Month: June 2022

First up, as you must know, there is an issue with our apartment block complex with regard to fire safety. It seems that none of the buildings meet even the old fire regulations, let alone the new ones. As a result, all of the outer cladding has to be removed and new fire insulation installed. It also seems to require the walls clad in timber to be sprayed with fire resistant coatings.

This is, currently, all in the future as various technical and bureaucratic processes need to be resolved. However, they are starting work on one “small” part of the process. They (whomsoever they are) have decided that all of the interior/exterior doors need replacing. Interior/exterior means all the doors in the public areas so all of the apartment front doors and, it seems, all of the cupboard doors. Anyway, it all kicks off next Monday to an estimated tune of £2,000,000. Yep that is right – two million smackers!

To do the work the contractors need somewhere to keep their tools and to have the ubiquitous portable toilets. They have taken over some of the visitors parking in Maude Street, as though we are all ready short of parking as it is!

That’s the “bibs” bit, now to the “bobs”

For the un initiated, a Bob is the flag that flies at the top of the main mast on every Thames Barge. When we lived up on the 4th floor on the front of the block we had a little book about these boats and ticked them off one at a time as the came and went in the Wet Dock. We don’t see so many lately so I will have to be content with showing you three.

Thalatta

Thistle

Victor

I will show more as they arrive.

I mentioned about the owls in the last post but that was just the one alongside our apartment complex. Today, I went for a run, in my wheelchair all around the Waterfront and over to the Island. My aim was to shoot off a roll of black and white “traditional” 35mm film using my old Canon EOS650. However, on the way, I found lots to record for the blog including a good few of the owls that are sprinkled around the Waterfront. The B&W film will have to wait until I have developed and scanned it (along with a roll that I shot at Holywells Park last week). I will put a link up here when they are ready.

In the meantime, let us have a look as some of the owls that have turned up around here.

OK, so that is all the Owls that I could find. Being nearly out of power, I headed for home but not before having a coffee in Paddy & Scotts and popping round to Tesco’s for a bag of chips (as instructed!).

I did take some more photos mainly to back up my B&W themed shooting but there was one left over that deserves a showing here and that was on the open area behind the Cult Café. I am not sure when this is happening but there is a major event coming.

This, obviously, unwrapped from the back of a lorry – impressive. I am sure that we will hear this when it takes place!

This was supposed to be a post just about the longest day of the year but we had a fairly heavy storm on Sunday night – lots of thunder, lightning and heavy rain so I thought that I would show you what it looked like from our balcony around 9.20pm.

It was strange that, one hour or so later, the storm was with us!

OK, well today is the longest day of the year and it is absolutely wonderful. There are blue skies and it is 67f (19c) so a perfect midsummer day. Too perfect, actually, to be ruined by this:

Yes, we have Suntis back with all of the disruption and noise from them using Eagle Wharf again for their unloading. Never mind, wandering further down the waterfront and you get this:

Yes, the Owls are upon us. The whole town is being presented with Owls that are sponsored by various businesses and in aid of a range of charities. My daughter owns Willow Park Montessori Nursery School who are sponsoring a “Little Hoot”

Wandering on, today is a great day for shooting images across the water as the sky is blue and so is the water!

Finally, on my way to the Aqua Pharmacy (a regular trip!) and Tescos (even more regular!!!) I came across a grassy area around the back of the Cult Café which seems to be being left to “wild”.

A regular reminder – you can “right click” on any image to see a larger version in a new tab or window (depends upon your browser options).

Saturday was a day for celebration of Gay Pride in Ipswich. There was a long parade from Dance East. down to the Cult Café. I had some trouble with “media” photographers feeling that their needs were greater than mine but I did manage to get a nice set of images. It is very nice how people, if you ask them, will pose for you not knowing that they will ever see the photo. I did hand out lots of Ipswich Waterfront `blog contact cards so maybe they will see them after all.

Anyway, first up is the video I took of the parade starting.

Now we have a gallery of images of some of the people that made a special effort for the day.

There were lots of organisations here to support the parade on the day. Here are some of them.

Finally, I went round to the University car park where there was a gathering of lots of stalls representing the local institutions or gay pride vendors.

I was quite surprised. I expected to feel excluded but, actually, I had a great time. Everyone was friendly and making sure that they enjoyed the day. Those I ask to pose were happy to do so and didn’t even mind having a card forced (!) on them. Hopefully, this will result in some more hits on the blog.

Don’t forget that you can see any image larger by right clicking and opening on a new tab/page. Please tell all your friends and relations about the blog. I don’t get any money for this so it is a labour of love.

David

P.S. You can get me at david at bbbweb.com (replace the ” a ” with @

I was on my way to the Bella Napoli to pick up a couple of pizzas along with my camera. I had my camera because I hope to do an entry about ‘bobs’; i.e. the flags on the masthead of each Thames barge. Thistle is still here so I thought that I would grab its one.

However, after taking the required photos I notice a vision in colour, roller skating around outside the Cult Café. I asked if I could take some photos and there was a ready agreement. How about this then!

Unfortunately, I forgot to ask any names. On the way back we had a short discussion:

me: Can I ask a rude question?

vision: Depends on how rude!

Me: are you dressed like this in preparation for the Gay Pride parade?

vision: I will be there but I dress like this all year round!

I was left a bit amazed at that but what a wonderful attitude. I did take one more “ad hoc” photo though.

It’s a usual sunny day for Summer on the Waterfront. Just ideal for a trip out to Tesco for some milk! Well, it give me an excuse to take my camera out and see what is happening – there is generally something.

OK,so my wife tells me that the flowers on the podium are really lovely now as they are coming into full bloom. Is that a hint to go and have a look? ‘Course it is!

I then wandered down onto the Quay. It’s such a lovely day that I can’t resist a view down to the lock against a bright blue sky.

Unusually, we have a Thames Barge visitor. Thistle is an infrequent visitor to the Wet Dock. Today, it is waiting to go out with a group of passengers all having a good chat.

I saw it leave a few minutes after I got back from my little trip.

I was quite surprised to see a whole host of chalk drawings on the floor outside The Cult café. These seem to have been drawn by The Woodcraft Folk. Now, I was a member of these for a short time way back in my childhood in Streatham, South London. I had no idea that they were still around. Anyway, the drawings all seem to be celebrating the forthcoming Gay Pride weekend!

I went on round to Tesco for my milk and flowers. I got back in time to see Thistle leaving but I was slow with my camera so that was missed.

We have two events this weekend. Firstly there is the Gay Pride parade on Saturday morning and the Transport Museum is having its annual open day where all the local clubs open up their doors. I will be going to the IPMS Ipswich Model Show (scale plastic models) after the parade.

The wet dock was the home of Dragon Boat racing for the first time for three years. I spent quite a lot of time over the day making sure that I covered all the activities. I will use mostly photos as they are pretty self explicit.

Here is a composite video of a couple of races. I hope that the drummer for boat 4 learned to go a bit faster!

I went back down for the final race which was the fastest four teams competing against each other. It was rather crowded so I apologise for some of the angles!

The event was won by the George Baker Shipping team from Felixstowe with Ipswich Buses’ team second and FTC Gym in  third place.

All in all it was a great day and showed what a perfect place that the Waterfront is.

After a wonderful day yesterday when the Trooping of the Colour showed everyone what this country stands for, we had a day for reflection with the event at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Much quieter over here so I took a roll around the Waterfront to see how everyone was celebrating.

Well, first off, nothing to do with the Jubilee but great fun to watch. Here is a girl showing off her skills, not just as a roller skater but also as a juggler. This was in the skater’s regular haunt outside The Cult café. This is in two parts. She changed clothing after I left on my way out so the 2nd half is on my way back home.

Having been diverted from my task, I finally moved on. First off, there was an arranged event at 12.00 where the boats in the Waterfront would blow their horns etc. For some reason my camera didn’t do what I wanted so this is a bit sparse. Anyway, it gives an idea of the event.

The trouble le is that I only found out when I got home, however, even if I had known, the event was over so I couldn’t do a rerun 🙁

From there I rolled around up to the Customs House and got some images of how the residents and businesses of the Waterfront were celebrating the Jubilee. Here we go.

Well, that is it. I hope that you enjoyed the trip on a very special day.

70 years on and I can still remember watching the Coronation on a neighbour’s small black and white TV with most of the other children in the street! Mind you, it did prompt my Dad to buy our first tele so that was good.

On the first day of the celebrations Alan – of Orwell Quay Residents fame – organised a “street party” on the podium of the apartment complex. Not the largest gathering but we all had a good drink, nice party food and pleasant conversation.

All in all, we had a good time. Lots of friendly conversation and memories of past Jubilees.

One last memory from me – at the Silver Jubilee, in 1977, we were at my mother-in-law’s house in Rise Park, Romford. There was a street party organised on the green at the top of Garry Way. There was a marquee, which was just as well as it poured with rain (I remember the organ from the band getting soaked when a large puddle on the roof came in!). The big feature was a children’s hat competition. My two eldest – Samantha and Simon both were entered and Samantha won with a hat based on “four and twenty blackbirds”.