"I am a camera (me no Leica)"

Do we really look like this?, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

So I was on Norwich Provisions market when a thought struck me.

Well that's a lie because two thoughts struck me; the first being Why do they call it Norwich Provisions Market when there seem to be only about five stalls that sell provisions? It would be more truthful to call it Norwich bag market because there are about eight or nine stalls scattered throughout it selling bags.



These are all owned by just one person and I believe he took on only one of them because he scooped the jackpot one week on the National Lottery - the rest became his almost by accident. He also has a shop on "Back Of The Inns". He certainly got that by accident. When the council finally decided to renovate the Garden Of Remembrance, all the stall holders who used the cellars underneath for storage had to move out. The cheapest alternative storage he could find in a hurry was a shop and as he had the premises, he felt he may as well open it.

Anyway back to my story. I was on the misleadingly named Norwich Provisions Market when two thoughts struck me. The second one was; why don't I go and visit the guy who sometimes sells cameras?

I came, I saw, I was tempted and I fell.

I swapped the Olympus C310 Zoom (aka D-540 Zoom) I bought the other day and ten pounds for a Fujifilm A860. On the plus side it is 8.1 mega pixels, works a lot faster and handles colours better than the Olympus although unfortunately like the Olympus it is almost fully automatic and it appears the only option for output is JPG. Still never mind what can one expect for fifteen quid?

My master plan is that I will have swapped and dealt up to a Leica M9 by Christmas; only having spent about £120 on it.

I got home and took this photo of the camera in tribute to fellow Norfolk Flickr persons Tim Caynes and Harry Harris who, if you follow the links on their names you will discover, both like to give a lot of head in their pictures. I can say that because neither will read down as far as here.

The Fourth Gymnopédie

The Fourth Gymnopédie, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

Winner of the Most Pretentious Graffiti (Thorpe Hamlet & District Heat) Award 2010.


Sadly this prestigious prize was subsequently withdrawn when the judges discovered that the (anonymous but dyslexic) artist was trying to spell Chicken Satay Lives.

I Bet You Did Not Know That Today is Thomas Bilney Day

I Bet You Did Not Know That Today is Thomas Bilney Day, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

This memorial, to be found by the door of the Surrey Chapel, on the corner of Botolph Street and St Crispin's in Norwich, was erected by the Protestant Alliance. It was replaced by this one which was erected on the Riverside gardens by Bishops Bridge which is about the length of a football pitch away from the supposed site of the Lollard's pit.

In fact no one is absolutely sure where the Lollard's Pit was situated; Some argue it was under the Gasometer on Gas Hill, some say it lay beneath the back bar of the Bridge Public House, others put the case for below Godfrey's Store (the paint department I believe) on Riverside Road or underneath Chalk Hill House on Rosary Road.

This newer memorial was also erected by the Protestant Alliance; an organisation I am not familiar with. A Google search on Protestant Alliance brings you to a page on http://www.orangenet.org/pa.htm which is part of Orange.net which describes itself as "the hub of Orangeism on the net"

Interestingly Thomas Bilney did not consider himself a protestant. "He was to the last perfectly orthodox on the power of the Pope, the sacrifice of the Mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation and the authority of the church." He did however preach against saint and relic veneration, disapproved of the practice of pilgrimage and did not believe in the mediation of the saints. I think he also rejected the teachings of Martin Luther. (source Wikipedia)

He seems an unlikely person for Orange Men to memorialise. If you look at the Protestant Alliance web page try clicking on the links for Orange Postcards; you will find one (and maybe more) celebrating the Ulster Volunteer Force. Their memorable deeds included the McGurk's Bar bombing in which 15 civilians were killed. Like Thomas Bilney their victims were all Roman Catholic.

Normal For Norfolk

Normal For Norfolk, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

I don't know how to describe this and because the windows of the vehicle were so dirty I was not able to photograph it with the clarity it deserves.

Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to recreate, in scale model form, the last watery resting place of the Titanic on the dashboard of their VW microbus.

Bizarrely a toy animal menageries stands next to it. Perhaps the Lion represents Leonardo Dicaprio while the not-sure-what-it-is baby animal is supposed to be Kate Winsome.

Maybe a reminder of the folly of all human endeavour plus an intimation of mortality improves ones driving........

The New Hullaballoos

The New Hullaballoos, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

An old buffer writes.......

The views from Riverside Road to Pull's Ferry and from the same road across the playing fields to east end of Norwich Cathedral are possibly the most iconic and two of the best loved in the City.

If someone suggested that a caravan park should be built along Riverside partly obscuring these vistas their would be hell to pay.

I bring this up because there are a significant number of modern fibreglass cruisers that are no better looking than caravans and are often more garish and more intrusive than any caravan.

Holidays on the Broads are expensive whether they are spent in a hotel or a guest house. It is often quoted that one can get two and a bit weeks on an all-in package in Spain for the price of a week in a Broads cruiser. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We have the example of Great Yarmouth to show that the cheapo English holiday is unprofitable. Not only is that kind of holiday no longer wanted but the business model means there has to be cut-throat rivalry that drives profits down.

The Broads are not immune. Great Yarmouthism exists everywhere and especially on the north river.

Having said that there is really nothing you can do to legislate against the plethora of ugly cruisers for hire on the Norfolk Rivers. Personally I wish that all broads cruisers were built of wood as they were before the late 1960s but then I also wish trains still had compartments and corridors with engines that puffed out steam.

They are built the way they are because it makes them cheap to build and easy to maintain and clean but surely the boatyards must realise they are in danger of cutting their own throats? You cannot both "sell" the Broads as a place of natural beauty and then put those who want to be part of this into floating plastic crates.

The Return Of Django

Rod as victim, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

So I bought an Olympus C-310 zoom on Norwich Market this morning for 5 quid. (Apologies to my son but it will be beans on toast for tea for the rest of the week)

This is the second photo I took with it using Rod the Harpist as my chosen victim. The camera takes 3.5 seconds to warm up when you switch it on and there is a three second gap between photographs as it writes (with a quill pen presumably) to disc.

And God I miss processing in raw.