The week that was..

Hello Blog watchers...frustrated Mr Smith here.  I continue to have teeth clenching, fist balling, blue air making, new swear word inventing, tantrum throwing, I.T hating computer issues with my pathetic human hating, tempramental, period having, piece of s***e silicon hardware croc of excrement known as my laptop.  So, and breathe, my postings are limited at present to those occasions when i can access a laptop or pc that has bluetooth (for the photos).  This is limited more than i can believe but there you are.  Unfortunately most of my friends and associates have I.T. that Fred Flintstone would find old and regressive.

Anyway, here i am for now and what have I been up to I here you ask whilst dialing for those men in crisp white coats to come and pay me a visit ..

This week I have driven 611 miles on behalf of HMRC visiting the absolute delight of Canterbury then followed by the total despair of Croydon.  Guess which one is the archetypal old English town with the historic and beautiful Catherdral surrounded by wonderful historic medieval streets and feeling of 'Englishness' and tranquility and which one is a city sprawl rampant with an immigration population explosion, road rage, aggression, site of the recent City riots and a feeling of total and utter despair at the lack of 'Englishness'...?

I took the odd picture of Canterbury Catherdral at night...

After having checked into my hotel in Canterbury after a 6 hour drive from home (delays around the London urban sprawl and the Blackwall tunnel, Fog on the approaches to Canterbury on the M2) I relaxed by strolling around the Cathedral which was lit up for the night.  It's a huge Cathedral with many old buildings surrounding it and walkways down medieval passages. 

It certainly had that 'atmospheric feel' to the place..

Here's a view of the passageways i found myself in...



An amazing place to walk around on your own at night...



Impossible to capture even half the Cathedral in one shot...

Here's Ollie and myself enjoying the fireworks at Baildon Rugby club on Bonfire night..





They were good fireworks eh Ollie?





It's Children in need time and here is a piece of art that ollie made for his Mum and Dad that we bought for £6 each with proceeds going to Children in Need...good pic Ollie!



It's Christmas (well almost) and that means School photo time!  lol

Whilst driving into Croydon on Wednesday I passed the old Art Deco buildings of Croydon Airport.

This was the first London airport and opened in 1920 and was the first airport to introduce Air Traffic Control.  It was also a famous WWII Battle of Britain fighter station.

The plane shown on struts is a De haviland Heron, a small propeeler driven airliner of the 1950's.  I'd seen a documentary about Croydon airport on tv recently and recognised the buildings straightaway as i was passing by in the car.  Winston Churchill took flying lessons here, Charles Lindbergh landed here after completing the first solo trans Atlantic flight, Amy Johnson the first woman to fly solo to Australia took off from here.

The airfield offically closed on 30 September 1959.