Life in a cold climate

This pavement plaque is part of the Seven Seas Fish Pavement that I have mentioned before [ 1 ]. This one is an Icefish something which I'd never heard of. Turns out these creatures have somehow managed to mangle up the gene for haemoglobin production which under normal circumstances would come under the heading of 'not recommended'. However they live as proof that variety is indeed the spice of life. Living in very cold Antarctic waters, where the oxygen levels are higher than in warm water, they hang on in there. They're also translucent as the best picture on Wikipedia clearly shows here. There's an informative article here.

Talking about the struggle for survival, the Seven Seas fish oil factory in Hull has been scheduled for closure. The firm blames the country's economy, personally I blame the fact they didn't employ me when I applied for a job there 25 years ago. Anyhow that's another 250 people who may lose their job as we confidently stride out of recession, or not.

From Victoria Pier

This is the view towards the river Hull from what is now called the Victoria Pier but which used to be called the Corporation Pier and from which ferries ran across the Humber to New Holland.  I thought the gull deserved a close-up for not flying away while this idiot was lining it up for the shot.

City Daily Photo's In Focus features an interview with me covering cynicism, romanticism, Philip Larkin and other bits and bobs about photography and Hull. Though I say it myself it's far from boring. Read it here.

Voter apathy

Yesterday (Thursday) we had elections for police and crime commissioners. These individuals are to replace the established and functioning local police authorities. Despite it being the first election of its type enthusiasm for this vote is lower than low, estimates of a 10-15% turnout have been made. Due to very poor publicity no-one seems to know who is standing or what qualities are needed for the job. As one of the candidates was John Prescott a former Labour MP,  cabinet minister indeed deputy prime minister no less I went along just to vote against him. The choice of a church for a polling station was apt since God only knows what's going to happen with this vote.

The only sign

Oh this is a pub sign for sure but the pub is gone. The Oberon on Queen Street is no more and now a set of luxury apartments and a property developer (what else?) has taken over. Only this sign and, strangely, the pub name remain of this once fine hostelry

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Taxi rank

These are licensed cabs at Paragon Station or, should I say, Hull Interchange. You can hail one in the street for a ride that's if you can find one because they tend to queue up at this rank or the one across the road. Because they charge not only for distance travelled but also time taken these are much, much more expensive than hire cars which you can ring up for or go to a firm's offices which are dotted about town. If there's three or more of you I'd recommend getting a hire car it'll be cheaper than the bus.

Cliché

"If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office."  George Lucas 

Bridge for the living

Last year was the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Humber Bridge. Since then, as I may have mentioned, the tolls have have been reduced by half with increased traffic of 7% so that's good news all round. I was prompted to post this picture by one those plaques to do with the Larkin Trail that pepper the city in various places. This one by the old ferry landing pier.

This mentions a cantata called 'Bridge for the Living' written to celebrate the completion of the bridge so a little trip to You Tube found the following. Some of the pictures are pretty and you can always turn the sound off.