down in the middle of Easington Road. I had a thought when I was about 6, if it was possible to lay down in this particular dual carriageway and not get ran over.

The other morning, I proved it could be done.

No, I didn’t just run out of the house to take that photo, I decided that I wanted to see the sunrise again. There is no better place to view most of Hartlepool than on the Hart Bypass.

I walked through the new estate, through the land which is currently unoccupied by nothing except a footpath. There was something which caught my eye. Excuse me if I drip into “rather odd reminiscing” mode for a few moments.

Back when I was a small child, there was a weed that used to grow in the cracks of the tarmac. It was a spiny, horrible looking thing with dark yellow flowers. Now, I have always had a sense of smell which was much better than any other sense I had. I always remember this particular weed had a strong scent of pineapple, therefore it was particularly interesting to me. Chad Phillips, who you may recall, is currently on a world tour (assuming you read the comments) used to mock me for such an interest, expecially when it caused a neighbour (and ultimately my mother) to almost have a fit when the neighbour saw me smelling clover flowers which had recently been sprayed with weedkiller. Er, anyway, I digress…

Yes, anyway, those pineapple-scented weeds. They seemed to disappear at some point during my adolecense. I was growing up, and didn’t really pay attention to the disappearance of a simple weed. It was about 5 years ago, however, I had a dream about said plant, and suddenly realised, it had TOTALLY disappared.

For five years, I’d tried to locate at least a small sample of it. I remember it grew in the shittest soil known to man.

Imagine my delight when, at 4:17 that very morning, I’d located some…

At this point, I still knew nothing about it. I loaded the photo up to flickr, and within 2 days, I had an answer. Its name is… wait for it… Pineapple weed.

What’s just struck me as odd, is my lack of internet searching regarding this. I knew two things about it… it was a weed, and it smelled of pineapple. a quick google reveals everything I needed to know about it. Bah.

Er, anyway. I’ll leave the horticulture to one side, and continue my walk.

It was, as you can imagine for 4AM in the morning, very uneventful. I had my headset on, and after deleting every trace of Jive Bunny off my phone, it turned out to be a pleasant walk.

I took this photo next…

After the walk up to the Hart Bypass, I thought I’d relax for a few minutes, and a row of handily-placed hay bails made a very comfortable sofa.

The music at this point, was once again, “Angel” by The Quest Project. I’m struggling to think of a better song to watch the sun rise with.

Unfortunately, after the song finished this was pretty much the end of the sunrise. The sun drifted behind those clouds, and that was it. Of course, by this point, I was exactly half way between my current location and home, therefore I completed the journey via the rest of the Hart Bypass.

The photos kept coming, however.

This one of a nettle got me thinking… is there any purpose to this sodding plant / weed / whatever? It’s whole design is to hurt and cause discomfort. It is clearly the chav of the hedgerow.

I did film myself getting stung by said nettle. It must have been at least 10 years since I last felt the sting of a nettle. Therefore, I grabbed my camera, and filmed my hand going through said weed.

Turns out, it didn’t hurt at all, except for a mild irritation, and a very slight itch later on. Maybe years of washing up protects your hands from organic enemies. The video turned out totally uninteresting,by the way, so you’ll never get to see it.

I continued my journey home, occasionally stopping off to take photos…

I liked this image, though one of the next ones made the trip for me…

I adore pointless, meaningless, and yes, slightly mischievous graffiti, in the same way I can’t go past a statue with a traffic cone on its head without smiling. I don’t like tagging, and I don’t really like the trend of “stencil” graffiti, unless it’s really clever and well done.

Eventually, I returned home after the 5-mile walk, only to find that Sam had “marked his territory” up the bloody sofa. Not his fault, however, as Senta has been in heat..

Technorati Tags: flickr, foal, hartlepool, horse, nettle, photograph, road, signpost, sunderland, sunrise, walk

The steetley demolition photos are now online…

http://www.mercuryvapour.co.uk/gallery/index.php?/category/steetley

You can also find them on flickr if you prefer that.

Technorati Tags: demolition, old, Photos, scanned, steetley

Author: Andy The Iridium Fan
Comment: Sadly today (Tuesday 20th May 2008) I have been told this is the end of Jacksons Landing. When it has been bourght it is going to be demolished, and flats built on the site- SHIT because I go there every day and will be very sad to see it go!!!!!!!!!!!. 18.4.08

So, there you have it. Looks as if Jackson’s Landing’s going the journey. More news on this story later

EDIT: In another spate of crazy demolition, The Shakespeare pub on Catcote Road, has also been demolished… I don’t have any updated photos as of yet, thpugh I might try and get some tomorrow, as long as I don’t fall asleep.

Technorati Tags: catcote road, demolition, hartlepool, jacksons landing, shakespeare

Just to keep you informed, work didn’t go as badly as I’d originally feared, which is a bonus. I’m still not really enjoying it at the minute though.The photos I took on Sunday are located here.

I eventually stopped drinking Grolsch, and had a nice Morrisons curry.

There was a major car crash on King Oswy Drive, less than an hour later after I’d walked along there. I’m trying to get some info on it, but it appears that the Hartlepool Mail site is curently completely dead. (Edit, back up, link inserted)

I have also failed to mention that the gallery has had another 2,000 images added to it. Yes, that’s 2,000. Courtesy of Andy The Iridium Fan.

This takes his section of the gallery up to 3,800+ images. Thankfully, after a bit of a fight with MySQL, I’ve found a way of editing the database manually, which means that editing them is going to be nice and easy.

Technorati Tags: addition, car crash, curry, flickr, gallery, images, king oswy drive, mysql, Photos