Postcard Friday #10: Ferry Meadows

Ferry Meadows is the 200ha (500acre) Country Park located at the heart of Nene Park in Peterborough.

Wordless Wednesday #10: Parol

Postcard Friday #9: Guildhall

Guildhall (1669-1671) is located in Cathedral Square, Peterborough city centre.

According to Wikipedia, Peterborough's magnificent 17th century Guildhall was built shortly after the restoration of King Charles II. It is supported by columns to provide an open ground floor for the butter and poultry markets which used to be held there. The market place was later renamed Cathedral Square.

Wordless Wednesday #9: Belen

Postcard Friday #8: Town Hall, Bridge Street

This postcard shows Bridge Street during winter, which is located in Peterborough city centre. In the middle of this old picture is the iconic Peterborough Town Hall, which was built in the early 1930s. This building is still being used by Peterborough City Council as offices and also includes the ceremonial parts like the Mayor's Parlour and the Council Chamber. I have been to the Town Hall a few times, most memorably when our family took oath as British citizens two Decembers ago in the Council Chamber.

Wordless Wednesday #8: Into the box

Postcard Friday #7: The Custom's House

Here's a description of the Custom's House according to The City Scene for Peterborough magazine (pp 4-5 of December 2011 issue):

Wordless Wednesday #7: Christmas guides

Wordless Wednesday #1-4: Backstory

I try to be true to the objective of Wordless Wednesday by posting only pictures as the blogpost. However, I feel there is still something lacking to complete the picture (pun not intended). And that lacking element is a description of the picture used in the Wordless Wednesday blogpost.

So, for every four (may vary in future) Wordless Wednesday posts I published in this blog, I will write a backstory post. I will start with Wordless Wednesday #1 to #4.

Wordless Wednesday #1: Mother and sons is a picture of my family taken in late winter 2007 using an Olympus u725SW camera. I chose this picture for this theme simply because I just love looking at the happiness in my family's faces. This photo was taken near the Cathedral Square in the city centre of Peterborough. I went to tiltshiftmaker.com to create a tiltshift effect so that the focus will be on my family's happy faces.

Wordless Wednesday #2: Seagull was taken last summer in the beach in Hunstanton using a Nikon Coolpix L110 camera. We went to the resort town of Hunstanton for a day in the beach together with some relatives and friends. I took several pictures of the seagulls and terns in the beach. This picture is one of two that came out decently. I had it Gimped up before posting it on to this blog.

Wordless Wednesday #3: Rick Kirby's 'Vertical face' was taken in the summer of 2008 using an Olympus u725SW camera. This sculpture by sculptor/artist Rick Kirby is just one of many that you will find in the gardens of Burghley House in Stamford. The sculpture was commissioned by Burghley House in 2002. It's made of mild steel and measures 5m x 3m. There are actually two versions of this sculpture in Burghley House gardens. The other one is the picture I used in the post Tilt-shift Photographs.

Wordless Wednesday #4: Bluebells was taken in spring 2009 using an Olympus u725SW camera. This was a weekend day and my older son had brought a teddy bear named Boris as some sort of homework. He has to do some activity with Boris during the weekend and return it to class the following Monday with a report. So, we brought Boris to our nearby woodland and that's where I saw the bluebells. My kids enjoyed that short walk with Boris and my son happily reported it to their class.

Postcard Friday #6: Peterborough Cathedral Cloisters

This postcard shows the Peterborough Cathedral Cloisters. You can go to it via a huge door from the Cathedral's right side. If you wish to go directly to it there is a pathway to the right of the Cathedral in which you can go to.

Wordless Wednesday #6: Tarsier

Postcard Friday #5: Peterborough Cathedral from top

Peterborough Cathedral is one of the finest Norman buildings in Europe today and is a UK landmark.

As seen from the top, you will see that Peterborough Cathedral is shaped like a cross. Personally, this postcard is very interesting to look at. I'm imagining myself hovering at the top and looking down below. The cathedral is just as amazing from the top as below.

The origins of the Cathedral can be traced back to King Peada of the Middle Angles who founded the first monastery on the site in 655AD. The monastic settlement was almost entirely destroyed by the Vikings in 870 and rebuilt as a Benedictine Abbey between 960 and 970. The Abbey church then survived Hereward the Wake’s attack on the Abbey in 1069, and remained intact until an accidental fire destroyed the second Abbey here in 1116. It was rebuilt in its present form between 1118 and 1238. It became the Cathedral of the new Diocese of Peterborough in 1541 and it is now known as the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew.

Source: Peterborough Cathedral



Wordless Wednesday #5: Autumn leaves

Postcard Friday #4: Bishop's Gardens

Bishop's Garden in Peterborough is a small ornamental garden just south of Peterborough Cathedral and north of The Lido. Bounded by Bishop's Road, the garden was created as part of the Bishop's palace in the 14th century. The gardens, unlike the palace, is open to the public and is nicely laid out with rose beds and various other features.

Wordless Wednesday #4: Bluebells

Postcard Friday #3: Rivergate

Rivergate is one of the smaller shopping centres found in Peterborough city centre. I don't go to this place very often these days. From memory national retailers like Comet and Peacocks are just some of the shops you can find in Rivergate.

In the postcard, the picture was taken from the door that leads to the supermarket Asda. When I was new to Peterborough I used to go to Asda to buy groceries and Georg products. However, since it is some distance from where I work I soon got tired of going to it. My visits to Rivergate are getting sporadic these days.

Wordless Wednesday #3: Rick Kirby's 'Vertical face'

Revocation of US Independence

Photo: Elite of the World

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. 

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

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Postcard Friday #2: Grimeshaw Wood, Bretton: Autumn

Grimeshaw Wood is a local nature reserve that is managed by Peterborough City Council. This patch of ancient woodland now stands beside a built-up area that is North Bretton. The north-south road, Bretton Way cuts through it, thus, creating two patches of the wood.

Grimeshaw Wood, also nicknamed the Grime, is home to an array of forest creatures. Pipestrelle bats live here and nettle-leaved bell flowers are particularly evident in the summer.

I live about 10 minutes walk from Grimeshaw Wood. I'm familiar with the place because I sometimes took a bus that pass by it when going to work. But I have not been to the wood and it would be nice to check it out one of these days.

Note aside, a blogger gave this rather interesting observation on the areas near Grimeshaw Wood, which I also noticed:

The north-south road that cuts through the various parts of the Grime also provides a geographical 'tracks' with dense housing, no pavements, and a certain number of chavs on the east, with giveaway coloured road signs. To the west are big houses, open lawns, silence bar birdsong and black writing on white road names.

Wordless Wednesday #2: Seagull

Gimp my pic

Photo: GIMP

Have you noticed anything on my recent photographs in this blog? Yes, they’ve been Gimped!

GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is software that’s freely distributed in the web. It can be used in photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. (Source: http://www.gimp.org/)

I first came across GIMP a few years ago when I bought a Dell Mini 9 Linux version. It was the in-built image editing program of the netbook. However, I hardly used it for two reasons: first, I don’t feel the need to and second, it was difficult to understand.

I became interested with Gimp again because of my desire to watermark my photographs. These days I fancy myself as a ‘serious’ beginner photographer. Serious enough that I want to put my mark on my photographs!

Postcard Friday #1: Ullswater

Ullswater is described as England’s 'most beautiful lake'. It is the country's second largest lake, which sits amidst the splendour of some of the finest fells in Lakeland. It is located in the Lake District National park in Cumbria. It is also the setting for William Wordsworth’s famous “Daffodils” poem.

My family went to Ullswater in summer of last year together with some family friends. From Glenridding, we went cruising with one of the Ullswater 'Steamers', the Lady of the Lake to enjoy the very beautiful scenery surrounding the lake. We dropped off at Pooley Bridge to have a relaxing lunch before heading back to Glenridding. Ullswater is one of the lakes found in the Lake District and is only one of the few we went to during our holiday.

Our kids had a great time communing with nature and away from the bustling city life. I was just awed by the beauty of Ullswater and the rest of the Lake District.

If you're interested to know about Ullswater here's a few links to go to:

• Ullswater
• Ullswater 'Steamers'
• Ullswater - Wikipedia entry

Postcard Friday

I came across this blog, A Postcard a Day, which features postcards as daily blogpost entries. I have collected a few postcards myself. It’s mainly about my home city of Peterborough and some from my travels to other parts of the UK. I also bought a few postcards from my recent holiday to the Philippines, the country of my birth.

I plan to come up with dedicated blogposts on postcards in the future. I will follow a simple rule: blog a postcard every Friday and give some background information about the postcard’s subject. But I may not have enough postcards for this blog project. So, I will participate in Postcrossing, a project that allows anyone to receive postcards (real ones, not electronic) from random places in the world. (http://www.postcrossing.com/)

The goal of Postcrossing is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, not exactly! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world. If you want to know more about Postcrossing just go to their website, which I’ve mentioned above.

Since I plan to do this regularly I will create a dedicated page, which I will call Postcard Friday. Be sure to check the page regularly so you won’t miss out.

Wordless Wednesday #1: Mother and sons

Wordless Wednesday

I found out an interesting way of creating entries for my blog. It is not a recent phenomenon; in fact, I seem to vaguely recall that I’ve read a few blogposts on it a few years back. I am referring to Wordless Wednesday.

According to an About.com article:

Wordless Wednesday (WW) is a blogosphere phenomenon that apparently no one on the Internet has stepped up to take credit for. Whereas blogs (web journals) are primarily about "words" bloggers love to dress their journal entries with imagery. WW is a simple blog post that features a photo that speaks for itself without words. However, there are no specific rules about WW posts so a few (and sometimes, many) words may accompany a photo or image that is the focus of a WW blog entry.

Phineas and Ferb lunch bag: my son's favourite

Last summer, our sons got hooked on the Disney Channel tv show, Phineas and Ferb. As a consequence, they've been hounding us with requests to buy Phineas and Ferb merchandise. Our younger son, in particular, is the bigger fan; understandably, he's the more persistent one.

One merchandise that he wanted to get was a Phineas and Ferb lunch bag. I tried looking in our local supermarkets like Sainsburys but could not find one. Pressed for time, I went online through Amazon UK. I found one and immediately ordered. I was worried that my order will not arrived in time for the first day of school. But it did, arriving a day before school started! My son was a very happy bunny.

I was a bit annoyed afterwards, though. A week later, I went food shopping at our local Sainsburys and guess what I found there. Yes, the same Phineas and Ferb lunch bag sold 25% less!

Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of Amazon UK. But I am also a satisfied customer who regularly buys from them for the lower price and convenience it brought me.

School field trip to Moor Farm

Photo: geograph

Last week, I joined my younger son's class on a school field trip to Moor Farm, located 7 miles northeast of Peterborough. This was the second time I joined my son in a school field trip as a parent helper. Because of his multiple allergy, either my wife or I will accompany our son during a field trip as requested by his schoolteachers.

Moor Farm is a medium-seized mixed arable farm (200 ha in size) with cattle and sheep and run by a husband and wife team. The farm offers free educational visits to primary schools. When we arrived at the farm, owner Judith gave a brief welcome orientation to the children before going out on a short educational tour around the farm.

Creating photo collages with Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008

Have you noticed anything about the images I've used in my recent posts (click here)? Yes, I'm using photo collages, which I created using Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008. AutoCollage is "an advanced computer vision and image processing program which automatically creates collages of your pictures." (Source: Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008 website)

Springfields Spalding: Close encounters at the Alien Garden

Last month, the whole family went on a day-out in Springfields Spalding, an outlet shopping and garden centre, a half hour's drive north of Peterborough. It was a day of shopping (mostly the window variety) and close encounter with 'aliens' sprouting in the garden centre.

The aliens I am referring to were the 35 stunning and brightly coloured air sculptures. The Alien Garden resembled plants and flowers, not quite what we've seen before! They range in size and height, up to 30 feet high.

While admiring the Alien Garden we managed to watch the dazzling water fountain display. Afterwards, we finished the day with the now customary game of mini-golf, our sons' favourite part everytime we go to Springfields Spalding.

Further information on Springfields Spalding:

Springfields Outlet Shopping & Festival Gardens
Camelgate
Spalding
Lincolnshire
PE12 6EU
tel: 01775 760909
email: enquiries@springfieldsshopping.com

Source: Springfields Spalding

Skegness: Famous landmarks

Day-out | Donkey ride | Landmarks

Last month, we joined some friends in going to the seaside resort town of Skegness. We stayed in the town centre where we saw a couple of its famous landmarks.

Skegness: Donkey ride at the beach

Day-out | Donkey ride | Landmarks

Last month, we went back again to Skegness but this time we tried the attractions at the town centre together with friends.

Skegness has a long and wide sandy beach. There are herds of donkeys available for riding by children. Our boys experienced their first ever donkey ride (above photo). It was a scary start for them but in the end they enjoyed the short ride immensely!

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has a station in the beach. It is manned by a volunteer crew except for the coxswain, and equipped with two lifeboats. During our visit last month we saw one of the lifeboats, the all weather Lincolnshire Poacher, being washed by the crew.

(Info source: Wikipedia)

Skegness: Day out with family and friends

Day-out | Donkey ride | Landmarks

Last August, our family joined some friends in a three-car convoy to the famous seaside resort town of Skegness, Lincolnshire. The car journey from Peterborough took one and a half hours.

We've been going to Skegness three years in a row now. The last two years were spent only in Butlins holiday resort in Ingoldmells, which is to the north of Skegness.

This year, however, we spent the day in the town centre. We parked at the Festival Tower Esplanade. From the car park, it was a short walk to the beach, fairground rides, mini-golf, arcade & slot machines, and the chippy shops.

Nearby, you can see two of the town's famous landmarks: the Clock Tower and the Jolly Fisherman's statue in the Compass Gardens.

Before leaving home, we tried the fish and chips in Skegness, which our friend told us is quite well known. He led us to the best among them in town. I was not let down.

We've always enjoyed our visit to Skegness. Moreso this year, as we tried the town centre's many attractions in the great company of friends.

(Info source: Wikipedia)

Filipino food store opens in Peterborough

MJS Sarap Mabuhay, which sells Filipino and Oriental food products, opened up its shop located in the heart of Peterborough city centre last 18th of April.

Located at Unit 1 of 2 Park Road in Peterborough (post code PE1 2TD), MJS Sarap Mabuhay mainly caters to the needs of the growing community of Filipinos in the city and its surrounding towns and villages. The shop is owned and ran by entrepreneurial Filipino couple Sergio and Jennifer Fabian who took heed of the Filipino community’s growing demands for Filipino food products to be sold in the city.

It's all about.me

A few days back, I came across this cool website while watching BBC Click.

Like many others, I have an online presence on many of the available services in the internet. Social networks, blogs, e-mails, you name it chances are I have a profile on it.

And like many others, I have no single place to gather this information together into one profile.

Royal Wedding

The Royal Kiss in the balcony of Buckingham Palace (Photo: BBC) 

Like millions of people around the UK (and billions around the world) my family and I were glued to our television set to witness the royal marriage between Prince William (second in line to the British throne) and his commoner girlfriend Kate Middleton yesterday 29th of April.

Being a special holiday (no school and no work), we woke up late (and got up even later) yesterday, but still not missing much of the momentous event. We watched the coverage of BBC One channel and switched to BBC HD halfway towards the end.

The coverage prior to the wedding proved too much for our boys. The older one protested that it was boring to watch while the younger son just proceeded silently towards the computer to watch more exciting YouTube videos of his favourite game involving an ordinary plumber turned hero.