Discoveries

Idle curiosity at lunchtime, plus a few bits of shopping, took me into Boots and I wondered if it was still possible to buy camera 'film.' With all things being digital these days, I was surprised and delighted to discover the answer is yes. Not just plain colour film either but Black & White as well and even better, slide film, still seems to be produced. For a short period during the mid-1990s I experimented with taking slides, which was an experience that I enjoyed and I liked some of the results. I found my old slides during one of my sort outs over recent weeks and I always feel that they have a certain nostalgia and sense of reality that seems to be absent from film or digital prints. There is a lot of nostalgia mixed in as well, as it takes me back to my childhood, when on a wet weekend afternoon my Dad would sometimes treat us to a show of slides, both ones he took many years before, some from my Mum and lots of me and my brother when we were babies and young boys. They are wonderful and I used to love those afternoons sat in the dark, it was so much more fun than leafing through a photo album!

Unfortunately I think I've either lost or since disposed of my old 35mm portable film camera and I doubt that you can actually buy camera's which accept film these days. Its a pity as I feel I would like to do slides again and build up bit more of a collection and certainly more varied than the ones I took in the 90s. And slides are economical too as the cost of processing is included when you buy the film. I seem to remember that the box used to include a small envelope that you sent off your finished film in and then about a week or two later it would come back, with a neatly packaged box of slides. Wonderful!

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I learnt not for the first time today that not all things that are cheap are necessarily that good. I need to get some new earphones for my iPod as the ones supplied are knackered. Well, it is only the left earpiece that is falling apart and while it is usable it isn't particularly comfortable. So, I thought I'd buy myself some new earphones and the cheapest I saw were £3.99 in Woolworths. They are dreadful, the sound sounds distorted and muffled and they are very uncomfortable as they are of an 'in-ear' design. Wish I'd saved myself the four quid and saved up for a decent pair. Thus, I will have to soldier on with the old earphones for now until I can afford to get some decent ones.

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I noticed on Monday that Classic FM have started a CD-series called 'The Full Works' which is exclusively available at HMV. Seems to be a similar idea to Naxos - top quality recordings of classical music on a budget label. Sounds a bit of a contradiction I know but from what I can make out the Classic FM CD's feature quite old or previously released recordings, so that is presumably how they can package them cheaply but I thought they are a great way to explore new works my familiar composers or to even try something new, after all £6 is reasonable for a CD these days.

There was a rather good documentary on BBC 4 the Friday before last about Ralph Vaughan Williams, who died 50 years ago this year. Arguably one of the finest British composers, maybe some would say even better than Elgar, this interesting documentary concentrated on the women in his life, that so inspired his work. It revealed a lot about the man and his passions and it was refreshing to hear that this was a composer whose life wasn't marked so much by tragedy and sadness as by joy and passion to his last days.

A piece of music that I have 'discovered' recently and particularly like, even though it is perhaps one of the saddest and depressing works I've heard, is Henryck Gorecki's Third Symphony, subtitled 'The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.' I know very little about it other than I understand it was written to express the pain and suffering of the Polish nation during World War II and the most popular recording features the soprano Dawn Upshaw. It is a three-movement work for orchestra and soprano and each movement is blindingly beautiful and tragic. It is three laments or songs, each sung in Polish and heart-wrenching nonetheless. I wish there was an English translation with the CD. I recognised the Second Movement, as part of this was used in Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution.

On a happier note, I am also exploring works by Rachmaninov, who wrote some wonderful and romantic pieces for piano and also the Danish-composer Carl Nielson, whose Fourth Symphony I particularly like.

Norwich & Norfolk

I had a wonderful weekend at the end of March staying in Norwich and exploring some parts of Norfolk that I have never been too before. The Friday travelling there was not pleasent at all, it was raining virtually the whole way and it didn't help that it was also windy. Nevertheless the journey there, via London, was relatively painless.


When I arrived at Norwich, I thought that I would walk to the Travelodge where I was staying, confident that according to my map it wasn't far too walk. In truth it was probably only about a 15 minute walk but I made into a half-hour hike through the pouring rain and lashing winds because as always my overconfidence in my sense of direction saw me walking completely the wrong way and making a very circuitous detour to the hotel. I was surprised to find that it had been almost five years since I had last been to Norwich and my knowledge of the city had certainly become rusty over that time!


Friday afternoon once I'd arrived and dried off was spent exploring Norwich, which is a great city with lots to do and I am reminded is one of the top shopping destinations in the UK. It has some fine buildings including the castle, cathedral and the relatively new Forum. I visited the cathedral on Friday, which I hadn't actually intended to do, it was a case that I was in that area and I like looking around these magnificent buildings. After that, it was a leisurely walk back through the city, stopping off for something to eat and then back to the Travelodge for a much needed good night's sleep.

Saturday I went to the North Norfolk Railway (NNR) at Sheringham. It is a preserved railway, running for about 6 miles through some lovely countryside to Holt. It’s the first time I’ve visited the line and it has a wonderful atmosphere and was surprisingly quiet. The line aims to recreate its heyday during the 1950s and was once part of the much larger Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway which was disparagingly called the ‘Muddle and Go Nowhere.’ Unfortunately this particular line, which was part of the route from Melton Constable to Cromer Beach, was closed in 1964 as part of the Beeching Cuts. There are plans to restore the link across the road at Sheringham to the Network Rail station and to run trains through to Cromer once again and more ambitiously to link up with another preserved line, the Mid-Norfolk Railway at Fakenham, although that is at least a decade away.

Sheringham itself is a lovely little town on the North Norfolk coast and not far from Cromer. It has all the typical delights of a seaside town and was surprisingly busy, considering the time of the year. I had a walk along the prom and visited the Lifeboat Station, which is well worth taking a look around. I also found a rather delightful shop that seemed to sell just about everything from tourist themed gifts to toys and models.

After another ride on the NNR, I spent the rest of the afternoon in Cromer, which is just a short hop by train away. This is somewhere that I have long wanted to go, although I am not sure why! I was a little disappointed; I thought that Sheringham was nicer but at least Cromer has a Pier, which I think is an essential ingredient for a great seaside town. On the seafront is the Hotel de Paris, where Stephen Fry once worked as a waiter, although I imagine a good many years ago. Cromer also has a Lifeboat Station, which I visited and learnt about one of the ‘bravest men ever to have lived’, Henry Bloggs, a coxswain of the Cromer lifeboat who gave 53 years service to the RNLI, saving 873 lives during that impressive career. He was decorated many times for conspicuous gallantry and was also awarded the British Empire Medal and the George Cross. I was quite moved by his story and the bravery of the crew who man the lifeboats all around the UK.

After an interesting and enjoyable afternoon in Cromer it was back on the train to Norwich as the sun was setting, retracing the route back across some lovely countryside.

Sunday was a more ambitious day and another early start. I got the X1 coach to Lowestoft, which is about an hour and a half from Norwich. I thought Lowestoft was a miserable place to be honest. Even one of the locals who I got chatting too said that there wasn’t anything to see in Lowestoft. It has a laughable excuse of a pier – actually it is part of the breakwater for the harbour and I couldn’t help feeling that it was a tired looking town, the gloss has definitely faded.

As I am sure everyone is aware Lowestoft is the most easterly town in Britain and thus has the most easterly railway station and of course I couldn't resist a visit. Lowestoft is also the birthplace of perhaps the greatest British composer of the twentieth century, Benjamin Britten. Sadly he suffers the indignity of having a rather tatty shopping centre bearing his name as the only notable reference I could find to his Lowestoft connections. Britten spent most of his life living at Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast with his partner, the tenor Peter Pears. Britten sadly died in 1976, three years after under-going open heart surgery from which he never fully recovered.

After the disappointments of Lowestoft and a sausage sandwich for breakfast, it was back on the coach for the sprint cross-country to Kings Lynn, back in North Norfolk. When I arrived in Kings Lynn the contrast with Lowestoft could not have been much greater. This was a lively place, the sun was out and it was a glorious and warm afternoon. Kings Lynn has lots of historic buildings and a fine position on the River Great Ouse. A ferry boat links Kings Lynn with West Lynn six days a week and I was interested to read that it would take an Act of Parliament to suspend the operation of the service even though it is now largely redundant since improved roads in the area have made access across the river much easier. Kings Lynn was also the birthplace of George Vancouver, who gave his name to Vancouver Island and the city of Vancouver.

Monday was also a cheerful morning and I spent my last few hours in Norwich having a last look around the city and getting some bits and pieces to bring back. If ever in Norwich, the Colmans Mustard Shop is a worthwhile visit. Also I found a very good toy and model shop in the same arcade, where I could have spent many hours and lots of pennies, lol!

Then it was back to London and onwards to Milton Keynes. I did a lot in a few days and there were still a lot of things that I didn’t do or would like to go back and visit again. Next time I'd probably want to visit the other preserved railways in Norfolk and see more of the countryside but there will I am sure be further opportunities to do all that.

Recording the present

This photo was taken about this time last year near where I live in Milton Keynes. As you can see there was a slight covering of snow, although it melted quickly but it looked very pretty while it lasted. I do love the snow and it snowed again about two weeks later, a little bit more but still didn't last very long. It seems so many years now since I can remember having a decent snowfall, in fact I'd probably have to go back to the early to mid 80s when I was at middle school for the last time I can remember it snowing heavily.

I like taking pictures around where I live and I think its important to have a record of the changes that happen and even to record some of the mundane and ordinary stuff. It always surprises me how many people must do the same judging by the number of books there are on Milton Keynes filled with pictures from the development of the city. At the moment I am reading a fantastic book about the conception, design and building of Central Milton Keynes, which is packed with wonderful photos. It seems incongruous to think that where the shopping building stands now was a wheat field 30 years ago! But the fact that someone took pictures proves what it looked like before development came and it is amazing just how much MK has grown and changed over that time. Even in the seven years I have lived here, MK has changed greatly and continues to change. It is one of the things I like about living here; it is constantly evolving and growing, seemingly sometimes without end. I believe I am correct in saying that by 2030, Milton Keynes will be the twelfth biggest urban area in the UK with a population of 350,000 - much higher than originally envisaged.

I do worry that the developments now proposed will spoil the unique character of MK. There are proposals to do away with the grid road system, which is probably as synonymous with the city as the concrete cows, and there is little talk of new infrastructure, just houses and lots of them. There is even suggestions of infilling on some of the estates, packing more houses into the existing space. That would take away something that is very special about Milton Keynes - the sense of space and openness that there is.

It will be interesting to look back from the perspective of thirty years in the future and dig out the old photos of MK as now and see what the changes have meant and recall how life was. That is what is so important about taking photos of now.