Staithes

So here we go with another installment of the journey down the North Yorkshire coast, after the surreal Skinningrove we headed to Staithes and nearly missed it! Riding along in the car we passed through the edge of the village, and to be fair when we saw the sign and a few houses we thought 'Is this it?' and carried on driving. Something didn't sit right with me and I said to Gary 'We've missed something, it looked nice on the Coast programme when I saw it'. So we parked up and used Gary's ipad to see if we'd missed something roadwise, it appeared we had. Heading back we drove down a lane towards where we suspected the sea was and stumbled across a car park. It appeared we'd just passed through the modern top road of Staithes and fringe bits of the more contempory village. After parking up we followed the signs and a steep road down to the old village proper and were pleasantly surprised with what we found. I knew from the brief bit I'd seen on tv that artists came here to paint in Victorian times but seeing it close up and real for myself was amazing.

Staites is nestled in the cliff side and has a natural harbour and it also appears the legendary captain Cook spent some time here too. The streets down to and around Staithes are quite steep and certainly test your fitness but it's rewarding all the same. To sum up, Staithes is a lovely little fishing village with some interesting houses and great views, there's also a couple of pubs! Enjoy the photos!

Steep descent in Staithes

Lobster cages

harbour

Captain Cooks cottage, albeit rebuilt slightly.

Skinningrove Revelations (not for the faint hearted)

Yesterday, I blogged about Skinningrove, you probably read I thought it was an odd little place but it gets worse! Today I decided to see if there was a better photo of the dolls head hammer house of horror and stumbled across these two YouTube videos. Little did I know that Gary and I had stumbled into one of England most unsavoury villages. No disrespect to the people there, as I didn't stay long to meet any of them, but on seeing these videos I certainly wouldn't cross them either. Watch them at your own risk!

Video one can be found here

Video two can be found here

Saltburn and Skinningrove

On the 24th of June, Gary and I headed to the north Yorkshire coast and our first port of call so to speak was Saltburn-by-the-sea on the Cleveland coastline. Saltburn is very victorian in appearance and the first thing that hits you on getting out of the car is the pungent yet pleasant smell of sea salt, invigorating to say the least. It's not your archetypal seaside town, firstly it's very quaint and thankfully bereft of amusement arcades and neon lights. The streets of Saltburn, near the seafront are all named after types of stone such as ruby, garnet, emerald, coral, diamond, pearl and amber.

Linking the seafront to the pier and beach is the Saltburn Tramway which costs 70p to ride, handy if you don't fancy walking down to the beach and probably saving you a good few minutes. I liked Saltburn and always wanted to go there after seeing it on the BBC2 program 'Coast'. We didn't really get much time to explore as many places were on the agenda for the day but what I saw I liked, the air was fantastic and the coastal views of nearby headland were amazing.

Zetland Apartments, formerly a famous hotel.

Headland

Saltburn Pier

Tramway

Tramway carriage view

Gary in the carriage

me on the pier.

Skinningrove

After we left Saltburn a few miles down the coast we saw Skinningrove nestled in a valley leading down to the sea. Deciding to investigate further we parked up on the main street and headed towards the rocky beach. Skinningrove is a bit like the village time forgot, there's not much there but it seems quiet, if a little surreal in some respects. To add to this feeling of surrealism was a garden with poles or spikes, each adorned with a dolls head or animal, it looked macarbre to say the least but certainly made me smile, let's just say it had that hammer horror feel about it! The beach is rocky and there's a good view of some headland nearby. We only stayed about five or so minutes for a quick look around, feeling uneasy we headed on.

Memorial boat 'Repus'

Headland view

Hammer house of horror garden!

Camden Beloved Camden !

Continuing on from the blog below, here is some photos and videos of Camden, probably my favourite shopping place in the world. Why? Well it's simple really, Camden seems to have all the things I like clothes wise and also has great pubs and an incredible vibe to the place. I really want to spend more time there but I know my pockets would be very empty after.

Since my last visit Cyberdog (A goth/futuristic clothes shop) has had a refurb and looks amazing. Whilst it may be expensive for some items it's fair to say many of them are individual and not often seen on the high street, they are also great quality. I love the new look of Cyberdog and it even has an adult fetish section now ;-)

The Stables market seems to have recovered well from the fire a couple of years back and Camden seems as busy as ever. I think my next visit has to be over a couple of days so I can fully take all of Camden's shops and the surrounding area in, and sample the nightlife.

Click on the vids below for them to begin.

The Cyberdog entrance

Inside Cyberdog (before they got pissed at me filming)

Inside Cyberdog, a sneaky photo done on the phone camera.

Stables market

Scooter seating!

Camden.

The Big City Again!

Once again some photos on the blog from London taken on the 16th June. The weather was perfect and myself and Gary managed to fit quite a lot into the day. We started on Oxford Street, had lunch in Soho, then down onto Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, The London Eye and finally up to Camden (which is going to get a seperate blog). Enjoy the photos!

A Little Lost With It All

I don't often do personal blogs these days as this blog is often about what I am doing or interested in, places visited and plenty of photos.

Right now though I feel the need to disclose, if only to make myself feel a little better.

Events, feelings and a general weariness of some things seem to have crept up on me of late. I seem to have lost direction and motivation, and oddly for me a little confidence too. I just feel like I'd be more suited to being anonymous in a city or miles from anywhere on some remote Scottish island. I'm just not doing 'people' too well at the moment, which is ironic as I'm very much a people person. It seems to be a year of conflicts in some respects. Usually I can find trouble easy enough should I want, such is my impish nature at times but this year chaos and entropy seem to be finding me at every turn and it's really not suiting me.

As for friends. Well, I have some good ones though on closer enquiry my friends seem to be split into groups of sorts, I'll try and explain. Firstly there's my close friends, of which I consider two people to be close, only the reality is perhaps they aren't as close anymore. One lives the other side of the world, I rarely see him and it often feels like I am playing catch up when we meet. His world is very different to mine, he's also very much breezed through life without any problems, not that there's anything wrong with that! He's good to me when we meet up, and looks after me in the sense I am never out of pocket. Sadly though he seems very gadget obsessed at the moment, I'm sure he's half robot these days! I just feel we don't talk like we used to talk, nowadays there's always an ipod, or during this visit, the new 'ipad'. Seemingly these days he finds it hard to function without the latest techno stuff present and lit up.

Then there's my other close friend, I perhaps see him once a month, he's a good bloke but very settled in his marriage and not really one for high jinks or adventure these days. I'm not bitter at this, not at all, I just yearn sometimes for the fun we once had.

Locally I have some good friends, there's been some really good nights out recently, I'm fortunate to be in with such a good bunch of people. I'm close to perhaps two or three of them perhaps and feel I could pretty much call on any of them if I needed help etc.

The friends I left behind? Well it has been three years now since I moved here and left my old town behind. I do miss my friends a lot, but there's good contact with them still. I really should drive over there more but the truth of the matter is that though I miss my friends - I do not miss my old town! So I often procrastinate a fair bit and make excuses but I realise only I can remedy that.

Usually I can sort my own stuff out, I'm ever the analyst and very pragmatic. Sometimes though things just creep up on you unawares and you can't really fathom them. I just seem lost at the moment, at some kind of crossroads unable to decide what path to take. I've definitely reached an impasse or maybe I am just in a transitional period?

Then there's society, you'd think that looking back we were much more judgemental back then and that nowadays we are more open and accepting. I'm not so sure with today's society, especially Britain as a nation. Abroad acceptance and respect for diversity and individuality seem more prevalent. In Britain it seems looking different is frowned upon, which is probably when I go to such places such as Camden or big cities I feel I blend in more. You do notice it abroad though, and being quite travelled you notice other cultures and how they go about treating other people and despite our so called multi-cultural society here we are often eager to mock difference be it in how people dress or how they look physically. Would I want to live in a world of clones or media portrayed perfect people? Hell no! I'd want to be me every time, and for other people not to be afraid to express themselves either. The current sub culture we have here in Britain at present with people adorned in shell suits, tracksuits and baseball caps just illustrates how influenced by the media we are as a whole and scared to be creative and individual. It's group mentality out there and if you are different or challenge their group preconceptions then ridicule follows, or for some unfortunates, even worse.

Well a bit of a rant there, and hopefully I'll feel better for getting things off my chest. I'm resilient and I'll get over this low patch. I need to sit down and think what path I need to take in life in general, and one thing is for sure, I'll still keep being me.

A Rare Photo

Here's a rare photo of me, taken in Camden, London on 16th June by my friend Gary. I quite like this photo which is odd as I don't usually like photos of myself. It was a lovely day and I love how Gary has made the background slightly blurred.

Spam !

请不要把这里的垃圾邮件

Which means.... please don't spam here!

Fares Please !

It's not often I see an old fashioned red London bus outside where I live so of course, I have to take a couple of photos!

Dennis

Actors come and go these days and only the few become legends, to me Dennis Hopper was one of those few who reach legend status. Dennis Hopper died yesterday after a battle with prostate cancer, aged 74. In the movie True Romance he features along side Christoper Walken in my most favourite film scene ever, I think I may have posted it in a blog before but I'm also going to post it again in tribute. He was a larger than life character who has done some classic films and he's done some turkey's too. He wasn't just an actor, he was a painter, a sculptor and lover of photography. Right now, I'm going to sit back and indulge in my favourite movie scene, Dennis you'll be missed!

Weddings

Weddings eh? They come, they go, a short window of revelry and sign of commitment and love. Have I ever come close to being married? The simple answer is no, not really. Would I ever get married? Well maybe but it would be a low key affair, a few close friends and probably a secular humanist partnership ceremony at that, no church for me thanks.

During my life I've been to weddings aplenty, even my own parents, though I hadn't yet popped out to introduce myself to the wide world. I know people that got married early and are now divorced. Someone I know recently got married, a whirlwind affair seemingly that left me wondering. I have to confess to being cynical when it comes to marriage, I saw my parents marriage crumble over a few years and it wasn't pretty. My dad got married again and divorced again and vows never to marry again.

I consider my friends Dave and Gary as probably my two closest friends, Dave has been married twice, both whirlwind romances, I didn't go to either wedding because of my personal view (something that's never sat right between us since). Gary married in Hong Kong, I muse to if it has tamed him or just made him more determined to party hard when away from the Mrs, the lines are fudged really.

Weddings to me are self indulgent affairs, a show of vanity, a stroking of ego's - a day in the limelight and that is pretty much it. I've never been able to get excited about weddings on any level really, which is why I tend to avoid them if possible.

That said I could never be so sure as to rule it out forever but I think the chance of me living with someone is more likely, that said I can be a solitary creature, though for the right person I'm sure I'd work at it. A friend put weddings on the same par with funerals yesterday, and reflecting back I can't remember a wedding I actually enjoyed. Oh come to think of it I did like the wedding of Ming the Merciless and Dale Arden in the movie 'Flash' : -

"Do you Ming the Merciless, ruler of the universe take this Earthling Dale Arden to be your Empress of the hour? "

"Of the hour, yes"

"Do you promise to use her, and not to blast her into space until you grow weary of her?"

"I do"

Class !!!

And now some readers will think I am a miserable git, oh well. I should add, anyone happily married, getting married etc should treat this just as a personal opinion, not a sweeping statement!

A Bit Of Self Realisation

As week's go, this one hasn't been easy. On reflection though, lessons have been learned, perhaps ones that needed to be learned too. My first accident in the car, my beloved 'Nell' has woke me up to the fact I have been to complacent, too cavalier in my driving of late. The fact is I have improved as a driver, and in instances when I have my old man in the car beside me I want to demonstrate that but ... there is a point where confidence crosses into folly.

Fortunately the accident was no big deal, very minor cosmetic damage to both cars. I'm not sure who was at real fault but it brought it home to me just because I am in familiar territory it doesn't mean I should let my guard down. What surprised me was how calm I was, how I dealt with it. I was more concerned initially about the other guy where I guess back in the day I would have been ready to wage war for far, far less. I'm a lot more measured these days, I don't anger easy like I did in my confused youth.

However after I decided to take a more business like approach to insurance and things but not after first being reasonable, as I write this blog I hope I am not tempting fate by saying nothing seems to have happened, both myself and the other party involved seem to have resigned ourselves to the fact if was no big deal and have rectified our own damages.

The following morning my fridge died, almost as if to throw karma in my face for later taking a defensive stance with my insurance just in case I was about to be shafted for such a petty incident. Then yesterday I thought my washer had died on me as well, fortunately it hasn't and it seemed to be fine this morning, yesterday probably being down to me overloading the washing machine drum on one side with a pillow.

The selfish fact this week was I was worried about money, it was the factor in all my thoughts, the notion that if the other guy decides to try and take me to the cleaners with my insurance I'd lose my no claims bonus for what was basically a scuffed bumper for him. As I'd bought a new sofa that day that added to my financial concern not to mention the need for a new fridge. On top of all that June looks set to be a busy month, weddings, Gary is back from Hong Kong and a plethora of other social engagements and activities.

Last night I went to play the board game 'Risk' with some friends as we usually do of a Thursday evening. I wasn't going to go, so despondent did I feel when I thought the washer had given up on me that I suspect I'd be bad company, however I really did need to escape the confines of my flat. I'm glad I do go, the company was as always excellent and Billy's theatrics , voices and prose made me smile again.

So on to the real message of this blog and why I felt compelled to type it. Tonight I watched 'How to live a simple life' (Friday BBC2 9pm) with Peter Owen Jones. I think he did something called around the world in 80 faiths some time ago, basically Peter is a parish vicar on the south coast. Firstly I have to say I am a secular humanist and not a man of faith but Peter isn't a man that constantly rams home the holy message, far from it, he's quite the humanist in his ideals. The program was basically about Peter walking 200 odd miles from Sussex to Devon living in the footsteps of St Francis, carrying no money and begging for food and shelter to complete strangers. It was a compelling piece of television and I felt humbled as I watched Peter on his arduous journey, all he had to rely on was the generosity and selflessness of others.

It hit home to me about how during this week how much I have thought and worried about money and how important it is to have friends and loved ones that give their help without question. I'm not sure I would want to embark on an adventure such as Peters but I wish I could have an adventure or road trip of sorts to give me that fire back. I seem to be lacking zest and enthusiasm for life of late. I've learned a bit about myself this week, some good, some bad and some being the odd bit of self revelation.