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A walk in Newcastle

Wednesday, 16th March 2005 11:03 pm

I took a couple of days off work[1] and decided to use one of them (Monday 14 March, if you really want to know… ) to take a longish walk around Newcastle. I had a good look around the always lovely Laing Art Gallery and the Discovery Museum, which I hadn’t been to for over a year. And while I was wandering around, I took a few pictures.

I walked across the High Level Bridge, which is currently closed to traffic while the wooden deck under the road surface is replaced. As the bridge is a Grade I listed building, it has to be restored with original materials. This is what lies under the tarmac road surface:

Wood you believe it?

 

Looking across from the bridge, I got this picture of a former warehouse which now contains some of Newcastle’s most outrageously expensive apartments.

Nice little flats

 

When I reached the Laing, I took a closer look at the Blue Carpet. This is one of Newcastle’s many public artworks - it’s a public square covered with this blue tiling. What I’d never noticed before (and I’ve seen it many times) was that a corner of the “carpet” is slightly folded:

Carpet!

 

On my way to Discovery, I passed this interesting sculpture thingy, which I’d somehow managed to not notice previously:

InterestingNice reflections

 

Finally, I remembered to take a look at the new Chinese Arch, which was completed for the Chinese New Year recently. It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting:

From the side Nice, innit? So much detail

 

I couldn’t get a full shot from the front without playing with the traffic, so here’s a shot from behind:

Arch with nasty stadium behind

 

There are some really nifty lions at the foot of the arch:

A lion.

 

And finally, I had to include this, to maintain my geek credentials. The publicity for the new Doctor Who series is everywhere. TV teasers, magazine articles, even ads on 6 Music. And posters:

Woo Who Who Who!!

 

[1] Has to be done now and then to preserve what’s left of my sanity

Coming along nicely

Wednesday, 16th March 2005 9:43 pm

This morning’s weight was a quite pleasing 203.4 pounds (14 stone 7.4 pounds, 92.3kg). More random fluctuation, most likely, but still nice to see it :smile:

And this evening’s exercise routine was a good one. The same stuff as usual[1], but I worked pretty hard at it, and got my heart rate up to a maximum of 158, which is pretty good.

I just need to do that once more this week - probably tomorrow night…

[1] 10km on the bike, 160 crunches[2], three sets with the weights, one set on the Bullworker and 18 minutes on the rower