Monday, November 05, 2007
Last weeks news was a 32 inch High Definition Sanyo tv to go with the PS3.Much visual coolness.
This weeks news...
Blackpool.
Steve 1:54 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, July 30, 2007
Predictably, shortly after sorting out our email problems, our isp threw a serious wobbler, and refused to function at all.This was unfortunate timing, as it came a couple of days before we went on a short break, so till now, no-one has known why my cam and chatroom have been dead, emails haven't been answered, etc.
So anyway... the city of Hull has been generally recognised as the worst place in England.
We decided to find out if the reputation was warranted, and booked a few days in The Quality Royal Hotel, right in the heart of Hull.
These photos might suggest that the place is as bad as people say it is, but there's more...
And then when you begin to explore the surrounding area, there's still more...
Click the images for larger versions.
So, the hotel was absolutely fantastic, and is highly recommended, and as for the reputation of the town... no warranted at all, as far as we could tell.
Labels: holidays, hotels, photos
Steve 9:13 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, January 29, 2007
Most wonderful weekend ever!As planned some time ago, we went to Scarborough, and stayed at The Grand Hotel... a Victorian hotel that when it was built, was the largest in Europe.
The place is very quirky and slightly odd, seeming to be trying to stay true to its history, while functioning on a tight budget in a modern era.
So while the architecture is very grandiose and impressive, the actual decor is either looking rather tired, or somewhat dubiously chosen. What is it with all that blue? Certainly not horrible... just peculiar.
The staff were *very* good though, being both friendly and helpful.
Our room was quite an odd mishmash too, combining a victorian feel, with some later art deco furnishings, and plenty of that ill advised blue. The floor boards added real comedy value too. Creaky? Yup. Much fun.
This probably makes it sound like it wasn't really much good, but that would be doing the room an injustice. While quirky, it was very comfortable, had a warm atmosphere, and the most awesome view.
Looking south, we could see down the beach, and had a great view of the Victorian bridge spanning the valley...
...while looking east, we could see out over the harbour.
At dinner that evening, it appeared we'd been upgraded, as while we'd got our room at a bargain price, we were dining in the hall reserved for premium guests. Yay!
The experience was actually a little confusing, as the soup starter, which was absolutely wonderful, was served to us at our table... while the main course was self service from the carvery, and turned out to be a little unspectacular.
For what we were paying though, it was excellent... just slightly bemusing.
On saturday morning, before breakfast, and while Andrea was still asleep, I went for a walk with my camera.
It was very cold, but the sun was just rising, and there were some very dedicated surfers already on the beach.
I walked along the beach towards the town and took a wander round the harbour.
Time was getting on and I needed to find a florist, so I headed into town (or so I thought), only to get completely lost, and end up at the very top of the hill by the castle.
Though I hadn't actually planned to be up there, and I'd already been out much longer than intended, I couldn't help but be impressed by the view, and how The Grand completely dominates the bay.
Anyways, I made my way back down into the town, and after asking for directions several times, I finally found a florist, from which I bought every last red rose they had.
On returning to the hotel, Andrea and I went down for breakfast, and I have to say, this turned out to be quite excellent.
Then to the serious business of shopping, and some very specific shopping it was too. We must've checked out every jeweler in Scarborough, but it was worth the walk.
Rather than walk directly back to the hotel, we went down the hill and took a walk along the sea front, which for January was surprisingly lively, and then along the beach.
So, as we walked along the almost deserted sand, under the lights of the seafront, and in view of the impressively lit Grand Hotel, I took Andrea's hand, dropped to one knee, and said "Andrea.... Would you do me the honour of being my wife?"
She said yes. :D
Having already bought rings together earlier, Andrea knew I was going to propose... and it was the whole point of the weekend in Scarborough, but the actual moment... it was very special.
We exchanged rings. Andrea's is gold with a diamond cluster. Mine is a white gold ridged band with 6 diamonds embedded around it.
We headed back to the hotel, where I presented Andrea with the roses I'd bought in the morning, (the hotel staff were fantastic and went to some trouble trying to find a vase for them, though after much searching, a water jug served the purpose finely), and we drank the best champagne I've ever tasted, in some very nice glasses... a lovely gift from friends and colleagues of Andrea's.
The next morning, before breakfast, I went for another walk with my camera. I'm still learning how to get the best from the thing, so while some shots that should have been excellent came out blurred, some are as breathtaking as the views themselves were.
Scarborough has sunrises that make getting up early compulsory.
After another great breakfast, it was back off up to our room to pack. Checking out was at 10am, and we were pushing it, but it's hard to hurry to leave such a great place.
Just before we left the room, we paused at the window to watch the surfers on the beach.
Yup.
Best weekend ever.
And best of all.... We're engaged!!!
Labels: holidays, hotels, photos
Steve 6:00 AM [+] (4) comments
Saturday, December 30, 2006
So then, now all of that's done and dusted... Christmas, and the run-up to it.On the 21st, Andrea and I went back to Milton Keynes for a couple of days, mainly to drop off pressies for my family, but also to do a spot of shopping.
As it's a damned long journey, we figured it'd be better if we stayed the night in a hotel, and while we'd initially booked a room at Newport Pagnel services, at the last minute, Andrea managed to get us a room in The Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford.
This was ultra cool for two reasons.
Firstly, Stony Stratford is my absolute favourite place in the whole world, and at Christmas, with all of the lights up, the place is absolutely magical.
This pic really does the place no justice at all, but you get the idea.
Secondly, we've stayed at The Cock Hotel before, and though on that occasion, our room was a little shoddy, we really liked the atmospehere of the place. So this time, we were thrilled to bits when we got a vastly better room for an absolute knock down price.
As you can see, the room was a decent size, with a double bed, decent sized sofa, HD TV, and wonderful decor and general ambience.
Now if that was all, I'd have been impressed, but the view from the window was really good too. Maybe if it hadn't been Christmas, it'd have been a little less impressive, but as it was...
This was the view looking directly out and down, while looking up the street a little...
So that's the run-up... what about Christmas itself?
Great day.
The build-up to Christmas is always pretty stressful, or at least, I find it so... so the fact that Christmas day was a really chilled and relaxing day was a real bonus.
With Andrea's 3 offspring all in attendance, it was a full house, with much food, drink, pressies, and tv. Just how things should be.
What did Santa bring me?
Among lots of other really cool stuff, top pressies were a Colecovision (early 80s games console... expect to find details in my Consoles And Computers section in a week or so), some books on photography and historic buildings, and Top Gear DVDs which repeatedly caused me to wake Andrea, coz I kept laughing at them, watching with headphones while she slept.
Yup... top Christmas.
Labels: Christmas, holidays, hotels, photos, Stony Stratford
Steve 9:12 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, September 01, 2006
We've just returned after several days in Lowestoft, near Great Yarmouth.Predictably, there are new photos on my flickr page, of which, these are a few examples.
Steve 5:22 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Wales then.I was gonna blog while we were there, but my pda blogging software didn't want to co-operate.
So now I'm too lazy to write a full account, and am just gonna do my usual thing... post a few photos and tell you to go look at the rest on flickr. Click that animated flickr link image down there on the left, or click the images here.
Steve 1:45 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, August 13, 2006
We're off to wales in a bit under 24 hours.I'm not sure of the exact details, but since both Andrea and myself are pretty much in full on night mode lately, we're gonna set off some time tomorrow night, to arrive in wales some time in the early(ish) hours.
I've no idea what to expect, though the brochures make it look very nice. The weather may be a bit iffy though. But whatever... I'll have my camera with me, so expect lots of pics... assuming I get round to posting them.
Oh yeah. I've managed to run 2 cams at once on this pc, so frequently, if my camerades cam shows as online, the other one will be too. There's also gonna be a mobile one up and running soon too, from my pda/phone... so you can expect 'holiday cam' in the not too distant future. (I've actually run this already, once or twice, but it's only been useable for those in the same chatroom as me, since I havent got it setup right yet).
Labels: holidays
Steve 4:12 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 27, 2006
There are a few new photos on my Flickr PageHere's just one of them.
I'm using flickr just to preview new pics... not posting all of the best ones. Everything will be going into the photo gallery on my new site, when I get the time to finish it.
That's proving quite hard though, coz I'm taking more photos than I can keep up with... going away for a week in Wales soon, and that should be a real photofest.
Steve 4:09 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, July 23, 2006
We're in sunny Blackpool for a long weekend.Things didn't go entirely smoothly, coz when we got to our hotel, The Savoy (Believe it or not), they'd screwed up, and even after they'd phoned us just 2 days ago to confirm the booking, our room was unfortunately not available.
So, they "upgraded" us to a different hotel just up the road. Upgrade is a interesting word. We're at the Norbrech Castle Hotel, which if you ignore the style and quality of the building, and concentrate on size and facilities, is an upgrade.
This place looks for all the world like a converted hospital with added crenelations to make it look like a castle. We went for a nose around last night and found not only does it have its own indoor swimming, stage, 2 resteraunts, gymn and beauty salon, it also has its own cinema. Big place? Ho ho. I should say so.
Blackpool itself is odd.
Imagine a 1920s northern english working town where the inhabitants travelled to 2006 Las Vegas.... then went home, built the closest they could to a replica with 1920s technology, and then left it to rot. What you see today is what's left.
Very very odd.
Steve 1:38 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, June 11, 2006
The weekend in Scarborough was very enjoyable.Great weather, and watching england play in the world cup, while catching some sun on the beach was a blast.
Our only reservation was the guest house. I won't name the place, coz they were actually very pleasant people... but yeash... it really smelled of cat pee there, and the decor... well... it had a very high comedy value, if you get my meaning.
Speaking purely for myself, hotels are definitely the way to go.
Steve 2:16 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
This weekend we went back to Leamington Spa, Stratford Upon Avon, and Warwick... where we went to Warwick Castle, since we didn't have time last week.
Lemme tell you, getting up the tower to take that photo was *scary*. 530 steps didn't exactly make it easy either.
This photo is one of the many new ones I've added to my flickr site, so go click that flickr image thingie down on the bottom left and take a look.
Steve 2:44 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, April 23, 2006
More travelling again this weekend.First, Kenilworth, where we saw the ruined castle, built by the Normans and extended by the Tudors, and then ruined after the civil war...
...a walk through the churchyard of the ancient Norman era church...
Then on to Leamington Spa...
followed by the historic town of Warwick.
Labels: castles, holidays, photos
Steve 10:38 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, August 11, 2003
Seaside trip number two then...Brigitte, myself, Alicia, Les, Emma, Nickie and Richard... that's two carloads of (allegedly) adult kids piled into two cars and headed off to Hunstanton, Norfolk, on the English east coast.
After the mostly shingle beaches of Devon, Hunstanton beach was a revelation... miles of sand... perfect :-)
After lazing in the sun on what was the hottest day ever recorded in Britain (100 degrees f) we swam (or paddled in my case) in what turned out to be a very warm sea, and then set to making a rather impressive sand castle.
Now, while we were doing this, something very strange happened.
There'd been a nice gentle sea breeze from the moment we got there, just perfect as it stopped us from completely frying under the blazing sun... however, a sudden almost gale force wind blew up out of no-where. I don't mean a sudden brief gust... I mean a continuous very powerful blast of cold air that lasted for maybe a couple of minutes.
Lots of people including myself were quite startled, never having experienced such a thing, and in all seriousness, I looked out to sea half expecting to see an incoming tsunami or tidal wave. Umrellas, wind-breaks, hats, beach towels and anything else not tied down were sent flying and I was hit full on by a very large umbrella.
Needless to say, there was no tsunami, no comet striking the sea, no nuclear strike or any other scary event. All I can conclude is that as the tide turned and started coming back in, it must have pushed a front of cold air back inland which was amplified by the very large cove that forms The Wash... the bay we were in.
The wierdness didn't end there though. The colder water coming in with the tide joining the very warm water, coupled with the now stronger sea breeze combined to form a very thick mist or even fog, transforming the scene from this scene of sun drenched beach to this scene of foggy confusion.
The fog kept coming in waves of cold air and wind for a couple of hours, almost untill the tide was at it's highest, and then things settled back to a more normal sun drenched afternoon/evening.
Weirdness aside, we all had a great and chilled out day, one we'll hopefully repeat on a fairly regular basis. The place is probably the closest piece of coastline to us and well worth the two hour drive.
Steve 5:43 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, August 09, 2003
There's likely to be more seaside pics coming fairly soonish.Tomorrow we're off to the east coast with some of Brigitte's friends from work. I've no idea what the area we're going to is like or whether it's as scenic as on the last trip, but considering the company we'll have with us, I'm expecting it to be something of a scream.
Whatever else, I'm likely to come back with quite a tan, as the weather of late has been scorching and doesn't look like changing any time soon.
Labels: holidays
Steve 11:34 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, August 04, 2003
You know, there was one odd and frustrating thing about being in Devon....MacDonalds... or rather the TOTAL lack thereof.
There seems to be a certain point on the map where the moment you travel south of it, you will never again see a MacDonalds, Burger King or KFC.
I dare say there's a good reason for this... probably not good for the image of traditional english villages and towns to have such places around, but damnit, when all you want for breakfast is a Bacon Egg MacMuffin, a full traditional english breakfast in a quality bed and breakfast guest house really doesn't do the trick.
I know, I know... I shouldn't complain. The whole south coast trip was wonderful, and MacD's really has no place down there.
Now just gimme a 1/4 pounder with cheese and I'll shut up.
Labels: holidays
Steve 5:17 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Finally, here we have the long awaited holiday blog entry.First off, the pics form the London trip are online, starting here. Just click through using the 'next' links at the bottom.
There's 14 or so pics and then you'll come to the Devon holiday pics, so you can either keep on clicking there, or read the full account and click the links here.
The Devon Holiday
We started out at Seatown, where after a drink at the pub, we went for a walk along the beach. After about half a mile crunching through the pebbles, we came to the headland where rocks had fallen from the cliffs... some very big rocks. Looking beyond these, we could see the seaside resort town of Lyme Regis.
So, back into the car and down the coast to... Lyme Regis. The seafront and town centre are classic english seaside resort, with a quaint little fishing harbour.
Next stop was Sidmouth, with beautiful teahouses built into the cliffs, and a castle come resteraunt at the top of the cliff.
At the end of the seafront we found a little bay. Looking closer through the zoom lense of my camera, I could see that the tiny white speck on the side of the cliff was in fact a quaint little cottage. I'd hate to be living there if they had a landslide... something quite common on our coastlines. Turning back, we see the resteraunt/castle from another angle, and then wander back along the seafront to look up at the houses on the hillside. Next, we drove up that very hillside (Steep? You better believe it) and stopped half way up when I caught a glimpse of the town below and just had to take pictures. Seeing the spot we'd been looking up from from such a vantage point was quite something.
Stopping in Budleigh Salterton for food, we were accosted by a very persistant seagull who wasn't at all impressed that we'd eaten without saving it any food. After circling the car for some time and then landing on the roof, the daft bird flew away, so we took the oportunity to head back to the guesthouse we'd booked into that morning. Chimney's in Chideok is a great little 17th century cottage run by Roz and her husband Dave, and if you should ever find yourself in Dorset and in need of a place to stay for the night, you could do a lot worse than look them up.
Our first stop next day was Dawlish Warren, south of Exeter. Not the most thrilling of locations and oddly deserted, possibly because the tide was in. I did find a pretty nice view though, by climbing up onto that rock outcrop in the last photo. The public aren't supposed to go up there, but damnit... if you want to get a good photo you sometimes have to break the odd rule.
We'd been planning to find accomodation in Torquay, but despite a very nice view of Babbacome Bay, the town itself really wasn't our cup of tea.
Off further down the coast then, and a ferry ride across the estuary into Dartmouth.
After finding a room for the night in Stoke Fleming we carried on down the coast road till stumbling across an almost hidden beach in Blackpool Sands, not to be confused with Blackpool on the north west coast. The water, weather and view were fantastic, but the beach itself was fine and not so fine pebbles, and not that comfortable under foot, so after messing about in the water for a while, frying under the hot sun and digging a very impressive hole, we headed south again.
Just down the hill the road to Torcross ran between the sea on the left and a wildfowl sanctuary on the right. Having water on either side of the car felt quite unusual... if impressive. Maybe I'm easilly pleased, `cause we just don't have that kind of scenery around here.
Following the road up from Torcross, after getting lost on numerous VERY steep unmarked roads, we came to the lighthouse at Start Point from which we had a great view across Start Bay. There was an added bonus in going up there, as not only did we get a great view, but it also allowed us to spot several places we'd never have noticed if we hadn't been up there... places like Hallsands.
Having spotted what looked like derelict buildings in the cliff, we consulted the map and headed on down to see if we could get to the place. What we found was a "Road Closed" sign, beyond which was... well... the sea... and this. What had once been a thriving fishing village had been washed away in a storm in 1917, leaving only 2 buildings inhabited today, at some risk to the occupants, and a few ruined shacks.
Next morning saw us making an early start towards home across Dartmoor, the secluded and rugged scenery having a very particular appeal.
Slap bang in the middle of the moors, is The River Dart, starting somewhere above Dartmeet (where we found it), and running down to the coast at Dartmouth where it meets the sea. The rather curious orange/brown colour of the water is caused by the water filtering through the peat of the moors.
Apart from peat bogs, heater, and wide open empty spaces, another common site on the moors is the wild ponies... like this one which decided that our lunch wasn't enough, so it'd eat both me and the car too.
Our final stop before heading directly(ish) home was Avebury Stone Circle. This is a neolithic circle of ditches and standing stones, dating back some 5000 years, surrounding part of the village of Avebury.
We finally arrived home around 9pm after 12 hours on the road, excluding several stops for sight seeing and visiting some of Brigitte's relatives. That's 660 miles over 3 days. Quite a trip, and one we'll both remember for a long time.
Steve 10:57 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, August 02, 2003
We've just got back from 3 awesome days spent in Dorset and Devon on the English south coast.After travelling 660 miles I'm absoutely shattered, so you'll have to wait till tomorrow for a full account with a few photos. It's gonna be a day or so till all the photos are online, as apart form the 150 or so (no I won't be putting ALL of those online) pics taken over the past 3 days, I still have the pics from the London trip last week to upload.
Labels: holidays
Steve 10:04 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, November 25, 2002
Lies, I tell you. It's all lies. And as for the tank, the simple truth is, it was blushing after hearing Brigitte comment on the size of it's weapon.So, a 320 mile round trip, down to Portsmouth, Southsea, and some other little places I don't remember the names of. There was a lot of that actually, like "Where are we?"... "I don't know."... "Well you have the map".... "But it's not on the map."
It was rather foggy on the way down there, but the combined effect of baked beans for breakfast and a healthy sea breeze cleared things up by the time we got there, though oportunities for great photos were limited.
Here's a couple to be going along with though.
This is an old sea fort built by HenryVIII, because he knew we were coming. Didn't do any good though, as we just snuck up from behind.
This one was what the trip was all about though. Before today, the last time I saw the sea was 20 years ago.
Labels: castles, holidays, photos
Steve 9:38 PM [+] (0) comments
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