shopping at LIDL

after ordering a repeat prescription in the medical centre pharnacy I waited for the shower to pass by

waiting for his master outside the chemists

rubbish is mounting up again in the corner



and who bent this lamp?
seems to be a dodgy driver around
I thought about a bet on the Grand National but the girl in this betting shop said that it is next week not tomorrow

great style on the bus out, but Mackadown Lane LIDL was out of skimmed milk AGAIN - Lidl Online

after shopping at Bordesley Green Road LIDL about 12 km extra journey and my 5 year old trolley from NETTO in Denmark is loaded with 14 litres milk, 10 kilos rice, cottage cheese and green stuff and apples

home again by the glassless bustop on Bosworth Drive looking east

14 CARTONS OF SKIMMED MILK and 10 KILO BASMATI RICE

The first sack is empty and nearly finished - using the green plastic measure for one portion

an impulse purchase from LIDL size XL MOTOR BIKE KNEE WARMERS

and my arthitic left knee feels better
(the red button is my master switch for tv and computer)

see also bio-hazards around Merton House

VAAD GALLERY

Journeys

ROB VIGURS is exhibiting at the CUSTARD FACTORY
Digbeth
Birmingham B) 4AA
until 11 April 2006

This Gallery re-launched in January 2006 as the Vaad Gallery with a showcase of some of their home grown talent and now has a full programme of events scheduled until August check out their new website for more info due in April."

Kerrang! 105.2 - Music With Attitude, Rock Radio, West Midlands, UK: "The Custard Factory is changing.

We are now host to many new retailers from old Favourites like the retro Urban Village to the new Art House DVD and Video shop (due to open April 2006) or Jeans Stuff a place for collectors to adore, antiques to bric-a-brac you'll find something there you never realised you needed.

birdsong in the evening

I walked to the Kingfisher Project, a bit late for photography and no sign of the hawk, but there were many birds to be heard but hardly seen

home again and nice to get my big (size 13) boots off in a tidy hallway

after and before

left hand window was cleaned by my guest - THANKS
compare the colours of the lockup garage doors
and I cannot remember when I last polished the greyer right hand window - 4 or 5 years maybe? - how time flies.

shopping

the right picture at last I was at Kvik Save on Monday afternoon for just under £10 - the hot cross buns were 40 p
even if "illegal" in my diet and I could only taste the sugar not the spices with my nose cold

Tuesday afternoon problems with the image server seemed to be more or less sorted

from the car park top level at Chelmsley Wood

I have just followed the walkway, svalegang "swallows' gangway" in danish, round the corner and over the bridge on the look out for interesting view points for future photography.


this handicam close up was uploaded by accident see SNAPS TWO for more flower close ups (about using my HandiCam with the Zeiss 40x digital zoom lens)

oops
blogger image server is in trouble again tonight Monday
so I cannot fully blog the walk home yet
so this last image was uploaded on www.googlepages.com

mothers' day eve in Birmingham

On my way to the Birmingham archives

I had set out early to make some snaps

street florists getting ready for a big day

two ladies have had this pitch for about 18 months

High Street

Location: Union Street, B2, Birmingham United Kingdom
Grid ref: SP071868 Postcode district: B2 4xx (map centre)
X: 407200m Y: 286900m
Lat: 52:28:47N (52.4798) Lon: 1:53:44W (-1.8956)
Web Address: www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=52.4798&lon=-1.8956&scale=5000&icon=x

Union Street

Corporation Street

Cherry Street and Dior for POSH MOTHERS

Don't they teach manners in Denmark?

unpacking the demo kit

briefing in front of the Council House

Culture Shock

what did they think of this image, and what did the floozie on the jacuzzi make of the demo?

Don't they teach manners in Denmark?

Jyllands Posten Secular Extremist and a big pile of placards

handing out jackets to the marshalls in Victoria Square Birmingham

jyllands posten - Google Image Search

jyllands posten - Google Search

jyllands posten secular extremist - Google Search

Don't they teach manners in Denmark? - Google Search

Jyllands Posten Secular Fundamentalist

Global Civility
"The Muslim Action Committe or MAC, has been set up by over 400 Islamic Scholars of the United Kingdom in response to the global concern in the western media and government victimising and provoking the Muslims by producing blasphemous cartoons, depicting our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a terrorist. As a result, deeply offending the global Muslim community."
stand up straight please for the photo

Jyllands Posten Secular Fundamentalist

including the Iman of Birmingham Central Mosque

with the naked image of the floozie in the jacuzzi in the background

what do they really think?

the Danish women feel sorry for their sister's lack of freedom of choice

Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
: "In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten.

Zieler received an email back from the paper's Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: 'I don't think Jyllands-Posten's readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them.'

The illustrator said: 'I see the cartoons as an innocent joke, of the type that my Christian grandfather would enjoy.' 'I showed them to a few pastors and they thought they were funny.'

But the Jyllands-Posten editor in question, Mr Kaiser, said that the case was 'ridiculous to bring forward now. It has nothing to do with the Muhammad cartoons.

'In the Muhammad drawings case, we asked the illustrators to do it. I did not ask for these cartoons. That's the difference,' he said. 'The illustrator thought his cartoons were funny. I did not think so. It would offend some readers, not much but some.'

The decision smacks of 'double-standards', said Ahmed Akkari, spokesman for the Danish-based European Committee for Prophet Honouring, the umbrella group that represents 27 Muslim organisations that are campaigning for a full apology from Jyllands-Posten.

'How can Jyllands-Posten distinguish the two cases? Surely they must understand,' Mr Akkari added. Meanwhile"

rainy today

on the top deck at the traffic lights by the Custard factory

early morning and time to get up

I spent most of the day in bed with a cold

yes there is a coin op washeteria near by (answer to an email)
ready for when my Blomberg eco wonder dies




In the evening took the 97 bus to Brum
to photograph the green lit Selfridges
see Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival

unfortunately they had changed the lamps back to blue

so I stayed on the bus at Birmingham and went straught back to Chelmsley
the driver's periscope mirror on the top deck of the 97 bus

Don Cameron has made a blog too

My World

from my email:-

After looking at your blog I decided that having one of my own might be agood idea. So here is my blog address with a few photographs. My user nameis in Scots

sisters

my grandchildren are thriving

107 images downloaded at last

the cell phone just needed to have its battery fully charged and my wonderful Cell Phone Manager did the rest MobTime Cell Phone Manager - PC software to manage your mobile phone.

Birmingham is a sandstone city standing on this bedrock

Triassic Sandstone Aquifer Rock is on the web and obviously badly polluted by industrial waste

red sandstone seen in an exposed cellar at this car park by the mail box

geological map on wiki

Lapworth Museum of Geology - Birmingham City Guide venues & listings

The Lapworth Museum
The Lapworth Museum has a large and extensive archive particularly relating to Charles Lapworth, the first Professor of Geology at Birmingham

I better go there to get better informed
Geology of the British Isles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




blurred snap of the corridor on the eighteenth floor


Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts - Hotel Information
Radisson SAS Hotel, Birmingham.
Radisson SAS opens 10th UK property in Birmingham
less than a 3 minute walk from the railway station and close to the Bullring Shopping Centre
sas birmingham - Google Search

looking down from the eighteenth floor of the new SAS hotel

victorian railway viaduct arches in the back yard of the custard factory

capuchino coffee at the custard factory

an industrial strengh floor pitted with a century of use

I like this green at the Custard factory

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists

OPEN ALL MEDIA 2006
from 15th march to 5th April

I really enjoyed this exhibition, and my companion, the artist Charlotte Hanmann from Copenhagen, was sincerely impressed by the high technical standard of the art exhibited

wine being served

the jewelery always impresses me at this gallery

Upstairs I met Lord Mayor of Birmingham - Councillor John Hood
biography I could not resist mentioning the need for an Opera House and he said that he had visited the new opera house in Leipzig (one of Birmingham's eight twin towns)

Michele White president of the RBSA
who writes:- "The making of jewellery is an ancient craft. Art is an emotional representation of what we see around us.
I strive to combine the two.
I fuse precious metals and punctuate them with bright and colourful gemstones and smooth droplets of gold and silver.
I set up my studio in the Jewellery Quarter in 1986 . Work has featured in many exhibitions throughout the country and in 2000 was awarded 1st prize in the RBSA prize exhibition for ' Estuary Triptych "

rock climber and artist

official photographer

blurred by camera shake not the wine
I love this staircase - but take the lift

Brian Fletcher had a corner for his "one man show"

nude and self portrait by Brian Fletcher



this artist told me his model, the girl in green in the portrait, is his neighbour and will only pose clothed (for £10 an hour)

prize winning - FISH STUDIES by Caroline Ali, who also showed in the candidates exhibition

panorama with work by Brian Fletcher

whose bust is this in the corner? at my next visit I found out it is David Cox - work by Brian Fletcher behind

artists model
time to go home shutters going up

blurred and shaky - who?

Robert Perry - landscape painter see also http://www.robertperry-artist.co.uk/

very old and blurred royal arms

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists had an opening on Thursday 16th March (this page delayed by technical problems and a low battery)

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists is one of the oldest art societies in the country. As early as 1807 Samuel Lines opened an Academy teaching students ...

patron Queen Victoria

Coventry Cathedrals

I am lucky to be alive . . . .

On the night of 14 November 1940, the city of Coventry was devastated by bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe. The Cathedral burned with the city, having been hit by several incendiary devices.
I was 4½ years old and heard the air raid syrens and ack-ack fire and bombs from my home in Widney Lane Solihull.

My cot was placed at the bottom of the stairs behind a wall of sand as a strong point





there on Friday

Welcome to the official website of Coventry Cathedral


coventry cathedral - Google Image Search

Severn Valley Railway on sunday

Severn Valley Railway
The official website of the Severn Valley Railway.


svr severn valley railway - Google Image Search

and expect more railway memories under that blog

trouble continues with blogger image server uploads

so as a compromise a picture by Charlotte's father

welcome to blogspace :-
visual-art hanmann was made by my house guest Charlotte yesterday about her father,
see also his and my guest's genealogy and more links in CHARLOTTE HANMANN - danish artist

a detail from a picture by Poul Hanmann

Cell Phone Manager

Today I am struggling to download the pictures from my Sony Ericsson K600i

I updated MobTime and the registration function has broken
I have emailed support and await an answer
later after some helpful emails from *.cn it all works again

MobTime INC - provide mobile phone software, SyncML and TCP/IP/IrDA stack.: "MobTime Cell Phone Manager is an excellent PC software or data suite that has 3 main functions: mobile phone management, data synchronization and folder browse functions. With this data suite, you can backup phonebook and contacts of the phone, exchange them between handset and Outlook/Notes PIM, send SMS by group, chat with your friends via SMS, transfer logos, photos, ringtones to/from PC. It supports most popular phones of Siemens, SonyEricsson, Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung via 3 connection methods: Data cable, IrDA dongle, Bluetooth dongle."

networked

Folk art from Birmingham my mother bought this at her own school from a bring and buy fund raiser for Dixon Road school where it was donated by a parent - it was on the table below.

the Samsung laptop is able to access the internet at last using the long cable from Maplins, Solihull High Street via the router below to the Sony laptop in the next room.
The Sony has the laptop has a US-English WinXP OS and was easy to configure using the wizard for internet sharing via this computer.

The Samsung 8000 was purchased in Germany for use in Denmark, and has a german Win ME system on it, and even using the networking Wizard (which the germans name an ASSISTANT) , it was a hell of a job for a newbie network organiser like myself to set up, even with a fluent german speaker at my elbow.
Finally the penny dropped, after failing with a networking floppy made on my Sony laptop, I used the WinXP installation CD and the new network sharing drivers were rapidly found and installed


The monitor is for my 5 year old Patriot computer running Win98, which has a smaller and older kind of network socket and is not yet connected.


finished

well a little exagerated - it only took all morning not all day.

but like the first picture it was a nice snap.














on Tuesday I managed to set up a home network

but then blogger photo server slowed to a halt
on Wednesday we went out and I returned too tired to upload

this Corega Hub5PL is also 5 or 6 yeas old but worked well

this busy bee cleared up before I woke up

the kitchen was clean and shiny this morning
she said she was vidløftigt og entreprenant Gode, gamle, danske ord, der bruges alt for lidt

literally longwinded and active or enterprising - good old danish words which are used too little

The first military tethered balloon : the Entreprenant in Fleurus 1794


my mother's tea trolley is back in use


and breakfast was served
NOTE THE LITTLE WHITE DASH onthe lower deck of the trolley.

That is the memory stick for my Sony HandiCam, which I had mislaid in a senior moment, and was now found by hero of the moment Charlotte when she tidied the hall. A BIG THANK YOU !
click here SNAPS TWO which will have the Sony photos in it from today on


and the hall floor and the oak linen chest are clear

morning walk to Chelmsley Wood for shopping

dumb driver number one - first march 2006


and today

dumb driver number two

AND this path STILL NEEDS SWEEPING

daffodils

and a messy corner of the school yard

two carpenters
and a gardener at work



just been snapping graffitti in the tunnel


this old lady had fallen and had bleeding legs

down these stairs

Chelmsley Centre shopping

time for a nice cup of tea

and a cheese omelet - one portion and two forks

Heartland's Hospital and my sleep apnea two year review

a gust of wind blew Charlotte's CAP off close to the 97 bus stop

tea was served with thanks to the WVRS at Heartlands Hospital
http://www.wrvs.org.uk/ WRVS - News & features


first I was weighed (minus 20 kilo in two years)
then I filled in Epworth Sleepiness Scale
(an online version)

Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull NHS Trust


Department of Respiratory Medicine, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital

Respiratory/Thoracic Medicine
a really lousy web site - I only wanted to check I spelled the names correctly.
no email for patients, and no list of staff with locations and telephone numbers and email addresses

Hospital Site Maps are too small for old eyes to read the lettering

Our website address is www.heartofengland.nhs.uk.
Please update any bookmarks or links that use the old address. and you guys should ewrite a redirect on the old urls
compare with http://www.rh.dk/ Forside > Om Hospitalet > In English

and Respirationscenter Øst
east Denmark's Respiration Centre
http://www.rh.dk/rh.nsf/Content/respirationscenterst~omrespirationscenterst
which also list the research being done at the moment
eg vægtprojekt blandt søvnapnøpatienter
obesity studies of sleep apnea patients

then Mandy checked my journal

but our seance was interupted by a genuine fire alarm - not a drill

back in her office Mandy looked at the blog pictures of my 10 year old cpap machine

THE BOSS Dr D Bannerjee Consultant Chest Physician

about 15oo machines are in use here

http://slim2005.blogspot.com/2006/03/cpap.html

ON THE WAY OUT

seventies chipped concrete

twenty first century style hospital architecture

if I get an acute stroke look for me here (I think my mother aged 91 died on that ward 2)

camera shake

children's department garden

this polar bear needed sun glasses too

seen in the children's department at Heartlands Hospital

classic english outside plumbing is very susceptable to frost damage

AFTERWARDS

tv screen on the top of a double deck bus 169 to solihull

at the 72 bus stop in Solihull

we went to Maplin Stores > Birmingham Solihull to get a long ethernet cable which was not available in the Bull Ring stores








back in Bosworth Drive
a spilled take away

with very hot sauce?

sunday lunch

Jessop's World Camera store were very patient and helpful

Case Study: "Located in the heart of Birmingham City Centre on Temple Row, just off Birmingham's busy Corporation Street, is one of Jessops flagship World Camera Centre stores, run by general manager Louise Stevenson. On a recent visit in March to the store to check out their digital processing operation, Louise and her team allowed me to experience a typical day at what is a very busy store. "

Birmingham Central Library Atrium


going

going

soon gone

destroying 1970ies architecture

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Chamberlain Square
Birmingham
B3 3DH

self service

wonderful tiled floor



SUNDAY LUNCH is served

at the next table too


industrial art even Bernard Leach

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

click bigger

click bigger







PUSH



PULL








on our way out by . . .

illusion one



illusion two

on the way back to Jessops to pick up film


my father worked for the National Provincial Bank in Horse Fair, Birmingham and Solihull

RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: WATKINS LAPHAM 2005

ID: I0001; Name: Alfred Henry (David) Watkins; Sex: M; ALIA: /David/; Birth: 17 AUG 1907 in Usk Monmouthshire 1; Death: 24 SEP 1942 in HMS Somali ...

yellow foot






candy poles






BORDERS BOOKS Birmingham. Bullring Shopping Centre Birmingham B5 4BE has a Starbucks coffee bar
so we drank tea

excellent
and opposite us -
girl talk today ? - was of swopping sim cards




and on the way home Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival

exploring brum

after lunch and a snooze we went into Birmingham and got off the 97 bus at the saturday open air markets (started in 1166) and then dropped into the parish church, St Martin's Church, The Bull Ring, to look at the thirteenth century memorial sculptures (which I forgot to photograph) only the tower remains of the old church and the rest is a victorian rebuild.

The Bells of St Martin's Birmingham "The Bull Ring"

wrought iron and lights

wonderful brass work of the eagle lectern

Kiran Kaur played whilst her Sikh parnets lit a candle

hinge of west door at St Martins parish church

"gas" light at Moor Street station

and I cheated the hills by taking the next train to Snow Hill and escalator up to the High Town

at the side of the Council House

gate to sculpture studio in the cellar of the old ?Midland Institute


the floozie in the jacuzzi got a bubble bath this saturday


Charlotte had started taking photgraphs by now
and I handed her my cell phone to snap me

jan kaplicky and amanda levete of future systems found inspiration for the cladding of SELFRIDGES in the texture of the compund lenses of the eye of a fly

after a long walk past decaying factory buildings the digbeth branch canal tunnel was revisited

Reclaimed and salvaged antique church and ecclesiastical fittings

Birmingham Airport and SK2533 CPH-BHX was late

and then I found I had one hour to explore for photographic opportunities





I took the lift up to the roof or tenth level of the car park



the sun was in my eyes

then being tired I went to explore BHX prayer Room



CHARLOTTE HANMANN - danish artist in the SkyRail cable car on the way to lunch in Merton House

digbeth branch canal revisited

we took some photographs under the tunnel

and then Charlotte and I walked along the towpath, and took the 97 bus home to Chelmsley Wood, and fishs and chips in Merton House, and the Crufts Dog show on the box

markets and Crufts

looking down at the Birmingham outdoor markets

looking back up at the Bullring shops

party time and St Patrick's day coming soon

inside the RAG MARKET

after getting the vegetables I needed,
I decided to go home home the long way round.

platform 4A New Street Station

on board with SKY television news on the screens

a glimpse of the apron at BHX Birmingham Airport

the train back to Birmingham was stuffed

the platform was stuffed with people going home from work, CRUFTS dog show and the airport

DOGS today

magazine on offer

Neutering special - kindest cut or mutilation?


Britain's stinkiest dog revealed

as I write I am watching BBC - Birmingham - Crufts

more bbc crufts - Google Search and Crufts Dog Show - NEC Birmingham UK

or crufts - Google Image Search

and getting onto the bus to Chelmsley
the only dogs I saw were life size stuffed toys









life's a blur going home after the show on the bus with a snoopy dog as big as yourself

From 9th - 12th March 2006, lights, cameras and lots of action will fill five halls of the NEC, Birmingham as the 115th Crufts - the world's greatest dog show - is brought to you by the Kennel Club.

Olympic Torch Hoax

Symantec Security Response - Olympic Torch Hoax
Symantec Security Response encourages you to ignore any messages regarding this hoax. It is harmless and is intended only to cause unwarranted concern.
The Olympic Torch Hoax is being spread through email. It has been reported that the following text of the hoax may differ slightly in the various messages going around. The email warns of a virus that burns the whole hard disk drive a computer. This virus does not exist.
Also Known As:
Olympic Torch hoax [Sophos]

bed making

I have made the bed with the 6 year old cover from IKEA Wednesbury, near Birmingham

My daughter enjoyed the BIG quilt
I alway buy them oversize - this is 1.5 x 2 metre on a 1 metre single bed

the guest room is nice and tidy and ready for my guest's arrival tomorrow, but the junk is all in the entrance hall now

I do like the way the white walls takes the different lights - a matter of colour temperature and three different light sources

planning for tomatoes and a guest

the storm receded
time to go to Chelmsley Wood



In KVIK SAVE and time to get some plant sacks
(an impulse buy - I did not know they were there)

very slowly with such a heavy load










can't get up the three steps









I love these cloudscapes but am mostly going to post them in SNAPS TWO

two more buses before I got going

Squeezing through the lift gate on the seventh floor in Merton House

space for nine tomato plants on the east facing balcony

I need to do some tidying









and I am getting stocked up for my guest due on Saturday

CPAP

On monday went to Heartlands Hospital
to get my CPAP machine serviced

TAEMA offers a range of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) generators designed to correct sleep apnea respiratory disorders. They act by applying a positive pressure to the upper air ways.

the CP 90 looks like a very old model
the hoses were rotten but I could only get one replacement

WARNING

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Save your post as a draft or click here for more about what's going on and how to get your blog unlocked.

news to me
sorry about that folks
now OK about 18 hours later

Hello,
Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and whitelisted so that it will nolonger appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign backin again, you should be able to post as normal.
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good morning SOLIHULL

I went to bed at 2:00 am and woke up at 6:00 am

yes I really do start my computer before anything

SUNRISE 6:42 am gmt lengh of day 11 hours 12 minutes
(a little further south and 7 minutes longer than Copenhagen

Coleshill, United Kingdom Forecast : Weather Underground:

"Pressure:30.05 in / 1017 hPa (Rising)

Visibility:12.0 miles / 20.0 kilometers

UV:0 out of 16

Clouds: Mostly Cloudy 10827 ft / 3300 m (Above Ground Level)"

dustmen at work collecting bags of trash




the horizontal sun light meant that I had to put the sun screens up to see the computer screen





Finally at 8:30 am a sparse breakfast of cold rice and two chopped up oranges

next off to Heartlands Hospital with CPAP machine for service

me in 1959

George Pollen took a few snapshots of the Royal Engineers Staff Band Aldershot

This must have been my Scheiber bassoon (with the Heckel crook) and I am practicing in Gibralter Barracks, Aldershot

George's dramatic pictures were a revelation to me and certainly have influenced my own photographic eye for the rest of my life.

An indoors day today so I though I would check my back up files for an old photo or two

I got the nickname Grin because I tried always to smile in adversity


I was recruited as an amateur tenor trombone player for parade duties, and trainee bassoonist, early in 1957.

One morning in band practice I played a loud wrong note on the trombone.

The Director of Music, Major Dunn, stopped the band and said,
"Watkins why are you laughing?"
I replied
"It was laugh or cry Sir !"

the band broke up :-)

saturday breakfast

NO computer yet usually I start my machine as soon as I get out of bed
but I have only two hours until Birmingham markets close


BIG LATE BREAKFAST at about 2:00pm
high protein - cottage cheese, an egg and skimmed milk in the tea
I have run out of bread (food and money)
and took a day to remember I had sesame rye on a top shelf just for this moment

I think the cheap Sainsbury's tea tasted better than the Twinings


on tv




Unison.ie / Irish Independent - Irish and World News, Breaking News, Sports, Business, Classifieds: "2.45 Badminton. Adam Parsons introduces highlights of England's match with Denmark in this one-off international at the Preston Guild Hall. The hosts have a good chance in every discipline going into the Commonwealth Games, but the Danes will be difficult opposition, as they are considered one of the best sides in Europe."





Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms won in the mixed doubles to secure England a 3-2 friendly win over Denmark.
The Olympic silver medallists beat Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Juhl 21-11 21-16 for England's first competitive win over the Danes since 1986.



this is the interactive menu on FreeView digital tv

saturday afternoon

remnants £1 a meter to rent a stall here cost one twentieth of the rent for the indoor Birmingham RAG MARKET

the orange light caught my eye when I was unpacking my goods from the market

hanging out of my kitchen window

market day

yellow bus
Peoples Express - and the drivers get a move on









no football equals quick journey - about the same place as the Saturday queue in last weeks market day blog

to the markets and I start here because the heavy hard objects are best at the bottom of my bags in the trolley

as soon as he saw me he said "cabbages 50p"

two cabbages £1


I must eat at least 50 cabbages each year

in the winter I prefer not to eat imported lettuce




3 lbs carrots and 3lbs onions £1.20

the CABBAGE KING is very difficult to photograph because he never stands still

all these tomatoes £1

3 packets seedless grapes £1


the best tasting cheese in Birmingham

500 gram packet of grated cheddar cheese for 5op


cutting down on cheese helps me slim
I get my calcium from skimmed milk and low fat cottage cheese





a new stall holder sells black pudding too (blood sausage) and salami

bacon misshapes 2 packets £1

half a packet into the soup
the rest frozen down for 3 more weeks





apples £1 a layer

too many apples at 4:00pm


time to make apple purée and freeze it down









2 bags of apples £1


pound a box £1 a box

pound a box £1 a box

13 kilo boxes left over at 4:15 pm

"sweet oranges
maroccan oranges

the skins are marked
but only monkeys eat the skins"
traders shout

the market closes at four o'clock


£2.50 for about 100 oranges




time to get out my juicer and freeze lots of orange juice down






my five year old worn out trolley from NETTO in Denmark weighed 30 kilos
or 2.3 kilos empty the rest is green stuff

why do they have to pull the seats off the bus stops?

my fridge is full again











last weeks vegetables (and the dodgy tomatoes) ready to be sliced for the soup
OW MY FINGER !





after everything was unpacked and put away, this is what I ate at tea time

- a bit like the great apes who love eating fruit

senior moments

this bare patch of floor is because last night
I knocked over two full glasses of coffee,
about one liter, all over the carpet


so I washed the carpet with cold water in the bath and left it to drain overnight

pretty messy after being rinsed three times









is this chinese hand knotting?













still very heavy

I hung it up to dry

when I got back from the market I was greeted by the whine of this planer

He is fitting a new pair of doors to the public bar opposite Merton House
(the old ones have rotted at the hinges he said)

and I joked about my student days in the pattern shop (advanced woodwork) at Loughborough College where the old planing machines were notorious finger slicers.


the old doors











reflection of Merton House

the other senior moment

(this is the amount od coffe I spilled)

I was slicing up some cabbage for the soup and sliced my finger too

safe in Merton House

the two maintenance men left their white van seven floors below



the safety catch on my kitchen window was replaced today


the old catch had suffered metal fatigue and snapped









I took these snaps on my balcony because it was easier to see how the thingy works


one window ajar
the other closed








an email from Denmark asked me what other flowers there were here just now

gorse

and below snow drops

(last night was the coldest March night for 40 years so there better be another indoors blog tomorrow)

before dawn today

BBC - Science & Nature - Space - What's in the sky tonight?: "Venus can be found as a bright object in the south east dawn skies.

It's in Capricorn, the Sea Goat, for most of March, but just dips into Aquarius, the Water Bearer, from the 21st to the 27th of the month. "

snow today in Chelmsley Wood

no walk today

this damp north westerly wind was blowing through the Cheshire gap, and dropping its moisture on Bosworth Drive as snow when the air mass rose over the Midlands








next I had the silly idea of catching and photographing a snow flake

the plastic had been in the deep freeze first






and then the sun followed the snow storm

I walked all the way to my great dentist

A cool afternoon, even cold for some, I resolutely turned my back on the vandalised bus stop and set off walking outwards on Bosworth Drive.


Local brick is red and this sky satelite dish means that, even though cable tv is here, individual choice rules.







Such a palm tree used only to be seen on the cornish riviera
but looks happy here

Granite cobbles are expensive so brick is a popular pavement


this is the newly resurfaced road which I pictured in the POWER PLANE blog post







there was a smell of smoke -looking back I could see signs of a fire but my dental appointment meant I could not take the time to play news hound, and try and make the tv news with a phone cam shot.






blue water as if painted by a child under the Bosworth Drive bridge -

crocuses at the end of Bosworth Drive









I admire the engineering design of this foot bridge to the shops


and then I could follow footpaths for the rest of the way









uphill !











the dental surgery is just behind me

Harry Hunjan has trained 1o dentists, and many dental nurses

click here for an older blog post with much more about my great dentist

NHS England Website - Dentist - HS Hunjan Summary Information

how I move my pictures from my phone to my computer

MobTime Cell Phone Manager - PC software to manage your mobile phone.: "

is a PC data suite with which you can manage your mobile phone on PC. It supports most popular mobile phones by plug-ins, such as phones of Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, SonyEricsson, Motorola and Samsung etc. MobTime will continually release new plug-ins to support more Mobile phones"

Home > New News
[2006/03/01]: Release MobTime Cell Phone Manager 2006 V6.0.7

just downloaded and works better than ever - free updates

Release MobTime Cell Phone Manager 2006 V6.0.7.
1. Add "New SMS message" function in the Tray.
2. Embellish the Sync interface, it becomes more and more beautiful.
3. The pictures can be saved as 32-bit Bitmap via the "Picture Editor".

Support new phones: Samsung X800
Motorola E1 V280 V8 V6 V3i
Nokia 6030 6060 7380
Philips 362

after the dentist I walked to Packington Lane

I took 100 photos in all , by the Chester Road and on through the Birmngham business park

to SITA and the hills I glimpse to the south east of Merton House






sunset and the big discovery

then down to a very old green lane and right of way

through the gap in the fence at the roundabout where the weighbridge for SITA (Packington) Ltd. is located

http://www.sita.co.uk/
Packington House
Packington Lane
Packington (Road Map)
Meriden google map





I can see some of these pylons from my windows





Packington Lane Bridge over the M6 motorway

trip to Solihull

a nice afternoon for my trip to Solihull Central Library,

and when I came out of my seventh floor flat in Merton House, my neighbour was playing ball witn her three year old.

oops someone has knocked this down by the Chelmsley Wood Medical centre
I went to the pharmacy to collect some medicine and I looked through the glass wall to the reception are for the doctors and nurses of the medical center

Merton House looked great against the dramatic sky brought by a cold north westerly wind



- but these leaves in the rubbish pile to the right have not been swept up yet after two months









these flowers from dryer and warmer climates are sponsored by Seven Trent Water and are the future of english gardening in a dryer climate of the future





and a very blurred picture of my heavily loaded trolley as I take the lift down at Solihull Central Library - too much hurry causing camera shake.






this is where I changed from the 72 to the 97 bus and the snow shower which was over Solihull

I like this graffitti which has been on this bus for months



speed bumps for pavement cyclists








my shadow and the trolley - I really look like a pin head !



back on the seveth floor and another snow shower is receding to the east as the sun sets behind me

my new toy - this used fiche reader cost me £10 from the library

and a black bag as a dust cover