Friday 19 July 2013

The Basement Coffee House

This good little indie coffee house is based in Newcastle at 9 - 11 Carliol Square Newcastle NE1 6UF 0191 2411534. The interior is well lit and the staff very friendly, they serve a good selection of hot and cold drinks and fresh food, I tried a cappuccino and it was of better than some of the main stream coffee chains, as well as good food and drink they also have free WiFi so you can keep up to date while enjoying your repast, remember though I am doing this for pleasure not profit as I think Indie Coffee Houses deserve more support.

Thursday 27 June 2013

Mikaids and The French Oven

While out for a wander I came across this great little coffee shop Mikaids for those interested it is at 17 Grainger Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 5DQ this is a great little place with nice friendly staff, a great varieties of teas and coffees and good food at very reasonable prices. I had myself a cappuccino and a sandwich the cappuccino was very good and the sandwich was excellent and made with fresh artisan baked bread from the French Oven 27/28 Grainger Market, after finishing my snack I decided to check out The French Oven and found the range of breads and cakes they make daily really good and fab tasting so this is another place I would highly recommend you take a look at the next time you are in Newcastle.

Monday 29 April 2013

The Jackson Saga Rumbles on

Well once again the Jackson family drag Michaels name into court blaming the tour management company for hiring Murray when they knew he had a drug problem but the one question no one has really bothered addressing is if they knew why were they not there trying to get him off the drugs and why did they wait until he died to come out of the background and claim that everyone but he was to blame for his drug addiction because to be honest while tragic there is no real difference between what happened with Michael than has happened with other superstars for example Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison to name but a few, feel free to disagree if you want.

Friday 29 March 2013

Another Photography Rant

Yes I am having another rant about photography, I had a nice little debate on twitter yesterday and came to the conclusion everyone has their own ideas what constitutes photography. My view is to try and get as much right in camera so I have very little to do on my computer it was the same when I used film, but some people reckon every photo that comes out of a digital camera has to be edited but I say no yes you may have to resize for printing or with people photos fix red eye, and like I say each to their own my main bug bear is when things are added or taken out just to make the photographer feel they have taken a great photo to me that just shows they are good with computers and editing software so as such anything produced by those means should be represented as digitally enhanced images. That is one reason I stopped entering photo comps as I knew as soon as I saw some of the judges comments complimenting them on the use of their editing skills with my minimalist approach to editing I stood no chance. Well thats all for now and as I said at the start everyone is free to their own opinion so please no sarcastic comments. Oh and by the way I have had photos published so I think I no a little about photos.

Monday 11 March 2013

The Minions Strike Again

Well the minions have struck again I was getting all set to go for a wander with my camera when guess what happened yep you guessed it Arthur Itis and C. Oldweather ganged up on me to prevent my wandering and roaming with my camera first Arthur struck when I woke in agony from his bone jangling curse in my joints particularly my hands I cursed as I had spent a couple of hours the night before cleaning and checking my camera gear for my treat, even the painkillers were conspiring against me as they only made Arthur recede into a dull throbbing ache and then if that C. Oldweather decided to turn up and snow on my parade and drop the temp to minus six degrees centigrade so instead of going out and about I curled up on the sofa with a nicehot cup of coffee and proceeded to eliminate every creatureand person I came across in Skyrim.

Friday 1 March 2013

My take on photography

Before anyone goes all huffy and starts spitting their dummy out I would just like to say these are my opinions if you agree or disagree that is entirely in your hands. I very rarily use editing software for anything other than cropping and resizing ready for printing I do however try various tricks in camera to get various effects like changing the white balance using differing shutter speeds and screw on filters and I only use 3 of them U.V., POLARIZER and RED. I also if rarely follow any of the so called rules of photography to the letter as the first thing you notice when you read how some professional photographers get the shot they are talking about they throw them out the window so to speak, my main rules that I have are the photo that I take is good as long as I am happy with the result and if anybody asks me to take photos for them as long as they are happy with the results then so am I, for example my sons wedding anybody who knows me knows I am not confident taking photos of people but when the so called professional dropped them in the proverbial about 4 days before their wedding I reluctantly agreed to take their photos for them as it turned out one or two people were not happy with them but the main people my son and daughter in law were over the moon with them. So my take is you will never please all the people all of the time but as lkng as I am happy that's all that matters.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Blogging

Blogging there are a number of reasons why people blog these include self promotion of their talents such as writing,photography and arts then you have those who use them as a way to get their political and religious views across, those who use it to document their life and then you have the likes of me who do it for fun I write what I think I make up what I think are funny news stories and post photos if people do not like what I blog than the easy solution is do not read my blogs I do not deliberately set out to offend people but if they take offense tough stop being sensitive and taking everything people say or write personally jokes and funny stories about politics and religion have been around as long as man has been alive. These are my own opinions.

Monday 4 February 2013

Morning out for retail therapy

Well went out for some retail therapy ended up doing food shopping instead came back with 2 bags of food and only 1 second hand 360 game for myself something wrong there, but at least I have extra food in the house now lol but what is it with shops I mean I went out for some trainers went in three shops and not one had a size 6 I mean they had all the sizes around them but none in my size and what is it with coats I tried 4 different ones on in a large now I am not muscle bound and was only wearing a t-shirt but I could not get the sleeves over my biceps is everyone supposed to have skinny arms skinny legs and big feet.

Thursday 31 January 2013

Coffee Shops

Have you noticed whether it is a big name or independant coffee shop with free WiFi they both have two main customers in common the students and the silver surfer both after the free WiFi but most of the other customers differ slightly you have some that use both you have those that only use the big name and you have those that only use the indie ones I have my own theory on this 1) those that use both just like coffee no matter the cost. 2) those that use the big name purely because of that oh they have lots of stores they must be good. 3) those that use the small indie ones reckon you get better value for your money and friendlier staff. I however tend to disagree with the second two and fall into group 1 and use both because I like coffee and you get good and bad staff in both. These are my own observations and opinions.

Friday 25 January 2013

The end of another week

Well thats it nearly the end of another week this year is starting to disappear nearly as quickly as the last one but hey as long as we are here to see it happen who cares I have had great fun thanks to the weather I have fallen down more times this last week than in all the years I used to drink I now have that many bruises on my body it looks like a dot to dot puzzle lol but at least nothing broken, then there is the side of me that is becoming a technophope as anything with my phone,tablet and laptop that could go wrong has gone wrong roll in next week.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Fate and her minions

Once again Fate and her minions have conspired against me being able to get out and about as I would like to take photos in the snow the minions I speak of are from jolly old England Arthur Itis a.k.a Joint mangler his American cousin Bronc Hitis a.k.a Windpipe wheezer and French Canadian Deeky Teeker a.k.a the Heart stopper and last but not least C. Oldweather the lord of snow and chill winds so once again when normally I would have lots of snowy sunrises and landscape photos I have had to content myself with photos of my back garden.

Monday 14 January 2013

View from a coffee shop (part 2)

Then we have the men these are a completely different breed to the women lets start with the most obvious the middle aged man smartly dressed clutching a portfolio case as if it might escape and attack someone all the while looking around both outside and inside before deciding I have come up with 2 reasons for this behaviour 1) should I have a sneaky coffee before going back to work and tell them I got caught in a traffic jam 2) this is my favourite he has lost his job but has not told his wife yet so he is checking to see if any of her friends are around. Then we have the obvious student with that many peircings he looks like a walking jewellery store a satchel hanging over their shoulder checking the coins they have to see if they have enough for a couple of the cheapest drinks so they do not look like total freeloaders as they use the free wi-fi. Then we have the elderly gents and their other half having a treat and a rest while waiting for their bus. Finally we have the male and females like me the daydreamers and the curious just sitting watching the workd go by and letting our imaginations run wild with out ideas and dreams. These were my views from a coffee shop hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the lattes while I was writing them cheers.

Friday 11 January 2013

View from a coffee shop (part1)

Well peepssitting here having a peppermint latte watching the world drift by and as the diffeent people pass trying to give them a job that matches tge way they look for example a middle aged woman tidily dressed with her hair in either a bun or pony tail I would say was either a school teacher or some type of office worker self confident but if annoyed a vitriolic tongue and then you have the unmistajable mothers meeting all sitting drinking their skinny cappuccinos and eating brown toast discussing how little Johnny/Jane are getting on at school and then the bitchy comments about others not in their clique such as did you see the way such & such was dressed they looked like mutton dressed as lamb all the while their pre-school angels are running wild disturbing otherpeople with out them even saying stop that it is naughty or come here and stop making a noise, then you have my favourites the mothers who try to make themselves look as young as their daughters some can pull it off but others look like Rupaul or Lily Savage on a bad day end of part one next we have the men.

Sunday 6 January 2013

Resolutions

Well I am managing to keep 2 and a half of my resolutions with my writing and blogging and the excercise part of my third one here is a photo of a mute swan while I was out for a hobble this morning round to my local pond

Wednesday 2 January 2013

2013 A New Year and new challenges

Well welcome to 2013 I have set my myself a few challenges for the new year they may not seem that hard to keep but anyone who really knows me will laugh their heads off I have three challenges
1) to blog on a regular basis.
2) to finish the stories I start to write.
3) to quit smoking and do more exercise
Well that is the challenges the first should be easy as I can blog to say how I am doing with the other 2, and finally a happy and prosperous New Year to anyone unfortunate to read this lol.