The Ultimate Goth Day Out in Ayr: Dungeons, Vaults & Markets

With an intro like that, I had little choice but to make the effort, and go for a look yesterday.

As one whose mother had to ask other mothers NOT to scare their kids into submission with phrases such as “Don’t go there or the bogey man will get you!” – on the basis I would slip her grip and go wherever ‘there’ was, looking for him (seriously), I always despair when I see warnings like this:

A Note for Parents: Parental Discretion Advised While The Blackheart Market is an inclusive event with free entry, parents should be aware that this isn’t your typical craft fair. Due to the nature of the horror genre, some items on display may include gore, scary imagery, or adult themes.

I have to confess I didn’t see anything that merited the alert, but then again, that’s just me. Then again, it might just have been a bit of smart marketing on the part of the promoters 😉

Little chance of another look at the town hall’s organ, which I noted on this visit has an award for its originality.

Nice stage, complete with Led Zeppelin soundtrack.

I’ve been to a few similar events recently, and marvel at the appearance of ‘Mystery Bags’.

Sealed bags which buyers can take a chance on, and maybe get something good, cheap (although they’re always cheap, and I’ve seen some pretty expensive bags at some events, although they do ‘guarantee’ one pricey item inside).

I’m NOT suggesting anything nefarious, and it seems like a good way to clear old stock, instead of a clearance sale.

Horror Gothic Alternative Market comes to the new Cutty-Sark Centre in Ayr

Although I’ve seen some events at the new Cutty-Sark Centre in Ayr, they weren’t of interest, so I’ve yet to fall through the door. Although I did do the ‘nose pressed against the glass’ thing.

That might change this weekend, as I just got notice of an event there that I would wander into for a look.

Did I mention it was free?

In Ayr no one can hear you scream

The Blackheart Market debuts in Ayr on Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st April when we take over The Cutty-Sark Centre from 11am to 5pm both days.

Our Markets are free entry and will showcase the best roster of handpicked traders and creators that specialise in Horror, Goth and Alternative merchandise, crafts, art, and much more.

I might try to get there for a look, but, as per my usual luck, getting notice today was just bad timing.

New Market in Clydeside Halls at The Briggait is Work In Progress

All too often I note something new that’s been promised, only to find that it takes so long to materialise, I’ve forgotten all about it, the work is done, and I’m none the wiser until I spot an article months later.

Not so in the case of the new market and event space being constructed in the all but forgotten Clydeside Halls section of The Briggait.

It’s been a while since I was last nearby, and when I did manage to pass recently, was pleased to see this project looked as if it was well underway.

I’ve always had a soft spot for The Briggait, and enjoyed the brief spell it enjoyed when it seemed to have become a busy and popular space after its first ‘rebirth’. Despite that popularity, I have no idea why it failed after a while, but that seemed to fizzle out after a while, and the place closed and became derelict again.

Fortunately, it didn’t go to waste, and a number of occupants took the place over – but for various reasons I never saw that happen, and although I pass it, have never had any reason to go in.

Hopefully, the revamp of the forgotten Clydeside Halls area of The Briggait as a market and event area will give me an opportunity to get back inside.

Here’s how it looked when I passed, with the now apparently obligatory moronic and revolting ‘Word Graffiti’ cleaned off to protect your poor eyes from this rubbish (but the friendly bees can just be seen on the left)..

Apparently I’m wrong AND colour-blind about meat lighting in Chinese markets

After watching a fairly large number of videos shot around raw meat on open sale in Chinese street markets (outdoor and indoor), my nerves gave out, and I had to grab a frame or two, and post the images just to get the thought of UV lighting being used to protect, or disinfect, raw meat left out in the open.

It’s not just the flies that might cause us (those in this country) concern (the ones not scared off by the various little fans found spinning above the meat), but the fact that it’s not uncommon to see customers grabbing two or three different pieces of meat with unwashed bare hands, and poking/playing with them until they find a piece they like, returning the unwanted pieces back on the counter or hooks.

The original post had some vague ramblings about the various types of UV, so I won’t have another go.

In this case, what caught my eye was another local video, this time suggesting the UV light was red (their description, not mine), and that the reason for this lighting was to enhance the appearance of the meat.

I would suggest comparing the colour of the lighting and the meat in the pic with the caption, with the colour of the red clothes which also appear in the pic.

I think my idea of red appears to be slightly different from that of the person captioning the video.

Lest anyone misinterpret the use of ‘scam’, and ‘con’, in the tags for this post, these terms apply to the people who sell the supposed UV to people with claims of their disinfectant properties, and in no way refers to the market traders.

Another (in)sanitary post about raw meat stalls in markets in hot countries

It’s like somebody wants to make sure I have nightmares if I manage to fall asleep.

After my first post about the lovely sanitary conditions in open air food markets in a hot country: First the mystery story, then the horror story, I saw another one that had me heading for the toilet.

This one’s potentially more dangerous/scary, as it involves a scam/con regarding the disinfectant properties of UV light being perpetrated by some Chinese suppliers online. I say ‘suppliers’, but it’s hard to know where blame/intent lies in the supply chain.

But first, some images to set the scene.

First, a street scene spotted in China a few days ago, probably one of the more worrying examples. No apparent hygiene, meat hanging openly out into the street, not even using disposable plastic gloves when handling. But similar to most stalls. As before, not even the merest whiff of refrigeration anywhere. Imagine the fate of a butcher doing this in the chilly old UK. One of my local butcher’s barely survived having a little black kitten in his shop once a customer informed the authorities!

But, now the interesting one, and typical of a growing number of similar stalls.

Note the violet lighting washing over the meat stall

This marks a growing trend where violet lighting is being used for disinfection purposes, and began shortly after COVID-19 arrived. You may have seen numerous products on sale, ranging from toothbrush sanitisers all the way to really stuff like mobile phone sanitisers, and probably just about anything someday thinks they can people to buy.

There are a few problems, beginning with a simple rule that light follows – it only travels in straight lines, so anywhere it doesn’t shine is not sanitised.

But, more importantly, only UVC kills bad stuff – Germicidal UVC – short wave UV, which includes germicidal ultraviolet at 253.7 nm wavelength – is used for air, surface, and water disinfection.

UV-A – Long wave UV causes tanning and premature skin ageing.

UV-B – A small, but dangerous part of sunlight. Most solar UV-B is absorbed by the ozone layer. Prolonged exposure causes sun burn and may result in unhealthy effects on the skin and eyes.

Germicidal ultraviolet – UVC of 253.7 nanometres wavelength – kills germs, such as bacteria, viruses, mould, fungi and spores, that transmit infections, cause allergies, trigger asthma attacks or cause other unhealthy effects.

It destroys the DNA of these microbial contaminants, rendering them sterile. If microbes are irradiated with enough dosage germicidal UV, they can no longer reproduce and over time disappear from the indoor environment.

Sounds good – what’s the problem?

Simply that the scammers and con artists realised that UV light give off a lot of violet light, and that they can sell violet, or even blue lights, with the claim that they are UVC disinfectant types and, naturally, sell these at an inflated price compared to that charged for the non-UV visible light types.

There’s no way to tell just by looking that these are not producing UV, and most ordinary, non-tech or non-scientific people are conned by the sellers, who claim the presence of the violet or blue light ‘proves’ they are germicidal, and kill germs etc.

You can check for fluorescence under these lights, but unless you know the material being used to produce the fluorescent, that still doesn’t prove they are UVC.

Obviously, the sources producing only visible light DO NOTHING AT ALL, and the scammers could be killing, or at least making ill, people who trust and rely on such forged products as they may not take other precautions, so end up with MORE infection rather than less.

Not imagination

I know someone who buys these lights directly from China purely for the purpose of testing, to find out if the UV claim is genuine (he’s not even bothering to check that it is UVC) and, to date, has found most of them are bogus, and are made with cheap visible light only LEDs that produce an abundance of violet light, purely to make them look good to uneducated buyers. Yet they’re still being sold at the premium UVC price.

First the mystery story, then the horror story

Don’t read on if you’re like me, and have to take to your bed for a week just to recover from someone merely mentioning food poisoning, let alone suffering from it.

I got a link to a high def video just shot in a Philippines market (they’re usually not as sharp as this), and first spotted something I’ve never seen in one before.

The first grab shows the first glance, and if you take a guess at the obvious, you’ll find the second confirms your thought.

Having seen these at home, in funfairs and similar, it seems that bagged fish are still being used as prizes, but there have already been a number of bans issued by some councils, and the past few years have seen in increase in calls for blanket ban.

While pet shops and fish owners transport their fish in bags, these are larger than the tiny examples seen here (some with TWO fish inside), and are filled with oxygen, rather than air (only 20% oxygen) before being closed. Some bags are even made of a material that allows gasses to pass through the membrane.

Suffocation is not the only issue arising from the sealed plastic bags. As the fish defecate in the water, the level of ammonia rises, eventually poisoning the water and killing the fish.

With oxygen, the survival period can be one to two days at most, dependent on the size of the bag, but without that, and in a tiny bag, the survival time could be as low as a few hours.

If these fish look worried, they have good reason.

I guess the nice lady selling them just removes the corpses as the sun beats down on them during the day, until there’s none left by the end of the day.

Next, food hygiene

Given the rules for food hygiene generally observed here, I sometimes wonder how anybody is left standing in warm/hot countries where such rules are not in place.

I don’t think I need to add anything to the two grabs I’ve included below, where raw meat is lying on open counters with no covering, or refrigeration, and being handled with no handwashing or sanitation as different items are cut and weighed.

One stall has raw chickens and meat on one counter shelf, with raw fish below.

If you look closely, you see a few little pieces of ice lying on the fish.

In the above pic, the blur towards the upper right corner is a piece of cloth attached to a motor (the thing that looks like a small upside down small decorative urn), spinning in the hope it will keep the flies away (it doesn’t, something revealed in the high def video). If they don’t have some of those motorised fans hanging over the stock, some stallholders just wave a fly swatter over the meat.

Customers are constantly reaching over the exposed meat to take their purchased from the stallholders.

On some stalls, people just walk up, dig in and grab what they want from these displays, shove the stuff in a bag, and hand it to the stallholder to weigh and price.

Bear in mind that typical temperature there range from 25°C to 32°C – while we in the UK are supposed to keep our raw foods around 5°C to 8°C, or expect to live on the toilet.

I’d starve!

Somewhat different from here, where the tabloids like to report of entire neighbourhoods falling ill with ‘The Trots’ after somebody consumed something the day after its ‘USE BY’ date.

I have to go and lie down now.