We climbed a mountain today. A blue one, which didn’t look at all blue. And we learned that everything we (thought we) knew about coffee was completely wrong.
The coffee was nice though, as were the views.
The picture above was actually looking down onto a pretty scary road which zig-zagged up the mountain.
As opposed to a day/evening in Belfast, we spent a couple of hours there yesterday morning.
A pub my second in command only saw from the outside.
So, while plans were a bit messed up, we kindof did still get to Belfast.
My second in command has been somewhat excited about this evening. She’d been looking forward to seeing the Rocket in the Discovery museum.
It’s been nice to do the history/culture thing, rather than spending the evening in bars.
Enough of that though, we’re now in our fourth bar.
Ok, I grew up with this stuff, so please let me run with it.
Robot B9, the robot, and Dr Smith.
And the new robot and Dr Smith.
Accepting that the second picture is in color, and Dr Smith is more than marginally less camp, (and the acting is a lot better in the new series) I still feel that the original robot is more appropriate when compared to the (second attempt at) the modern version.
I feel the need to join a club.
OK, let’s put this right. Robot B9 looks like this.
And this is the Jupiter 2.
And the chariot.
Going in …
While I always buy one or two regular pairs of glasses whenever I have an eye test, I tend to wear these only for work or around the house.
For my preferred glasses, though, I also buy frames from Dead Men’s Spex, a great site with lots of amazing frames. I tend to by rolled gold, small frames; mostly by Algha.
My current pair, from the late 1800s, are probably the best I’ve ever managed to find. They were ‘new old stock’, so unused despite being around 120 years old.
Sadly, they’re now getting a little creaky, so it was time to think about a new pair. There are a few pairs on the Dead Men’s Spex site, but none are unused.
So I’ve had to resort to a new pair of glasses. Fortunately, Algha are still in business, making glasses by hand in London. Ok, so they’re not quite the age I’d have liked, and they’re somewhat more expensive, but they do look very similar.
After hearing from a few people that Pisa is something of a dump, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing it. Even though it’s something that has to be done.
But it was well worth the visit.
And, of course, this also had to be done …
It’s not remotely a dump. Come on, I live in Gateshead. Our only historic landmark (the Get Carter car park) was demolished years ago.
The high level bridge is my most favourite bridge. Its restoration over a decade ago was remarkable, turning an old blackened monster into a thing of beauty.
In recent years, though, grafitti has made something of a mess of the structure. Apparently, the estimated cost of a clean-up is around £40,000. Removing the mess would probably be a waste of time, however. The underlying cause would remain and the grafitti would doubtless return. Kids.
It may have seemed cute in the beginning, but the addition of hundreds of locks has attracted lovesick teenagers. Who, in addition to leaving a token of their undying love, leave the names of their loved ones, friends and words of youthly wisdom.
Personally, I’d remove them all and throw them into the Tyne. Along with any returning teenagers.
As an aside, there’s an interesting trick of light in the first picture. I was alone on the bridge.
While there’s still nothing there, since today has been busy, sodhousebank.com has now been activated.
