The Bloggler

I might have been having a bad day when I posted a rant about the National Day Calendar and the sillyness and pointlessness of 'special' days/weeks/months.  See - " Are you aware what day it is ?"  I may have been a little harsh in my criticisms and whilst some calendar events are annoying, others seem harmless enough on reflection. In any event, I can always - and usually do, ignore them. Most of them pass me by.   The other day, I accidentally clicked a wrong 'bookmark' on my laptop and the National Day Calendar website refreshed itself.  I was faced with April's calendar.  I couldn't help myself look through it and heck, what a month it is.  First up was .... Chinese Language Day, 20 April. Its purpose was to persuade people to learn the fascinating history of this old language and to learn to speak the language itself.  As you may be aware, it is the hardest language for westerners to learn and takes on average 8-10 years. Therefore it took me...

In January, I posted a rant ‘ Is the Internet broken ’ about the how the Internet was becoming less and less helpful (to me at least) and that we were all being forced to download more and more apps to do the simplest of things.   If I may, I’ll continue my rant, specifically in relation to Smartphone Apps which I think are ruling our lives, rather than improving the quality of our lives.  Apps bloat your phone My last smartphone told me I had run out of storage space.     It wasn’t old but it didn’t have space to accommodate the updates on the three apps I had downloaded and it wasn’t possible to delete the ten regularly updated useless apps it came loaded with.   So, I have a new one.   Initially the temptation was to try out various apps that took my fancy.   Some were too intrusive, some didn’t work, and a couple of amusing games were unplayable – because they could only be understood young people.   Other apps seemed hell bent on gett...

Hartlepool is actually the town where I was born.  It lies in the the County of Durham near the River Tees estuary on the north east coast of England. The first three photographs were taken in September 2016 at 'Hartlepool's Maritime Experience' - a major visitor attraction in Hartlepool, now the National Museum of the Royal Navy. The concept of the attraction is the thematic re-creation of an 18th-century seaport, in the time of Lord Nelson, Napoleon and the Battle of Trafalgar.  The site is within Hartlepool's Historic Quay which contained redundant docks and old repair sheds and timber yards.  It was regenerated in the early 1990's.  The original buildings have been restored, repaired and extended to show just how a working seaport like this would have looked like in the 1700s and early 1800s.  I have to say, it is one of the best 'living' museums I have been to.    There may not be many doors visible but you can see they are in keeping with authen...

Thursday Doors is a weekly blogging photographic challenge allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.  It is hosted by Dan, see his Blog ' No Facilities '.  To get to the Thursday Door entries click  here . This week I'm in Cyprus. We had a wonderful spring holiday based in Northern Cyprus (the Turkish part) a few years ago.   Doors in  Bellapais village in the Kyrenia District.  The village grew up around the abbey after which it is named. This door is in the wall of the ancient fortress which guards the harbour at Famagusta.  It was built during the Lusignan period in the 14th Century. Beautiful wooden door in Lefkosa (Nicosia) Great stonework on these Gothic arched doorways.  The Church in Lefkosa (Nicosia)  is now a cultural centre I think.