Something a bit unusual happened to us today. We had our photograph taken by a professional photographer at his home in West Bridgford. David is a Facebook contact and he put a message on the other day about wanting people to come along to his new studio for a bit of testing. Fortunately I had booked today off, as we are planning to go to Rye for the weekend, but Gail wants to go tomorrow instead, as she's concerned about leaving Marmalade and Oscar alone for to long. So we popped along at lunchtime for a sitting. Or rather a standing as the case may be. David took some of me alone, and some of Gail on her own, then did a few of us together. His studio is an empty room with some lights. Simple, but effective. Something Gail and I are thinking of doing in the near future. At the end of the shoot, I asked David if I could take a shot of him for the blog. And here's the result.
I am always saddened to see lovely old buildings empty and going to waste, when they have so much character to them. So I was very pleased to see work had begun a few weeks ago into converting a fine example of Victorian architecture near the Playhouse that had been seen boarded up for a couple of years. I went past today and it is almost finished. It is going to be a restaurant and is opening in early February. Unfortunately I won't be around to see them cut the ribbon, as Gail and I are off to Scotland then for a wedding. I hope they open during the daytime, so I can go on another ladies lunch with the girls from work. Just a shame the photo is spoiled by the builder's van. But I think you get a good idea of what a fine building it is.
Another Wednesday, another Headbanger Challenge. Due to some difficulties that Dave is experiencing, Kathy has come in at the last minute with 'surprise'. She was surprised too, at being asked to think of a topic on the spur of the moment. My header photo shows Jamie Oliver's restaurant in the city centre. Now there is a very good reason for showing this. Not for the obvious reason of having a top TV chef's eating house on your doorstep, but for the reason that I won a meal for two there at Christmas in a raffle.
Now I'm not generally a very lucky person. Never really have been. My bread always tends to fall butterside down. So I don't know what possessed me to buy some charity raffle tickets that were being sold at the Paul Smith shop next door. I don't know if it was the the wide selection of prizes on offer. The top being a weekend away for two in London, or the fact that it was for a good cause. The Maggie's Cancer Centre at the City Hospital. There were also some obscure prizes available, such as an encyclopaedia of Russian gangster tattoos. I'm glad that I didn't win that! The tickets were £2 each. So I bought two. There's not that many Paul Smith shops in England. I think most of them are in Japan. So I wondered if I might have a slightly better chance of winning. Not that I really expected to. But yippee, I had an email from a marketing person at the company after the draw date saying that I had won a dinner for two at Jamie's Italian. We have not gone yet, but might see if I can book it for Valentine's Day. Give Gail a treat.
Don't forget to visit my four friends' pages, to see how they have interpreted Kathy's theme. And also enjoy this piece of music
I heard on the news yesterday that there was going to be a solar radiation storm over the planet taking place sometime soon. It must have happened last night over Nottingham, as when I went out to work this morning, I was surprised to find this strange silver star in the garden. It wasn't glowing or anything. But it glistened a bit. I managed to find some old netting in the shed and wrapped it up. I then put it in the shed for safe keeping. It really is quite a lovely thing. and fell to the ground without breaking up. Maybe because it is quite heavy and solid. And oh how it sparkles. I don't think any photo can do it justice.
Here's another night shot of the Castle pub; one of our locals for the 'girlie' lunches with the folks from work which I indulge in, once in a while. Comment expected from Stewart!
The building itself was designed by Watson Fothergill, and stretches someway down the road, to the right. The building includes a printers and a new restaurant, quaintly called 'Fothergills'. I've not eaten there yet. But give me time!
Here's a dusk shot of the boating lake in Highfields and the well photographed Portland Building in the university, with its working clock tower. I love the little patches of blue still trying to seep through the dark clouds and the setting sun in the distance. My camera was set on a slow shutter speed to get the slightly blurred look of the blue.
We popped over to Mansfield today, as we were having lunch with Gail's oldest friend Hilary and her husband. Oldest as in how long Gail has known her and nothing to do with the ladies' age. We went to a small restaurant, a 200 year old building that used to be a maltings. The restaurant is Michelin rated and the food was gorgeous and very well presented, as my photo of Gail's fruit Pavlova pudding shows. I had a banana and toffee with some ice cream. Very tasty, but alas not very photogenic.
I popped along to the Lakeside Arts Centre today to see an exhibition of some of L.S Lowry's early work, before he got into paining matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs. There quite a few paintings of scenes around his home town of Salford and Manchester with no people in them at all, including some depicting derelict houses. It was dusk when I left the gallery, so I took various photos of the building and some of Highfields lake which is situated across the road.
