We Will Rock You

Here is a photomontage of the band I saw yesterday at the Christmas lights switch on. They go under the name of The Great Pretender and do a very good imitation of the legendary Queen. No one can replace dear old Freddie, but Steve Littlewood is the next best thing. He did a fair imitation of Freddie's stage strutting and posing, which was quite difficult, as they were performing on the back of an arctic trailer!
The band naturally have a website, and so if you want to learn more about them, or indeed hire them for your wedding or birthday party, click here.

Night Light

Tonight our local council switched on their Christmas lights on in the town. They are the same as last November. I think most towns trot out the same decorations, year after year. Still it was nice to be amongst the large crowd. A Queen tribute band entertained us for about an hour. I might show them in action tomorrow.

Walking Tall

Some stilt walkers were in town the other day handing out leaflets about some special offers and events that are going to take place next Wednesday evening in the city centre. It's called 'The Big Night Out' and the idea is to try and get more people to visit the city centre during the evening and to convince them that they won't be a victim of crime whilst they are there.

Christmas Is A Comin

It's that time of the week again when all us sky watchers show each other our skies. Nothing really exciting happened this week, other than the attractions in the market square are now in full flow. So here's another night sky picture showing what the square looks like when the sun goes down.

For further pictures from across the globe, click here.

Long Way From Home

Nottingham is about 70 miles from the nearest seaside town, so somehow this seagull has got a bit lost. Still he seems to be enjoying himself paddling about in the water feature down in the Old Market Square.

Bluesday Tuesday

A couple of days ago Eric over at Paris DP showed a picture of his local IKEA. We have one here, but is several miles away. So for today's blue themed photo I'm showing; you've guessed it, Dubai's version, complete with Arabic script.

Black And White And Wet All Over

Another pigeon picture today. Some trying to shelter from the rain, but not doing a very good job, as they look soaked.

For more Monday Monochrome Madness from around the world click here.

Funny Hunny

It seemed like Christmas officially started yesterday, as there were a few collectors out, rattling tins for various charities. I also went to a Christmas fair at a local church. So to continue the festive season theme, here's Winnie the Pooh as a blow up doll. It's advertising a shop that's suddenly sprung out from nowhere, on a short lease, that's flogging the usual cheap tat that seems to appear at this time of year.

I must be getting old and cynical, as I'm not really a fan of Christmas these days. Are you?

The Pigeon Detective

Better watch out! It looks like these pigeons in the market square are very interested in the contents of this shopper's bag, while she sits and has a coffee break.

Smokin!

Last week Dubai, this week Gainsborough! Not a lot you can say about this little Lincolnshire market town. Not very much on offer to take pictures of, other than this power station, that's a couple of miles outside the town centre. I took this last night, just as it was getting dusk.

The Sky's Gone To Sleep

I haven't got any new Nottingham pictures that feature the sky, so you'll just have to make do with another Dubain photo. A night time one for a change. The sky's still there, it's just hiding until tomorrow.

To see evidence of this, click on this spot to take you on a tour of the world's skies.

Talking In The Rain

Well it was back to work yesterday & of course it rained. Practically all day. Oh to be back in Dubai!

The bad weather didn't seem to bother these two women, who were quite happy to stand gassing for ages. At least one has an umbrella. The bloke in the background seems to have the best idea of sheltering in a doorway.

I am off to deepest Lincolnshire for the next couple of days, so I might not be able to do any posting.

It's All In The Angles

If you're ever stuck for a home, but have an odd shaped piece of land available, then you can build yourself a house like this example on the Ropewalk. Not sure if I could live in it, as there's hardly a straight wall in sight. But it's home to someone, and I'm sure they are very happy there..

If Only Another Week

Gail and I are trying not to be too down about being back in the UK, and as I predicted, it began to rain almost as soon as we left Birmingham Airport. Also to make matters worse, Emirates have lost our luggage.

If only we could have had a few more days, we both said to each other. But for slightly different reasons. Gail would like to stay so she could have done some more sunbathing, while I wanted to stay, so I could see Kylie in concert next Friday.

Dubai seems to be attracting quite a few top acts there now. Just this week the singer Fergie was doing a concert, and the re-formed Queen were playing. We thought about seeing Queen, but they wouldn't be the same without dear old Freddie, and Fergie doesn't sing the sort of songs I like.

This is the last Dubai photo on NDP, although I will be posting plenty more on my Dubai page; just click the link on the left.

One Land - Many People

You may know that Dubai is a very multi-cultural emirate. Only about 25% of the whole population are Arabic. A large proportion are from the Indian sub-continent, with the rest being made up of Europeans; from both west and east.

Here's a shot of an Arab couple in the typical garb of their religion, that separates their culture from the everyone else. But what they have in common is owning a mobile phone. You can see that both of them are 'wired for sound'.

Last Day In Heaven

Today marks our final day in Dubai. It's been fun as usual. Gail and I never seem to get tired of coming here, and we still haven't done it all. But like everything, our holiday has to come to an end. And so we have an early flight tomorrow with Emirates, landing in probably a cold and wet Birmingham. Then an hour or so drive back to Nottingham; stopping off for some milk and bread etc, before psyching ourselves up for our return to work on Monday.

So for one of my final Dubai photos on this page, I thought another sunset was in order. This one is taken at Festival City, which contains a marina, a concert hall and the obligatory shopping. In the background you can see the dominating Burj Dubai, which is destined to become the tallest building in the world. You might think it looks high now, but it isn't even finished yet!

Under One Sky

For the first time I'm Skywatching from Dubai. As it's constantly sunny, albeit a bit hazey in the morning, I wondered what photo I could put on, as I've taken so many these past 8 days. Going against the idea of a day picture, I've decided to show a sunset one instead, as I don't get to see that many where I live.

For further skies, blue, grey, black or orange just follow this link

The Man From Atlantis

Here's an outside shot of the new Atlantis hotel. As the name suggests, it has an watery theme and comes complete with a massive aquarium. While we were there, 3 divers were swimming around feeding the thousands of fish that reside there. The bottom of the "tank" had loads of props in it. Imagined artifacts from the lost city. Nearly everything was decorated with a sea motif. I especially liked the seahorse lamps in the Gents. Gail and I have put this on our list of hotels to stay at should we every be fortunate to do so.

Ship Ahoy!

Today we went to the Marina, Palm Island and the new Atlantis hotel. There is still so much building work going on around the marina, that we didn't stay very long. So many apartment blocks. It makes you wonder who is going to live there & more to the point, who can afford it these days with most people being strapped for cash. Anyway those that still have pockets filled with dosh, the marina was full of boats of all shapes and sizes. I particularly like the look of this one. Especially the happy blue colour of the hull.
It's most unlikely that Gail and I would be fortunate enough to have a ride on one, let alone own one. So for now we'll just have to dream and windowshop.

Big Bond

Gail and I took a stroll around Jumeirah Beach tonight. We followed this pathway and it took us close to the Burj Al Arab hotel. As we were walking along and dodging golfing type buggies that were ferrying guests around. Don't rich people like walking? We came across a special open air screening of the latest James Bond film. We stopped and watched a while. I was waiting for Bond to appear, but he seemed ages coming and Gail was getting a bit impatient to keep walking, as I think she was scared of getting rumbled. So I took this photo for posterity. I don't think it's come out too badly & I can assure you that it isn't a PhotoShop creation.

Living in a Box

Although there are quite a number of new apartment blocks being built all across Dubai, practicaly all of them are out of the reach of your ordinary working person; be they English, Indian, Polish, African, or the 100 other different nationalities that reside here and try and earn a living.

Housing is so bad in some parts of the city, that the more desperate have started living in cardboard boxes. It's fine, as there's no rain to turn the box soggy & it's always warm. Crime is almost non existent, so people feel safe from being attacked. My photo today shows someone bedding down for the night. He's kept the lid on his box, so he can block any light from coming through, and also any sand that might be blown around in the breeze.

Watta Lotta Water

It's great to be back in Dubai, in the sunshine and blue, almost cloudless skies. We arrived in the early hours of Thursday morning & it was almost 3am by the time we got to bed. So we had a long sleep. Then we went to get some supplies from Spinney's; Dubai's version of Asda. After we'd eaten, we took a taxi to Dubai's newest shopping mall, and aparently the biggest in the world. When it's fully open, there will be around 1200 shops.

Here's my first photo, of the aquarium that people can walk through for a small charge. As the mall had only been open a few days, there were queues of people. So I sttod back and took a few from the different floors.

Off We Go!

As you may be able to work out from the montage, Gail and I are off to Dubai. 10 days of sun, relaxation and perhaps spending a bit of money. It's been a tough few months for us both, as we've had problems with some building work we've had done and having a kitchen installed. It's a long story, but it has got us down recently, so we've decided to get away & try and forget the hassles we've both endured.

Hopefully I'll be able to do my blogging from the hotel, as they have Internet access & I'm taking my laptop & card reader. So it's goodbye to the rain & wind, and hello sunshine.

Bluesday Tuesday, Skywatch Friday

A mixture of the two series today, as Gail and I are off on our holidays tomorrow and so I'll miss this weeks' SWF.

I like the rows of hexagon shaped windows in this tower block, set against a really blue sky.

I'll reveal our holiday destination in tomorrow's post. Although those that know me well, could probably work out where we are going!

Buried Treasure

I experienced every photographer's nightmare on Friday. Flat batteries in my camera. So I wasn't able to take as many pictures of the Zombies as I would have liked. Still I managed to snap this guy dressed as a dead pirate. Shivver me timbers!

Night Of The Living Dead

Halloween in Nottingham, and an apt occasion to break a world record. Nothing Earth shattering like running the fastest mile, or pulling a Double Decker bus with your teeth, but the biggest gathering of Zombies in one area. Apparently 1227 people painted their faces white and became corpses in the Old Market Square at around 5pm on Friday, to take the record.

I'm sure there was even more people in the market square that looked just the same in the early hours of Saturday morning, when they all emerged from the city's various nightclubs, bars and discos!

Castle Rock

I haven't be able to blog as much as I like these last couple of days, as we've changed Internet providers. TalkTalk (our previous one) have cut us off, but we haven't received our homehub from BT yet, so we are without any connection at home. So as I know how much you all like my blogging, Gail & I are sat in our car with our laptops on, near the High Road, as we've managed to pick up a signal. I'm doing this entry, while Gail is Facebooking.

So here's today's picture. A view of the Castle from a different perspective. This road is part of the Park Estate. Most of the houses on this road have been converted into either small offices or student digs. Still it's quite a good view to look out on.