Yet another sad tale

Four years ago to the day I  posted about a young man drowning in the river, well last December it seems it may have happened again. Another young man has disappeared after a night out. As his phone, clothes and shoes were found on the bank of the river it's thought he's somehow gotten into the water. So now there's a petition to erect railings on watersides near bars and pubs. As you see below there's nothing at all to stop someone falling in and those boards can get slippy in the rain. I can see no good reason not to fence off this particular area and with the City of Culture looming shortly there's likely to be an influx of unwary strangers staggering out of the nearby hostelries who might be wondering why their feet are wet ...

On the fence

I've shown bits of this sculptural fence before (here and here) so it's time for a full reveal as it were. It belongs to a warehouse-turned-apartment block that sits alongside the river. The little adornments represent trades and things related to Hull and hereabouts.

I had a root around in my old pictures as I knew I had more from this place and put together this little collection. So that's enough of that, I think, time to get off the fence and move on.

The weekend in black and white is here.

A little bit foggy

Our new super-dooper street lights were struggling to make any impression on the wonderful thick fog that rolled in the other night. I like a nice fog even though we no longer get those glorious mournful foghorns sounding out from the river and making for that complete film noir sensation.

You looking at me?

In town on Wednesady the weather was, well, good weather for ducks shall we say. I could see the front one was eyeing me up but then I noticed the back one was as well. All of which led Margot to give me my new word for the day:

Anatidaephobia:

The well based fear that somehow, no matter where you are or what you are doing, a duck is always watching you....

Have a nice day!

Big Lil

Lillian "Big Lil" Bilocca

The only memories that I have of Hull from my childhood back in the swinging sixties in the idyllic seaside town of Hartlepool is of dock strikes (seemingly every other week), trawlers being lost at sea and a large woman in a headscarf berating all and sundry up to and including the Prime Minister about safety for trawler men. That woman, whose trademark image of the headscarf and raincoat on the grainy black and white TV of the days was really unforgettable, was Lillian Bilocca, who, along with other equally formidable women from the Hessle Road fishing community, managed to get some modicum of safety on the fishing fleet. Trawlers had to have a radio operator, come to that, trawlers had to have a radio, quite a few didn't. Why did it take a group of women to achieve these things while the men were seemingly invisible? Well that's a story for someone else to tell.

So what's all this mural about then I hear you ask? Well someone's written a book, Headscarf Revolutionaries, about all these goings on and the film rights for the book have been sold so watch out for a Hollywood blockbuster. Then the BBC program, the One Show, got involved and commissioned two fellows from Belfast (where murals like this are two a penny) to come over and paint, well, what you see. It was unveiled, if that's the word, over last weekend. And I have to say I'm impressed and I don't impress easy.

Moving upmarket

Last weekend the 99p Store became a Poundland; clearly going for the more discerning customer.

Turn that frown upside down

This being Hull even our Smiley faces are bursting into tears. Still if you look behind there's a reason to be cheerful; the pier is now mended and open again and you could dance a polka if you so desired on the new boards, just don't wear high heels.