It looks like how I feel....

sanctuary, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

....a bit green and tarnished, definitely battered and feeling it's age......had a stormer of a headache this morning but I'm on the mend, just feeling a bit 'vacant' with the aftermath of the megadeath pain-killers. This is another one from yesterday, it's the Sanctuary Knocker on the front door of Durham Cathedral (there's a few more on Flickr)

OTHER STUFF

A historical timewaster a la bayeux tapestry, create a multiframe story using a library of drag-and-drop embroidered 'bits' (no needlework skills required!) and amaze your friends with your errudition......it kept me occupied for a good 10 minutes!
Link to the Historic Tale Construction Kit

It's a long way down

It's a long way down, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

This could maybe be my last site visit.....today it was the roof spaces of Durham Cathedral, it's one of those annual affairs......but I'm thinking VERY seriously about an early retirement deal currently on the cards, while all the time trying hard not to build my hopes up in case it doesn't happen!

Sunday market

sunday market, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

A nice trip to the Sunday market with the firstborn (I bought 6 mouse-gnawed, water-stained books with an average age of 100 for a fiver, Sarah bought a vintage Ringtons coffee tin and a splendidly grotesque vase thingy in the shape of a hollowed-out siamese cat.....result!) followed by a cider-fuelled tapas lunch and an afternoon visit to Mum/Grandma to mull over old photos and eat shortbread.....not good for anything much now except the couch and a pair of loose trousers......

PS.....the truth isn't always out there, don't take no rubber nickels!

Feeling off-colour

Think I'm coming down with a festive cold....it's an afternoon on the couch for me, going out this morning was maybe a mistake! Oh, and it's looking like more snow..........bah, humbug......

Low-Res Day.....

.....and a Low-Res shot, but with BIG shoes.
3 days to go.......................................

Buildings in Use.....or then again, maybe not...

Busy day....a (not very good) shot of some of the action of the 'Buildings in Use' final poster presentation that's eaten up most of the day. Just in case you're interested, the brief is for groups of Building Surveying students to find new, innovative and financially viable uses for an existing down-at-heel local building. This year it was the Gibson Street Baths.....a gently decaying Victorian (ex) swimming pool/public baths/wash house a few hundred yards away from the campus. The boys and girls did some impressive work, but the bad news is there were great ideas there that'll unfortunately probably never get acted upon by the semi-fictional client.....no names, no pack drill!

Jeez.....that was serious stuff, not sure what happened there (think I definitely need a holiday!) I know, how about building your own snowflake, that sounds a bit fluffy with a seasonal twist.......

.....you can snip your own here without all that nasty mess on the carpet. I've already done one so it's an early bath for me! Roll on Friday!

Synthetic

synthetic plants, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

Let me tell you, those plants aren't real.....they're truly nasty pretend plants that the uni should be ashamed of. The building you can see through the window used to be a chemical factory (no really!) but when I was a student here it was the place where we did 'Liberal Studies' on a Wednesday afternoon.....with bare boards, clouds of dust and mousetraps in every corner if I remember rightly! These days they're bijou flatlets that students definitely can't afford to rent, the building was sold off years ago to fund some campus redevelopment plan or other. And only the facade remains, they're standard 'little boxes' behind those gracious windows. 

Good news....
Today I picked up my 'long service award', 20 years of sterling service apparently

Bad news....
it works out at only marginally more than 19p per week......

Nearly the same....

Nearly the same, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

....as yesterday, except a bit later and slightly to the left. As you can probably guess, I didn't make it off-campus today, at least not until it was dark.........a bit of a noisily nothing day really

I rather like this one....'love is patient', it's mesmerising.....click and you'll see what I mean

And lastly a bit of annoyingly 'stick-in-your-head' christmas music......don't worry, you don't HAVE to click......


Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

Sunrise over City Campus East

Sunrise over City Campus East, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

But I have to admit it was probably the best weather we had all day! I hate Mondays....but you've probably gathered that....

Think I'll indulge in a bit of BetaMaX Xmas later...........

Making tracks

Making tracks, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

Unfortunately I missed all the action.....story of my life really!

 XMAS BONUS LINK OF THE DAY.....

Lets just assume you have a small, but perfectly formed, gift to wrap this christmas (and access to a colour printer).....there's a shedload (as in180!) of downloadable pdf papers here

Welcome to the house of fun.....

.....aka Friday! Met up with the firstborn in downtown Whitley Bay at teatime for the opening of the annual French/Northumbrian farmers xmas market, we were just in time for a bit of surreal carol singing and some (definitely, and I speak from a life-long experience) non-alcoholic mulled wine....the French marketeers appeared to be drinking different stuff from under the table and laughing a lot, but I can't imagine why........

I got the call I've been waiting for all week at lunchtime....the Lab Xmas tree was 'erect' and 'live'. This year I decided it was time to record it in all it's glory and give it the media attention it deserves.....enjoy it's hypnotic power! (HEALTH WARNING....it's been known to make grown men weep!)

Mostly from yesterday

I had a computer-free evening last night.....very novel! (no particular reason except I felt as if I'd been staring at a flickering screen all day and needed a bit of a break) The above piccy was taken while on a quick trip to the local public library at lunchtime.....you need a good head for heights when you're browsing the vintage books like these ones.....

"Charles Booth's Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London, undertaken between 1886 and 1903 was one of several surveys of working class life carried out in the 19th century. It is the only survey for which the original notes and data have survived and therefore provides a unique insight into the development of the philosophy and methodology of social investigation in the United Kingdom." There's an online archive (including maps) here if you fancy dipping in.

OTHER STUFF

A couple of photography links....

Liu Bolin 
Hiding in the City No.17 (No.2 of People's Policeman), 2006

Amazing stuff, unfortunately the images are quite small, must have a look for some bigger ones later.

Then I came across this site today that looks promising


Pictory


they say....
"Pictory is a showcase for people around the world to document their lives and cultures. Anyone can submit one large, captioned image to each of Pictory’s editorial themes. I’m editor, designer, and founder Laura Brunow Miner, and I will select a few dozen of the best items from each theme to appear in each showcase."

There's a "taster" to view and some categories open for new submissions.

Lastly the frivolous xmas link Elf Yourself. Upload up to 5 pictures of your friends (or enemies, it's even better with your enemies!) and watch them cavort. The granddaughter will probably kill me for this......

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wet Monday

Well at least that's Monday nearly out of the way.....bleak weather with sleety showers and a really cold wind. Went out at lunchtime (got wet twice) and had to fight my way through the Xmas shoppers bristling with bags and umbrellas, rather wish I hadn't bothered to be honest. Tell you what, I was really glad to get home, put the kettle on and turn the heating up a notch tonight. Ho hum, onwards and upwards!

Xmas cafe society

Xmas cafe society, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

Hooray it's Friday! In fact, not a lot to say except for 'Hooray it's Friday'!

No....can't leave it there, doesn't feel right.....here's some popcorn recipes......
popcorn recipes

 Have a great one!

More Christmas market

More Christmas market, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

Just woken up.....I had one of those mandatory 'Equality and Diversity' session/workshops this afternoon, a 'tick the boxes, everyone has to do it' affairs that somehow leaves you with more questions after than before, but with a deep, underlying  feeling that common sense went out of the window some time ago. But back to reality....this was the market just before I bolted down into the metro station at home time.

ONE OTHER THING....

............I think I want to be a beatnik!

Confronting double demons

monochrome xmas lights, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

As in 'night shot' and 'b&w', both of which scare me. Given my complete lack of camera knowledge and a definitely shaky hand, it's always going to be a case of making a synthetic silk purse out of a sow's ear.....but seeing as the dark nights are drawing in I'll give it an occasional go. Actually took this one last night.....but it was better than tonight's attempts!

OTHER STUFF

Crappy Cat.....one of those interactive/not quite a game/but definitely a timewaster thingies (hint: Crappy Cat likes booze!)

Only click here if you think you might take an infantile delight in adorning that smug face with a silly moustache....Tuesday's are sometimes like that I find

From Normandy

From Normandy, originally uploaded by moclaydon.

The continental Christmas market opened today in Newcastle (it lasts a fortnight) and the open-air food stalls were doing a roaring trade when I came home from work....everything from german sausages (may give them a miss till next week, still suffering from a pork overload after Berlin!) to paella, belgian doughnuts and waffles to kangaroo burgers and crocodile steaks (OK, so maybe not exactly european.....but we push boundaries in the North!)

I realised too late that I'd missed a trick last night when I posted the 'Taxi' shot....in fact I forgot why I'd taken it in the first place. It was all down to a dreadful pun and an excuse to post a  vintage video. I'll post the video and leave you to work out the tenuous connections! (think alternatives for taxi!)

Oh come all ye faithful......

A sure sign that Xmas is on the horizon, Fenwicks, a local department store has unveiled their animated festive window display, this year complete with carols belting out from 8 in the morning until yawn time....I love Xmas but just not yet!

Just time for one link tonight (the boy in the attic is apparently downloading the internet tonight, he's magnanimously agreed to turn off his downloads for a few minutes to let me post!).....it's an online game with nice graphics and cool music that I haven't managed to play yet (for reasons see above!)

About....

"Little Wheel is the story of a world of self-sufficient robots. Everything runs like clockwork until one day when a mishap at the power core shuts down the entire civilization. After ten thousand years of rusting, a chance lightning strike restores power to one small hero, who sets out to start everything back up again.

Little Wheel is played entirely with the mouse, and the design could not be friendlier. There's no hunting for pixels or hot-spots, as things you can interact with are highlighted by a gray circle. Instead of collecting seemingly random items and rubbing them against everything to see if it advances the story, most puzzles in the game are solved simply by choosing to click these interactive areas in their correct order."

Play Little Wheel

In praise of the local rag

Every Friday the (99.2% free) local rag hits the doormat with headlines like "Bus services are diverted", "Choir gains some new members at rehearsal" and (honestly, I'm not kidding!) "Residents urged to plan their funeral", but you know I wouldn't miss it for the world....it's a gripping read! Only tonight I learned that the inventor of Plasticine was born only a few miles down the road and to commemorate the fact "colourful new seats which have been made to look like moulded Plasticine (.....mmmmm, nice....can't wait!) are to be installed" in the streets of his birthplace (and before you bombard me with questions it was a certain Mr William Harbutt in 1894, so just remember that for your next pub quiz, it could be a clincher!)
That sounds like a cue for a video......



But Mr Harbutt wasn't our only famous resident....oh no, this is no cultural backwater, we're terrifically couth....Stan Laurel did time lived round here too and revisited the scenes of his misspent youth with Oliver Hardy in the (I'm guessing!) 30's.....I used to live about 50 yards south of where this was filmed, and the Grand Hotel is still going strong. WARNING.....slightly surrealistic, the commentary is in Italian!



Be thankfull you got the 'light' version tonight....I was going to post a picture of my (kitten-clawed) lacerated legs.....but I decided the world wasn't ready........

All burnt out

Another day of virtually zero photographic endeavour.
The cold, or whatever it is, is still simmering, I might even have to admit defeat and take the day off tomorrow, I hate being sick.....but I've bought in pills and potions that might make it easier!

But there was some good news today...the plans for the Berlin fieldtrip in a couple of weeks are starting to take shape, there's just one more day to fill with meaningful/justifiable/educational activities and then we're sorted. I'm just hoping that final empty day doesn't involve me in trying to persuade a bunch of 40+ students that creating group websites illustrating their fieldtrip experience (using German software in a computer lab at a necessarily nameless Berlin University) is a 'good' thing to do.....and that probably after they've had a heavy night on the beer. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt....no thanks, well not if I can help it anyway! I'd much rather do Berliner Unterwelten (that would be the society for exploration and documentation of subterranean architecture) and dig deep into cold-war history....but currently the court's out!