Light Fingered

This was the view at night from our hotel bedroom window. The bridge goes over the Thames at Dartford, and to return, you go under the river through a tunnel. Both ways you have to pay a toll of £1.

Down Dat Dair London

Gail and I had to go to Bexleyheath in Kent for a funeral of one of my close relatives at the weekend. It was a good service and the church was packed with my brother's friends and relatives. He was a very popular man, who will be sorely missed.

Before the funeral, I wanted to see if I could find the house where Kate Bush was born. We made it to Welling, but couldn't see East Wickham on the road map we had. But it was nice to walk around the town where she would have spent her pocket money.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Or in this case hailstones. Market Street, Thursday around 1pm. The sky went black and it began. Millions of hailstones landing, stinging the face. Sheltering in Selectadisc. Wet hair before you could say Jack Robinson.

Yes, We Have No Bananas

This is another relic of a bygone age. Sneinton Market in this case. I have no information about why these tiled bananas were put on the side of the building. I didn't see any other fruit. But they do look rather grand.

Music For Pleasure

St George's Day in the Square was a quiet affair, except for these merry minstrels who were entertaining the passers by with ye olde English folk tunes. The guy in the middle had a good banter with the onlookers, telling them about the tunes they were going to play and taking the mickey out of the other musicians.

Patriot Colours

As many of you will know, yesterday was St George's Day. And up and down England people were celebrating in their own special way, but unfortunately not in the scale that the Irish do. The Old Market Square had some musicians and a stall were giving out roses to ladies of a certain age. I took some photos, which I'll show you in the next few days. But my eye was drawn to this guy sitting on a communications box. This in itself makes for quite a good photo, but what made it better was the fact that he was wearing a red jacket and white trainers. The colours of St George.

Pink Think?

I have no idea of what this is meant to be. It appeared on a boarded up window a short time ago. Could it be some sort of strange animal, a hat, or just some piece of surreal artwork?

Music To Take Photos By

Here's one of those groups that seem to appear in city centres every so often, stay for a day & then disappear again. These guys are claiming to be native Americans, but I don't know whether they are or not. They had drawn a small crowd of listeners. Nobody purchased their CD's at £10, which is perhaps a little expensive, considering they were selling them direct.

Spring Has Sprung

Hooray we have some sunshine today! Although still a bit windy. I hope the strong breeze doesn't blow all the cherry blossom off these trees in Highfields, as I think it makes for a very nice picture, complimented by the clumps of daffodils and the first lawn cut of the year.

Joy in Norwich has a similar shot. compare and enjoy.

Full House

This temple is on the border with the city centre and a suburb called St Ann's. Much has been written about this area in the local paper, some good, but mostly bad. The area houses a lot of ethnic minorities; hence the temple. But what I find slightly amusing is that next door is a bingo hall. So I guess when you've finished praying, you can go and try your luck at winning some money.

Golden Days

Here's a late evening shot in Highfields. I'll put my hands up and admit that I've tweaked the light & shadows just a pinch. Just to make it look a little more tranquil.

Quackers!

"A blind man goes into a supermarket with his guide dog. He stops and then picks the dog up by its tail and starts swinging it around and around over his head*. The store manager comes over and shouts "Sir, sir what on earth are you doing?" The blind man turns to him and replies "It's OK, I'm just having a look around!""

* No animals were hurt during the writing of this joke.

Something To Smile About

This truck was in the Market Square recently, promoting a new brand of toothpaste. I queued up to try it, but the line of people wasn't moving at all, so I skipped it and went in search of more photos instead.

I read in our local paper a few days later, that some over zealous traffic warden had slapped a £60 parking ticket on the truck, even though it had written permission from the council to be there. So I did have something to smile about!

Wheel Meet Again

The ferris wheel in the square has now been dismantled and taken away to a new location. It was announced in our local evening paper that it will be returning in time for Christmas.

This is what it looked like when all the cabins had been removed.

Head In The Clouds - Looking North East

Today I'm showing the final shot from my aerial tour of Nottingham's city centre. This one shows the Cornerhouse entertainment & food centre and to the left, part of the Trent University campus. The majority of the houses in the background are rented by students. so they are nice and handy for their lessons. I wonder how many of them still turn up late though!

Head In The Clouds - Looking South East

This view takes in the Hockley and Lace Market areas. The two spires you can see are St Mary's Church (left) and what is now the Pitcher & Piano winebar, but was originally the High Pavement Chapel (right). As I've mentioned before, the actual business of lace production has all but disappeared from the area now. The former warehouses and factories of the once busy area have all been turned into either luxury apartments or offices.

Head In The Clouds - Looking South

Here we see one of the main shopping areas of the city centre, that is the Broad Marsh centre. The pedrestrianised area that leads to it is called Listergate, with Low Pavement to the left. The road at the back of the shot is where the railway station stands (where the clock tower is) and to the left of that is the big glass building that belongs to the credit card company Capital One. Who this week announced 750 job losses at the site, which is almost half the workforce. The jobs they do are to be transfered to a call centre in India Which will cut costs, but annoy customers.

Head In The Clouds - Looking West

A bit further down Maid Marian Way and you come to Friar Lane, which leads to the castle. The building in the foreground is the Pearl Insurance building. Another 1960's drab concrete tower. The Travelodge hotel on the left has only been open about 2 years, and was converted from an empty office block.

I'm off to Shrewsbury again for a few days, so my next posting should be on Friday night.

Head In The Clouds - Looking North West (2)

As we slowly turn round the cityscape, more recent buildings come into view. A lot of these tall structures were put up in the 1960's & 70's when the smaller Granby Street became Maid Marian Way. A loathed piece of road that cut the castle off from the rest of the city. The round building on the right is called the Rotunda and used to be part of the old General Hospital. It now holds a very nice curry house called Eastern Spice.

Head In The Clouds - Looking North West

The main buildings you can see here are the old Co-op department store, which now houses several restaurants and a casino. The building has recently been redeveloped after standing unloved for a few years after the Co-op closed down. This was due to a change in shopping trends and more up to date shops opening.

The big black glass building is known as the IBM building, as the computer company has an office there, although it holds a few others as well. I worked there about 20 years ago for an insurance company, which I don't think exists either.

Head In The Clouds - Looking North

Last Monday I took the plunge and went on the wheel, as it was a sunny day & would probably be my last chance to go on it, as it's closing today. I'm not that brilliant on heights, and I can't say I entirely enjoyed the experience, but it was great to see the city centre from the air.

This view mainly consists of the Victoria Centre flats. You can also see the top of the clock tower, which is all that remains of the old railway station. Another lost building which was destroyed in the late 1960's.

For further photos of Shrewsbury, please follow this -> link

Lion In My Bed All Day

Here's another example of Shrewsbury buildings. The Lion Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in the town. Whilst looking around the area, I realised that the lion motif seemed to be quite prevalent, and I have several examples that I could show you. I may need to start a Shrewsbury CDP site, as this one is supposed to be for Nottingham.

Step Back In Time

Apologies abound to everyone for not visiting many of your theme day blogs yet. It's just that I've been away for work again for the last three days. This time to Shrewsbury; a small market town in Shropshire. It is a lovely little town, full of architectural delights, a charming river and loads of character. In fact a dream for photographers. I took 133 photos whilst I was there, and here's one of them; St Alkmonds Square. A row of old houses, tucked away and so quite peaceful.

3 - 2 - 6

Before my flash of inspiration for yesterday's theme day entry, I was going to use this photo of some canoeists practicing along the canal. It's been really sunny this week, and what a difference to the quality of my photos. No more drab greys, just well lit subjects. Long may it remain.

Tea Time

First of the month and another theme day. The subject is water. So what is the best use of water? Why drinking it of course. But only if it is hot and a teabag has been dunked in it. Milk and sugar are optional. Of course the finished liquid has to be accompanied with a biscuit or two!

A number of other bloggers are participating this month. Please visit and leave a comment. Don't forget the time differences around the planet.

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American Fork (UT), USA by Annie, Bellefonte (PA), USA by Barb-n-PA, Boston (MA), USA by Fenix - Bostonscapes, Hamilton, New Zealand by Sakiwi, Lisbon, Portugal by Maria João, London, UK by Ham, Melbourne, Australia by John, Memphis (TN), USA by SouthernHeart, Mexico City, Mexico by Poly, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Greg, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Mitch, Monterrey, Mexico by rafa, Nottingham, UK by Gail's Man, Pasadena (CA), USA by Petrea, Port Angeles (WA), USA by Jelvistar, Prague, Czech Republic by Honza03, Riga, Latvia by Prokur, Saarbrücken, Germany by LadyDemeter, San Diego (CA), USA by Felicia, San Diego (CA), USA by Zentmrs, San Francisco (CA), USA by PFranson, Selma (AL), USA by RamblingRound, Stayton (OR), USA by Celine, Stockholm, Sweden by Stromsjo, Sunshine Coast, Australia by bitingmidge, Terrell (TX), USA by Jim K, West Sacramento (CA), USA by Barbara, Weston (FL), USA by WestonDailyPhoto, Willits (CA), USA by Elaine,