Hot and Cold Running Round Blackpool

I found a little time on Saturday morning to run round Blackpool with a camera.

The construction work on the new Gateway site (why do I want to cringe when I hear that name?) is moving on and I wanted to get some photos before the site is totally transformed into new buildings.

The towers are the stair cases for a new building on the land just east of the old bus station, itself neatly wrapped in bubblewrap ready for the magic to be worked inside.

It was cold and windy so I decided that, having got these shots, I'd head for somewhere a bit warmer and took refuge in the Houndshill. Cold and windy always brings tears to my eyes these days and I find people giving me strangely sympathetic looks as I walk past with tears streaming down my face... Even if I beam at them I can tell they are thinking "Aw, he's putting a brave face on it but something must be wrong..."

I'm standing on what used to be Adelaide Street. These days we have Adelaide Street East - which is what we are looking towards - and Adelaide Street West, which I can look towards by the simple expedient of swivelling my hips (no, lady I am not Elvis...) around 180 degrees. My God, that hurts...

There's a whole host of forgotten streets where, until the Houndshill came along, you could stroll in the rain and drive your Ford Anglia or Morris Oxford. Now you can still walk some of them but they are tiled, not tarmacced, they have ceilings not sky and the shops on them stretch back so far they cover the next street along which has disappeared altogether.

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Book Signing

A lovely afternoon yesterday, sitting in Waterstones Blackpool, chatting to people and signing copies of my book, Blackpool Then and Now.

Sincere thanks to all those who came to see me and buy the book. Some were friends already and some were names I've seen on various forums and Facebook pages. They all seemed like friends anyway!

It would be wrong to say that copies simply flew out of the door, but it was nice to think that in that one shop, for three hours or so, the book went to the top of the bestsellers list!

The Waterstones staff were wonderful and supporting and a special thanks to Laura, who looked after me.

Waterstones Appearance

I know I've been a bit scarce here recently. I'm sorry folks, things have been a bit hectic!

Work has been busy, but for a change, not because of travelling. Well, I did zoom down to London for the day yesterday but there's not been as much zooming about as I've gotten used to!

Then we had carpet fitters round, so evenings have been spent moving furniture from one room to another, followed by ... where are those fitters... followed by "What do you mean you haven't got us booked for today - we're sitting on top of the display cabinet in the kitchen!!!"

Well it all got done in the end and looks wonderful. Now I need to get those 27 episodes of "Pointless" watched...

Then the local paper phoned me to do an interview about the Blackpool book.

The interview can be read online on the Gazette's website but the online version doesn't have all the photos I'm afraid. You'll have to buy the book for that!

Note for work colleagues - I'm still employed by the University of Northumbria and haven't defected to Cumbria!

And lastly, there's a chance to get a signed version of the book, as I'll be spending three hours in Blackpool Waterstones on Bank Hey Street tomorrow afternoon, Saturday 2 February. Hope to see you there between 12:00 noon and 3:00pm!