Out with the old.

16th November 2015. The start of the demolition of the old council officers in Barnsley, the building in the centre of the photo.

A crowd gathering outside the bus station to see the first moves, the Mayor of Barnsley can be seen among them.   Before the event started there was a firework display which many people including me think was in bad taste. We were in the indoor market knew nothing about what was going off when suddenly all that could be heard was lots of repeat bangs like machine gun fire, this was only days after the atrocities that had gone on in Paris, half the market traders were unaware of what was happening.

Crunch. Cuts through concrete like a knife through butter.

I have been told this machine cost £4,500 a day to use and £2,500 when it stands idle.

Una soon loses interest in the demolition work. The multistory car park we are on is due to come down March 2016 along with the indoor market.  

The building with the tower is the car park above the indoor market, the next thing to go.

8/12 /15.

20/12/15

20/1/16.

The large digger is on the move to the other end of the building.

Another approach 25/1/16 work is well on the way.

5/2/16. the last day of work, the machine is to be off site tomorrow.

The sky is blue but it is a cold day 38'F

Another market day, the building is almost down. It is going to be replaced with a temporary market hall which is supposed to open mid March?!?! So that the demolition of the car park and indoor market can commence.

I hope I am wrong but I think this will be the end for Barnsley.
Wakefield and Sheffield both had fantastic markets, the planers moved in knocked them down replaced them with smaller more expansive units but they have never taken off, the change killed them off.
                           
                                                             GROUND ZERO 12/03/16
                                                            ***********************

The next place to go is where I am standing, the multi storey car park.
Structurally there is nothing wrong with the building all it needs in my opinion is a make over.

       

Ford make good exhausts.

I had the exhaust and catalytic converter changed yesterday to my surprise it was the original one from new.
It had done 97,547 miles, better than that it is 16 years old. I will be lucky if I get 3years out of the replacement. 

This is me,,, no more talking agout sickness on this blog.

The treatment.
The tests the medicine all free on the National Health. From cradle to grave, where else on earth can you get this?

Getting to the bottom of my joint pain.

Over the last three months my body has felt as though I have had the physical symptoms of influenza.
Week on week getting worse and worse until on new years eve day I went to see my doctor and told him all my troubles.
He was very good listened then made an appointment for some blood test the following week, told me what it could be and that it was not necessarily arthritis which is what I thought was.
Got the results from the tests back, he has put me on steroids I will be on them at least three months.
Once you are on steroids you just can not stop them yourself you have to come down slowly reducing the dosage month on month.
Sounds like a kill or cure thing to me, I will say this after two days on the steroids I feel great no pain.
Side effects I might get a body like the Hulk and turn green. 

Another first for me.

 The other Camellia in our garden has a bloom on it today, like the red one it usually flowers March/April. We have had so much rain this past month it probably thinks it's Summer.

The problem with being first, it can be very lonely!

The 2nd Wedding Reception.

My nephew Christopher and his wife Claire were married on the 28th November in the Royal Navy Chapel Portsmouth. All his navy friends his mum dad and sister and babies went to it. Claire's family coming from down south also went she's a Dorset girl.

It takes some doing getting us Yorkshire folk out of Yorkshire so his mum and dad put a do on for friends and family from up here on the 27th December, hence the 2nd reception and a good do it was.  

Christmas day 2015.

It's years since it rained on Christmas day, almost never snows.

Steven and Stuarts presents, looks extravagant but really it is two supermarket shops all wrapped up to look nice. Una starts looking for bargains in September then spends hours wrapping them up for Christmas.

My pile.

Una's pile.

I have never understood why women like Christmas, they do all the shopping all the cooking and still find time to laugh.

 Our Steven just said something that cracked her up.

A first for me.

The Camellia in our garden has a bloom on it Una spotted it this morning, usual flowering time is the end of March beginning of April definitely not December.

If this is global warming bring it on.

What happened to November?

The morning after Halloween.

Doncaster Frenchgate have got their Christmas Trimmings up.

Bonfire night 5th November which just happens to be my dads birthday he would have been 106 today.

Another pavement to drop and a drive to lay, this time I am watching someone else do it my shoulders still ache from doing the last one! 

The day after remembrance day we were in Rotherham Minster saying goodbye to Jack Platts
a man I had worked alongside for many years. 

15th A visitor from York my nephew Martin and wife Sarah and baby Alicia. 

16th Barnsley demolition of the old council officers started today.

21st First snow this winter which soon thawed out then froze killing all my Dahlias off.

First time this winter that the windscreen has frozen over.

26th Nov Went up to the allotment to say goodbye for the winter. I think I have finished with it for good.