Bright New Buses In Brighton

I visited Brighton again today to view the brand new Scania OmniCity double deckers entering service on the orange ’Metro’ 5 route. I must say they are very impressive beasts! Nice comfortable Esteban seats which are much better than the previous MTB variety, hopefully this will be the end of faded seat back handles! The interior is quite dark though with the blue walls and window pillars combined with the dark grey seat backs but I do not find this a problem. The heater (which is located in a Wright Eclipse style ’saddle’ above the staircase) was very warm and I was actually sweating while there was an ‘artic’ chill outside! Overall 8/10, it would have been 10/10 if it were not for the terrible drivers.

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Another Milk Float!

After a couple of close misses I finally got another photograph of a Milk Float today, this one being different to the previous one. It is still a Dairy Crest Smiths Elizabethan but is a newer version of it and it is in the latest livery. The batteries have either been changed or refurbished as, as you can see, they are very clean!

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New National Express Coaches!

At long last Portsmouth have recieved new coaches for National Express services! This is because Tellings Golden Miller have pulled out for some reason with Lucketts Travel taking over National Express duties and Stagecoach South taking over the Hoverbus. Twelve new Caetano Levantes were brought in to operate the National Express services which provide a much more comfortable and dignified journey. Certainly a lot more cheaper than the train nowadays and easier than driving the car to London.

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The Krypton Factor Episode 3

This will be my last review of the new generation Krypton Factor as it has settled down now. Although very largely the same as last weeks episode, this time the Mental Ability round has got even more stupid (you have to see it to believe it!) and the russish assault course.

Where is the assualt course? It is at Adrenalinny in North Yorkshire!

I rather like this new version of The Krypton Factor after all we have been waiting over a decade for its return so we shouldn’t complain about it.

My Newspapers

Due to being bored and not having much to do for a considerable amount of time each and every day, I buy many newspapers.

Daily (National)

The Sun: Yes the most well known tabloid newspaper in Britain, the original, the one everyone buys. The perfect combination of brief readable articles to celebrity gossip as well as the infamous ‘Page 3′ Girl! All of this makes a truly British newspaper? No, it is completely the opposite. The masthead and layout are pleasing to the eye which makes it easier to read.

Daily Express: This is the supposedly more upmarket version of The Sun but is actually a carbon copy, it has the same articles and sometimes the same images! The masthead and design/layout are boring to look at and puts me off reading it but I buy it as a companion prefers it to The Sun.

 

The Daily Telegraph: My favourite National Daily newspaper. Not only is it truly upmarket but provides lengthy article that you can read during the long afternoons while watching Countdown. Not many images but this is a price worth paying so we don’t have to read celebrity rubbish. The layout is hard to follow being a Broadsheet newspaper but Broadsheets are more British than the nasty american Tabloid of the new ‘Belinger’ formats so it is definately worth the inconvienience.

Regional, Daily

West Sussex Gazette: Yes I know I live in Hampshire but as this is a local broadsheet newspaper (a format which we should all be supporting) which covers many parts of the eastern most parts of Hampshire I thought I would give it a go. I also lets me see what people ‘across the border’ are getting up to.

 

The News (or as I still refer to it as – The Portsmouth Evening News): My local daily newspaper. As with all local newspapers across England it is normally full of pets in trouble and old ladies with short white hair scaling down the side of the local council offices. Occasiaonally it has marginally interesting stories such as bus news and building news. It has two editions – The Portsmouth Edition (although the masthead doesn’t mention this) and the Havant and Waterlooville edition. Very colourful which makes it easy to read. Also every thurdays you get a round up of the previous weeks news in a free newspaper called The Journal.

Regional, Weekly

Hampshire Chronicle: Yes the ultimate, the top dog, the superb newspaper. The best stories of the week from all over Hampshire. I only discovered this newspaper while searching Wikipedia, I never realised that the best newspaper in the world was right under my nose all these years! It is an English (my term for Broadsheet) newspaper and has the best combination of Lengthy articles and large images. Although it has some celebrity articles at least they are only related to local celebrities. Proper articles about Post Office closures etc and not Grannies scaling important buildings. Also isn’t that the best masthead you have ever seen? Real News, Real Newspaper, Real Layout, this is the Hampshire Chronicle!

BBC One Still Nods

Oh don’t we miss this famous globe!? With ‘Nodding’ cameras providing a mechanical masterpiece for many years, no computers just a touch of an electronic button changed it into this clear coloured Globe. Later this evolved into a ‘yellow green’ globe on a blue background, then we went into the computerised world of ‘COW’s then ‘Crystal Ball’s until it finally went live action again for a while in the ‘Balloon’s but later additions to the latter set were computer generated. Nowadays the globe is gone but a subtle ‘nod’ remains.

It has been more than two years since BBC One relaunched with it’s new ‘Circles’ look. I must say I enjoyed a break from it during last Christmas as we saw Wallace & Gromit going round in endless circles on Plasticinesnowy hills. I was quite saddened when they returned on New Years Day to the normal Idents, especially since they have been using the original six more often than before last Christmas.

In 2007 additions were added to the set and these were quite different to the originals in terms of music style and presentation. They discontinued having something red in the Ident and the red ’swoop’ in the form up were dispensed with. The music no longer had the characteristic ‘three beeps’ though the melody has stayed but now played in the same style as the rest of the soundtrack.

The latest addition was in October 2008, this being ‘Dogs’ not long after ‘Capes’ was shown for the first time. These being prime examples of the above paragraph. I must say I prefer the additions rather than the original set for the above reasons and I hope that more are on the way.

Celebrating 100+ EIIR Pillar Boxes!

I have now located and photographed over one hundred Elizabeth II Post boxes! Being the latest Monarch there are very few different designs.

Pillar Boxes: The main types being Type A Pillar boxes. Sometimes you do find some gems such as a Type G (or ‘Square’) Pillar box or a Type K which are of the classic eighties modular design, these are often found in council and industrial estates.

In my opinion the Type K is one of the most good looking Pillar boxes I have seen but unfortunately the locks were badly designed and often corroded so the Type K was discontinued in 2001 and replaced with ‘modern’ versions of the traditional Type A Pillar box. The difference to the original being the far larger aperture (10 inches).

Lamp Boxes: These are perhaps as common now as the Pillar box due to the decline in writing letters thus not needing the much larger Pillar box. The Lamp box has had three different variations over it’s lifetime, the 1897 Pattern, 1935 Pattern and the 1940 Pattern (which was replaced by the similar 1977 Pattern). Of course only the 1940 and 1977 Patterns were produced with the EIIR Cipher. Being so many Lamp Boxes these days means they very quickly get boring to look at which is why I would rather search the countryside for a decent 1897 or 1935 Pattern Lamp Boxes (which didn’t have the EIIR Cipher).

Wall Boxes: There are relatively few Elizabeth II Wall Boxes due to them being discontinued in 1980. This means there are a good lot of older Wall Boxes especially from Victoria. The decline of writing letters meant that the Wall Box was not needed as it’s needs could be met by a Lamp Box or Pillar Box. These often appear in the walls of Train Station buildings.

Click here to see my full collection of photographs of Post Boxes!

And yet another one!

I found another K6 Telephone Box today (along with two EIIR Post boxes) along St. Peter’s Road on Hayling Island. Although this one is very tatty and badly maintained, all finds of these old Telephone Boxes are important especially as British Telecom announced that over 150 Telephone Boxes in the area are to go (which includes 50 red Telephone Boxes), so you must photograph them while you can!

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More Telephone Boxes!

I braved the ‘artic’ chill in search of Telephone Boxes in Old Portsmouth which is part of (you guessed it) Portsmouth. Knowing there were two in the area I was very happy and surprised to find another one. The locations are;

1. Grand Parade, just of Penny Street (pictured right).
2. Broad Street near the Round Tower.
3. Broad Street near The Spice Island Inn.

I think this was well worth all that walking around by the sea.

To view these photographs and others I took today please click here!

The Krypton Factor Episode 2

Was yesterdays Krypton Factor any better than last weeks? NO! Somehow they made it even worse by dumbing down the intelligence round, this time they have to place Hockey Pucks on a board of square lights. When a puck is placed on a square on the board a number of lights light up around it. The idea is that by placing the pucks in the correct order all of the lights will light to form a large rectangle shaped light!

How dull, right? The worst bit of all this is the fact there is a time limit, yes a time limit! In the original version of the Krypton Factor the Intelligence round used to go on for hours until three of the four contestants solved the puzzle, there was no time limit.

However the rest of the programme is still the same as last weeks (except of course the Mental Agility round which I think is the only interesting bit about the revival) so it will get boring very quickly, especially the nasty Assault Course.

Click Here if you want to see my review of Episode 1 of The Krypton Factor!

Click Here if you want to see my review of Episode 3 of The Krypton Factor and to find out where the Assualt Course is!

(Screenshots are Copyright ITV 2009)