fouldsy.com

Here’s hoping 2009 turns out well for everyone, I certainly won’t look back on 2008 as one of my finest! We kicked things off with an Indian meal, joined by aunty Jean who came through from Sunderland, which was really nice. I rounded off my last night in England back in 2006 over an Indian meal with friends, but regretted it after 40 hours or so of traveling right after it, so decided to bring it forward this time Tasted great though! Dad + I then wandered down to nana’s for a wee drink before she toddled off to bed, and then rang in the new year at home with fireworks going off around the estate and the neighbours wandering between a couple of different houses throwing parties.

Since it’s now Jan 1st, it’s also mam’s birthday today! Double celebrations (called for double drinks too…).

On Monday, mam + I headed down to Hatfield (about 20 miles north of London) to see nana. Grandad had died at the end of January after being ill for a quite a while, so was mixed emotions being down there. Was great to see nana again, she’s doing pretty well when she has walking frame, just don’t get in her way!

We’d gone out for a meal with her and Linda + Derek (aunt + uncle) on the Monday evening at a local pub which was a good night, and then on Tuesday Carol joined us as we went to the crematorium just outside of Stevenage where grandad’s remains are. Again, more mixed emotions, but having been stuck in Alaska as he slowly got more sick and then passed away, I had to go. It’s a really nice peaceful parkland area they have and memorial stones, and was nice to see mam, Linda + Carol (all three sisters) together with nana. We then headed to another pub for lunch (getting too used to pub meals, gonna hurt going back to Bethel…), and then said goodbyes before a quiet evening just hanging out where it was mam, nana and I.

But, yesterday morning I headed out early to Stanborough Park, just across the motorway from Hatfield where we used to go when I was a kid. It had got pretty cold the Monday night, down to -4C or so (okay, so not cold by Alaska standards…), so both the north and south lakes had a thin layer of ice of them which made it cool. A young swan kept coming up wanting attention and seeing if I had any food:

Further round the paved path (better than when I was apparently bounced along a gravel path in a pushchair when I was a kid…), the wooden footbridges around where the little waterfall from the north lake meets the stream feeding the south lake:

More display of the winter colours and early morning sun in the trees around the south lake:

Heading back towards the car, a couple of geese were very vocal in their displeasure at the lakes being frozen over. These two flapped around in a little patch of open water not quite sure what to make of it all, then finally managed to get airborn before skidding along the ice trying to land again:

A fairly easy 4 hour or so drive got mam + I home in Durham by mid-afternoon today and missed any traffic of people moving around for New Year’s Eve, and nana seemed quite content to ring in the new year with a whiskey or two Just wish it wasn’t so hard to be able to get back and see her again soon.

On Sunday evening I wandered along the quayside in Newcastle to get some night shots since I could steal a tripod off dad. One my friends, Mike, has started up selling a few prints of the area and has some cracking ones from the quayside but was pretty ill over the weekend so didn’t get to join me. But, in the late afternoon before I started grabbing the night shots, the Baltic with a a big advertisement for a display currently going on by Yoko Ono:

At the end of the quayside, I then hung around waiting for everything to be lit up. Unfortunately the Millennium Bridge wasn’t under coloured lights as it sometimes is, but still impressive with the Sage on the south bank:

It started drizzling a little, so I wandered back along the quayside looking for some protection and set up the gear under a bus shelter before it cleared and I grabbed an interesting angle of the Millennium Bridge with the Sage behind it:

Mike had then told me to check out All Saints church, and having seen some of his shots, was definatley interested. Must confess to being a tad spooked out there on me own, but did get a nice view on the approach to it from the quayside:

I hung around for 20 minutes or so waiting for a Metro train to cross the high-level bridge so I could photograph it lit up behind the Tyne, but with it drizzling again I headed back towards the car. Of course, as soon as I got under the bridge I heard the rumble of one passing overhead! In disgust, I planted the tripod and looked up, then turned to catch a great view of the Tyne Bridge, one of my favourites as it was unplanned I guess:

Hopefully the photos I took on the Olympus OM-1 35mm and the Rolleicord 120 format came out okay too, will be interesting to see if black & white carries the same impact. Was fun to play anyway, and now I’ve been able to put in practice what I’ve learned in general over the past year with photography, I really wish I had more opportunities to do cityscapes like this, as it’s always something I’m drawn too. Dad and I may well out into Durham tomorrow night (too many drunks tonight probably!) to get some of the castle + cathedral all lit up which should be fun too. The large format photos of the quayside are so sharp I just love them, I’ll get them on Flickr soon – the last one of the Tyne Bridge is currently my desktop image and can’t wait to see it on the 30″ Apple Cinema Display back at work (though not, I must say, having to actually back to work…).

And now, at least people can see why I love the city of Newcastle as much as Durham – the way the quayside has been redeveloped over the last ten years is just fantastic, and really is an impressive sight all lit up on a calm night. Just a shame the fireworks were so early on this evening rather midnight celebrations for the new year as I was busy tucking into an Indian meal the local pub at 7p.m whilst they were going off. Have to prioritise sometimes!

The past weekend was pretty relaxing, taking some time to myself as well as meeting up with friends. I spent a good 3-4 hours along the Quayside in Newcastle late yesterday afternoon / early evening getting some good photographs, and then met up with Michael + Victoria for a few drinks later on.

I was at the chiropractor again this morning, and Joanne was impressed how much improvement there was in my upper back and ribs after only one adjustment a week ago – I suggested it was drinking so much beer again and could I get a prescription for it. Didn’t work.

Anyways, mam + I are off to London in a bit to see family down there. Is only a 4-5 hour drive so isn’t too bad. We’ll be coming back up on Wednesday, and don’t really have much planned for New Year’s eve. Never been a big fan, especially if it involves going into Durham or Newcastle where it will be packed + overpriced! Might just have a quiet one at home, as is then mam’s birthday on New Year’s day.

Given that there were almost 45,000 people at the Stadium of Light today, it felt a little weird given that’s probably double the population of the entire Lower Yukon + Kuskokwim Delta’s! Although the game ended 0-0, the atmosphere was great, had definately missed it. Even posed for a photo, very unlike me:

I would explain what the big red wheel is, but likely to just raise more questions from people stateside Ask me to explain it sometime. Used to be a good view of the stadium itself when walking up to it from Southwick, damn big aquatic center there now, so here’s the front side of the Stadium of Light itself:

After squeezing inside and getting to the bar for a pint and a sausage roll (making the most of getting them whilst I’m here!), headed up to our seats in the Kronenbourg stand, just off from behind the goal. Good atmosphere, though was surprised how much swearing there was.

Then there was fun of getting back out the stadium, dodging along the road between cars, and then edging our car along the road back to the A19, all whilst listening to the local radio with phone-in’s bemoaning the referees – some things never change! All in all, a good afternoon. Really enjoyed it, and the consolation of only walking away with a draw was that Newcastle lost to Wigan!

After Jeff + Jamie both professed a love of the odd drop of scotch, and especially since Jeff admitted to having had Edradour before, I’ve been harping on about driving up to the Edradour distillery in Pitlochory and buying a bottle to take back to Bethel. My parents beat me to it.

Nana’s present was a bottle of it that dad had driven up to Edinburgh for (one of only two retailers outside of the distillery itself that are permitted to sell it), and then mam + dad had another bottle they slid out for me too. One bottle is earmarked to go back to Bethel, will have to see how much of the other bottle makes it through the next week or so…

So, across multiple time zones, at some point today it will be Christmas for everyone Hope everyone traveling made it home safely and can enjoy (?!) the day with friends + family. So long as santa managed to work out where you are, should be fine! There’s a bunch of family coming round to my parents in the next hour or so which will be nice, and spoke with my nana down in London earlier to wish her all the best and arrange for heading down to see them. Mam + I will drive down on Monday and come back New Year’s Eve, so will be a short but sweet trip.

Yesterday I went out playing photographs with Michael, was so much fun. Dad found some old cameras he had, a 35mm Olympus OM-1 SLR he’s had from new in 1974 along with 28mm and 80-205mm lenses, as well as a Rolleicord 120 which I tracked down last night as being a 1a mark 3 model from around 1937-1939! Amazingly, after developing the film it seems to have worked, so I’m excited to see what it’s like once dried and Victoria can scan them in for us!

I decided that since I was born + raised in Durham and have a grand total of 0 photographs of the city, I should do a photowalk (I blame the new tattoo…) I just took a walk along the river from the bottom of Bede bank round to Milburnagate, and a got a bunch of good photos. Durham has been photographed to death if you’re from the area, and it’s real hard to do something new (maybe tomorrow though, more later), so guess these are mainly from those that don’t know the area.

First up, fantastic reflections of Prebends Bridge, built in 1777:

There used to be some wood carvings years ago of the Last Supper around here which are sadly no longer here, replaced by a 5-a-side football (soccer!) pitch. But, a little a further down, looking across the Wear to some buildings I can’t remember the name of for the life of me!

Up onto Prebends Bridge, the majesty of the cathedral dominating the area comes into view:

The circular polarizer really helps stablize the water and bring out some blues in the sky. This really is a fantastic viewpoint, bettered only when you drop down to the other side of the river for the classic view across the River Wear with Old Fulling Mill in the foreground – note this is apparently the most photographed view in Britain!

Even having lived here for 20+ years, I still loved seeing the cathedral and I used to drive past it twice a day! Just between Prebends Bridge and this classic viewpoint, there was also some neat reflections of the cathedral too:

By now the sun was pretty high as almost mi-day, so shots of the castle + cathedral from around Milburngate Bridge were washed out, but there was a talkative old lady feeding the ducks down there. Here’s one shy guy not into posing for the camera:

Anyways, I have a few more, but I also want to wait until I can get some more views under better light, especially of the castle + cathedral! I met up with a friend I haven’t seen in a few years who is well into photography and does a lot with film still who I’ve e-mailed a lot about trying it out myself and developing my own film to scan + edit digitally and has offered to take me out tomorrow. He’s got a good 35mm SLR and medium format waist-view camera we can play with, and then my dad surprised by pulling out a ton of old guy just like it I can try out tomorrow too! Michael + I will hit the camera store tomorrow to see if we can find film for anything we own, take a few photos around Durham, then try developing them and see what we end up with. Should be a fun day

Today was a good day. I got to drive my old car again which was weirdly familiar, and had the lady at the bank tell me that I should have spent my US dollars whilst on holiday before coming home as the exchange sucks. I tried explaining otherwise but gave up Anyways, least I have some funny English money now. Seriously – they changed the £20 note again, so have a right mix of stuff.

Headed up to Gateshead to see John this evening which was nice, and had some dinner with him too. Was relaxing just to hang out for a couple of hours and catch up. Also saw another friend, Michael, as I was leaving the estate on my way to Gateshead so chatted with him for a bit. Might catch up with him tomorrow depending on what time he gets back in from York.

Got in for my appointment at the chiropractor this afternoon which was much needed! Feel a lot better now, though didn’t half hurt at the time, especially my neck. Always hated the neck adjustment. Joanne also thinks I may well have fractured a couple of ribs front + back from falling off the ladder back in August which was one my main reasons for going for the adjustment as I was still getting sharp chest pain when sneezing which indicated something like that. Just have to keep icing + resting it, which I had no problem with so long as it didn’t disrupt me from drinking beer and cheering at the Sunderland match on Boxing Day Also explained it would have been much easier if she just did home visits in the first place, and then did jokingly point out it was a tad difficult for me to get here from Alaska when I had an extra $20 charge as I was an archive patient after not visiting in 6 months… All in good fun though, worth it! Go back next Monday, then again on the Friday before I fly out so that should help.

Also got another tattoo today, something I’ve thought about for a while. Went back to my usual place in Low Fell where all but my first one was done, so again, was weirdly familiar. So little has changed over here for the most part in one way it’s really nice, in another just weird! But, as with my other tattoos, you’ll have to ask nicely to see it (though this one is a little less hidden).

Tomorrow I suppose I should do some shopping (ugh!). Might just wander in to Durham and take some photos whilst I’m at, as feeling like there’s too much written crap the last few days. Picture tells a thousand stories or something, ain’t it? Anyone still stuck in Anchorage or Seattle, btw …?

Slept until 2p.m this afternoon, was fantastic. Forgot how comfy my bed here was! I pretty much dropped right off to sleep on the flight out of Bethel and again down to Seattle – think once I was out of town and away from work my body finally relaxed and shut down, can’t remember the last time I got so much sleep, certainly nothing coming close to this kind of a lie in Had a curry last night and mam is cooking up mince + dumplings for dinner now with nana also coming up to join us. I decided against the hockey match tonight, will catch a game next weekend instead. Need to work up my beer tolerance first I think!

Read Alaska Air cancelled 47 flights onto the west coast yesterday so glad I got on Thursday night/Friday morning, and then Minneapolis/Chicago/Detroit have all been hit with bad weather causing problems with flights, so also glad I didn’t try flying through there. Hope everyone else managed to get back to their respective homes yesterday as starting off a vacation caught up in an airport on weather hold isn’t much fun, is more like sitting at Yute or Grant back in Bethel!