Did Victorians play Bingo ?.

This is what I can't understand about this town.I'm supposed to be in the middle of a conservation area.All around me are plastic windows,doors,advertising signs and placards and satellite dishes .I can't as much alter anything without permission,I can't have a car or van deliver to the shop let alone park outside and to obtain any planning consent etc is like getting blood out of a stone.

Yet the bingo hall can stick up contraptions like this and the big wigs in the council give them their own private pick up and put down area and a coach park right outside.

How can that sign be part of a conservation area,did the Victorians play bingo ?

Should I join the Masons?.

The erection just gets bigger.

The construction at SLP just gets bigger and bigger.The latest bit to be added is the box (presumably accomodation) on the top to the right.

Apparently this is some sort of transformer,all part of the 'green' renewable energy movement.

Wheres King Canute when you need him

I took the dogs for their constitutional but there wasn't much beach to explore with the tide nearly up to the wall.At last that means few people about,so its nice and quiet only the seagulls to make a noise.
Every so often our local paper carries letters from people complaining about the noise sea gulls make and asking that they be killed (they call it culling,it sounds better).They really need to get a grip,seagulls live by the sea side,the clue is in their names ,SEAgulls.

Tony Blair president of Europe.

I've been busy lately but this caught me eye..... Petition to Stop Blair becoming president of europe.
I don't suppose anyone would oppose this lying,conniving,greedy,grabbing,hypocrytical,warmongering cheat a multi million pound unelected job with his horrendous wife hanging on his coat tails as the gravy train picks up speed.
But,if the do they could sign this petition.

You can't have too much bling

More bling on the poor old taxi.Chrome bumpers front and back.More bling, just sex on wheels.

More hold ups than Dick Turpin.

An ambulance,blue lights flashing helplessly waits as another boat heads out to sea.Lets hope the patient waiting for the ambulance didn't mind waiting while Capn Pugwash meanders on his way.
A couple of hours later an another sailing boat splutters and farts its way out to sea,the bridge duly rises and half of Lowestoft splutters and farts its way to a halt.

.

Lowestoft more Jam than Hartleys.

For some time I've been thinking of going out and selling tea and snacks to the drivers stuck in Lowestofts traffic jams.
Since the folly of the sunrise scheme we now get a better class of jam the trustrated delivery drivers and the motorists who've been driving round and round for hours trying to find a place to park or escape the place all add to its cosmopolitan flavour.






Things to do in a Lowestoft traffic jam.
1.Start writing a novel or a letter to Aunt Maude.
2.Learn to play chess or speak another language.
3.Pull faces in the rear view mirror at the driver in the car behind you.
4.Read the Bible or War and Peace.
5.Send the passenger off shopping,you'll not have moved far when they come back.
6.Count how many empty shops you can see.
7.Start on this years Christmas present list.
8.Try and work out what song the guy in front is singing along to.
9.Stare at him untill he turns round and feels silly.
10.Try not to think about how long before you can go wee wee.

Pimp my ride.

I bought an old london black cab a while back.Made by LTI these are called Fairway taxis,the engine is a Nissan 2.7 diesel the body pretty much the same as the old Austin FX4.
I've been repairing,restoring and welding the thing ever since bought it.
Aftre all that I needed some light relief and when I saw some chrome hub caps advertised and thought I'd get them.You can't beat a bit of bling.

Sad picture from the caravan site.

I took the dogs to the beach this morning at the old caravan site.Someones pride and joy had burnt out,apparently the result of an electrical fault.Very sad.
I assume it is (or rather was) a renault motorhome.

Credit crunch,recession,we're doomed I tell you,doomed.

The credit crunch seems to be even hitting the car boot sales,I went to the one at Beccles and both the ones at Yarmouth.A total waste of time,most of the stuff would have been better off in a skip and that which was any good seems to give people a funny idea of its value.A grotty old compressor for £75 is about what I can sell a new one for and I also passed at a welder that smelled as though it had been on fire a time or two.

Here's another picture of the cars at the country fair.

Cars and more cars.

Had a day out at Raveningham Country fair.I've never been to one before,knights jousting,falcons,steam engines,model planes (great flying display) dog races and ferrets (thankfully both kept seperate),dance troups and lots of other things including the most expensive drinks cans I've ever resisted the temptation to buy.Nice display of cars in the centre of the field.Well worth the trip,just take your own drinks.

Lowestoft,ships that passed in the night.

One day you look out the window and see a virtually empty dock and the next it can be full.Sometimes the boats arrive during the nigh,normally you don't hear them above the shouts of the drunks piling out of the pubs and night clubs so it's sometimes a suprise to see the dock busy first thing in the morning.A lot of these boats have 'Survey' written on the side.
I wonder what they do.

Shock,horror stuck in gate.

There was a serious incident in lowestoft yesterday.
The gate trapped him by his ears after he poked his head through.We could have rescued him much earlier but it took a while to find the camera and we really wanted to take this picture.We managed to get him free eventually by pulling his legs really hard,thankfully the gate wasn't damaged.
Good job the dog didn't get stuck as well.

Ebay,all over bar the shouting?

For some years I've sold tools and other stuff on Ebay.Over the past eighteen months or so probably as a result of fee increases,compulsory paypal and constant rule changes I've noticed the prices items sell for at auction have steadily fallen.Today I cancelled one auction for a colortune tuning aid as with less than a day to go it had attracted very low bids.I use ebid auctions and erater in the US and whilst sales are still behind ebay the prices are higher.
I wonder has Ebay with its contempt for its customers killed the goose that laid the golden egg?

Parking too long,just the ticket.

My old mate Woefull Dismal Councl are in the news again.Having made it just about impossible for anyone to park in Lowestoft unless they pay the scandalous parking charges and messed up loading and unloading for shops and houses all through the town centre they have asked the police not to ask people to move but to book them.(Shades of hawaii 5 0,remember "book em Danno?".This bunch of incompetant numpties simply can't admit that its them who've messed up the town and simply hand the results of their cock ups on to the old bill who must be heartily sick of sorting out the chaos the numpties 'vision' has created.
meanwhile back in the real world,a couple of pics of some interesting cars spotted at yarmouth.

One sale goes well,another falls through.

I went to the car boot at Burgh Castle (Julies) on sunday to sell some stuff that has stuck a bit in the shop.Not a bad day (apart from some stuff getting knicked) but I ended up buying about as much as I got rid of.It was a really hot day,lots of people milling around some of who even spoke English.

On the way back I let the dogs have a swim in the sea near the old caravan site at Lowestoft.The beach is horrendous with great lumps of concrete and metal spikes that would skewer a dog or pretty much anything else in the water.The sale of the caravan site has fallen through after nearly two years of lies,promises and messing about.To be honest I wouldn't trust WDC to run a car boot sale let alone organise the sale of something like a caravan site.

Yarmouth and the staycation

Went off to yarmouth last night,had a look at the cars near 'Joyland'.Lovely old bullnose morris there .It was blue with a polished brass radiator,two seater convertible but the piccy hasn't come out so you'll have to use your imagination.The Morris 1000 pictured had a matching trailer and the Ford a V8 and a jag back axle.
Even with the attractions open and a decent sort of a day the sea front was pretty quiet although a lot of people were milling about after the firework display.The TV keeps on about people not being able to afford going abroad and having a 'staycation' instead.I wonder,if they are simply not going anywhere at all.

The free lottery.

Almost everyday I get an e-mail,normally from someone whos spelling and grammar is a bit 'iffy' telling me I've won a lottery.As I don't do lotteries I think these people,who normally ask me to send them loads of private details,are telling porkies.
I also get e-mails offering me a job cashing cheques or investing millions of pounds on a commission basis from someone whos parents and all relatives were killed in a train crash or by some tyrannical goverment.There are also loads of goverment or bank officials who need a white face to pass off as the son or relative of someone who deposited millions of pounds with them in an untraceable account and then promptly popped their clogs.
Sadly there are people about who believe some of this twaddle,sadder still there are those who make a living peddaling this rubbish.

My sea fronts better than your sea front

At the end of the day I really enjoy taking a stroll with the dogs.Nice to empty your mind or think some problem through without distractions.Some days I go by the ruins of the old sea wall.As long as you don't do something daft like try to swim in the sea and run the risk of skewering yourself on one of the spikes,the beach here is quite peacefull.
It suprises me how its never the same two days running,as the sea moves huge mounds of shingle from one end to the other and back again constantly reshaping the beach.Massive lumps of concrete are moved and thrown about when there is a storm,the power of the sea is both beautifull and frightening (mainly depending on where you happen to be watching it from at the time).

Mud,mud,glorious mud.

Looking out the bedroom window this morning I see the 'Cherry Sand' hard at work clearing mud from the old trawler basin.The sand and mud removed is deposited inside the vessel which then takes it out to sea.The operation is performed on a regular basis to keep the channels and basins clear and provide a safe depth of water.The skill of the helmsman and the grab operators operating the vessel in tight spaces is remarkable.I often watch to see if anything exciting is dredged up,so far other than the odd tyre or bit of chain,nothing.
The dredging keeps the area deep enough for yachts and sea going vessels,pontoon for smaller boats berths are provided to an area to the left of this picture.