push bike

Somewhere in Belfast

The Memory Chair

->

Fountain Lane

In the early morning sun

Happiness is a thing called Belfast

A couple of photos taken in Belfast today - don't need to say much about the above pic. ...

... but, there's artistic licence and there's artistic licence. Belfast City has been compressed to the size of a postage stamp almost. Well can't really complain about that, it does make a nice image, but, much as I like the poster, I'm afraid I really cannot find anything complimentary to say about the product.

Oh, I thought the DuckTour bus could be found in Dublin!!

I got mentioned on U105 this morning .....

... well, more or less, I was called the 'man with a camera' (c:

And here are the photos to prove it.....

Maurice is doing this for a good cause so go along and support him (preferrably with some hard cash) or visit the justgiving web site and make a donation or just give him a wave of encouragement. Go ahead, make his day.

Maurice J, Lindy McDowell, and Nicky Fullerton

More here:

The next Lewis Hamilton?

Once again Belfast's City Hall was the scene of an early morning photo-shoot but not with scantily clad models this time. Object of the photographer's attention was none other than Portadown's rising racing star - Adam Carroll, who some are saying is destined to become the next Lewis Hamilton. Given Hamilton's recent performances I hope Adam does better than that. Apparently there may be an announcement made shortly about Adam's entry into the F1 arena - I, for one, can't wait to see him competing against Hamilton etc. and wish him the very best of luck.

Manipe F1 reports the following .....

Ulsterman Adam Carroll is in talks with several F1 teams about a possible race seat for 2010, Irish national broadcaster RTÉ is reporting tonight. Carroll's exploits in A1GP, where he is currently battling for the championship with Team Ireland, have not gone unnoticed, having previously conducted many test miles for the Honda F1 Team as part of their young driver programme.

Although no team names were mentioned, RTÉ says that the Portadown man is in discussions about an F1 foray, although he is also eyeing Indycar as a future option. Many drivers on the F1 grid have their contracts up for renewal at the end of the current season, with under-pressure drivers such as Sébastien Bourdais, Nelson Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld and Kazuki Nakajima all at the end of their current deals. Also a possibility for Carroll on the F1 grid are the many new teams expected to debut next year, with as many as three new teams rumoured, offering an extra six seats.

... and, for those of you who are interested, you can see more pictures of the car here: (and a couple of scantily clad models).

Money does grow on trees ...

... well not quite. They are posters advertising a workshop/seminar (I believe) giving students advice on how to squander - sorry - manage their money. (I am open to correction on this)

Hearts of Ice

Television

After our walk by the Lagan on New Year's day we stopped in Bob Stewarts for a hot drink and while there came across this page from the News Letter of 1st September 1937. What is interesting about this is the article entitled 'Higher and Higher Speeds' which talks about the invention and advent of television. What it says is as follows:

Television, which is more on the scientific side of transport and communications, is a development of the last 15 years. Its history, however, goes back for more than 50 years. Four nations -- Britain, America, Austria and France -- were in the running; but it was not until the Scottish investigator, John Logie Baird, succeeded in 1924 in transmitting a tiny, pink, flickering image of a Maltese Cross over a distance of a few yards that much real progress was made. Earlier this year the first television transmitting station was opened in London.

... and we thought television was a fairly modern invention, when in fact it dates back to the 1870's.

According to wikipedia:

The first time images were transmitted electrically were via early mechanical fax machines, including the pantelegraph. The concept of electrically-powered transmission of television images in motion, was first sketched in 1878 as the telephonoscope, shortly after the invention of the telephone. At the time, it was imagined by early science fiction authors, that someday that light could be transmitted over wires, as sounds were.

The idea of using scanning to transmit images was put to actual practical use in 1881 in the pantelegraph, through the use of a pendulum-based scanning mechanism. From this period forward, scanning in one form or another, has been used in nearly every image transmission technology to date, including television. This is the concept of "rasterization", the process of converting a visual image into a stream of electrical pulses.

In 1884 Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a 20-year old university student in Germany, patented the first electromechanical television system which employed a scanning disk, a spinning disk with a series of holes spiraling toward the center, for rasterization. The holes were spaced at equal angular intervals such that in a single rotation the disk would allow light to pass through each hole and onto a light-sensitive selenium sensor which produced the electrical pulses. As an image was focused on the rotating disk, each hole captured a horizontal "slice" of the whole image, in a scanning fashion.

All is strange on New Year's Day

On New Year's day we went for a walk along the Lagan towpath near Drum Bridge and came across these balloons tied to the tree branches. There was no obvious reason as to why they were there - so I can only assume they are the remnants of the teddy bears' picnic.

Further along the path were these CD's suspended in the branches of another tree. Very strange!

... and here is something I didn't think could happen with a digital camera - a double exposure!!

Something strange was definitely going on.

on your bike - take 2 (updated)

..... the previous photo was so poor I just had to get a much better one

... it's christmas time

On a horse called autumn ...

I knew the title to my post was from a poem but I cannot find it on the internet so I dug out a book of poetry entitled 'Love, Love, Love - The new love poetry' first published 1967 by Corgi 552 07789 5, which has a lot of great poems and well worth hunting down - the price then was 25p (or 5 old shillings). I found another copy recently in a second hand book shop which set me back £2 but well worth every penny. The poem is by Brian Patten and I might post it later.

No need, I finally found a copy here: 'On a horse called autumn'

On your bike ...

? ? ?

Two faced

I just took this photo in time - a couple of minutes later the lights in the clock face were automatically switched off and I would not have had the reflection.

Belfast, Dunbar Link

I saw a dead head sticker .....

All That JAzz

Last night we attended 'All That Jazz' at the Waterfront Hall - no, not the film but the live concert with Cleo Laine, Johnny Dankworth, Jacqui Dankworth and Alec Dankworth (as Sly & the Family Stone say - 'it's a family affair). This is the one sad and sorry photo I managed to capture before the battery gave up on my wee digital.


Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth (to give them their full titles) are both octogenarians but have more vitality and energy than the likes of Ms Sinead O'Connor - they, and their family, gave an outstanding performance (sadly it was probably not recorded). It was a delight to sit through a concert of highly professional and entertaining performers. Dame Cleo's voice has lost none of its edge over the years, she may have slowed down a bit but there was no diminution in quality. Her daughter, Jacqui, also has a powerful voice and together they were just incredible - their rendition of 'Woman Talk' was, for me, one of the highlights of the night.

This was another of those concerts which we left feeling that we had not been short-changed. Here was a group of people who not only performed professionally but enjoyed what they were doing, as did the audience (from the 5 week old baby to the 90 year old woman - though one of them did sleep through the whole performance). From the word go Johnny, Cleo et al achieved instant rapport with the audience by chatting to (and with) us about the music and even a little bit of family history. It was a night to remember and hopefully one to be repeated - we all hope with Johnny that it will not be another 7 years before they are invited back.