Olympic logo

Well, I’ve thought long and hard.
I’ve given it a chance, and I wanted to like it, but this Olympic logo is a joke.
It’s total rubbish. A five year old with crayon could have done better.
It’s simply an embarrassment that we are showing off to the world.
The committee that chose this should hang their heads in shame

MK bike

 

For no good reason, here is a surprisingly scary pic of me in my apartment with my current bike.

A mountain bike, with fat tyres, as I'm sick of getting punctures.

Sunset

Sunset over Grange Farm, MK.

BriSCA F1 Stockcar World Final

Weekend away at Coventry for the Stock Car World final. Excellent racing, and my guy won, Andy Smith, so I was happy. Some pictures here are of current BriSCA F1 stock cars and some are of the Heritage (old) stock cars.

Modern Stock Cars, they are mostly powered by large American Chevy V8 engines these days. Awesome machines.

These are the Heritage Stock Cars, and they were powered by whatever was the biggest engine in the scrap yard that week!

Notice this one has six wheels! It was actually banned from stock car racing when it first appeared on track over three decades ago, but still runs out in the Heritage event. Actually it won it’s race.

Incase you think you might have seen one or two of these old cars recently, well you have. Some of them featured on the recent Audi advert.

Back to today’s cars. Here’s the rolling lap before they set off next time round. All further photos after this were a blurred mess and ended up on the cutting room floor!

Stonehenge - not really.

MK does Stonehenge, not quite as impressive as the real thing is it.

Grand Union Canal

The Grand Union Canal runs through Milton Keynes. I cycled over to it and along the tow path for a mile or two. In fact, the first time I ever came here was on a narrow boat on this very canal, many years ago now.

Strange Fruit indeed

What the heck are these yellow thingys, dropping out of the trees?

The picture doesn’t show it, but there were plenty wasps sampling the goods. I didn’t linger...

Hiroshima - in Milton Keynes

Not too much to blog in Milton Keynes really, but I was out on the bike today and found a little Japanese garden dedicated to Hiroshima. All the items here are made to look like items at Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb.

Not what you’d expect to find on gentle ride out.

cloud and moon

I don’t do cloud pictures, but this one caught my eye.

bloke

 

Some bloke meddling with his push bike by one of the MK lakes.

Inflatables

Art in Milton Keynes.
Some say it has a double meaning. I can’t see it.

Stormy MK

Wow, did it rain!

These two lads in this video were so wet, it wasn’t worth them hurrying.

Shots from my apartment window.

Freezer

Yes, it’s just a picture of my freezer.

I left the door open slightly, all night and all the next day. So the walls and food get covered in fury ice, but despite the ice, the food is defrosted, a bit. I’ll close the door again. It’ll be fine.

The Plough

The Plough in Stony Stratford. How I wanted to join in, not on this trip though.

Stony Stratford

Cycled down the road to Stony Stratford. This is the view down the High Street
Felt like a million miles from the concrete carpet of Milton Keynes.
Stony Stratford is more like a village in Saddleworth. Very nice with it’s quaint pubs, shops and restaurants.
I’m off the beer at the moment, so couldn’t sample the ales in the local hostelries. Next time probably.

Reminds me of a long day/night in 1977. I think I had more hair back then. Bit thinner possibly.

where?

Where am I now.

Possible clue below.

:-)

horsing around

The Police, horsing around in front of MK Central station.

Vandals!

Look what they’ve done to this poor blokes bike.

Ripped off the handle bars, moved the peddles, stolen the bike seat, and attached comedy pram wheels to the back. Outrageous!

Concrete Cows

Ah, here they are. Hiding in the MK shopping centre - the famous Milton Keynes Concrete Cows. I’d not seen these before even though I’ve been through the shopping centre a time or two. Observant as ever!

The placard says that the cows were once cynically said to symbolised that MK is all concrete and that it’s not true.

Rubbish, it is true. MK is the most concrete happy place I’ve ever seen! OK, second only to Skelmersdale. There are plenty of green bits, but they are practically all of a municipal park style. Virtually nothing natural or wild. It’s not awful, just boring and predictable. Still, I quite like these concrete cows, they’re funny, and I have to say, these are not predictable.

I don’t think anyone from MK has seen this blog, if they had, I’d have been told off by now.

Tour de France.

Well, as some that click to this blog will have noticed, I follow stock car racing, also football, but I have to say, today’s opening race in the Tour de France was as good as many a stock car race I have seen. There were loads of spectacular cashes (I shouldn’t enjoy these, but I do), bikes, riders and street furniture bashed about all over the road. Entertainment indeed.

Oh, the stage winner was Alessandro Petacchi. Yes it was.

Screen shot from the tiny portable in my MK apartment.

another quiz

So, where was this taken?

Piccadilly Station

Piccadilly Station, Manchester.
Almost my second home at the moment.

Here is the 18:15, Manchester to Euston.

Sunset in Milton Keynes

Taken from my apartment window.

sign

This is the sign outside where I work.

What do you mean you can't see it!
It's perfectly obvious.
It says this:
National Freehold Land Society
Abbey Road & St. John's Wood Permanent Benefit Building Society
Abbey National Building Society
Abby National
Abby
Santander
:-)

A church

An old church in Milton Keynes. So not everything was built in 1980.























Just in case you want more info, as I was told to, I took a snap of the sign too.

Quiz.

OK, poor photo.
But that’s not the point. This is:

Where was it taken, and when?

The Ashton bikes

Carrera Subway 8.
Only one still working, the other being cannibalise slowly, as Halfords are far too useless to fix them, even though they sold them to me.

Manchester

Obligatory shot of the Beetham Tower. This one from the canal running though Castlefield.
Rochdale canal, is it?

Piccadilly Station

Arrived in Manchester, Piccadilly Station, (with trusty Kodak 705 strapped to my side!).


Now, where’s the beer?

16:50 to Manchester

On time (almost) the 16:50 train from MK Central back to Manchester for one of my buddies' stag doo, a fellow IT contractor.

Nut & Squirrel

Good exercise!

Cycled all the way to this strange building, what ever it is.

road

On the road again!

A sculpture

What a laze blogger.

There was a placard below it, but I didn’t read it. Thought I’d get lots of better pictures. I didn’t. So, it’s just a sculpture.
My English teacher, Mrs P Schofield of Uppermill Secondary Modern, would have written, “Must do better”. And she’d be right.
Taken in the square infront of the station, again.

Ronald Rae

O. Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast

Handcarved Scottish granite

1984



Inspired by a poem by Robert Burns



‘O, wert thou in the cauld blast

On yonder lea, on yonder lea

My plaidie to the angry airt,

I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee,

Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms

Around thee blow around thee blaw,

Thy birld should be my bosom,

To share in a’ to share it a’

Purchased by the Commission for the New Towns


...


Well, I think that’s what it say’s.

Midsummer Boulevard

So here we are. A view down Midsummer Boulevard, in the centre of Milton Keynes.

In this picture is a boring office, a Chinese Restaurant, a pub, and a hotel and another boring office.

But can you find them all?

Corporate Milton Keynes

Well I was going to try and jazz the picture up a little. Perhaps loose the stray flag on the left, but my new Photoshop Elements has gone on strike. All the tools have just stopped working. All looks well, but nothing functions. Very frustrating.

Oh the picture is from the main square in front of the Central train station.

Milton Keynes Central train station

As you come out from Milton Keynes Central train station, this would be one of your first views. And you can grab a coffee if needed. A great deal of Milton Keynes has this type of corporate look to it.