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.

Milton Keynes

Another enforced blogging layoff. My excuse, well I’ve moved to Milton Keynes, following a new contract.

It took ages to get the new broadband connected, also I was a bit lazy with sorting it all out.

I might struggle to get interesting pictures, as much of MK looks like any other bit. There are some exceptions, but it’s certainly not anywhere near as diverse as the Manchester area.

So first things first. These pics are of my new apartment in Milton Keynes.

New bank

As the Abby National disappears, the Santander signs now replace the old logos and a new bank arrives in Ashton-under-Lyne.

This is on the junction of Old Street and Warrington Street.

New view

Here is a view of St Michael's Parish Church that will not have been seen for many years, as the buildings along Stamford Street and Stamford Arcade have recently been demolished.
It looks like the ground is being prepared for something new. I wonder what.

concrete and clay

So here is our answer: no grass, flowers or bushes. Just more meters of paving flags.

Didn’t Ashton win the North West In Bloom Competition a few times recently? Looks like this is a backward step.

Ashton-under-Lyne

T’other side of the Ladysmith shopping centre on Katherine Street, where the new Costa coffee house can be found.

Paving

Ah. I’m guessing that the ripped out bushes, are not going to be replaced by anything that grows.

Well, that’s my mind made up for the election. I’m going Green.

The Golden Mile

Bikes parade along Blackpool’s Golden Mile.

Day Tripper

Quiz. Where am I.

:-)

Saint Georges Day

The flags are flying on Ashton market for St.Georges Day.

Bush-less

So they’ve dug up our bushes all along Crickets Lane and round the Memorial Park. What are they going to do with it all now. Please not concrete.

In the background are the Wellington Court apartments, here can been seen the apartments when the bushes were still there. 

Colourful

The Pound shop on Penny Meadow. Yes, very colourful.

New Road

They’ve made a start on the new road round the back of Penny Meadow.

These views are from the Albion Street bridge, I think.

Dairy Crest

That’s right, simply avoid those pesky traffic wardens with their yellow lines by parking on the pavement.

:-)

Derby day

Derby day today. City v Utd. Ashton Market covers both flags.