Category Archives: Musings

31st May picture of the day…

31 Monday May 2021

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

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Summer’s here! The past couple of days here in the Calder valley have been stunning with wall to wall sunshine, making up for some of the grey and grim days that have filled much of May. Even the fact it’s a bank holiday hasn’t put the mockers on the weather (for a change). Rather then joining the bank-holiday crowds heading for the coasts the pair of us have made the most of our time by staying at home and catching up on work on the house and garden which has been tiring to say the least but worth it just to be out in the sunshine and recharging the vitamin D levels. With my enforced stay in the ‘Septic Isle’ due to Covid and miserable weather I don’t think I’ve looked as pale as I did for years. Now we appear to be in for a run of good weather so my normal colour’s returning. Whilst I’ve been doing the heavy lifting on the garden terraces Dee’s been busy with sandpaper, filler and paintbrushes to restore the front door. Sitting high up on the valley side and facing South this row of cottages takes a battering from the weather, so keeping them up to scratch is a constant job.

That said, we’re having a day out tomorrow as we’re heading to somewhere I’ve never visited before. At Dawn’s suggestion we’re off to Flamborough Head near Bridlington, which sounds ideal, a rugged stetch of coastline with a lot of history, walking trails and wildlife. No doubt I’ll be blogging about it at some point but there’s going to be a a few more rolling blogs in the pipeline as from next Monday I’ll be spending several days based in Ipswich and travelling the East Anglian rail network for work. We’re having an early start in the morning so I’m cutting this blog short and leaving you with the picture of the day which I took this afternoon from our garden terrace looking over the cottages down towards Sowerby Bridge in the valley below. See what I mean about the sunshine?

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

28th May picture of the day…

28 Friday May 2021

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

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Well, that’s it – We’re now both now ‘double-dosed’ – having received the second of my Covid jabs yesterday and Dawn today. Compared to the first dose this one hasn’t been too bad. I don’t feel any major side effects – apart from the fact my 5G reception’s amazing and I’ve developed a curious interest in ‘news’ programmes on Russia Today!

The same as last time I received my jab at Boots the chemist in Huddersfield, where part of the 1st floor’s been converted for the purpose. It was a slick operation but not as quick as last time because they had more people wanting the jab, which can only be a good thing. That said, most of the folks I overheard talking were like me and in for their second dose. I can only hope that the succesful rollout of the inoculation programme will allow us to return to normal, even if normal won’t be what it was. The big question now is how the rest of the world fares as I suspect it won’t be until next year that we’re finally out of the woods.

Dawn’s reaction to her second jab seems much like mine – feeling ‘Meh’, and with a few neck cramps, but that’s it. Infinately preferable to the alternative anyways! Neither of us had anything planned for today as we didn’t know how we’d react so we’ve had a quiet (if productive) day. Whilst I’ve spent the day scanning the last slides from my 1991-92 world trip Dawn’s been busy baking. The smells drifting up from the kitchen as a Victoria sponge cake’s cooking have been wonderful!

The pair of us are having a quiet night in so all that remains is for me to choose the picture of the day. I’ve a large backlog of slides scanned that need editing, so I thought I’d use the very last one I have from my trip before I flew back from Kuala Lumpur to London with Aeroflot. Reading through my old diaries there’s sooo many stories that I could relate – but they’ll be saved for when I have more time to spend writing.

My last day was ‘interesting’ as I only had 6 Malaysian Ringgitt left. I’d maxxed out my credit card on buying my flight back to the UK and that was the only cash I had left. I had enough to buy a bunch of Rambutans (a fruit similar to a Lychee) and the fare for the bus to the airport. Oh, and my camera was playing up too. The mirror kept locking up so I never knew if it would work or not. But, I managed to get this final shot on the 8th October 1992. I was people watching outside the Central market and spotted this blind musician busking along with his daughter/grand-daughter. I may have been on my uppers but nothing like this. Never forget, there’s always someone worse off than you…

Having spent the past few months looking back 30 years I’ve often wondered what happened to the people in my pictures? From the other travellers I met and spent time with to random street scenes like this. This young girl would probably be a middle-gaed mother by now, probably with Grandchildren of her own. I wonder what the stories of their lives were after I froze them as moments in time three decades ago? They’ll live forever like this in pictures, but what happened afterwards?

Hopefully I’ll have the rest of the old scans edied and added to this gallery in the next week or so. After that I move on to albums from the next phase of my life. Having returned from travelling in 1992 my life took a very different turn – and travelling became an even bigger part of it…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

26th May picture of the day…

26 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by in Flora and Fauna, Indonesia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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I’m not going to be writing a magnum opus tonight, the pair of us have had a lovely day with Dee being on holiday and the country coming out of its Covid shell so a short blog will have to suffice. The pair of us have really enjoyed having a lazy aftermath to Dawn’s birthday. The weather was crap so what was the point of getting up early and travelling to the coast as we’d originally planned? Instead, we took it easy and relished in the fact we had nowhere to be. Instead we lazed at home, Dawn did her stuff whilst I followed the political car-crash and score-settling that was Dominic Cummings giving evidence on the Government’s response to Covid. Or rather, the Government’s lack of a response. It was a an awful spectacle as it showed just how far the UK has sunk when it comes to politics and the people and parties many are willing to entrust with their vote. Here we had the spectacle of a liar accusing other liars of lying! Who to believe, eh?

By late afternoon we did decide to venture out and made it as far as the Bolster Moor farm shop to pick up food supplies for the next few weeks and indulge in a guilty pleasure – one of their award winning pork pies. Well, when in Yorkshire!

On the way home we stopped off at an old favorite that’s recently re-opened – the Moorcock Inn on Norland Moor. Because we’re allowed indoors once more the awful weather was no deterrent. Catching up with Aimee and the folks who work there really made us feel like we’re coming out of Covid – even if the road may be rocky.

Now, back home we’ve been busy again. Dee’s been occupied in the kitchen (with some help from me) prepping a batch of home-made lasagna whilst I’ve been editing a few more old slides – which supply the picture of the day.

Following in David Attenborough’s footsteps I visited Komodo Island (famed for its ‘Dragons) on the 2nd September 1992. In those days the park rangers used to take small tour groups off into the hinterland to see dragons which were waiting to be fed. a dozen of us would be accompanied by a couple of PHPA wardens and a goat but for the goat it would be a one-way trip. Here’s how feeding time looked…

Talk about nature ‘raw in took and claw’…

I went back in 1998. By then the wardens has stopped feeding the Dragons as it has made them lazy, so you’d never get to see scenes like this again.

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

Rolling (ish) blog: Birthday girl…

25 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by in Food and drink, Halifax, Musings, Rolling blogs, West Yorkshire

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I’ll be updating this blog bit by bit throughout the day but it’s not a conventional rolling blog for the simple reason that’s it’s my wife’s birthday and I’d be in deep do-do if I was spending most of the day bashing away at a keyboard or staring at my smartphone!

The day’s started well if slowly. I brought the birthday girl tea and a bunch of flowers in bed then it was time to open all her cards and some prezzies before getting ready to go out for brunch. The weather’s cloudy and gloomy but we’re still going to walk into Halifax where we’ll meet Dee’s parents at the Piece Hall as part of the celebrations. It’s wonderful to be able to do this again although we were surprised to hear the news that the Government’s changed its advice about meeting up in nearby Kirklees without telling anyone.

I only found out this norning by reading about it on Twitter! I shouldn’t really surprised. This bunch have become a watchword for incompetence so this is par for the course. Dawn’s parents live in Kirklees and both have had their double Covid jabs and Dawn and I will have ours later this week, so the government ‘advice’ can ‘do one’ for once. We’ll take all sensible precautions – which is more than some Government Ministers and Advisors ever have!

11:10.

Time for brunch at the unique and rather superb Piece Hall. It being Tuesday not all the bars and cafes were open but there was enough to keep visitors fed and watered.

14:25.

Brunch turned into coffee and cake at a lovely little cafe tucked away near one of the top corners of the hall where the four of us whiled away a pleasant hour chatting and watching the Piece Hall slowly return to life. The Deli is run by the Piece Hall Trust and returns profits to the trust to keep the building running. The cafe’s only small (even smaller now tables have been stripped out to maintain social distancing) but the coffee’s very good and the staff are excellent – so friendly, helpful and cheerful. Plus, it was great to see people (cautiously) enjoying the freedoms they’ve regained after so long.

Coffee over we parted company until later and the pair of us walked home, strolling along some of the towns back streets, discovering some of Halifax’s hidden gems. There’s an amazing variety of buildings here, from huge mansions to back to backs, all linked by a maze of backstreets and footpaths. It’s always an adventure as we suddenly decide to veer off down a street we’ve never explored before. Admittedly, we had to keep one eye on the skies as rain was on the horizon which cut short our wanderings but we managed to make it home before the showers arrived.

Back at home we decided there was nothing for it but to put the heating on and break out the Scrabble board for a couple of hours before we needed to get ready for heading to the restaurant to celebrate Dee’s birthday in style…

16:05.

Our Scrabble match is neck and neck on points so we’ve set it aside whilst we get ready to head out to the restaurant. The weather’s finally brightened up so we’re hoping for a pleasant trip over to the 315 restaurant at Lepton, near Huddersfield.

19:50.

Yum, my starter – roasted scallops, Parma ham, pea puree, cauliflower and garlic dressing..

22:37.

Back home after a super evening with the four of us in the 315. The food was excellent and the staff were lovely. I’ll flesh this out more in the morning but for now here’s a couple more pictures of the main courses. I had the Venison;

Dawn chose the duck;

Both were cooked just right, presented well and were delicious!

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

23rd May picture of the day…

23 Sunday May 2021

Posted by in Food, Musings, Picture of the day, Southport, Travel

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Apologies for the absence from blogging but I’ve been taking some time off now the UK is slowly opening up. I’ve been getting out and about more which has led to a hectic social whirl and a backlog of pictures and admin’ but it’s a lovely position to be in after so long. The pair of us have been busy as Dawn’s got two weeks holiday which started on Friday so we’ve been clearing the decks for that. Plus – I’ve spent two evenings in…pubs! Yep, remember those things? The valley’s been busy with different friends passing through – not all of which I managed to catch up with, but on Thursday I had the chance to meet a chap called Martin Ward. Martin and I cycled ‘Ride India’ together in 2018 and her was here in the valley with his family enjoying a break on a canal narrowboat, so it would have been rude not to. Plus, on Friday a group of us from the ‘Big 6’ pub (which is undergoing a change of management so hasn’t re-opened) who’ve been doing a weekly quiz via Zoom finally had the chance to meet up in the flesh again using a surrogate pub – the ‘Shepherds Rest’ in SA few other refugees from ‘the 6’ drifted in so it turned into a really nice night.

On Saturday Dawn and I drove over to my old home town of Southport to meet up with some of my family. First up was my niece, Charlotte whom we spent a very pleasant couple of hours with outside a cafe in Birkdale. The village has gone rather upmarket over the past 20 years as it’s a conservation area. Many of the cafes and shops near the station have old Victorian iron and glass canopies outside, so it’s an ideal place to sit and pass the time – even if it was a bit windy. Afterwards, Dawn and I met up with my sister Anne and her daughter Brier for a celebratory early birthday meal – something we’ve not been able to do since the first lockdown. I’d booked a table at Bistro Bar Med in the centre of town. one of us had visited before but we all really enjoyed the food, which is a mixture of Spanish Tapas and Turkish mezes.

It was wonderful be able to visit a restaurant again and Bar Med was ideal. The Owner and his staff were great hosts and the food was delicious! The place isn’t huge, which added to the atmosphere as it was more intimate and personal. I really liked the way the food was served – as you can see here. It saved a lot of space on the table and the wheel arrangement meant it was easy to share dishes. We’d certainly visit again as I love this communal way of eating, the quality of the food and the atmosphere. So, today’s picture is of something I’ve not posted for a very very long time – food!

We’re big fish eaters so our selection of five Tapas dishes was Green-lipped mussels, king prawns and Sardines, accompanied by meatballs and Patatas Bravas. The bread rolls meant none of the delicious sauces went to waste!

Eating ‘early doors’ allowed us to drive back to West Yorkshire without getting back too late, leading to an easy night. Today we’ve had a quiet day. The weather’s been pretty crappy again as it’s cold, wet and windy – distinctly unseasonal so we’ve not really done much apart from getting out for a short walk. That said, we’ve got plenty of plans, especially after a surprise. I’ve got my second Covid jab booked for Thursday but Dawn (being younger than me) hadn’t heard about hers – until this morning. Now Dee will get her second the day after me on Friday, so we’re both covered for the future, this is timely as we’re currently looking at our first foreign adventure for the future which will be somewhere I’ve been many times but Dawn’s never visited. Bali. Let’s just hope this happens as we’d be out there for a special occasion…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

19th May picture of the day…

19 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by in Indonesia, Musings, Picture of the day

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There’s been no travelling for me today, unless you call going out for a walk travelling. Instead I’ve been busy at home editing the past two days worth of pictures and getting them on my website which took up nearly all of the morning. Once that was done I had time to email a couple of clients who’ve expressed an interest in them. To be honest, I was quite happy to be stuck at home. The gorgeous sunny weather I experienced yesterday was clearly a flash in the pan judging by the forecast. Today we’ve still had some sunshine but it’s also been accompanied by torrential showers and even hail – in May! Now the temperatures dropping and it looks like we could be in for a cold night. Sadly, the weather’s predicted to be pretty crappy tomorrow too, so I may just be spending another day in the office but as I’ve plenty to keep myself occupied with, I’m not too bothered. After all, sat on my desk there’s another 60 old slides already mounted and awaiting scanning, just waiting for a rainy day! There’s also some blogging I’d like to catch up with as I’ve still not written an update on progress building HS2 (there’s lots) – so let’s see what happens.

As the scanning progresses I’m building up a massive archive of material for ‘picture of the day’. I reckon I’d have to live to be 100 just to show them all! Here’s today’s picture which was taken on the 29th June 1992 at Lake Maninjau, West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Here a local bus is slowly making its way up from the lake in the crater (yes, this was once a massive volcano) climbing up a road with 44 hairpin bends to allow it to gain sufficient height to breast the lip of the crater. It’s not a journey for the faint-hearted. As you can see, it’s a very fertile area. You walk past some superb rice terraces or little homesteads with their own fishing ponds and vegetable gardens. Not being daft, I’d taken one of these buses half way up in order to walk down getting pictures. Even so, it was quite a trek but well worth it for the views although by the time you get to the bottom you’re ready for a cold beer! You can find more pictures from the series in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

Soon after this I finally moved on from Sumatra to Java and continued my island-hopping journey all the way to Timor, so expect plenty more pictures from the amazing country of Indonesia…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

16th May picture of the day…

16 Sunday May 2021

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

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There’s no long blog from me today. It’s Sunday and I’ve been busy having quality time with Dawn. The ‘orrible weather we’ve been having these past few days finally broke so the pair of us decided to ditch the plans we’d had for working at home and went out for a long walk along the Rochdale Canal towards Luddenden instead. We had a lovely stroll watching life returning to the trees as well as the canal. There’s an explosion of greenery right now as the woodland wakes up for summer. That said – it’s not all green – the woods along the canal and by our home are carpeted in bluebells! The wildlife is making the most of it too with ducklings busy making frantic zig-zagging convoys on the canal, accompanied by their (sometimes indifferent) parents. Boaters have also returned. We passed several narrowboats making their way to Sowerby Bridge although the town itself was surprisingly quiet as several pubs with outdoor seating remained closed – on a Sunday, normally one of the busiest days of the week. Maybe they’re busy getting ready for the relaxation of the rules on Monday? Who knows…

All in all, it was a lovely interlude. Now we’re back at home. Dawn’s busy cooking a curry for tonight and the smells coming from the kitchen are wonderful. I’ve been occupied mounting a load more slides to be scanned later in the week and getting ready for another foray to the South tomorrow. The new national rail timetable started today but tomorrow is the first weekday. Many trains that were knocked out of the timetable due to Covid have been reinstated as passenger numbers are growing again. Plus, there’s some new services too. East Midlands Railway have started their new electric train service from London – Corby today, so I’m going to sample it tomorrow. This means another early start as I have other things to check out as well. I’m expecting a long and busy day. I’ll be running a rolling blog as I see how services are faring and what day brings.

In the meantime, here’s todays picture. During my travels over the decades I’ve come across many strange sights and incongruous stuff that makes you do a double-take, think ‘what the f**k?’ – or just burst out laughing. Here’s one such sight. My last picture was from the amazing Mentawai islands and their incredible inhabitants who lived a life so removed from modern society and the present day. On our return to the modern world we were travelling downriver in canoes to get to the sea, ready to catch a ship back to Sumatra when I spotted this – a TV aerial atop a palm tree in the jungle! God knows how they were generating the power to run a television back in 1992 – or how they managed to get the thing up there! Mind you, I also wonder what the picture must be like when the tree sways in a high wind!

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

15th May picture of the day…

15 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in Indonesia, Musings, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

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Is this really May because you could have fooled me. The weather’s been bloody awful. On Thursday I was freezing my tits off in London whilst dodging the rain. Since I’ve been back in West Yorkshire we’ve seen nothing but rain, OK, the mercury has risen a smidgeon, but seriously? The pair of us would have loved to have gone for a long walk today but with visibility down to a few hundred metres and the rain being constant you feel severely disinclined to venture out and concentrate on other things instead – which is what we’ve done after enjoying a lazy morning. There’s one bright spot. Last Saturday I spent an abortive night waiting for a Pacer train to be unloaded by crane in Huddersfield. There’d been a possibility it would be re-arranged for tonight but that’s not happening, so I’m not in for another soaking and long walk home as the jobs been postponed until June. Instead I’ll be able to have a lovely evening with Dawn and a sensible start tomorrow in order to crack on with some projects at home ready for a new week ahead.

My recent flurry of slide scanning has resulted in over 120 new pictures appearing in my 1991-92 travel gallery. The series has now moved on from Sumatra to Bali which is a little frustrating because it makes me realise what I’m missing – which is about a month’s worth of pictures. Let me explain…

When I returned to London from my trip at the end of 1992 I had 1000s of slides which were unmounted. I’d had many films developed as I’d travelled and posted the pictures back to the UK. Partly because it wasn’t worth the risk of carrying them with me and the possibility of them being stolen but also because of the amount of space they’d have taken in my rucsac. Sadly, some of them got damaged in transit and I’d kept them between sheets of paper in my flat in London which seemed like a great idea at the time – until (inadvertently) I threw the paper away, not realising what it contained. The frustrating thing now – 30 years later – is that I’m starting to remember some of those pictures, and there were some beautiful and unique shots amongst them. But, c’est la vie and all that…

I may have lost some images, but some of the ones I didn’t are still special. The memories they evoke will always stay with me, like the one that I’ve chosen as picture of the day…

I took this shot of a Indian tribal healer ready to go hunting on the island of Siberut in the Mentawai Islands on the 18th June 1992.

How I ended up here and what happened whilst I was is a long, long story that deserves a full blog of its own to do the trip justice. Whilst I’d been in Sumatra I’d heard from some of the more adventurous travellers about the chance to go jungle trekking on Siberut, one of the Mentawai islands off the West coast of Sumatra. I’d also heard about the importance of getting the right guide (one who spoke the local language) as you would end up relying on the hospitality of people like this as it would be their homes you’d be staying in. It really was the most amazing experience but I was lucky. Not only did we have an excellent guide (Joni) and team of helpers, the group I went with jelled very well. We were a mix of Brits, Aussies and Scandinavians from a range of ages but that was no problem. OK, in a longer blog I’ll explain why someone was nicknamed ‘Rambo’ and another the ‘Wingeing Pom’ (not me I hasten to add!). Groups dynamics can make or break experiences like this and they’re often the luck of the draw as you never know who you’ll be trekking with and as a solo traveller that’s really important. I once went camel trekking in India with a small (but mixed) group and had a fantastic experience. When I got back I met a lovely young German girl who’d gone on a similar trip where she found herself alone with five Israeli’s. You can perhaps guess how that went. Anyway, for now I’ll leave you with this image. There’s plenty more in the gallery I mentioned earlier. Please feel free to take a look.

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

11th May picture of the day…

11 Tuesday May 2021

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

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Today’s been another day of mixed fortunes working from home. I can’t really complain as it’s been rather productive. I’ve no commercial writing to do this week so I can concentrate on pictures and rebooting scanning my old slides. A few weeks ago I managed to buy 4 packs of ‘Gepe’ glass slide mounts on eBay. I’ve been using the same 40 old mounts for nearly 15 years now and they’re showing their age. The plastic starts to split after hundreds of times of being remounted, so many of them are ‘cream crackered’ (Cockney rhyming slang for knackered = broken). Now with another 80 in the arsenal I can mount 60-80 slides at a time which speeds up the scanning process. OK, it’s still a tedious thing to have to do but there’s certainly light at the end of the tunnel now as I can see the physical pile of albums dwindle. Hallelujah!

Aside from scanning and answering emails Dawn and I did manage to get out for an afternoon constitutional – and avoid getting soaked. For the past couple of days we’ve experienced thunderstorms and some very moody skies. They’ve been wonderful to watch but you really don’t want to get caught outside when the heavens open. Thankfully, because we live high up on the valley side there’s normally plenty of warning as you can see the rain approaching which can make for some very dramatic sights. One of those sights is today’s picture of the day – just to give you all a break from exotic travel images (oh, and have I got some great ones in store)…

Here’s the view from our bedroom window earlier today as the latest in a line of thunderstorms darkened our door – and the valley…

One of the wonderful things about living here in the Pennines is the skies. They’re constantly changing to provide amazing backdrops to the green hills of the Calder Valley. I’ll never get bored of trying to capture their variety and moods…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

9th May picture of the day…

09 Sunday May 2021

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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After last nights failure to deliver a Pacer I got home around 3am this morning which meant today was initially a slow one whilst I caught up on some sleep. The plan was was to potter around at home anyway, so the indifferent weather forecast didn’t make any difference. It’s not as if I had to go out and get any exercise as I’d walked the 7.5 miles back from Huddersfield so I was quids in on that front!

Instead the days been taken up with a mixture of gardening and household chores to try and catch up with stuff that I’ve been promising to do for ages. The rain held off long enough for me to get several hours in the garden without getting drenched which allowed me to dispose of a lot of the remains of a Russian Vine that had been invading us from a patch of no-man’s land above the house. God, I hate that stuff! We haven’t been able to kill at its source (yet) but we’ve hacked it back so much that it’s not going to bother us again for a while. By the time the rain arrived I’d moved indoors to catch up on some internal DIY and cleaning, so the day’s not been a complete waste of time. Now, in the evening I’m trying to catch up on some work and old slide scanning as I’ve exhausted the backlog of pictures awaiting editing so I need to get some more in the bank. I added over 100 old travel images from my solo trip through Asia in 1992 to this gallery on Saturday. There’s a large selection of stuff from Sumatra to enjoy and one of them is the picture of the day….

I took this shot in the market at Bukittinggi in West Sumatra on the 3rd June 1992. I love Asian markets as they’re fascinating places to explore and to indulge in people watching. There’s always something to new to discover, whether that’s a variety of fruit or veg I’ve never soon before, bizarre kitchen utensils, or ornamental ironwork for homes and gardens. The market here had the lot! In this case what caught my eye was some of the market porters who made their living moving goods round the market for a few rupiah a barrow-load.

Apart from the battered leather jacket and traditional hat, notice the man’s barefoot? If you look through the other shots in this series you’ll see him pushing his barrow through floodwater at the market after a heavy storm. This is no easy gig. In the background are ‘Dokars’ – horse-drawn taxis who’re waiting for trade, hoping to take shoppers and their purchases home. I made a couple of visits to the market whilst I was staying in the town before heading off to lake Maninjau. It remains one of my favourite towns ion the island but then I rather fell in love with West Sumatra. It has some of the most fantastic scenery, the people are a delight and the local food is superb. ‘Padang food’ as it’s known is famous throughout Indonesia, just look for ‘Masakan Padang’….

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