Monday, December 31, 2012

Aug 2012: Looking up at planes

I decided to head out to Heathrow on one of the long rides. Bad mistake, it was pouring with rain and well, not fun

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You can see the planes coming into land.

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Their lights are bright as heck

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They come in very low

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But taking photographs of them is a pain…not impressed, not going out there again, its gruesome.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Aug 2012: When we went and destroyed a large pile of meat

As you may know, I belong to two gastronomic clubs (nach!) this one is from work and we went to the Tiroler Hut for dinner.

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Some construction going on outside the restaurant…i need something like this for the restaurant…

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Martin, me old Austrian buddy…leading us down to the epicurean fields…

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With Subash, that’s the place

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Heading down…

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Its a low ceilinged place, very nice.

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Chequered table cloth. But just look at the food on offer!

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Guess what I went for!

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Starters, some most excellent snails

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And a pile of just wonderful sausages…mmmm…..

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And a stein of the wonderful stuff.



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The knuckle of pork

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And the pile of sausages and meat and and and…

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What was left of the knuckle

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What was left of the sausages

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Pear in the bottle

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Now that’s what we were…

 

and some video’s of the night’s entertainment, just brilliant..

Aug 2012: When we went and destroyed a large pile of meat

As you may know, I belong to two gastronomic clubs (nach!) this one is from work and we went to the Tiroler Hut for dinner.

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Some construction going on outside the restaurant…i need something like this for the restaurant…

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Martin, me old Austrian buddy…leading us down to the epicurean fields…

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With Subash, that’s the place

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Heading down…

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Its a low ceilinged place, very nice.

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Chequered table cloth. But just look at the food on offer!

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Guess what I went for!

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Starters, some most excellent snails

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And a pile of just wonderful sausages…mmmm…..

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And a stein of the wonderful stuff.



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The knuckle of pork

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And the pile of sausages and meat and and and…

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What was left of the knuckle

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What was left of the sausages

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Pear in the bottle

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Now that’s what we were…

 

and some video’s of the night’s entertainment, just brilliant..

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Aug 2012: A night ride around Greenford

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Here I am, riding out in the night, well, evening more like it, well, its quarter to nine but still quite a bit of light. And the moon is out

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The busy roads of Greenford

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And then popping down a little wood

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Not a good photo, eh?

Here’s another night ride pic from another day.

This was in Wembley….

Friday, December 28, 2012

Sept 2012: Where the first Christian Martyr lies buried

So I am riding in St. Albans

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And here’s the cathedral

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Pretty awesome, eh?

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It is a strange looking building, long, low and squashed.

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I wheel the bike down the left hand side

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Looking up at the rather strange mishmash of architectural styles and building work

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The difference in windows gave me pause for reflection. How strange.

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Some of the windows are delicately carved, much more modern. The ones on the right are more Gothic in nature

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A lovely lovely tree, looks like its made by a green spider..

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That is one lovely looking door

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And then somebody went and built this monstrosity next to it. You know you don't HAVE to bugger around with stuff?

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This part is the strangest, you can see four different building styles and materials.

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See the close-up?

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I move along

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It really looks crappy

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Here we are, along the nave

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Quite an interesting sight

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The church has had presence here since 209AD (or thereabouts). Those cloisters in white date back to the 10th century

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Looking down the buttresses.

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That is the gate house, more on that in the next essay

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I was so excited to see the ice-cream van but there was nobody there Sad smile

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Looking back at the cathedral

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The entrance has three doors…

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Some of the work is pretty good

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But some of the work are repairs and that too not done very well.

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Good stonework

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Here is the main door

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Curious, the left hand side looks like queen Elizabeth, but why does she have a moustache and why is the right hand side face drooling?

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the etched glass is done very crudely, not impressed at all

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Anti pigeon netting surrounds some of the alcoves

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the But doesn't help

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Another chap with angel wings, presumably its one of the benefactors?

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An eagle and what looks like a horse…

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More stone faces


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I roll the bike forward to the corner

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And look back

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Looking up at the bell tower

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Ancient burial grounds, these..

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This was an interesting structure, with a sunken lawn.

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As it so happens, each stone slab is actually a memorial to somebody, quite interesting.

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I’ve never seen a structure like this before

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Moving up….

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Close-up of the tower, its not really good looking tower…

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Very very blunt work

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Stained glass windows

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Lead windows

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This is better…

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Moving up beyond the nave to the top of the church

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Then I started on my way back 

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Looking back at the cathedral…

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And riding past the cathedral, it really looks like a mongrel of a building.

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Heading down to the bottom…check out the history of this building here. It never really had a good innings, pretty much was banged up most of its life over the past 1800 years, had horrible repairs done and its still not fixed. poor thing.