getting silly but why not

In Britain! If you want to buy a Council you go to a Council Shop. If you want to buy a Council Shop you go to a Council Shop Shop and if you want to buy a Council Shop Shop you're being silly.

To the Moon….Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

I read in “Apollo Expeditions to the Moon” (edited by Edgar M Cortright, published by NASA, Washington DC, 1975) that the S-1C stage of the Saturn V Rockets that took the first Men to the Moon were constructed at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama. They were transported to Cape Canaverel by barge down the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. Wonder if anyone on the banks of either river saw them and realised they were on their way to the moon in a manner of speaking. Relatively slowly.

Keighley and Saltaire with Pamela

Wednesday with my lovely visitor Pamela we headed off to Keighley, there is a direct bus. I heard from Dr Anzir that there is a Co-op department store there as indeed there is.

We did pause for a glass of J20 in the Livery Rooms, a Tim Martin Alehouse.



Turns out it had previously been a Temperance Hall….



Wikid eh?



They still do a vegan curry so only place for eating out really.



Here is the Town Hall.



Salt’s Mill



The Off Licence. Titus Salt was keen that Saltaire would have all the essential leisure facilities.



Victoria Hall. Great for line dancing. Next time perhaps

The Transmutation of Zion?

Looks like an old chapel to me.. saw it on the way back to Equinox from the Ecology AGM...



Has it been coverted into a Carpet warehouse (here in Yorkshire every other former nonconformist chapel is now a carpet warehouse) or a mosque? Or both?

Textual Harassment (Part Seven and surprised how long has been the break...)

In no particular order of course

This one was anonymous of course

“NASA sent a woman and 2 chimps into space. Radio Messages were as follows:-NASA to chimp 1. Optimize life support systems and recalibrate radiation monitoring equipment. NASA to chimp 2 Check trajectory and compensate if req using fomula (m2-3n)x(5-m3). NASA to woman Hoover capsule, feed chimps, TOUCH FUCK ALL.”

Shocking, hope he never wanders into a nest of feminists like Nick Cage in the dreadful re-make of “The Wicker Man” or the consequences could be dire... LOL

Did reply

“They were female chimps though! :-p take it operating a computer beyond your brainpower these days... B x”

Anyway sent the following to my little Brother

“Just been reading in take a break 19/Mar/09 15 yr old girl turns down creep who did 2 years4kicking man2 death he pours vodka on her sets alite she survives..”

“But is mega scarred4life.. He now back inside minimum 2.6 years there r sum sick fuckers out there! Current sentence open ended but when will he be out? B x”

Some sick fuckers out there!

On to Rochdale!

Sunday morning 26 April 2009. Here is the step to the shelf. Its one small step for personkind and one giant leap for a man etc



Bid Equinox and the lovely Equinox folk merry part and went to Manchester Mount Street Friends’ Meeting House for Meeting for Worship



And took some pictures



Then to Lincoln Square



The statue of Abraham Lincoln commemorates the solidarity shown by the Lancashire Cotton workers with the United States of Amerika in it’s struggle against the slave power. This was during the cotton famine in the Lancashire cotton belt which meant hardship, unemployment hunger and even death. Despite this the cotton workers met in Free Trade Hall and voted to support the United States. Call it an act of Christian Heroism never surpassed in any age or indeed a principled expression of solidarity by the oppressed and downtrodden with the oppressed and downtrodden.

Throughout his term of office the great emancipator of course wore a Yankees baseball cap and suitable Presidential Bling as shown.



Here I am with the Great Emancipator.



And onto Rochdale. Here the Rochdale Pioneers opened their first store laying the foundations of the Great and Glorious Co-operative Movement!



Can I help you?



We honour the Pioneers!



And back to Leeds.

Continued adventures in Manchester and the Cotton Belt

Blogging continued with my trip over the Pennines for Ecology Building Society and Toad Lane en passant...

Where was I? Manchester Town Hall I think,



The Shelf at Equinox Housing Co-op, thankfully I did not fall off though I get the impression there are more precarious platform beds in Manky.



My first glimpse of the Victoria Baths



Males First Class! A splendid firm!



Males Second Class! A splendid firm! Not quite so splendid as males first class, stands to reason doesn’t it. Good to have Class in the baths innit?



Females! A splendid firm! No further comment.



Here we are in the Female Baths awaiting the AGM. I was in Manchester for AGM of Ecology Building Society of which I am a member. Wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s I found out what a building society was. Perhaps most people don’t know or maybe I am just blonde. Anyway the Ecology was the last of the Friendly building societies due to change in the law. So well done the pious founders of the Ecology.

The Victoria Baths was built by the City of Manchester under permissive legislation empowering them to build public baths and making an opportunity for workers and peasants (male and female) to get a bath at a time when not every home had a bath or shower.

I did hear that originally the water went first to the male first class baths, then to male second class and finally to female. Perhaps the long Victorian period (including the Edwardian period) was a particularly dark era when it comes to gender equality in Britain at least. In between the social change brought about by the Industrial Revolution with the end of the family unit working together in the workplace and the slow partial emancipation of women as the nineteenth century progressed etc



The Ecology. A Splendid Firm!



Now the stained glass in the Victoria Baths is just something else.



Here is Morning.



Male Baths, forget what Clarse



Life the universe and everything....



Wrestling! Yaya!



Footie! What fun!



Stairway to Heaven!



Cricket! Splendid!



View from the balcony



Brill!



Some stained glass up in the superintendant’s flat. Seems that super was in charge of all the public baths in the City of Manchester.



Running! Cue Chariots of Fire!



Golf!



Brain bashing! What a sensible idea!



Roll the drums for the Annual Assembly



Grand tour for the visiting Ecologists of the Victoria Baths. Likesay here we are in the chill out room in the background is the angel of purity. In this room the lucky punters would be chilling after Turkish bath or whatever so the stained glass would add to the experience and all that. Possibly even meditative altered states of consciousness (ASCs).

Anyway the Victoria Baths was closed some time ago and there is some splendid firm of volunteers looking after it and even in the hope of opening it up again. In the mean time there has been lots of filming including Life on Mars and Prime Suspect.



Close up of the Angel of Purity



In the Turkish Baths...



Or Russian baths not sure...



After a cracking AGM! Superb!!



The mind boggles....



The Angel of Puritiy



And back to Equinox. Did pass a church that like many an old nonconformist chapel may have been converted into a carpet warehouse or Mosque but in this case possibly both.... another post this one is taking me all day......

Gurrilla Blogging

I need an early nite.... Here's hoping. Alas there is no sound proofing in West North West Leeds Homes but that was perhaps not an issue as much before amplified "music" became so available.

hopefully catch up a bit on blogging now I am back to uploading pics to photobucket. Its still slow though.

But anyway back to "music". I stopped watching top of the pops before the 80's was out. Part of my feeling of isolation is not feeling comfortable with the culture of loud "music" with no words. Yes I am an old folkie.

Each to their own but no surprise to hear of loud "music" and indeed music being used as a form of torture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/19/usa.guantanamo

blogging on and on and on

really don't know what to say. had lots of photoblogging to do, will hopfully happen one day.

in the mean time, a bit more youtube. Classic spoof of the Village People's classic. out with them brown dresses!

Across the Pennines

Wonder if photobucket is always going to be ridiculously slow.......

Yesterday set off across the Pennines. Going by bus and via Rochdale in the hope of calling into Toad Lane. Set off much too late so will hopefully be tomorrow.

It’s Green Up North



Coming into Halifax



And from Halifax bus station a lovely lowryesque upland scene



Here is the top of the pennines.



Here is Lancashire side



And here is a Particular Baptist Chapel!



I arrive in Manky



Pass through Co-op corner looking for a bus to Longsight



A statue of the Immortal (though sadly now dead) Robert Owen



The Town Hall



Hopefully more to follow, can’t say when though........

Roll Out the Barrel! (occasional photoblogging part whatever of whatever)

Damn, is it me or is photobucket slow? Anyway here goes. Perhaps blogging always takes more time than expected even a quickie post, hence it’s decline. But then even in the golden age of blogging, which I seem to have missed alas, 97% of internet users had never dialed up a blog, or so I heard on the radio.

Must be lots of pics of this ample statue, but here is mine. A gift from Leeds twin city.



Here he is from another angle



And here’s the sign.



Rite, better get a bath and bus to Sheepscar.