@neonbubble@mstdn.social
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neonbubble

@neonbubble@mstdn.social

From #Portsmouth, UK; a keen traveller, amateur photographer, professional senior software developer (.NET backend), and interested in:

#Travel #Photography #Cruise #SciFi #BadMovies #RugbyLeague #NFL #Patriots #MST3K #Architecture #Brutalism #ArtDeco #Science #Astronomy #Archaeology #History

Unless otherwise stated, all photos are by me and are CC-BY-SA 4.0.

I rarely boost those who don't boost others. I never boost images without descriptive #AltText.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

neonbubble, to Travel
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A little-known and utterly wonderful thing in Reykjavík is the Recycled House, to the north east of the main city centre. It's a home and a public art exhibition of scrap wood and metal transformed into buildings with mythological themes and elements of witchcraft and tribalism. Eerie, but excellent.

I wrote about our chance encounter here on our website:

https://www.neonbubble.com/travel/reykjaviks-recycled-house/

On a very overcast, cool-feeling day we're on dark gravel looking at what appears to be a house built from rusted girders and sheets, some of which are decorative, cut into abstract swirls. A rust sphere is mounted on a pole at the far end and a wire structure of a bird sits above a corrugated roof nearer us. The building is partly hidden behind weeds and large-leafed plants sprouting up from its own roots.
It's a cool, grey day, and we're on grey, rocky ground with shale and boulders competing for space at our feet. Ahead of us is a small building built with stone foundations and with an open front we'd likely have to duck down a little to enter. It's almost a shed in form but its roof is a jagged decoration of rusted art pieces. Girders, poles, metal spheres turned gritty and brown with exposure to the elements, and forms from the scrap that could be nearly human.
It's a cool, grey day and we're on a rocky shoreline, crouched down low among the boulders and looking out across a flat sea, grey like the clouds above. On a boulder in front of us is a sheet of metal, mounted flat on, and cut in the shape of a chunky seal, complete with flippers and whisker attachments on its face that stares out at the water.

sharongascoigne, to random

After a couple of less stressful (for me) months because it's too muddy to perform jumps on his mountain bike , my son now has purchased himself a BMX.
He's just left to bomb it around our local skate park. Marvellous.

neonbubble,
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@sharongascoigne I used to adore my blue and yellow Raleigh Burner BMX.

neonbubble, to random
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Joel sponsored by Dyno-Rod tonight.

neonbubble,
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@sharongascoigne Consider it like group matches ahead of the semi stages. Rita Ora is the usual judge in that position and she is remarkably dumb.

neonbubble,
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@sharongascoigne Our conspiracy theory is that they were told it was Dionne and that this was an easy payday for her and she shouldn't be left in the show too long. But as for the real reason for them voting her off, who knows? Public vote seems to be based on singing quality; judges choice is a mystery.

neonbubble, to random
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We met some Canadians in Alaska last summer who hadn't heard of ELO. We thought everyone in the world knew ELO. Mind you, they also couldn't pronounce coq au vin either and we thought they all spoke French as a second language there so what do we know?

neonbubble, to random
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Presently regretting chewing at my lip and exposing some flesh then accepting the offer of some Salt 'n' Vinegar crisps from my wife.

neonbubble, to random
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Late to tonight's party but we've managed to arrive just in time for the final eight hours of it.

neonbubble, to Travel
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I've started on the write-ups and photo gathering and video processing from our July 2022 visit to Reykjavík on my website (yes, that's how far behind I am) and want to share this video which epitomises just how much we love Iceland.

Art students (we guess) performing something for the public. You decide what that something is because I've no idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHVUzPuBz-w

neonbubble, to random
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The theme for is this week which I don't really do enough of if it's not on a plane or on a ship. The most I do otherwise is a little bit of occasional walking.

Divine - Walk Like A Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFiqO0Qpa_g

neonbubble, to Trains
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For a ride on one of those miniature railways you find in parks occasionally. This was at the Royal Victoria Country Park in Hampshire.

neonbubble, to Patriots
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For here's conclusive proof that I actually had girls in my room while at university and that they, like me, had an extreme aversion to being photographed. That's Carol and Vicki from left to right, and this was in a rented house in Fell Street, Liverpool in maybe 1991.

Attentive eyes may spot an Amiga Competition Pro joystick in the background and calendar photos on the wall.

neonbubble, to photography
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For here's the pebbled seafront at Selsey, a seaside town along the coast in West Sussex to the south of Chichester, and possibly most well-known in the UK as being the home of astronomer Sir Patrick Moore up until his death. In fact, on the day that this photo was taken in 2011 we tried to find his house just to see if we could see the observatory in his garden. As you do.

neonbubble, to NFL
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Watching some And Now For Something Completely Different in the gap before the game starts. This is a film I've seen so many times as it was one of the first things my parents recorded when they got a VCR back in the 1980s and it was often better than the slim offerings that live TV was showing at the time. Absolutely loving some of the locations; the pub for the Nudge Nudge sketch; the "parade ground" for camping it up. So very, very 1970s.

neonbubble, to Weather
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Another day, another live, local update.

Next door's bin has just fallen over.

neonbubble, to tv
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Had one of those weird memories pop up out of nowhere and puzzling question and answer session with my wife that eventually led me to the internet.

"Dirty Gertie from number 30," I said. "Where do I know that from?"

"The Two Ronnies?"

"No. It's not that."

"Dick Emery? Les Dawson? Feels slightly adult."

"No. Damn."

Etc.

Anyway, it turns out it's Basil Brush that we vaguely remembered it from. I like the programme description of it on TV Cream.

https://www.tvcream.co.uk/telly/tv-a-z/a-m/b-is-for/basil-brush-show-the/

neonbubble,
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@sharongascoigne

We were just remembering one of our cruises this year which took place during school holidays (which we don't normally do, but the price was good) so there were a load of kids aboard, and also Basil Brush. There were some shows and there was also a meet-and-greet-and-photo thing. We walked past the venue on the ship and the queue was enormous, but weirdly, not as many kids as you'd think in it.

neonbubble, to Weather
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In local wind news, someone's bin has just fallen over outside. But it's not our bin so we don't care.

neonbubble,
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@sharongascoigne @MathC We definitely had a lot more gusting wind and rain than our terrible phone apps suggested. Light rain, it was not. However, we're right in the middle of the city so we do get some reasonable protection from the worst of things.

neonbubble,
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@sharongascoigne @MathC Wow. We have seen a couple of waterspouts before when we've travelled but nothing around this part of the world.

neonbubble, to Travel
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One of those end-of-year list things since they're all the rage.

Amongst some return trips elsewhere, and some new cities in countries we'd visited before, we managed to hit four completely new countries for us this year so I figured I'd share a photo from each of them because that's the sort of thing I do.

The first new country was Malta. An encounter with a xenophobic bar owner aside, we enjoyed the fortifications of Valletta.

neonbubble, to random
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Time for a guilty pleasure now in the form of which we don't like for the singing and we really don't like for the judges, but which we absolutely love for the horrendously obscure "clues" to the identities. It reminds us of watching 3-2-1 with the ridiculous connections. We even occasionally guess correctly and sometimes for the right reason.

neonbubble, to Birds
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If you like animals and you like intelligence and you like intelligent animals then you're probably already a fan of corvids, and you've likely seen examples of just how smart they can be already, but that's no reason not to watch the latest video covering that very thing with New Caledonian Crows and their tool-making ability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-HF-wBwQsc

neonbubble, to random
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Good grief. I've just seen that Wetherspoon's Tim Martin has been knighted.

neonbubble, to beer
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It's all the fault of @partnumber2 putting the idea of picking these up from Asda today into my head: a four-pack of Northern Monk and Aunt Bessie's collaboration ales. I suspect they'll be taste-tested for science over this weekend.

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