Here are a selection of the products of some of my lunchtime walks in February and March 2012, starting with one of my favourite #lookupleeds images, taken in the underused Grand Arcade:
Not strictly a lunchtime walk; this is the end of one of the remaining back to back terraces in East End Park one sunny morning:
More not-taken-on-a-lunchtime, here's a handful of snaps one sunny evening shortly after the clocks when forward. The first two were taken from the ninth-floor canteen in my office block, while the third is the view looking back up Eastgate towards the eveing sun:
The end of the Brotherton Wing of the Leeds General Infirmary always looks a little like a cruise ship to me:
This is one end of the tunnel that takes the A58(M) Leeds Inner Ring Road underneath the LGI:
Solo M/Cs Only:
And here's the view of what becomes of the A58(M) - the A64 to Scarborough starts here as the York Road:
Here is a wall, in Stanningley. I waited here at a bus stop for 45 minutes hoping for a bus to take me back home across the city. The service is supposedly every 20 minutes. Can you tell I was bored:
Shop wall, East End Park:
The Corn Exchange's magnificent:
Finally, here are the lifts at the House of Fraser department store:
Yonbeek (Olly) asked me if he could use my perpetually-almost comprehensive pictures of all of the blue plaques in the Leeds postcode area for a university project he was doing. I said yes.
Now he has completed his website. Take a look here.
Ox is for Oxford, Fam is for family. Ox Fam. Geddit?
Anyway, so we went recently to Oxford to surprise Gemma's cousin Laura who recently turned 18. Gemma's mum and sister also went, travelling down after us and almost managing to arrive after midnight.
We stopped, as usual, at her parents spacious home, and with the sun out we were able to enjoy the garden.
We got to stay an extra day, and on the Bank Holiday Monday we went for a walk, via South Park...
...to Magdalen College, where Bernard currently works. We got to walk through the private grounds, before having a look round some of the buildings, including his room, and the chapel.
By the way, the surprise was well executed, with me and Olive detaining Laura in a children's park on Cowley Road just long enough for her family and friends to muster themselves in the kitchen.
It seems hard to remember that we had a spell of really quite reasonable weather at the end of March. We both took the day of on Gemma's birthday and drove up to the Dales, soon arriving at Jervaulx Abbey. Here we enjoyed a picnic, surrounded by the crumbled remains of the 12th century monastery, itself nestled within a setting best described as being like the kind of country roads with which postman Pat would be familiar.
We drove home across the Dales. We stopped to let some farmers and their dogs heard a few score sheep from one field to another, and spotted the smoke of a fire drifting over the top of one of the hills, before pausing at Kettlewell for a cup of tea and a paddle in the chilly Wharf.
Back home that evening, I sketched a reminder of the day for Olive as she enjoyed a much-needed bath.
The newly developed and much anticipated City Park opened in Bradford a couple of weeks ago. We went there with the Viponds. I didn't see the 'tallest fountain in any UK city' (a fairly qualified boast, that), and the vast throngs obscured and indeed paddled in the mirror pools. After straining and ultimately failing to hear the brass band, we repaired to the relative calm of the Media Museum.
We stayed over, and the next day they took us to a lovely little spot called St. Ives, near Bingley. We'd not heard of it before, but it was a beautiful area on top of a hill to have a spot of lunch and a stroll, followed by a go on the park (for the kids) and a go on the ice creams (all).
The first pram we bought was a Quinny, a Buzz 3 model. Olive has long-since been upgraded to a stroller-style pushchair, and it has recently been on loan to Deb, Neil and Lucas.
Whilst in their custody the mechanism to raise the height of the handle failed. We've now had the Quinny back but plan to loan it out again soon, this time to one of Neeley's expecting friends.
So, we've looked into getting the handle repaired. Gemma found that the manufacturers would charge us £72. But, as Daddy Pig would say, I'm a bit of an expert at fixingthings. So I thought i'd give it a go.
After removing the plastic cladding on the handle I immediately found the cause of the trouble: cable breakage. I also established that I would definitely need to detach the whole handle to gain access to its inner workings, but even this apparently simple procedure proved confounding. It was only when I searched online for help that I stumbled across the following vital assistance:
Handle now removed, I found that the end of the cable featured a bespoke end-piece to secure it in its fixing. So I fired of an email to Quinny, in the hope that they might be willing to sell me a cable in return for money. I received the following miserly reply:
I'm afraid the cables inside the handle on the Quinny Buzz are not available therefore the complete handle will need to be replaced.
As your Buzz is not covered by any warranty there will be a charge of £72 for a full safety inspection and replacement of the handle at our repair centre based in Suffolk which includes the collection of the frame from your home address and also the return. In order to make arrangements for this, please contact our customer care team on 01284 413141 between 8.30am - 4.30pm Monday thru Friday. An advisor will take full details from you and the £72 charge and provide you with a reference number. This needs to be clearly marked on the outside of the box that the unit is being returned in so that when it arrives the engineers can match up your unit with the computer record created and get it inspected, repaired, and dispatched back to your address as promptly as possible.
With kind regards,
On behalf of the Quinny team, Becky Smith
Uh-huh. I understand. You're a business, and your model includes making profits from out-of-warranty repairs to your products. Fine. But don't forget, I'm a DIY 12th dan, a repair ninja, with a masters in mending from the University of Recycling, Reconstruction and Restoration.
I sourced a new cable of appropriate thickness and a pack of 'Crimp Connector Butts' (me neither) that I figured I could use to join two cables together; remember, I would need to use the good end of the existing cable.
I took one of the Crimp Connector Butts and threaded the two cables, which I then cut, allowing sufficient spare length at both ends to make adjustments in case of measuring error. When I was happy with the positioning of the cables I squeezed the Connectors with the wire cutters on my pliers. This created a permanent connection between the two cables.
It was only when I put the handle back together that I found my 'new' single cable to be exactly 3mm too short. This tiny error meant that the catch was permanently depressed, and therefore the handle could only be used properly in its lowest position.
I decided that I would need to buy a second new cable and start again the next day. Fast forward 24 hours, and taking a little more care with my measuring, and I was rewarded with a perfect fit.
After testing, I popped the handle back onto the frame of the pram, and adopted the slightly smug glow of a man who has eaten a little too much Ready Brek.
So, £2.99 spent, £72 saved. Net saving: £69.01
And, as a final action, I have sent a link to this post to Becky Smith. If she reads this she might learn that business is a two-way street, where post-purchase customer care and, dare I say, gestures of goodwill, are important. For want of sending me a part that costs no more than a couple of pounds (a price I was happy to pay), she has most likely lost any future custom we may have considered putting in the direction of Quinny.
The radiator in our hallway has recently been slowly and quietly oozing an effluent the colour and consistency of treacle. I think it is water seeping through the increasingly rusting valves.
I've been meaning to do something about it for a while, but I was finally spurred to action when I saw a contact on Twitter mention late one evening that their bedroom radiator had burst, causing a fair bit of damage.
The first step I took, this being 2012, was to fire-up the Internet to search the phrase 'how to replace a radiator'. Because, I've never done this before. I figured it couldn't be too hard, and the two video guides I watched seemed to confirm this view. Another search located a replacement radiator of the correct size at Wickes, and for only £20, I was well on the way to another excellent saving.
It was easy to take off the old radiator. Just loosen, bleed, and remove. I did this in 15 minutes. Here I hit my first snag - the old brackets were too high on the wall for the new radiator. "No problem Tom, just go to the cupboard to get your drill...erm, Gemma, where is our drill?" Gemma now reminded my that I had lent it to her sister. Who was at work. Until 7pm. I sent her a message, and two hours later I was able to arrange to get her keys from her and pick up the drill from her flat. Back in business.
Once the radiator was in place, I found that it needed some new valve connectors, you know, to connect the radiator to the valves. The old ones were no good to use, so this necessitated a trip to B&Q. They only sold whole valves, so I had to pay a little more than I wanted, but by now the house had cooled right down and I was keen to get the job finished.
I connected the valves and commenced re-filling. Uh-oh! Both connectors were leaking. I hadn't tightened them nearly enough, and I didn't have the correct tool, a radiator spanner. So, back to B&Q to buy one, plus some sealing tape for good measure.
A week or so ago we took ourselves off to Center Parcs for a long weekend, post Christmas / New Year break.
We weather was damp and cold, but that didn't matter. Olive went horse riding and we made plentiful use of the Subtropical Swimming Paradise. One morning, I spotted four red squirrels in quick succession, and when we go back later this year (with Gemma's mum, Neeley and Alex) I reckon we'll make up a wildlife list for Olive to tick off.
I've taken my camera out with my on a couple of lunchtime rambles. Here are the arranged pixels:
I've walked through Queen Square, but for some reason I've never noticed the picturesque juxtaposition of the two-storey terraces and the glacial high-rises beyond. The small buildings almost seem like a dam, holding back the tide of the last 50 years' progress.
Not strictly out and about, this is the view from the ninth-floor canteen of my office building on The Headrow, looking west over The Light shopping centre towards the Town Hall.
One vaguely bright and cold day I look a lift up to the top of the Merrion Centre Car Park to check out the view. There's quite a bit of concrete to be seen on this side of town.
Again, not the product of a lunchtime amble, but the two-mile walk home has its fair share of opportunities.
In the middle of 2011 I moved offices, from my base of seven years on Neville Street, to a building on The Headrow.
We all hate change, of course, but I must say that apart from the canteen, which is marginally worse, my new location is better for, amongst other things, its proximity to the top end of Leeds, where more of the shops, bars and restaurants are located.
At first, however, I missed my lunchtime canal- and river-side walks. No longer could I get out of the office for 40 minutes and see only a handful of other people. Now, it was streets chock-full of shoppers, workers, cars and buses. Slowly but surely, I have had to tweeze new routes of interest to occupy my lunchtime pedestrian urges.
And some of these locations have inevitably found their way through the lens of my camera...
The three pictures above were taken around Millennium Square. Home of the seasonal Christkindlmarkt, Leeds Museum, the Civic Hall, the Electric Press Theatre, and numerous bars and restaurants, this area of Leeds is actually one of my favourite spaces. The top photo is of a restaurant at The Spice Quarter, whilst the other two are of the 1930s Civic Hall.
Another nearby shopping centre, in fact the closest to my new office, is The Light. I appreciate the retention of the original buildings in the design.
Talking of shopping, the area to the north of Eastgate is earmarked for development into a new shopping 'quarter'. This would involve the destruction many of the existing streets and buildings, including the small Chinatown area. Presumably in anticipation of this, many of the businesses have either moved or closed down entirely, as evidence in the second picture. The first, meanwhile, shows the long empty British Road Services offices just off Eastgate.
One of the things I have had to do since moving offices is test the perimeters imposed by my lunch hour. I can easily reach both these colourful apartments just off North Street, or the Dental Hospital.
As well as the many thriving precincts and arcades Leeds boasts, there are also plenty of less well off relatives. The St. Johns and Merrion Centres fit the latter category, but one of my early probing jaunts led me to discover the delightful Merrion Market. Largely, though not wholly abandoned, I understand this forgotten consumer corner is set to be obliterated later this year.
Leeds has changed a great deal even in the few years it has been my home. The Civic Quarter and around the Universities are two areas that have seen much development. Tucked behind the Civic Hall is the Rose Bowl, whilst these distinct, shocking (in a good way, I think) student flats stand on the site formerly occupied by the BBC studios.
Here's the surprisingly quiet scene one lunchtime in the upstairs dining area of Bagel Nash, in Thornton's Arcade, off Briggate.
The final four snaps were taken from the top deck of the Woodhouse Lane Car Park. There's another view of Broadcasting Tower, plus views of Woodhouse Lane, The Ship (a pub in a boat) and the A58(M) Inner Ring-road.
There's always something new to notice, or a fresh angle to be had in a large city like Leeds, so I hope the recent wet and windy weather will cease soon, allowing me to recommence my lunchtime walks.
