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May's PicturesThe Dukes of Dundee (QTEK 9100)
This chap thought it was good to paint his car like this... he was wrong. Not only is it a little childish but it's not even a similar looking car, it's an ordinary hatch so it looks really sad, and it's got a sunroof, do you really think Luke Duke and and Juke Duke and Daisy would have a sunroof, hell no. Also the car itself is so insignificant I can't remember what it is. Mind you I can't remember the name of the car in the Dukes of Hazard, it's a Challenger or something, or perhaps that's in Vanishing Point or Starskey and Hutch. If it was a Challenger or something large and American then you could get away with it but this? No.
This specimen was found at the Dundee Observatory a good but small attraction in Dundee. If you were a real fan of telescopes then go there, they have quite a few and the dome is paper mache, a strange choice of materials, but it's one of two in the world. The only other Observatory to be made of totally unsuitable materials is in Toronto, perhaps they were copying. All other Observatory domes are quite rightly made of cheese. I didn't find why they had uses a Cheddar free material which I thought they might explain, perhaps I missed it.
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The Unicorn (Nisis DV5)
Not a pub just near Woodford just in case you were wondering, it's a boat in Dundee. In fact it's one of the best preserved Georgian boat in Britain. Boasting 95% original materials still intact as of when it was built in 1827 which is quite impressive and seems impossible since the boat saw action.
A little difficult to get around when you're six foot one like myself and a little unnerving when you realise you're below the water line. This is a picture of one of the two fibre glass unicorns built when the old wooden one looked a little tired (perhaps the unicorn is the 5%), one was put on display here missing an ear the other one was placed on the ship replacing the wooden one which could then be preserved.
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Falkirk Wheel at the Top (QTEK 9100)
Finally the top of the Falkirk Wheel you can just about see a boat in the distance which is just about to descend to the bottom. I have some video of the whole process though I shall spare you all 7 minutes of it you will just have to put up with the three pictures that I have. I have more but I shall spare you.
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Falkirk Wheel Half Way Up (QTEK 9100)
Of course I couldn't possibly go to the Falkirk wheel without getting a picture of the wheel in action and here it is half way up balancing two boats as one goes up and one goes down. Pretty impressive especially from this distance you can hear all the squeaks and clangs which are a little disturbing.
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Falkirk Wheel at Rest (QTEK 9100)
And today in this action packed holiday we all trekked to the Falkirk wheel. A device finished in 2002 to move barges from one canal to another without the need for locks. In one go one boat can be moved from the bottom to the top and one boat can be moved from the top to the bottom. This is a picture of the device (wheel) at rest.
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Memorial from Afar (QTEK 9100)
Another picture of the Culloden Memorial from afar. It sort of gives a an idea of the size of the battlefield except his is a view across the battlefield. As you can see, it's not exactly a straight run. The Government side is full of trenches which I suspect are natural and probably very useful. The Jacobite side is flat but all sides are full of the scrub of heather. Not exactly ideal easy fighting turf for the Jacobites at least who like a good run up.
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Culloden Memorial (QTEK 9100)
Right in the middle of the battle field (I presume because the road truncates the field) this is sat as a memorial to the battle of Culloden. I'd recommend people to go there to a have a look and see if they fancy running in the scrub toward the enemy line because this field isn't just grass It's bloody awful. I'd recommend however that they didn't do it whilst it is pissing it down and whilst you are full of a cold.
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Wallace Memorial (QTEK 9100)
Today's outing was to the Wallace Memorial and incredibly big memorial, not the usual rock or folly you see, this is a 5 floor tower with views of Stirling and the surrounding. I tool quite a bit of 35mm pics, but forgot to use the QTEK to take doubles of the pictures so I can show them here. I can show the prints later but much later if they turn out OK of course.
The tower is not for those even slightly scared of heights with the narrow stone steps spiralling ever upward with two way pedestrian traffic all the way up. Luckily you can take the free bus up to level one which does two things, first it saves your legs for the climb up the steps and since the driver appears to prefer bundling down the narrow roads at speed, it acclimatises you to the fear.
After this is was off to Stirling where I took a picture of the Wee Wallace Memorial, unfortunately the phone forgot that picture. Never mind, it wasn't that good after all.
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Rumbling Bridge (QTEK 9100)
This is Rumbling Bridge at... Rumbling Bridge. It's a actually two bridges in one. The first one build some time in the 19th Century and then a later one just built on top. None of this knocking the thing down the second bigger better bridge was build on top but this time with guard rails and the massive improvement of being higher up so the horses didn't have a steep descent to the bridge and equally steep ascent from the bridge.
Anyway this is a picture showing both parts. The rumbling by the way is because of the sound of thr water down the gorge which is massive and somewhere you can walk around which is impressive. I have a couple of pictures of the water falls but I don't think they really help explain the impressiveness so I shan't put them up here.
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Demon Programmer (QTEK 9100)
Just a quick snap of the cat who appears addicted to my laptop. If I sit down and start messing with the laptop the cat decides to sit in the most inconvenient place. I don't know why he like it so much, It also appears that the more important the task I have to do the more the cat gets in the way. So if I have to do some work out of hours then the cat is here quicker than if I'd have opened a can of Tuna. He starts by pawing at my arm because it's in his way, and then he just plonks hinself down, arm or no arm, head just near the mouse (ah perhaps that's it) pad pinning my right arm to my leg.
At least he has stopped walking over the keyboard, which was a little scary when I was logged into one of our live machines at work. One incorrect key press as I'm editing a file and who knows what could happen, so as you can imagine the first (and last) time he did that I did have a quite a bit of checking to do to confirm that nothing had gone awry.
| 0 comments have been left | 22:21 25 May 2007 | Tags: cat computer |
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Armada Beacon (QTEK 9100)
Two pictures badly spliced together here of the plaque on the place where the Armada Beacon in Alderley Edge. It used to be on the ground I believe from Flickr pictures but now it's a little higher on a large block of stone. After getting lost in the woods we found the beacon once the pictures were taken it was up to me to navigate back to civilisation Bear Grylls style (not knowing that this less that 200 yards away from an exit). Luckily no-one had to drink their own urine or Monkey Climb up a crevasse as it was only the sound of the traffic that lead me to our escape. I personally couldn't see my daughter hitching up between two vertical cliffs forget about my inability.
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Post box (QTEK 9100)
Not that much of an exciting picture but a picture I wanted to take for a long while. This is the post box on Cross St that was in the area that was devastated by an IRA bomb and the plaque says that the post box remained almost undamaged, removed whilst all round it was being rebuild, it was put back in 1999.
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Imperial War Museum (QTEK 9100)
This is just a quick picture of the Imperial War Museum North. You may have seen many picturs of the building. This view is quite deceptive in that it sort of looks like the building could be a big square block of a building all made of glass, but this bit (the observation tower) is a squint shiny metal structure. The museum inside is as odd as the outside, not a traditional museum at all. Did I enjoy it... well I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd have been in the mood for a museum, I was more in the mood for doing something interesting and after being spoilt by the good weather the last couple of days my mind was more set on being outside, however the rain and cold suggested outdoor activities should be curtailed.
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Papal Monument (QTEK 9100)
I don't remember this but apparently the Pope visited Heaton Park and this is a monument to him for this visit in 1982.
I don't remember but my wife does which might make sense as her Step-Father is Catholic. What's weird about this picture is the colouring, the sky is rather blue and a little dark and yet the front is as bright as anything as if I'd front lit it. This is just a basic picture with the QTEK that I couldn't see too well because what with the sun hitting the screen I would barely see a thing.
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Old Town Hall Entrance (QTEK 9100)
If you have ever wondered like I have many many times where the old façade of the Manchester Town Hall was after the building was demolished in 1902 then you'll be happy to know that whilst the rest of the building was removed awaiting the 60's to throw up a rather nasty charcoal grey Nat West high rise building the façade is here in Heaton Park, one of the largest municipal parks in Europe covering 640 acres.
The sun was out and so was most of Manchester... well the ones who weren't interested in the local derby were out. It's an impressive park in many ways and pretty ordinary in many others. The hugeness is perhaps one reason I like it mainly, but it does have quite a lot in it, there's a hall and kids play grounds and a boating lake and I'm sure where you are there may be a park with all of those things but at the end of the day you can get a ball and kick it as hard as you can in one direction and run after it without any worry of disturbing anyone at all... oh before you do this, this is not a guarantee, there are some places that you cannot do this. The hall staff will be unimpressed if you try this in the hall I assure you.
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