Well, what a summer it’s turned out to be. There’s not been one day since I returned from France where it hasn’t completely pissed down at one point. It also means that I’ve not done anything at all, really. I’ve not been anywhere, and my camera has not been out of the house, apart from one day where I attended the leaving party for Eddie at work, but as I completely refuse to talk about work at this point, I’ll just skip over that!

Back to the weather, then. Yes, it’s been atrocious, despite the fact that tonight, the sun is currently setting, casting red shadows through the leafy trees that line the long driveway up to Mercuryvapour Towers. The past couple of days have seen parts of Hartlepool completely flooded…

So much for Global warming!

Now, you may notice one thing. That photo wasn’t taken by me, it was taken by Andy The Iridium Fan. FOr you see, he’s gone and bought a new camera, namely a Canon EOS 450D. It is very shiny indeed, with more buttons and fiddly things than you can shake a stick at.

Now, with my history of impulse buying, I’m surprised I haven;t got one of these hurtling its way towards my credit card as we speak. I’m trying to be a bit cautious when it comes to money for the next couple of weeks, as I am absolutely skint. This is why I’m typing this now, and not out socialising. Mainly because I spent far too much on the Paris holiday without saving anything!

And, on the subject of Paris, I have FINALLY began to get the videos edited and uploaded to Youtube. For those who care, here’s the first part…

Day 2, Part 1. Now, I’m not exactly happy with the way this turned out. I’m a bit short on video editing tools at the minute, so had to stick to Movie Maker on my laptop. Therefore the credits are dire, the music doesn’t fade out correctly, I completely messed the ending up, and the commentary I added makes me sound awful. Note, this was because I’d just completed three night shifts, and was about ready to collapse.

Oh, speaking of youtube, I managed to get another nasty comment left by a Middlesbrough supporter earlier, claiming I am the “Ugliest creature [he's] ever seen!!”. Awesome!

I’m a little disappointed that my older vlogs didn’t get more of a negative reaction, as that was the whole point of them to begin with. I’ve had to wait 18 months for slightly offensive video comments that weren’t from Chad. I’ve practically given up on making vlogs anway. I decided that it’s much more easier to do text blogs than anything else.

Technorati Tags: canon eos 450d, paris, rain, shite, Summer, video, weather, youtube

Yes, it’s almost time that I shirk the responsibility of hosting a top class blog, and disappear to another part of the continent for a week. This means that I will be unable to keep you informed of such announcements as the server reboot / failure that took place on Tuesday Morning. Although I hate to keep you un-informed of realtime changes and problems to do with this site, it does mean that you will be with my irreplaceable wit and charm for a full week.

I’m sorry to break that news to you, and I’m sure you’ll all be devastated at the news. Yeah, righto.

Let me start off by saying I still have one niggling doubt. A doubt that I can’t explain in detail, though it is something that could easily mean that one of us does not fly. I have been assured that this “slight difference of opinion” has been corrected, but I will not know until we arrive at the check-in desk at Newcastle Airport on the appropriate day.

I shall, for once, pull myself away from looking forward to my holiday, and comment on what is happening right now. Looking out from the turrets of Merucuryvapour Towers, I can inform you that the sky is leaking. A lot.

It’s been another three days off where I’ve done quite a bit, but it feel like I haven’t. Let’s start off with Wednesday. It was the only day of the week where I was able to do what I wanted - the only day where the rain wasn’t constantly bouncing off the tarmac.

On Wednesday, I’d finished at 8AM. Normally, at this point I’d go straight to bed, in the vain hope of being able to get up at a reasonable time and make some use of the day. Thankfully, this didn’t happen, and I was physically able to stay up. Chris had phoned me the previous night, and we’d made plans to meet at the flea market. This was always doomed to failure.

I rang Chris at 9AM, as we’d planned, and arranged to meet in the town centre. Unfortunately, for once, *I* didn’t get the message, and totally misunderstood this simple instruction. Mohh. After a nice walk around the flea market (well, I say nice, I spent more money on CDs than I care to mention), I went for one last look through some records. Just as I was about to flick through them, I noticed the 242 approaching. My searching stopped, and I headed off to the bus stop, stuck my paw out, and alighted afore mentioned public transport.

Just as I’d got to Raby Road, my phone goes. It was Chris.

Him: “Where are you at?”
Me: “On the bus, going home”
Him: “Shit… I’m in the town centre”

Poo. I thought he was going to ring me when he was about to set off, and not when he was in the town. Oops.

All was not lost, however, as he had stuff to do in the town anyway, and he said he’d come straight up to Mercuryvapour Towers as soon as he’d finished.

I returned home, and while I was waiting for him, I did a bit of tidying, or rather, threw the hoover around the place for a bit. Hilarity ensued as I managed to get a bit of plastic stuck in the hoover brushes, meaning that every time it went over a bump or some sort, the thing screamed. Eventually, and with the help of one of those large forks you stab turkeys with, I freed it, and my hoovering continued unceremoniously.

Chris came over just as I was finishing. We sat around out in the back garden for a bit, deciding what we would do for the rest of the day. The weather was gradually improving, and it was eventually decided that we’d have a walk up to Hart. After all, the Sainsbury’s is on the way there, and Chris had yet to see it.

Off we went, and of course, the stop off at Sainsbury’s was included. Chris bought some pop, I bought a bottle of water, two Mars Delights (at the awesome price of 18p each) and, to top it all off, a Calippo. I haven’t had one of those since I was a kid.

We got served by the loudest, most over-enthusiastic assistant I think I’ve ever heard in my life… “HELLO SIR! THAT WILL BE £1.86! THANK YOU SIR! HAVE A GOOD DAY NOW!”

I was trying to work out whether she was just being sarcastic, or whether she really was that loud.

We left, and the walk countinued westward. We walked along the old abandoned road which is becoming ever familiar to me. I was surprised by the fact that a field which had presumably been left fallow this year, had turned into a sea of poppy red…

It wasn’t the only one, there were two fields on the way there. Eventually, we reached Hart, and although we’d enjoyed the walk, it became clear that we’d reached the problem I’d faced each time I was there… there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in Hart. Well, OK, there were pubs, but considering I’d came out without my wallet, it wasn’t something I’d be able to partake in. Not that I particularly wanted to, anyway.

Of course, I came up with the wonderful idea of taking more photos while we were there. None of them turned out particularly, awe-inspiring, especially when I asked Chris to take some of me. None of them turned out good at all. In fact, this is probably the only one that doesn’t make me wretch…

Oh, wait. It does. Hooooorp.

After a good walk, and about half an hour of trying to get a good photo of a bee on a flower (and failing miserably), we returned home. Chris stayed for a little while longer, before he headed home. It was about 4PM at that point, and I was starting to feel tired, so I had a lie down on the sofa for a couple of hours. At roughly 6PM, the doorbell rang, it was Andy The Iridium Fan (see gallery) with DVD in hand, of the maritime festival which he’d recorded over the weekend. I didn’t attend this semi-annual event, which took place from 4th - 6th July, for you see, the weather was truly awful.

Chris came back over at about 8PM, and all three of us watched the DVD again, pointing out the goings-on in the background. and having a general good laugh at it.

Andy went, which left me and Chris to discuss the world, and marvel at the musical delight of the Sky News theme. It appears I’ve gotten Chris addicted to it too. Awesome.

Chris went, and I lapsed into a coma until the following morning.

Thursday was the day when I would start getting really prepared for this holiday. Money exchangement was about to take place, shoes would be bought, batteries would be charged, hair would be cut.

At approximately 14:28 and 32 seconds, we left the house, and went off down the town. Daddykins dropped me off at the town centre. Now, the plan was this. I’d be dropped off at the town centre, Daddykins would go somewhere, do what he had to do, then meet me a bit later on the Marina, outside of Brantano, the shoe shop. Fair enough. Seems straightforward.

So, off I toddle to the post office, debit card in hand, hoping to draw out some monopoly money Euros. I approach the lady behind desk 11. the Bureau De Change.

Me: “Can I have €300 please” (whilst holding up card)
Her: “Um… do you have a drivers license or passport?”
Me: [resigned to defeat at such an early stage] “Er, no… didn’t think you’d need it?”
Her: “Pop your card in the slot, I’ll see if I can withdraw cash for you”

[fx: computer bouncing across desk, smoke pouring out of the top of it, big flashing red lights, Family Fortunes 'Ick-urrrrr' sound effect repeating over and over]

Her: “Computer says no.” (note, approximation)
Me: “Er, but if I go and draw out the cash from a cash machine and bring it here, it’ll be OK, yes?”
Her: “Yes. Something to do with the Bank Of England”
Me: “I see… I’ll be back in a minute, then”.

I walk no less than 50 yards to the cash machine, withdraw the appropriate funds, and walk back to Desk 11…

Me: “€300 please…”, I say with a little twinge of sarcasm in my voice, though I try not to overdo it, as I know it’s not the cashiers fault.

Without hesitation, the funds are retrieved from the drawer, and I end up with a wad of notes.

I can’t help but think, “LOL, WTF”. Can someone explain to me why I can’t exchange currency when paying from my own card, without having ID, yet exchange it from cash drawn out of a cash machine with exactly the same card? The only difference is that I’m entering my PIN number onto a different sodding keypad.

Off to get my shoes, then. Brantano is a good quarter of a mile away from the town centre, so a small walk was in order. It would also give Daddykins the time to get from where he was going, to the car park outside of said shop, where he arranged to meet me. I entered the shop, and after a good old browse, I elected for two pairs of size 10’s that looked reasonably comfortable. I approached the check out to be greeted with… nothing. There was NOBODY THERE. What the hell? I was stood there for at least 10 minutes. Nobody came. I even resorted to tactics such as staring at the CCTV camera and shrugging my shoulders in the off-chance that someone was watching it, and would come out and serve me. I almost even resorted to setting off the store detector alarm in the hope of getting someone to come and serve me. Although I’m sure this idea would have worked, I decided against it, and thought I’d just stick it out and see what turned up

Eventually, an “assistant” made her way down the store, and I eventually got served. Awesome.

Now, by this time, I was positive that Daddykins would be in the car park waiting for me. I arrive out the store, and look about.

No car. You have GOT to be kidding me.

At this point, you’d be thinking that it’d be a good idea to ring him up and let him know I was waiting. this would indeed be a good idea, unfortunately, my phone was sat at home, on the landing, on charge. How handy.

At this point, I was wondering what had happened. Could it be that Daddykins didn’t hear me correctly? I clearly said “Brantano”, but was he thinking of somewhere like Staples? TK Maxx perhaps? They’re all down there too, though the other side of the marina. I must have walked the entire car park twice. No sign of him.

Every car that entered the car park got my evil eye at some point, as I attempted to read the registration plates as they went past. None of these cars matched the description I was looking for.

After approximately 20 minutes of standing around twiddling my thumbs, hoping that messages had not been misunderstood, here comes Daddykins. He flashes his lights, and I once again sigh, shrugging my shoulders. This was surely a day of me getting pissed around. I enter the car and ask where he’d been.

“Oh, I gave you an hour, so I went to the marina and got some fish and chips. They were gorgeous”. Eventually, I had to ask him to be quiet about how nice they were, as he failed to get me any chips, and I was not particuarly amused about being kept waiting for god knows how long while he stuffed his face.

After an amazing plate of curry, admittedly cooked by Daddykins, and using a jar of curry sauce that we paid 4p for. It’s the cheapest price I’d paid since I was working at Sharwoods. And it was delicious.

Thursday night saw me at the club. I wore a pair of my new shoes in by having several games of snooker. It was one of those games where I didn’t do well, I just got very lucky. Thirteen-cushions-and-in-off-the-light types of shots. I’d not played for a month, so it was surprising I’d potted anything at all.

I got a lift home from Chris’s dad at the end of the night, and I retired to bed after a couple more cans. In fact, here I am arriving home…

Oh, OK yes, I only included that image because the streetlight at the bottom of the road is off again. Someone climbed up a few nights ago and stole the photocell from the top of it. Speaking of streetlights, I explained my undying “love” for streetlights. (for want of a better expression… after all, there are some people who just take their obsession too far). He found my interest a bit weird, butalso strangely fascinating. Apparently, he’s going to take photos of streetlights outside of his house and allow me to identify them. I doubt he’ll remember, but it would be an interesting experiment either way.

Ahem, moving on swiftly. Friday came like a bolt out of the blue, or rather grey, as all it has done all day is rain. Considering this is the summer, it’s been shit so far. Today was the day I concluded my holiday purchases. Thanks to Thursday’s prick-about, I never had chance to get my hair cut, so I went on Friday instead. I always go to the same barbers, Ian Taylors on Church Street. Unfortunately, Ian Taylor died a couple of years ago, so the shop front is currently being repainted, along with the sign sayign what it is. I almost walked right past it. Not a good advertisement.

After a haircut which technically I didn’t really need, but considering I was going away on holiday, hasd anyway, I headed off to Asda, in order to stock up on some food. Now, what’s odd is that I didn’t buy any beer, or anything for the holiday, yet still managed to spend over £30 on grub for myself.

I returned home, laid on the sofa, watched Countdown, and promptly fell asleep on the sofa, eventually waking up to hear the theme from Channel 4 News as it was finishing.

That was then, this is now, It’s now just after 1AM on Saturday morning. Considering I’m at work for the next few days, this may be the lat post I make before I go away…

At this point, I would like to introduce you to my twitter account. While I am away from my computer, I can keep you informed of shit from my mobile. I bet you can’t fucking wait.

Seriously, I would like to use it to keep track of my “small” movements. It will also give me a chance to use some of the 200 mobile text messages I get allocated each month, yet never use. I will not use it while I’m out of the country, however. You’ll just have to imagine I’m having a nice time. I’m sure you’ll receive a desperately thorough write-up of what went on when I get back, however.

Paris beckons. Auf Weidersehen!

Technorati Tags: countdown, field, flea market, haircut, hart, holiday, jamie, me, new shoes, paris, photo, poppy

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