Beedubya

I think this was something to do with fireworks being banned here. I did a bit of a search as I had never questioned the ban and it is something to do with they were being used in certain parts to mask shootings and people using the gunpowder for other uses and so on. Yes there really ARE bad parts in Australia.........mmmmm......

They are allowed by professionals however and I have to say Sydney puts on a SPECTACULAR firework display on NYE.

I was amazed when I watched Coronation Street in November and Rita in the Kabin was selling fireworks for Guy Fawke's night, just straight over the counter in those big cardboard boxes we used to get and rockets and everything!!! It's funny how you forget these things.....

Off now to watch the London NYE fireworks........

Beedubya

WOW WOW WOW!!!!

I thought Sydney put on a good show but London has it beat hands down!!!

Made even more impressive by the London skyline and Big Ben!!!

Lorac05

Thank you for the link - they were truly magnificent - loved how they used the London Eye as part of the show - and adored the "mind the gap" during the one lull . Also the chimes of Big Ben - so strong and steady - so very British in many ways!!

shelley748

Part of it is...nervous about job prospects being over 50, so hubby wanted to see for himself...

shelley748

screen grab of fireworks in London ( was watching via internet!)

dontheturner

Hello HT,I always rent somewhere along Overgang, as I cannot resist the fresh Fish & Chips, along the harbourside,-- Brixham is tops for me. dontheturner.

windsong

I was just playing around on Google Earth and I looked up my grandfather's sister's house in Wales. I used to go there a lot when I was a young child. She was about six years older than my grandfather and it was a bit like going back in time to visit her house. She had one of these old black double-size cooker's it took up half a wall almost. It looked as if it was made with black wrought iron but I don't know. She cooked the most fabulous rice puddings in it

Anyway, I had a disappointment when I saw her house. It was a beautiful Victorian era house and, now, I see half the street has been converted into flats. They have taken out the upper and lower bay windows and put flat modern, character-less windows in them, taken out the little porchway by the front door, and completely destroyed the Victorian architecture in the front b y sandstoning the now flat front of the house. Why can't they leave the lovely architecture the way it was - and then turn it into flats? They even put an additional doorway right beside the front door, so its probably a one up, one down set of flats now. Pathetic!

cheers

Its all about money.

fulwood

I didn't know whether to start new thread or not on this topic.. I am considering visiting Ireland for 3-4 days in April-May timeframe. I am not so keen on driving in Ireland or UK as only ever learned to drive in US.. So I suppose my question is to those for whom Ireland is home (Derrygal?) and others who know Ireland do I visit Dublin or Belfast?.. i saw House Hunters International yesterday and episode set in village outside of Dublin and what they showed of Dublin I loved. Thank you..

cheers

34 minutes until Doc Martin comes on the TV.

windsong

I know. This is one part of the UK I won't like. It reminds me of the U.S. I know it is following the path of the U.S. but I hope the UK citizens wake up before it's too late. Even so, it's a good few years behind this country in that regard.

windsong

Dublin is beautiful. My father worked there for a good number of years and we vacationed there a few times. I don't know about Belfast because I have never been there.

sallysimmons

I'm surprised that was allowed. So many period houses in Britain are listed and/or in conservation areas and there seem to be very few places where you can just ruin an old house that way. In the Victorian area of Kendal, people have to apply for permission just to replace their windows.

The knock on the UK these days is usually too much planning and building regulation, not too little. Sounds like this is a case either of something that happened a long time ago, or an unusually negligent local government.

(For the record, I agree with all the regulation, just saying that's what people usually complain about)

windsong

I agree with that regulation, too. It's obvious that the road the house is on was widened at some point as there are now cars parked all down one side of it. In doing so, they did away with the small garden she had in the front (it's a terraced home). It looks bad enough with the front door only feet away from the road now but to take away the architecture is disgraceful. A few blocks up from her house there are more houses like hers but they are about an additional three feet back from the road and they have been left in the original decor. Her house used to look just like those.

windsong

Here is the house. The one on the left is as it is now and the one on the right is similar to how it used to look - it's one just a few houses down. You can see another front door has been added - that brown thing - really close to the main front door. Actually, I think both are new and the old one was somewhere in the middle. Both of the main windows used to be bay windows. I remember. They would have to have gone to an awful lot of structural trouble to remove those bay windows. I wonder if they played around with the street numbering in the last 30 years. Maybe what was her address is no longer her address. The one on the left looks awful and even the one on the right doesn't look too good now but they were lovely houses in their era.