50 years ago in Llandudno (Sepia Saturday 769)

In a blog post written yesterday, Yorkshire Pudding mentions going to Llandudno in Wales for the weekend. "Yay!" said I to myself - because I remember the place, from having visited it some 50+ years ago, on one of our family holidays in Britain back in my teens. I wasn't quite sure whether 1971 or 1974 though (we visited Wales on both those trips), so I had to check my photo albums. It turned out to be in June 1974. 

The colour photos and postcards glued into my album half a century ago have no doubt lost much of their original colours; but I decided to copy them with my camera, do what I could with them in Picasa3 (the simple photo editing software I've been using ever since I first started blogging - which is almost ancient history in itself now), and use them for a Sepia Saturday post.

This view of Llandudno, with the long beach, matches the memories that came up in my brain as soon as I read the name.

My dad was a big railway enthusiast, something that also very much had its influence on what places we visited on our travels in Britain. In Llandudno, it wasn't a steam train that took us up in the mountains on the Great Orme Railway, though, but a tram. Checking Wikipedia now, I see that nowadays it is indeed called the Great Orme Tramway; and that this was also it's original name. But between 1932-1977, it was known as the Great Orme Railway (cf the postcards above) - until 1977, when the name was changed back again. According to Wiki, it is Great Britain's only remaining cable-operated street tramway, and one of only a few surviving in the whole world - and "still open seasonally from late March to late October, it takes over 200,000 passengers each year from Llandudno Victoria Station to just below the summit of the Great Orme headland". 

Maybe a more recent visitor to Llandudno can provide information about how much the price for a trip up to the Summit has gone up since 1974??

A photo obviously taken on our way UP...

A 1974 Sepia version of yours truly, up on the Summit.

On the hill in the background, people had used white stones to create huge images/patterns/letters/messages, visible from afar. Does anyone know if they are still there? (I know that hill figures, and especially white horses, are an old tradition in Britain; but a quick google search I did now didn't mention Llandudno in that context.)

My parents and brother standing outside/below what I assume is probably the hotel where we were staying. (No note made in my album about its name, and that sign on the wall isn't readable.)
 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 769

 

Spring in the Air

 

We have had a sunny start to this week, with quite warm afternoons, which has inspired some typical spring activities - like going through my wardrobe, and spring-cleaning the balcony.

Alas the inspection of my wardrobe once again reminded me of this quote:

Calories (noun)
"Tiny creatures that live in your closet and sew
your clothes a little bit tighter every night."

On Monday, I took a bus "across town" to a big shopping centre there - primarily with one particular shop in mind: the one where I usually end up buying most of my clothes...

After some further depressing correction of my self-image in the store (i.e. optimistically imagining myself to be able to fit into smaller sizes than I evidently currently need), I did end up buying two new pairs of summer trousers. One pair of jeans (light blue) with elastic waist and very wide legs; and one pair of off-white thin cotton trousers with more normal leg-width. (I refrained from looking at any tops this time round - it was a comfortable pair of summer jeans that I was primarily after, and I know I have several tops that still fit.)

 Easter decorations in the entrance to the mall.

 
Tuesday was laundry day, and as I was also washing bedlinen that took most of the afternoon. I also shifted some winter/summer items between my wardrobes upstairs and my basement storage room, as I'm hoping that at least I won't be needing my very wintriest winter coat or boots again this season...

Today I went for a walk to the supermarket for a few things; deciding to postpone my next online order with home delivery until next week, as there wasn't all that much that I "urgently" needed. The supermarket has also recently finished a big re-organisation of the entire store, and I'm trying to get re-aquainted with where to find things when I go there in person... 

With the very sunny weather continuing this afternoon, I also got inspired to do a bit of spring-cleaning on the balcony, and get my plastic floor-mats and a chair up from storage. I also took up the privacy screen with fake leaves on it that I bought last year. Haven't put that up yet, but might do that tomorrow. (Live plants for the balcony will have to wait a while yet, though, as we can still expect frosty nights in April...)

On Friday I have a dentist appointment to "look forward to". (Just an annual checkup and there's nothing special that I've noticed, but one never quite knows...) 

 

Time And Time Again

 

It's That Time of Year again - i.e. time to repeat once again that I don't get the point of "daylight saving time", and probably never will, and that I wish they'd put a stop to all that nonsense once and for all... (Etc etc. You've heard it all before!)

Grudingly, I changed all of my manual clocks and watches before I went to bed last night (probably except one, that I won't discover until later). But of course that did not help my "inner clock" in the slightest.

So this morning I had breakfast at 10:30 (clock time); and two hours later, of course my stomach still does not agree with the clocks about it being time for lunch already.

Outdoors, Nature is keeping its own slow pace; still mixing sunny days with more grey and foggy and rainy ones with lower temperatures. (Today seems to be one of the latter kind.)

 

Having whiled away a while writing this blog post, it might now be time to start preparing a "late" light lunch after all... (Clock on my computer screen showing 13:20.)

 

High and Low

 

Walking into town on Monday afternoon, via the city park, I happened to see this very tall crane at work, lifting something onto the roof of the hotel with the big mural. I found it better to stop and wait until the crane had safely finished turning to the side, rather than having to pass right under it while it was still moving... 

Continuing straight forward past the hotel, my eyes fell on this old brick building, which in "style" reminds a lot of some of the bigger old industrial buildings in my previous post. 

Because of big city fires back in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, there are very few wooden buildings still standing in our city centre; but in the background in the photo above you see one or two of them. The statue at the entrance to this pedestrian shopping street is called Knallen, an old local dialect word here meaning "The Pedlar" (i.e. "a person who goes from place to place selling small items"). So what he is holding is a sack with rolls of fabric in it. Pedlars were very common in this part of Sweden in the past, and Borås was and is still known as a textile city. 

However, my errand in town on this Monday was to a small "health" store situated in one of those old wooden buildings behind the Pedlar. Primarily they sell things like dietary supplements and other non-prescription "alternative medicine" stuff; but what I was after was a new pair of comfortable indoor sandals to replace my old Birkenstocks (which  served me well for many years but are now almost starting to fall apart). 

I was lucky, as the second pair I tried on immediately felt very similar to my old ones, although they're of a different (Swedish) brand - Embla. So I bought them. And so far no regrets - they're very comfortable indeed, and I hope they'll continue serve me well for another number of years ahead.

(When it comes to buying shoes, my experience is that quality and comfort is usually worth the money, rather than just looking for the cheapest price tag...)

New shoes

Old shoes

 

 "A good pair of shoes is like a best friend,

always there when it counts the most."

 

My Town: Industrial Architecture

 

1

The river that flows through my town is lined with many old industrial buildings; most of them nowadays converted to serve other purposes. On Saturday (when out walking without any special goal in mind) I passed one such complex that I've probably walked past at least a thousand times before, and it suddenly it occurred to me to walk in among the buildings to explore a bit more. 

2

 Nowadays these buildings house a lot of different businesses, but as it was Saturday, the whole place was pretty much empty - which left me free to take as many photos as I liked, without anyone wondering why...

3

▲ Fire escape staircases and their shadows such as these always fascinate me. ▼

4

 

5

6

 I also love how much work was put into the architecture of factory buildings in the past... Lots of little details, like decorations around windows and doorways etc.

7

 

8

9

▲ I found that I was able to walk all the way down to the river and look over to the path on the side where I usually walk. (There's another old industrial building there as well, which is also nowadays home to several minor businesses.)

10

▲ Other (and uglier) old factories have been torn down and replaced by modern apartment buildings (condominiums).

11

▲ Finding one's way in Borås can be quite tricky, and not least for pedestrians, as besides the river there is also a railway and motorway to take into account, none of which can be passed just anywhere. On this occasion, I had to return to the street I came from and walk through an underpass below the motorway, to get to the other side of that. 

12

▲ On the other side of the river, there is nowadays a special underpass for pedestrians, where you walk on a wooden bridge just by the water. Walking under there (as I often do when walking into town and back), I'm often fascinated by the geometrical patterns formed by light, shadows, and reflections.  ▼

13

14

15

 

14

▲ Looking back across the river to where I stood to take photos 9 and 10. ▼

15

 

16

(Photos 12, 13 and 16 were taken earlier in March - a note mostly as reminder for myself.)