On the Blossom Trail.

After K left this morning at 8.00am on her way to the Manchester TV studio’s to take part in the audience for Countdown (is there no stopping that girl in her quest to be famous?) with the Day Care staff, I decided that the weather was far too nice to waste indoors doing Tai Chi, so I set off early on a meandering ‘Blossom Trail’ down to town. I had to go down anyway (orders and shopping list from the boss) so why not take advantage of the glorious spring sunshine to capture one of my favourite sights at this time of year, namely all the tree blossom?

Armed only with my trusty camera, shopping bag, K’s list (daren’t forget that!) I bravely set off to capture it all.

As you can see, the white tree blossom is at it’s best right now on the Estate.

My personal favourite the deep pink isn’t out yet, though it’s nearly blooming. However, when I arrived at the Library grounds i was surprised to see their deep pink was practically out as you can see from this photo.

Hmm. Wonder why ours on the estate are always so late to bloom? Perhaps because they are more sheltered from the sun by the houses?

The flower arrangements in the Library grounds were looking particularly attractive so I took a panoramic shot of those. All around town the Council gardeners were out in full force, busy leaning on their spades (as usual) discussing with each other which plants to dig up or plant I suppose. We are lucky to say its such a small town to have some wonderful flower arrangements dotted up and down the town, and lot’s of very attractive flower boxes as well, but I didn’t take any photos of those as I was concentrating on the blossom trees for this shoot. (well, it sounds professional!)

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The lighter pinks which blossomed first are now beginning to die off unfortunately but they will be soon replaced by my favourites the gorgeous deep pink blossom that I always call cherry blossom. Hope you enjoy my photo shoot which I am including in this blog post as a Photo Album as well. Hope that you had a lovely enjoyable sunny spring day as well.

TG

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A train trip down to Exeter.

Yesterday we were up long before the crack of dawn to embark on one of our Green Express Tours train trips, this time all the way down south to Exeter. 3.45am the alarm went off, and five o’clock the taxi arrived to take us to Huddersfield station. As ever on these occasions there was lot’s of greetings of familiar faces. J was accompanying us for the first time on a Green Express tour train, so as we waited for the train to arrive I filled him in on the usual procedure of boarding at whatever carriage happened to stop where you were stood and then fight work your way down to your allotted carriage and seats. 

It was late arriving at 6.15am. We all clambered on board the nearest carriage and then we all slowly worked our way down the aisles to our respective carriages and seats. We were in coach H. Bags stashed onto the rack, bottoms parked on seats, we settled down for what we knew was going to be a very long journey. Normally when the train is running late, they try to catch up to time but strangely we began lagging further and further behind our schedule. Not only that, but every time we came to a stop it was a jerky stop throwing everyone forward in their seats (and causing havoc if you happened to be trying to drink at that particular time!)

Following one particular sudden jerky stop, one of the stewards walked through the train to inform us all that the front engine had broken down, and we were now to be pulled by the one at the other end. We then resumed our journey with the other engine doing the pulling. We finally arrived in Exeter at 12.30pm, about 15 minutes late. The train then left to continue onto Dawlish and Paignton. It was to return to pick us up at 5.15pm, so we had a just under five hours to see all the sights of Exeter.

Armed with our usual trusty map, we made our way out of the station to make our way to the Quay. The weather was fine, but I had expected it to be far warmer than it was seeing as we were so far south. There were lot’s of students sitting outside the numerous cafe’s and restaurants, and one in restaurant in particular caught my eye because they served some enormous pizzas which the students were all gathered around sharing. We really should have spent more time exploring here as we didn’t get to visit the Quay House visitors centre which was over a bridge from where we were. In fact we didn’t really see most of the Quay and will have to take in the rest of it if we get down there again.

We then made our way back up the slope towards the Cathedral. As we arrived, the bridal car (a dressed up volkswagen camper) arrived just in front of the Cathedral doors. To loud cheers from all the spectators dotted around the park area that surrounds the Cathedral, the bride emerged and they all went inside. Because there was a wedding taking place, we were advised to return later to tour the Cathedral, so we decided to continue on to the Exeter Underground passages. We had a hard time finding this venue as we ended up passing it a few times. It was in between two shops and so was easily missed by anyone not familiar with the area, and that was despite J’s map reading skills.

We were shown a short film about the Underground passages explaining why they existed, and then we all had to don hard hat’s and place all our bags into lockable lockers before following our tour guide down into the passages. K had to wear one of the children’s hat’s as the adult one’s were too large for her head. It was all very interesting as the tour guide kept stopping at different parts of the passages and explaining things to us, but I wouldn’t recommend this particular attraction to anyone who is at all claustrophobic!

The passages were very narrow, which explains why we all had to leave our bags behind, and also very low! K wasn’t too bad as she is only five foot but even she kept having to stoop. Poor J was nearly doubled in two for most of the tour! You can found out more about the Underground Passages HERE.

Emerging from there, we made our way back to the Cathedral, but again we were thwarted from making the full tour because there was now a service taking place, so we had to resign ourselves to just looking around the main area. It’s a stunning Cathedral to look around with its high vaulted ceiling and well worth a visit if you are ever in Exeter. We also visited the Cathedral shop for some souvenirs and then exited and walked back towards the shopping area to do some last minute browsing and gift buying. I couldn’t find a fridge magnet that I liked anywhere though. 

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We slowly made our way back to the train station where we had a bite to eat before crossing over to our allotted platform to await our trains arrival and the journey home. My feet were throbbing and my back was really aching by this time, all I wanted to do was sit down. We had really done quite a bit of walking around. At last the train pulled in and we all clambered on board to take our seats for the journey home. Of course everyone wanted to know whether we had enjoyed our day and we asked them about there chosen venue’s as well.  We fairly flew back on the return journey, and we stayed ‘on time’ for most of the way, arriving back in Huddersfield for just after 11. 15pm.

You’ll not be surprised to learn that as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep! It’s so nice to go travelling but its oh so nice to come home!

TG

Technorati Tags: green express tours,exeter,quay,pedelos,cathedral,wedding,underground,passages,shops

New Hair Day.

 We’ve both been to the hairdressers for our hair doing. A perm for me and K a wash cut and blow dry. This time it wasn’t our usual hairdresser, she has left for pastures new. It was the salon owner doing the honours today.  I actually prefer how she has done K’s,  especially her fringe but I don’t think K is as suited about it. Mine looks okay but I’ll be able to tell better when I try to style it myself later.

It was another lovely sunny day as well, and quite a busy ‘rushing about’ one for me. First of all, I had to escort daughter down to the Adult Education Centre for her cookery class which began at ten o’clock.  Why? Because the day care staff are having a training day.  After dropping her off, I then rushed across town for some Grape Juice for me as I was running out and forgot to buy any yesterday, then back to the ATM outside the bank to withdraw some cash to pay for our hair do’s, a quick dash to the bus station for the bus.

Home, then before I’d blinked or had time to catch my breath  it was time to walk back down to collect K at 12.30pm.  Back to bus station caught the bus home, some dinner, a quick browse on the Internet then a brisk walk up to the hairdressers for my 3.00pm hair appointment.

 

Now back home I am sitting down composing this blog for you to read and literally catching my breath as I do so. I feel exhausted! It’s a wonder to be honest with you that I didn’t meet myself coming back.

TG

Technorati Tags: hairdressers,perm,cut,fringe,cookery,bus,walk

To those I’ve loved but never met.

This week I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia trip brought about by a friend on one of the forums I often frequent making some of his recordings he had made of very old ‘Pick of the Pop’s radio broadcasts available to download. Sat there in my computer chair listening enraptured to those oldies from the early sixties, I also began to recall all those pop singers that I used to have a crush on then.  I did actually get to see some of them in concert because in those days it was quite normal for them to tour ‘en masse’ to our local towns such as Halifax for example or Bradford.

They used to all tour together. For example one concert I attended had the Beatles supporting Roy Orbison. Of course, you never heard a thing! From the moment the curtain went up on the first band or singer, that was it, scream scream scream at the top of your voice!

Those tours were the highlight of the sixties and you often got quite a few groups touring together with each other, and usually  appearing in a town near to you. It was often the only chance you ever got to be near to your idol or favourite singer or group. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Searchers, the Merseybeats, the Hollies, they all toured. I saw Cliff at the Bradford St Georges Hall when they were then called Cliff Richard and the Drifters. Jet Harris was still the base player then and I can recall that Cliff wore that famous pink jacket of his. I screamed all the way through that one.

I saw the Beatles who toured with all the other Mersey bands  at the Halifax Odeon (can’t remember what year that was) followed by seeing Roy Orbison tour with the Walker Brothers. It’s a shame that all of the touring came to an end but it did unfortunately. The groups and pop singers in those days seemed to spend half their lives on tour either in this country or abroad.

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So here in glorious pictures are all of the crushes I have had over the years beginning in my teens up to the present day.

TG ( Who did you have a crush on in your younger years?)

Technorati Tags: Crush,pop,concert,pick of the pops,tour,groups

The Boss is back, with a Vengeance!

Last week I was all by myself because K was spending a week at respite. She wasn’t back inside the flat two minutes before she had planned out yesterdays  Itinerary. We were to go to Bradford first, then Huddersfield. Why? For a bottle of the Sherry we bought previously and a new sweatshirt for me. ( I had accidentally splashed some bleach on my other one and its now ruined. Well unless I want to resemble a spotted hyena.)

By the time she had finished stating the plans to me my head was spinning. So this morning off we set. For one of our round trips. The sun was shining, it was lovely and warm so I decided to just wear a t-shirt under my raincoat. So much for my usual homage to ‘don’t cast a clout till May goes out.’ ( always quoted to me by my Mum and then passed down by me to my offspring.)

We arrived in Bradford and plodded up to Morrison’s for the bottle of Sherry. Then we cut across from there to Bradford Forster Square where K looked none too pleased to have to descend a ton of steps to reach the station. This was followed by a browse around Sports Direct for a sweatshirt top to replace my ‘spotty’ one. No luck. Most of the stock on display was now their summer lines. Shorts, sleeveless tops. Pedal pushers, and I was beginning to flag. I was feeling quite shaky and light headed.

We decided to abandon the search here and make our way on the train to Huddersfield via Leeds. ( Not my idea, I could quite easily have just gone straight back home.) So mad dash back to the station. A train for Leeds was in. It was good to sit down. K began her usual ‘ape’ of the auto voice announcement provided on these trains as the journey progresses.

“ The next station is Leeds. This train terminates here. Please take all your belongings with you.” ( here she always adds the words ‘including knickers’ accompanied by lot’s of raucous laughter on her part) I stumbled from the train dying for a toilet break. Hey! Hang on a minute!  What were those old fashioned looking carriages on Platform 6? Suddenly my tiredness disappeared like a puff of smoke. My camera was out of my bag before K could blink an eye and I dashed up the platform to take a photo of whatever engine was pulling it all. Dashed the wrong way as it turned out. How long was this train? There must have been at least twenty carriages! (should have counted them all seeing as I ended up running from one end to the other.)

When we finally reached the engine it wasn’t a steam engine after all, but was still attracting lot’s of interest and photographers. (all male as usual apart from me.) They were just about to pull out so speed was of the essence as you can see by my shots where I have ended up including bits of  everyman and his dog on practically every photo. We did manage to have the time to take each other stood in front of the engine before it pulled out. As the train set off and K and I made our way back along the platform in the general direction of the toilets, we waved to all of the passengers on board. Wonder where they were going? Or where they’d been?

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The train for Huddersfield was in and we were soon on our way for some more spending. I managed to find a sweatshirt and K bought one for herself as well bringing her total sweatshirt tally to six whilst I now have two. We also bought  two new bags for shopping from the indoor market ‘bag lady’ as we tend to call her. I was amused to hear her call refer to them as ‘laundry bags’ then at last we were on our way home.  A brief stop off in town to collect my new glasses from the opticians followed by the final welcome bus ride home.

Boy was I glad to arrive back!

TG

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On the Daffodil Trail.

As I am on my own this week (K is off all week for some respite from her Mum) and after doing some washing, tidying etc, I decided not to waste such a beautiful day by staying indoors, so I have been off on a ‘daffodil trail’ around my home town. Beginning at the new Swimming Pool build and ending up at the bus station, I managed to find lot’s of daffodils growing just about everywhere I went.

 I also took some photos of one of my favourite spots as well, the canal basin where there were lot’s of people sitting out enjoying the sunshine with even one couple having a picnic at the side of one of the narrow boats. The park was absolutely jam packed today with families enjoying the spring sunshine. It wasn’t long before I had to discard the raincoat it was so warm.

It’s supposed to be cooler tomorrow so that was one reason that I ventured out for a walk. I’ve made some of the photos into my usual panoramic shots. The rest are in a photo album. I love days like this. Later I have the Lord of the Rings Trilogy to watch on Blue Ray. We did own all three previously on ordinary DVD and we have waited patiently for them to come out on Blue Ray.

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I miss K already (she only went yesterday afternoon) but she has left me a very bossy ‘sticky note’ pinned to the fridge freezer which says

‘’Do not forget to book our Hairdressers on 17 of April is on Saturday I wont men doing as well please do not for get.’

So, I have my orders for this week and had better not forget to make an appointment for her hair doing had I?

TG

Technorati Tags: daffodils,park,beck,note,canal,narrowboats

A dust up with the bin men.

I had a slight dust up with the dustbin men today. Owing to my age you see I am supposedly exempt from all this Wheelie bin malarkey, not that anyone of any age around here wheels their bins anywhere mind you, but because I am over 65 I am supposed to be still using my old bin and be provided with five black bags per fortnight.  A lady from the local authority came to see me when all this ‘wheelie bin’ business and new rules regarding residents sorting the recycling into different containers first came into force.

My Wheelie bin SHOULD have been collected following my grilling interview and subsequent exemption from being expected to push a wheelie bin down the path to the roadside kerb. As you might guess, no one came to collect it so there it stayed in my bin area outside next to my ‘old’ bin.  I have now discovered that this confuses the bin men.  Instead of the authority supplying the bin men with some sort of list of ‘elderly exempt residents who need black bag supplies’ it transpires that the only criteria applied when deciding whether or not to leave some bags is ‘is there a wheelie bin present?’

I found this out today quite by chance. You see on their last visit a fortnight ago, they didn’t leave me any bags so I had to buy some despite the fact that we are told we should only use THEIR blag bags. Strange as it seems, up until then they HAD been leaving me some black bags, usually left hanging over the old bin as they took out my full black bags.  Because of the previous oversight on their part, Technogran was diligently listening for their arrival today and at the first ‘clunk’, loud shouts and the usual cussing and swearing, she quickly scooted downstairs, out the flat and along the path in pursuit of said bin men who had taken her Wheelie bin full of just about everyone else's rubbish to the dustbin wagon to empty.

They have done this trick before, and what would have happened had I not been diligently watching out for them is that I (oldest resident on the block) would have had to then go and fetch it back from the side of the garages where they had left it.  But today I was in hot pursuit of some ‘official’ black bags. 

“You haven’t left me any black bags again!” I stated to bin man as he trundled two wheelie bins from the dustcart to the side of the garages. “I’m over 65, and I should get some black bags left.”

“Which flat are you?” he asked glowering at me as he did so.   I told him the number. “Ahh! You shouldn’t leave a Wheelie bin there! That’s why we don’t leave you any black bags! Leave your Wheelie bin here by the garages then we’ll know your on black bags!”

Hmm. Strange then that since we began this nightmare that is our authorities ‘Recycling Scheme’ and despite a Wheelie bin being stood next to my old bin all this time because no one came to collect it, they have been leaving me some black bags until a fortnight ago isn’t it?

TG 

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Update about our new Swimming Pool.

Some of my readers may have been wondering what the latest news is regarding our new Swimming Pool, although I can in all probability count those on one hand (or maybe even one finger) as most of my readers probably couldn’t give a monkeys toss about it. So on the off chance that someone, somewhere was frantic with worry about how the build has progressed over the terrible winter months we have just endured, I now publish this update.

Despite one of the worst winters ever, our trusty hard hats have been hard at it (forgive the slight pun) and plodded on through rain, hail, snow and blow. A great deal of progress has been achieved as you can see by my snaps taken through the holes left specifically for nosey  parker Technogran and her sidekick K. (The lower cut out is for K so that she doesn’t have to stand on tiptoe to peer into the  site, and the upper two are for me to be able to do my ‘panoramic shots’ of the build and show off progress to the best of my ability.)

As the sun was unfortunately directly in camera shot the day I took these snaps, there aren’t any from our usual vantage point of the front entrance, we had to mosey around the back of the build to our other ‘Viewing Points’ (aren’t these constructors thoughtful?) and I was able to do a pan of the Swimming Pool end where you can see that the windows are going in, the pool itself is already in place (or its shell at any rate) and the long awaited time when K and I can don our cossies ( will in all probability require new one’s as its an age since we wore them) and try to be the first to jump in and christen our lovely new pool seems so much closer to reality!  I can feel my skin peeling and drying out with all that chlorine already! Yippee!

Wonder who they will ask to open it all?  That’s all for now folks, I’ll keep my one reader updated on future progress as it happens.

TG

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