South Shields Pixels

My new blog thing

I have a new blog!

South Shields Pixels will be the place where I can put stuff that doesn’t kind of fit elsewhere, I will be using it to experiment with photographs, pictures, illustrations and other graphics, but please don’t expect it to be updated daily or even regularly once it is established. I’ll up date as and when I have something appropriate to add to ir.

I hope you will drop by and leave your comments as usual, I’d like to be able to share reciprocal links with CDP bloggers and others who have additional sites to share, I’ll probably need to create an additional page to accomodate them. If you are interested in sharing links please email me

south-shields[at]blueyonder.co.uk

Bottoms Up!

Tilesheds nature reserve

Two ducks out hunting for food at the Tilesheds nature reserve on the edge of South Shields.

Bottoms Up! This is an expression we often use when out drinking and socialising, representing the upturned glass as we empty the contents down our throats. I suppose we use a lot of expressions like this around the world - “cheers”, “salute”, bon appetite” etc.

I don’t suppose the ducks have a special “quack” expression when it’s time for social eating and drinking.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 165mm lens, /750 second, f6.7, iso 200

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Last ride

Metroland to close

The New Metroland is an indoor funfair at Gateshead’s Metrocentre, packed full with all of the usual rides, such as this roller coaster. Unfortunately it’s time to grab those last rides before the Metroland finally closes on the 20th. of this month to make way for a new multi-screen cinema.

I’ll show one more picture from Metroland tomorrow before returning to South Shields pictures.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 55mm lens, 1/250 second, f4.5, iso 400

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Chronicles of Narnia

Aslam and the Ice Queen

Whilst we took a day trip from South Shields to the Metro Centre in Gateshead we noticed that there was plenty of entertainment for the children. In the “Town Square” area a stage had been erected and regular shows of The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) were taking place during the afternoon. We stayed and watched the show from the head of an escalator to the first floor, and there were probably in the region of a hundred children sat on the floor watching the show, whilst the parents carried on with the shopping.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 82mm lens, 1/180 second, f5.6, iso 800

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Mulhall’s Bar

The half time dash

Most of us in the CDP community have our own favourite sports teams and Curly in South Shields is no different to the rest of us. I have followed Sunderland AFC since 1964 when my father started taking me to games at the old Roker Park (it’s only 7 miles from South Shields). We now play in the very modern Sunderland Stadium of Light, and those of you familiar with the Premier League in the UK will know that Sunderland have faced an uphill struggle to establish themselves in the league this season. As is common with the fans at most football games (soccer to you lot in the USA) there is nearly always a dash to the bar at half time, and on Saturday it felt like all 45,690 fans were trying to squeeze into Mulhall’s Bar in the North West upper corner of the ground.

There are many catering outlets in the stadium offering the usual fare, pies, pasties, sausage rolls, burgers, hot dogs, tea, coffee, bovril, coke, beer etc., as well as better quality restaurants with a wider and higher quality choice.

They are named after famous players who played for the club in years gone by; George Mulhall, for example, played in the team that won promotion to the old First Division in 1964. He was a Scottish international outside left and played for Aberdeen before being transferred to Sunderland in 1962 for £25,000. He won three caps for Scotland and played more than 250 times for Sunderland, including a record 125 consecutive games, he scored 66 goals for the club.

Oh yes, incidentally we beat West Ham United 2 - 1 on Saturday.

Camera details: Konica Minolta Dimage Z3, 35mm lens, 1/13 second, f2.8, iso 200 (Hand held so it’s a little shaky, and I’ve used a familiar tint and tone action in Photoshop).

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