Night at the crossing

When I did my update on the experimental pedestrian crossing in Ayr’s Main Street recently, I had completely forgotten about another diversion made to catch, this time at night.

That hadn’t really been the reason for the diversion though, and what I really wanted to do was satisfy my curiosity about a detail.

Since the coach heading home has to pass this installation (without stopping), and it’s always dark (at this time), I’d noticed the exclamation mark signs always seemed to be bright, regardless of when I spotted them, but I had noted they were just flat plates when I first looked, rather than being mounted in a light box, like most existing signs.

I had also noticed a lot of excess wiring bundles behind the hardware (well, this is an experimental setup).

I’m still not sure (mainly because these signs also have retro-reflective coatings), but these signs do seem to be illuminated, despite being thin (only a few millimetres thick), and may be EL (electroluminescent), although I wouldn’t have thought ideal for an outdoor installation, due to the higher than normal AC voltage they need.

They could be using some form of LED light source, as being constantly developed for flat-screen TVs.

Compare the appearance of these flat plates to the conventional overhead downlit illumination of the No Right Turn sign, or the lightbox of the One Way arrow.

Note the lighting provided on the central refuge, to illuminate anyone standing there waiting to continue to cross.

A closer look doesn’t really betray much more.

Points worth noting.

There are two of these flat exclamation mark signs mounted on each pole, facing both traffic flows.

The signs are flat and thin – the closer view may LOOK like a box, but is actually two of these thin flat signs, mounted back to back on the pole, with a space between them.

As noted in the first post, now some time ago, this one has been damaged, although the reason is not obvious (accident or vandalism), and the flashing amber lights are dead,

Prestwick

I mentioned the presence of a similar installation on a roundabout on the Prestwick Airport perimeter road.

Funny thing, it’s just about as hard to be sure the exclamation mark signs are illuminated there as well, but I’m sure they are. It would be difficult, on that much quieter, isolated road, for any headlights to catch the retroreflecting coating at the right angle, and make them look as if they were illuminated.

It’s Mews Lane Jim, and there IS a reason for its name

Just not the one you want to hear, if you’re expecting cats, or a very good one.

This is another of those “Look what I found when I stopped for a moment, paid attention, and looked”, on my way to Wellington Square.

Being cat-oriented (or controlled), I was hoping for some cat-related historical tale to pop up when I tried to find the history of this lane, but the explanation is sadly much simpler.

Once you dig up some maps, and apply a little historic knowledge, the meaning quickly become clears.

Around the mid-14th century, the term referred to a passage in a house, an open passage between buildings, or a walkway in a garden. It came to refer to a courtyard or row of stables and carriage houses with living quarters above, commonly built behind large city/town houses. While these feature may be found on older properties, as motor vehicles replaced horses in the early twentieth century, this feature disappeared.

What the various etymological tales all seemed to fail to explain was how various French (such as the modern allée) and even Latin words, all with fairly obvious paths leading to the word ‘alley’ came to be the origin of the term ‘mews’. Slightly odd, as even convoluted derivations are usually explained, at least to some degree.

Closer look at the sign itself.

Oh look – a Clyde Walkway sign

Much to my shame and embarrassment, I have to confess that, despite passing many of them over the years (I must have), I simply never noticed these signs marking the Clyde Walkway, a path of almost 40 miles which begins in Glasgow’s Partick, and ends in New Lanark.

I’ve noted a number of writers refer to the paths that lead into the section designated as the Clyde Walkway, presumably not realising or noticing their error.

Completed in 2005, and created as a joint enterprise by the councils of Glasgow City, South Lanarkshire, and North Lanarkshire, it is notable for remaining close to urban centres and has easy access to public transport. However, that doesn’t mean you’re not in danger of ending up to your neck in mud, silt or water, or going to have to climb in places.

That said, having known spots like that, I think most (maybe all) such sections have been abandoned, and easy sections substituted. That said, I only know the section that gets as far as Strathclyde Park, things could get tough on the way to New Lanark.

The sign

For some reason, I’ve never really noticed the signs marking the walkway, apparently cast metal, and painted to give them a colourful appearance. I think part of the problem with my noticing them is their random siting on various poles, at various heights, and possibly not all too obvious.

I might also be guilty of becoming too familiar with them too, and ceasing to notice them.

This one jumped out at me as I was heading home from shopping in Cambuslang.

It was dark (it nearly always is when I’m shopping), with little ambient light, so I decided this would have to be one of my rare flash shots, even though the distance was fairly far due to the sign being mounted high on a pole.

This was the intended pic, which came out reasonably given it was dark, at night, using flash, and a long zoom for the small sign mounted up on a pole.

I only found one other pic online (there MUST be more), from 2012, showing a bright and clean sign. This one looks a bit worse for wear, as do some others I’ve noticed since then.

Note the edge of a road traffic sign at the top, where the retroreflectors have caught the flash.

I should add these have been corrected for perspective (looking up at the sign) – the resulting wide ellipses instead of round/circular signs was just too much to bear!

Bonus pic

This extra pic was unplanned, but a shame to waste it.

I’m not sure what happened – most likely is the flash wasn’t fully charged when I pressed the shutter release. I’m guessing the camera fell back onto its non-flash mode, and set things up for an available light shot.

This shows I probably could have done without the flash – as the pic almost turned out.

The main problem is the long shutter time it chose (I normally block these to avoid shake) which led to camera shake, which might have been OK had I been holding it steady. However, anticipating a flash to freeze things, I wasn’t holding the camera properly.

The colours came out weird too, so I had to process them into something better.

Interesting result though, and a handy (rare) comparison between flash/no flash of the same subject.

I cannot believe I am watching the Hitler phenomenon being replayed in America

Although I’ve read the history and know the mechanics of how Adolph Hitler came to power, it’s something I simply cannot understand.

It remains something of a mystery how so many people flocked to give a clearly violent, deranged, and dangerous individual their support, and often paid for their ‘loyalty’ with their lives, as he removed those he feared by having them killed.

Convicted felon Donald J. Trump may not have done that yet, but has spoken openly about assassinated and killing those who oppose him, so the thought it only one step from reality, and his cult followers already understand when he wants his opponents doxed, swatted, intimidated, or threatened.

Both lived on the support of people who irrationally worshipped them, and did not seem to comprehend that either would readily ‘throw them under the bus’ at a moment’s notice to further their own aims.

I think I despised Trump almost from the first time he appeared on TV, and even then, decades ago, could not understand why ANYBODY admired an obvious crook.

I suspect it’s too late to do anything about him.

Even if he’s jailed tomorrow, and dies in solitary confinement, never seen or heard again, the toxic legacy of his decades of toxic abuse to everything and everyone around him will live on, and has done as much damage to America as Hitler’s legacy of neo-Nazism.

I’m in Ayr again – and it STILL has the best registrations

As noted before, a trip to Ayr really does need a planned response to registration numbers if you are at all interested, and don’t want to go nuts!

Either look, or don’t look, because you will be spoilt for choice if you do.

We had MP 1 just a few posts back, now we have 1 FR.

Sadly trapped on an obsolete stinky old hulking 4×4 SUV diesel tractor Land Rover Range Rover from 20007 which, despite the ‘exclusive’ Overfinch badging, has a poorly fitting front bumper. A little oopsie at some point?

Not cheap, a set of nice wheels from them could set you back in the order of £12,000 to £16,000.

I’m not really picking on Overfinch, but I was walking past one near Parkhead Cross, home of Celtic, and the lout/yob driving it noticed I had taken a look (just to confirm the badge/name), sneered at me, and shouted “BET YOU WISH YOU COULD AFFORD SOMETHING LIKE THIS!”

I could have sneered back with ‘No thanks’, and laughed since his ‘tank’ then took over 13 sec (on paper, so how slow in the real world) to reach 60, while both of the cars I had at that time did the dash in 5 sec, but not my style, and I just ignored him, and carried on walking.

So, was he, as I have always assumed, a Celtic fan, or maybe even one of their lovely players?

I might add that I remain up to date.

Today, your Range Rover Sport SV EDITION ONE can come from the factory (no need for Overfinch) with 626 non-stinky petrol horses under the bonnet, a mild-hybrid Twin Turbo V8, reaches 60 in 3.6 sec (and it will, not just on paper), and go on to 180 MPH.

Who are ‘The Entitled’ and how do you join their club?

The first time I encountered The Entitled was when I pulled in behind a car leaving the side of Shettleston Road, as I was headed for my insurance broker’s office to pay a premium.

The space was in front of Cross’s butcher’s shop, and as I locked the door a guy wearing a white coat and butcher’s apron came running out of the shops and shouted at me, “MOVE YOUR CAR, YOU CAN’T PARK THERE, THAT’S FOR OUR CUSTOMERS”!

I was, frankly, taken aback once I realised he was shouting at me, and it was me he was telling me to get my car away from the space in front of his shop.

I think I just told him to take it easy, and he’d have his space back in a few minutes as I was just dropping a cheque off to the broker, almost next door.

He was NOT a happy little butcher, and didn’t seem to be able to understand why I had not immediately jumped back in my car and cleared HIS space for HIS customers in response to his orders.

Had I not been at work, my car would have sat there for the rest of the day (but in those days, parking was restricted, and they DID materialise a random Parking Warden!).

It should go without saying that other than the right to use the public road within the constraints of whatever laws, local by laws, rules, regulation etc apply, NOBODY has exclusive rights to any particular part they take a liking to. This is, of course, quite different from any private land or space they may own, and generally have the right to control.

That includes the road outside your house too, although some homeowners think otherwise. You may have come across them, such as this one I found in Ayr.

Let me take you in closer.

Recently, closer to home

I came across another one recently, closer to home this time.

I thought some poor sod had broken down, and left a note on their car.

It may not be obvious in the dark but, while it’s not exactly the middle of nowhere, this road is almost nowhere, and NOT in front of anyone’s house. It’s actually near a railway station, near a motorway slip road, and an apparently derelict shop, which used to serve snacks, but I haven’t seen the shutters raised in months/years, and is a mess.

What I’m really saying is that there’s nobody twitching at curtains, waiting to pounce on a parked car on THEIR piece of road. In fact, other than passing train passengers, there’s nobody.

And the note?

Of course, whoever left did not identify themselves, or give their authority for issuing a parking instruction on a piece of public road, or details of what rules are in force (other than their ‘ENTITLEMENT’).

The coat of arms and motto on Ayr’s County Buildings

The County Buildings, standing on the edge of Wellington Square and the Low Green, have an interesting past, not least being the goal that once sat on the western side, looking towards the sea (yes, this did lead to some interesting nicknames about the seaside and holidays).

That facility is long gone now, of course, having been demolished by the prisoners (officially!) – a spot of hard labour they might not have objected to – and much was removed by horse and cart.

Now overlooking the war memorial, that face carries the town’s coat of arms, and motto.

GOD SCHAW THE RICHT.

The arms were granted on June 23, 1931.

The arms have four quarters. The first has a castle from the arms of Ayr, the second has a red chevron on silver for the Carrick district, the third has a black shakefork on white for the Cunninghame district and a blue and silver fess on gold (The Stewart arms) for Kyle.

The motto is from the tomb of Captain Thomas Crawford.

Ayrshire was originally granted arms on July 8, 1890:

Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump’s endless stream of lies is dangerous

Hardly a surprise, but Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump’s never ending stream of lies (AKA utter fantasy and rubbish) and misinformation is dangerous as his uneducated cult members are unable to separate fact from fantasy, or even question the veracity of his claims.

They just accept anything he says a absolute truth without question.

Their moronic hero worship of a worthless lump of orange fat is simply incomprehensible.

She’s gone too!

Recall this post, only from February – notable for my ability to forget, as I had no idea where the subjects were, although I did find them again.

What I never mentioned was ANOTHER piece of oddness, as I couldn’t find the other nice lady I’d photographed then, at the same time.

No idea what happened to her, other than the obvious ‘painted over’ (not with anything noteworthy, there was nothing on the other wall worth looking at), but there was nothing worthy of note on the other wall (I couldn’t even find matching surface marks) – and she had to have been there, the time stamps on the two original pics were only seconds apart, so I didn’t fend in two different places.

While a handy glance out a bus window had let me find the forgotten spot, this time things were not so good – and I spotted that the nice lady above was no longer to be seen.

Sadly replaced by a pretty poor graphic and some politically motivated spiel.

I wouldn’t even have taken the pic, but for the illustration of what had replaced a decent mural.

Make your point if you must, but don’t vandalise the good stuff in the process.

I don’t even care about whatever point was being made.

OK, I’m not that mean, even if I’m not happy, and the technical execution of this is actually quite good, and the shadow effect works well.

Glasgow’s rusty bridge – Baird Street approach (and more)

Unfortunately, the first pics I took of this slightly unusual structure just didn’t seem to show it as anything recognisable – I somehow managed to pick viewpoints that produced abstract views that might be fine for posting along with pics that show the structure better, but on their own, make almost no sense at all.

Hopefully, this one that survived the cull as I worked through what I had collected does the job, and shows at least on decent view. It was almost a surprise when I got there and caught first sight of the thing – the first pic I saw made it look like a tunnel, or covered/enclosed crossing, and nothing like the actual structure.

It would be nice to take pics from some of the windows overlooking the crossing – but that’s not going to happen, for me at least.

I will have to revisit this, and choose better viewpoints armed with the knowledge I gained on this slightly abortive visit.

While I was there, it only showed the white lighting seen in the pic. However, in earlier pics it was washed in various colours. No idea of that was just a temporary effect installed for the opening, or now just doesn’t work.

Approach from Glasgow city centre

Not a complete disaster though as this feature covers a large area, with some interesting aspects.

This is the approach to the bridge from Baird Street, which has the stairway shown for pedestrians, and an almost hidden serpentine ramp with a shallow grade for cyclists., which can just about be made beginning on the centre right.

You need to open the full size image to see it.

Most of this pic is ‘real’, but I had to avoid the very bright street light on the right, with the dark sky/cloud behind. I now know this will seriously knock back the exposure of a scene like this, and ruin the shot by making it much too dark.

I took more than one shot, ensuring the light source was NOT in any of them, and stitched them together, meaning there was no upper right corner, so had to make that up, but the dark cloud is real.

The scene came out very much like an old sodium street lamp view (although the lighting is white LED), and I had to reduce the effect.

I believe this was caused by the effect lighting on and around the bridge, which has a number of reddish floodlights on those curved poles, as well as a few white ones.

Approach from Sighthill flats

As if to prove it’s never a good idea to give up on pics before trying all the options.

I ended up with this half decent result after playing with some advanced processing tools which recovered the central horizontal area of the pic, which included the bridge.

While this was a wider view of the bridge and its surrounding, the lighting at the time – between the sky and the brightly lit line of light along the path in the foreground – meant it was just a dark area of shadow, with no detail apparent.

Sometimes even I’m impressed at what can be coaxed out of the darkness.

Guess I don’t need to go back now, for a general view, and can look for more interesting detail in future.

I didn’t know how to get to the bridge from the city centre at first (by bike), and first ventured there by going to Speirs Wharf, which I now know well.

It’s a corner of Glasgow I have seldom visited, and was almost surprised to find RS was on the next street along from the bridge – but it did explain why the place looked familiar.

It’s not too bad to get to, apart from the slightly steep climb from George Square to Bath Street, but after that there’s a ‘Quiet Cycle Route’ leading to the bridge.

It cuts out all the busy streets from Argyle Street to Cowcaddens if heading to Speirs Wharf, and could be a handy alternative to that fairly busy route.

At the moment, I’m avoiding it as the Cambridge Street section is a disaster, while works are in progress to properly install the cycle route that was set up there a few years ago. Granted it will be even better once the work is done, but after negotiating the diversion for the works, I found it easier to just stay on the road, and avoid it altogether.

Maybe the rusty bridge route means there’s simply a way to get to Speirs Wharf and the start of the towpath cycle route – I’ll have to try at a few times.

Explaining how a Convicted Felon like Donald J. Trump could be President (Dictator) from a jail cell

And, what he could do about it.

Convicted felon and insurrectionist Donald J. Trump exposes deficiencies in the Constitution of the United States combined with corruption in the Supreme Court, which has ignored and already refused to apply even the existing provisions of the Constitution.

The writers never envisioned something as corrupt and evil as Donald J. Trump being able to win, or buy, a presidency, so never thought of including the necessary provisions to deal with it.