Every thing is illuminated... eventually and some Leeds Architecture

lions outside Leeds Town Hall

Have had to go to Leeds this week, family stuff... its a handsome city in spite of the monstrosities they have put up to house John Lewis and car parks...

one of the many stone statues that adorn the ornate victorian buildings

I wasn't terribly organised about coming to Leeds, but was able to stay at my son's flat while he's away in New York. When I got there there was no electricity it was 10 o'clock at night and I was in a bit of a panic as because if no electricity - no wifi - and my phone was completely dead - and I didn't really know what to do with an electricity key ha ha especially an empty one!!! I didn't even know where the meters were in the building!!! the irony is that my son had said to use the flat and then said you know how to do the electric don't you and I of course had lied and rather blithely said oh yes...- what a joke - I ended up tramping the streets of city centre leeds with an empty useless electricity key to try and get it topped up and nowhere open.

not really sure what comment to make I think this is the new (hideous) multi story car park for John Lewis taken from bus so a bit blurred

In desperation to get assistance from my daughter I even tried to use a phone box!!

more tasteful modern building the Henry Moore Gallery

I finally end up in a bar on my lonesome drinking a pint of ale - Ilkleys best beer so I could charge my phone and manage to ring my daughter and shout help me I'm stuck .. fortunately she explained that you get emergency electricity on these keys - expensive but necessary so eventually I was able to locate the meter in the spooky dark basement. Thank goodness I'd some charge on my phone for a torch.. then I couldn't work out the key, starting to feel old and very tired - but eventually I was able to master this new fangled keep the lower classes in check technology and recharge in all senses of the word .. electric, phone, cup of tea, episode of Dexter on Netflix, nice sleep not on a futon... ready to face another day of impending chaos.......

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RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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