ya daily cyberia: Grey Sky Palate Cleanser

After that Russell Brand post I feel a palate cleanser is in order. So we're getting some photos.

I visited Redcar last week. Naturally, with it being November, it was looking a bit grey. The sea and the sky competing for bleakness. Still, despite the brisk weather, it was a nice day out. I did some Christmas shopping, got some chips, dodged some seagulls, and even visited the arcade to get some copper 2ps. Like an odd little nerd.

I always love looking at all the buildings when I visit places. All the houses and shopfronts. The little quirks and oddities. Buildings made a good while back - back before the 1950s and 60s - seem to be so much bigger and ornate. Even family homes and simple seaside hotels. There'll be little turrets and other flourishes. I can't help but wonder how expensive it must be to do maintenance on these big old buildings. There were a few that were in disrepair and you wonder how a pensioner or family would pay the cost. They maybe bought their home or hotel a long time ago, or inherited it from richer forebears - not even richer in fact, just forebears that lived in a time when houses were bigger and the overheads weren't as extortionate. Now that's a luxury. A small newbuild Lego-brick style house is expensive. It's similar with shops. You wonder how a local café can sell enough tea and coffee to pay the electricity bill and everything else.

The building that most caught my eye was this church. As with the seafront it would've been preferable to photograph it in the flush of summer, but even cast in grey it looks impressive. I always wonder how much it costs to maintain all these old churches. It must be expensive too. Our recent ancestors built all these buildings with seeming ease, yet we struggle just to maintain them. I'll only consider AI truly successful once we have robots - construction site scale 3D printers - that can quickly and cheaply do the repair work.

A little path to South Bank..

Now we have some photos from a little closer to home. The other day, in equally grey weather, I wandered down a path I'd never tread before. It took me under a bridge. I've walked across the bridge maybe a hundred times or more, but I'd never tread the path below. I was surprised to find some artwork. Not quite in the same league as the church, but something I wasn't expecting nevertheless.