Go To The UEA For A Charisma Free Future

Go To The UEA For A Charisma Free Future, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

Bloody U.E.A. Parents spend ages trying to persuade their kids that going to University is a gateway to an exciting and glamorous future and they go and produce this.... ( and they choose an assistant headteacher in exotic Lowestoft to boot to be the "face" of the campaign).

Is this the worst advertising campaign ever?

No wonder a whole generation has grown up who consider appearing on Celebrity Love Island is a more effective pathway to an exciting career.

I think we should demand that the whole staff of the U.E.A. resign over this one. From the Cleaners to the Chancellor. No exceptions. Further and higher education is not safe in their hands.

Barrack Street Slum Clearance, Norwich

Barrack Street Slum Clearance, Norwich, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

From my collection Part of a map from the City Engineers entitled
CITY OF NORWICH
BARRACK STREET CLEARANCE AREA,
JANUARY 17th 1933
[SECTION B]

I thought it would be interesting at this time when the flats on Barrack Street are awaiting final demolition to post this plan of what the area was like before they were built.

Tiny houses, crammed together, sharing outside WCs and wash houses. An old boy once told me that the whole area was so infested with rats they did not even bother to run away if you approached them in daylight. This kind of housing would have been the lot for the majority of citizens of most of the country. All this is only eighty years away from the lifestyle we have now.

To give you some idea of scale this portion of the map shows about a 300 foot length of Barrack Street. This is about a third of the area shown on the map and features the T-junction formed by Barrack Street and Silver Road. I have been told the area was nicknamed Bottlegate but would like to have this confirmed.

The elephant in the flickr Norfolk groups room

The elephant in the flickr Norfolk groups room, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

Sign in the window of Trowse Post Office.

There has been a revolution in Norfolk. We have been the subject of a friendly invasion of migrant workers from Poland and Portugal. (Although it is said the Poles are returning home). We have Portugese and Polish Shops, Pubs and even night clubs. Some banks and building societies have employed Polish and Portugese speakers to deal with their new customers. My small corner newsagent has found it profitable to stock Polish brands and beers. It is not just in the towns but also in the villages that one hears European languages being used; it is impossible to go to a car boot sale without meeting migrant workers on both sides of the counter. Interestingly enough this enormous social change has not been reflected in the local flickr group photo pools. Is this because we are a bunch of Racists? Or are we just very unwelcoming?

Indiana Blink And The Quest For The Lost Ho Lid Ayinn

Indiana Blink And The Quest For The Lost Ho Lid Ayinn, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

We have all seen that film. Carruthers, in a quest to find the legendary something of something, is cutting his way through the jungle accompanied only by his faithful native bearers and a blonde girl with her silly ass brother. Suddenly a shrunken head is seen atop a pole and all the the bearers throw down their burdens and run away screaming, leaving Carruthers (and the girl) up the Amazon without a machete.

Much the same happened to me on Carrow Road. Only it wasnt a shrunken head but a cone and my bearers, from the local hoody tribe only threw down their traditional Burberrys before sloping off. And I did not have a girl or a silly ass brother with me.

In the distance can be seen the fabulous Temple Of Ka - Na - Ry home of the legendary Queen Delia.

Night And Day

Electric Sail (revisited), originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

On the Floating Restaurant, Drunkard's Leap, Riverside, Norwich.

Economics In Pictures

Economics In Pictures, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

I have been photographing this particular developement pretty much since work was started.

Because of the downturn in the housing market the bulk of the workforce have now been pulled off the job leaving only a skeleton crew. This is quite a blow for the City planners as this private developement was in their eyes the big one. Anyone remember how the first one million pound flat in Norwich was trumpeted last year? I feel sorry for the people (probably a company actually) who bought it because they are going to be in the middle of a building site for a bit longer than they originally thought.

Who said there wasn't a house sales crisis?

The Standards Committee is nothing to do with driving standards then.

We hope he is not on any steering commitees, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

The current Chairman Of Norfolk County Council demonstrates just how difficult it is to drive between those pesky white lines. In mitigation he is driving a Ford Mondeo EDGE but hey its HIS council this year and if he wants to park on the grass he jolly well will.

I just hope he is not on any steering committee.....

Reflected Glory

Jaguar GR1 XW563 at Norfolk County Hall, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

One of the most moving things about the war memorials we see in almost every church in the land is how the people who erected it usually remain anonymous. We are left to imagine the widow's tears.



Not so these days. Far more prominently positioned and in larger type than the plaque describing how this "gate guardian stands as a permanent memorial to those members of the Jaguar Force who have lost their lives during the course of their duties" is this plaque describing how Patrick T Hacon unveiled this one. May his name live for evermore.