Monthly Archives: October 2020

20th October picture of the day…

20 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Manchester, Musings, Railways, Travel

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Hmm, what a strange day it’s been. I wanted to escape the office today as all the omens are that I’ll be spending a lot of (involuntary) time stuck at home over the winter months, so I’m making the most of what freedom I have whilst I have it.

Anyone reading the political runes over the past couple of days could see that there was a political dog-fight brewing over Covid, the Government’s tier system and the elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. Today it came to a head. With this on the horizon I decided to take a trip into Manchester to document how this is affecting the railways, but also to stock up on some cooking ingredients that we can’t get locally. If I’m going to be stuck at home then cooking is one of my therapies, so having the raw materials that allow me to recreate South-East Asian dishes means a lot as there’s bugger-all chance of me getting out to that part of the world until 2021 at the earliest.

Manchester city centre and the railway stations that serve it were the quietest I’ve seen them for months. It seems that the message is already getting through to a lot of people who’re already staying away. I headed to Chinatown to buy the herbs and other ingredients I needed but the place was pretty much deserted – which felt very surreal for what’s normally a bustling area of the city.

Having got most of what I wanted I made my way back through Victoria station, which brings me on to a very topical picture of the day…

A solitary passenger checks his phone as he waits for the 15.33 to Newcastle at Manchester Victoria, 90 minutes before the Prime Minister was due to make a televised announcement over what Covid tier Manchester was going to be placed in after a very public spat with the elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.

Personally, my feelings are that right now we’re becoming increasingly ruled by Downing St diktat as the democratic institutions of this country are ignored – be they Parliament or local politicians. Meanwhile the PM’s office has developed a standard tactic of blaming everyone else for Johnson’s failures – be that the EU, Parliament, local Mayors or other devolved institutions. This is only going to get worse as the clock (inexorably) ticks down to January 1st.

Welcome to Britain in 2020…

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19th October picture of the day…

19 Monday Oct 2020

Posted by in London, Picture of the day, Travel

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Today’s hardly been the most exciting of times. Instead, it’s been one spent glued to a computer screen in order to add 250 plus pictures from my recent travels onto my Zenfolio picture website. They fall into all sorts of categories (rail, travel, shipping and the building of High-Speed 2) so if you want to gave a browse and find out which galleries they’ve been added to – follow this link. I’ve also used my time to email out the latest batch of winning bids on eBay, I’ll be restocking my site with a lot more old pictures and railway memorabilia this weekend, but there’s still a few hundred pictures and badges remaining from the last batch. Here’s a sample.

Unfortunately, the weather here in the Calder Valley’s not particularly conducive to great photography right now, but I’m hoping to get out and about to get some pictures this week before the clocks go back and the day get too short for travelling for – that’s if we’re even allowed to…

So, without further ado – here’s today’s picture, which I took one bright spring morning way back in March 2001 whilst I was walking through Green Park in London. The building behind those park gates is Buckingham Palace…

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18th October picture of the day…

18 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by in Calder Valley, Musings, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

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Today’s been a day for catching up with jobs at home as well as beginning the task of sifting and editing the hundreds of pictures that I’ve been taking over the past few days. Even so, the pair of us were determined to get out and spend some quality time together, despite the gloomy (but mild) weather conditions. This afternoon we put on our boots and headed up the other side of the valley and over to the Moorcock Inn on the edge of Norland Moor. The Moorcock’s been a regular calling point of ours very many years now. It was once we missed during the ‘lockdown’ so we were delighted when they reopened. Sadly, the latest Tier 2 tightening and uncertainty over the next few weeks means they’ve taken the decision to shut their doors once more from November 2nd. It’s a crying shame as we’d booked in for a meal for our wedding anniversary, but we can absolutely understand why they’ve chosen to do what they have. Having received the news we couldn’t not go up for possibly the last time before they shut just to say hello and offer our support – and enjoy the views from the beer garden one more time…

This rather neatly brings me on to the picture of the day, which is the view from our cottage looking across to Norland taken on the 3rd January 2010. As beautiful as it looks, I’m hoping the scene isn’t repeated this January!

Tommorrow I’ll be busy catching up on eBay sales and adding some of the new pictures I’ve been editing to my Zenfolio website – and hopefully a bit of blogging, so stay tuned…

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Take the long way home…

17 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by in London, Musings, Railways, Travel

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16:00

I’m currently on my way back to West Yorkshire after escaping the latest London ‘lockdown’ as I stayed over in the capital after my trip to the isle of Wight – or ‘littler Britain’ as it could be called. To be honest, it was a lovely trip with perfect weather and a blog about the unique Isle of Wight railway will follow later in the week. In the meantime, here’s a taster. This was the view from my hotel window yesterday morning. We couldn’t have asked for better weather either!

What was also good about the break was that it was planned just before the latest local and national shutdowns were introduced, as it may be some time before we can do such a thing again – because I have no trust in the Government to come up with anything resembling a coherent strategy to deal with Covid. It reminds me of the anarchic 1970s American sit-com ‘Soap’ where the trailer for each episode would include a plot recap and end with the words “Confused? You will be – after the next episode of Soap!” – only in this case substitute Government briefings for Soap…

Leaving London was weird. I stayed in Clapham so wandered down to the Junction to get a train into the city. I’ve never seen the place so quiet on a Saturday. It was the same when I caught the Northern line tube from Waterloo to Euston. This picture was taken on my train between Charing Cross and Leicester Square which is normally on of the busiest parts of the route on a Saturday as its teeming with tourists who don’t realise how close together the two stations are and the fact it’s far nicer to walk!

At Euston I took time to have a look at progress on the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway work around the station and the ridiculous and totally ineffective ‘protection’ camp in nearby Euston Gardens. You’ll be able to find the pictures in this gallery in the next 24 hours.

Right now I’m heading back (stage by stage) up the West Coast main line via LNW trains. Sadly, the weather’s nowhere near as good as it was in the Isle of Wight, but even so, I’ve managed to get some useful library shots and hope to get more when I reach Manchester. Leaving London the trains were very quiet but the further we get from the capital the more people are joining us. Even so, the numbers are abysmal compared to pre Covid levels.

16:38.

After changing trains at Crewe I’m now on my wat to Manchester. Crewe was eerily deserted. The new lockdowns are obviously taking their toll on passenger numbers which had grown over the past few months as restrictions were relaxed. Sadly, as I’ve headed further North I’ve seen more people (almost all young) ignoring the regulations on mask wearing. You can easily spot the stereotype they conform to. Either young girls made up to the nines or ‘chavvy’ young men, both too arrogant and ignorant to consider others.

18:10.

I’ve just walked across central Manchester from Piccadilly to Victoria stations, which was an instrutive experience. The city centre was busier than parts of London! The majority of folks out and about were young and the pubs were doing a steady trade. One thing I noticed was couples where the woman was wearing a mask but the man wasn’t. Is this some bizarre macho thing? On the plus side, more people of all ages were masked as they walked around compared to a month or two ago – so the message is getting through – albeit slowly. Another thing I noticed was more folk up North use disposable masks whilst in the South the pattern is for people to have washable ones where they can also express some dress sense or individuality through the patterns and designs.

Watching people’s behaviour makes me think we’re not going to be out of the Covid woods for some time yet. How much damage it will cause economically, socially and healthwise in the meantime is a question I don’t think anyone can answer.

Sitting on my 3-car train from Manchester to Halifax I can’t help noticing it’s busier than many trains I’ve used today- but then it’s half the size! Even so, there do seem to be more folk travelling in the North.

20:00.

Home again! Now it’s time for me to relax and put my feet up before sorting and editing the hundreds of pictures I’ve taken over the past few days and getting them on my Zenfolio website. Here’s one last taster. Whilst I was at Clapham Junction I caught one of SouthWestern Railways new Bombardier built Class 701 trains out on test. The company has 60 ten-car and 30 five car trains on order which are intended to replace their old BR built fleets. Only they’re late. Very late – and they’re proving troublesome – so when they’ll actually enter service is anyone’s guess right now.

701002 approaches Clapham Junction on its way to London Waterloo. This was the first set to be delivered by Bombardier in June 2020. The whole fleet of 750 vehicles was meant to have been in service by the end of 2020. To date, none have entered public use.

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15th October picture of the day…

15 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by in Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

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I decided against writing a rolling blog of today’s travels as it would detract from the other things I needed to do today – but also my enjoyment of the here and now. So, where am I? Folks who follow me on twitter @PaulMBigland will know already, for everyone else – I’m in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. I’ve ducked the latest lockdown bullets (just) to spend a day on the oldest trains on the national rail network before they retire.

These trains were built by Metropolitan-Cammell, Birmingham for the London Underground in 1938. They’ve operated on the Isle of Wight since 1989, but now their days are numbered.

I made my way over here on another old technology – only one far less successful. As far as I’m aware, I arrived on the only remaining commercial hovercraft service.

I’ll blog more tomorrow, right now it’s been a long day since leaving West Yorkshire…

But, hang on – what’s the actual picture of the day you ask. Well, it’s this one, which combines the other two.

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14th October picture of the day…

14 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Picture of the day, Travel, West Yorkshire

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The fact our internet connection collapsed this morning was the impetus I needed to take a break from staring at screens and get out in the autumn sunshine for a few hours. Well, when I say sunshine, I mean those few brief but glorious moments in-between the clouds and rain. But it made for some glorious skies and sights, at today’s picture shows.

I escaped to the hills above Walsden, just outside Todmorden to a photographic location I’ve known for years. It’s a beautiful spot which sums up this part of the world.

The rainbow was a bonus that was worth getting a brief soaking for! I won’t be back in the office now until Sunday, as tomorrow I’m off on my travels. No doubt a blog or two will appear..

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Thank you!

13th October picture of the day…

13 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by in London, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Talk about trying to keep too many plates spinning! At the moment I’m constantly swapping between jobs. Trying to keep my (financial) head above water and get articles written, pictures on my website or stuff on eBay and at the same time maintain a home-life whilst trying to keep fit! I’m not the only one of course – and I admire all those people who can do this whilst also looking after a young family (a cat’s enough for me), so excuse me whilst I have a 1st world whinge! That’s when perspective kicks in, isn’t it? You see your own little problems then look around at others and think – wow! I thought I was keeping plates spinning…

As I’ve not been occupied writing today and the weather’s been crap I’ve had time for a spot of decluttering. I’d forgotten how much stuff I’ve had packed away in boxes that hasn’t seen the light of day for decades. It’s those 1st world problems again – we hoard so much crap nowadays – because we can. We have that luxury, which is why when you’re travelling nowadays you pass so many old shipping container farms set up purely to store people’s surplus crap that they’ve run out of space for but refuse to let go of. At this stage of my life I’m trying to take a much more Buddhist approach to these things and letting stuff go. After all – I can’t take it with me…

The memories and experiences I want to want to keep I’m gradually digitizing – for two simple reasons. They’re portable and they don’t take up any space and one day I hope to be able to use much of what I keep in my writing. There’s certainly a few stories to tell when I have time but the ‘chunky’ stuff can go. Mind you, sifting through the ephemera from the best part of 50 years of one’s life can really take you back. Here’s one thing I found today…

Don’t try and draw too many conclusions from the ticket. The next year I was at the (in)famous Stranglers open air gig in Battersea Park!

Meanwhile, here’s the picture of the day, which is about the future, not the past and about how much the world’s changed in my lifetime. I took this picture of North Greenwich and Canary Wharf in London from the Emirates cable car traversing the Thames on the 20th November 2019.

I remember this area before any of this was built. I moved to East London in 1986 and lived just up the road in Bromley-by-Bow. I watched what was formerly derelict docks transformed into everything you see here – and the city of London beyond, which you can see to the right. The capital’s skyline’s still changing. I left a decade ago and there’s parts I struggle to recognise now! Will that rate of change start to slow now that we’ve cut ourselves off politically and economically from Europe – time will tell…

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12th October picture of the day…

12 Monday Oct 2020

Posted by in India, Picture of the day, Travel

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As the old Meatloaf song goes – ‘two out of three ain’t bad’ – and today part two of my round Britain trilogy was submitted, ready to go to be sub-edited. As I’ve got a bit of breathing space before the first part’s published I’m going to have a short break to catch up on other things and even have chance to get away for a couple of days. Thankfully, the latest Covid restrictions won’t cause me any problems as I’ll be heading South, away from the worst affected areas. All I need now is for the weather Gods to play ball, and right now the forecast is looking promising. I’m looking forward to having new travel adventures to blog about as I’m really starting to feel the ‘Covid blues’ again – especially as the nights are drawing in and I’ll be restricted in what I can do. It may be cosy in my office but the walls start to close in on you after a while…

Talking of walls gives me a useful link into the picture of the day…

I took this picture in October 1993 at the Umaid Bhawan palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. Lynn and I were staying here for a night after a 5-day camel trekking safari in the Thar desert. On the horizon you can see the clifftop walls of Jodhpur fort which dominates the city below. What magical places these were!

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Thank you!

11th October picture of the day…

11 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by in India, Picture of the day, Ride India, The Railway Children, Travel

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Hmm, what to choose as a picture of the day? Something to match my present mood? Thunderous or gloomy skies would fit the bill there. Maybe something to match my opinion of the current Government? I’m not sure I have any circus pictures…

Nah, I’ll pluck one at random as I nearly always do.

Today was another of those days where it lived down to expectations, for a variety of reasons. When the bright spots are you actually hit your step target and managed to get loads more stuff listed on eBay you realise this isn’t exactly the jet-setting, rock and roll lifestyle.

Not that there’s much chance of either at the moment as the Government are expected to list more Covid restrictions. Sadly, I’m trapped in a neck of the woods where cases continue to rise, so I’m not being optimistic. A visit to a local supermarket today made me realise just how many people think masks are actually hammocks to support their double-chins! So, right now I feel a bit like a prisoner of events – only there’s not much chance of me building a glider in the roof – Colditz style! Hopefully, once whatever’s announced is announced I can start planning some things with a little more certainty. In the meantime – there’s writing to be done, pictures to be edited and decades of collected ephemera to be sifted and either junked, recycled or stored.

Oh, a picture of the day – I’ve plumped for this as it’s reminded me of a better times. In March 2018 I joined a group of other people – mostly from the rail industry – for a cycle ride to raise money for the charity the Railway Children . We covered 270 miles across Rajasthan in India in a few days in March – not exactly the coolest time of the year. It was a brilliant event with some excellent people. It was also tough, but boy, was it a positive experience. Needless to say, as well as cycling and raising money from sponsorship I offered my services as a photographer and donated the pictures. Here’s one. We visited one of the railways stations that the RC have a presence on and met a group of the homeless children they work with. Sometimes pictures happen because all the circumstances come together to make is so – and you spot the moment. This was one such picture.

I’ve been donating my services to the Railway Children ever since 2017. Sadly, this year we couldn’t run another big UK event – ‘3 Peaks by Rail’ due to Covid. But, hopefully, next year we’ll be back – and do it twice to make up!

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

10th October picture of the day…

10 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by in Picture of the day, Thailand, Travel

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Funny old world, isn’t it, eh? You just think things are settling down and all of a sudden it all goes topsy-turvey again – for no adequately explained reason – and certainly not one that you have any control over.

The changeable weather meant that plans for a day out were cancelled. Instead we’ve both been busy at home sorting out this, that – and the other. I’ve managed to have more of a declutter, so lots more railway ephemera and old pictures will appear on eBay this weekend. Right now I’ve added lots more old slides, including one that relates to the last picture of the day – just from a different angle and 20 years earlier!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313253359380

So, here’s today’s picture, which was taken in Bangkok, Thailand on the 30th November 2013. This a a huge reclining Buddha at Wat Po. Now, normally, the Thai’s see exposing the soles of your feet to people as disrespectful – unless you’re the Buddha, obviously!

Joking aside, the statue is stunning and Wat Po’s well worth a visit. I love Asian temples as they’re very much community hubs in a way English churches can only aspire to. Religion’s so much more part of people’s everyday lives (for better or worse). It can still lead to sectarian conflicts but it adds a glue that perhaps we’ve lost in the West.

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!