Through Cotgrave

When I returned to Nottingham after my third half-term last year, I took a photo in Cotgrave. I thought I'd do the same again this year:

Unlike in 2015, however, this time we did not stop in the town, hence the vehicle-based image; in addition, this is my second photograph of the return, not the first. The weather is similar, though.

In a jam

As you can see from the traffic in this picture, I was caught up in a jam during my way back from college this evening:

Granted, most of the traffic in this image is on the other side of the avenue but I can assure you, it was just as bad on the side on which I was travelling.

Hot pink cars

Four days ago, I saw a Volkswagen New Beetle (the model manufactured from 1997-2011). This, by itself, isn't remarkable, as Beetles aren't rare here in the United Kingdom. No, what was noteworthy about this particular Beetle was that its colour was hot pink. A hot pink Beetle! It blatantly stood out among all the nearby vehicles.

However, that Beetle was not the first time that I had a seen a hot pink vehicle in this town. A couple of months or so ago, I saw a hot pink Cadillac (old style) parked in a driveway. I haven't seen many Cadillacs in my life, so seeing one was cool; the hot pink just added to the experience.

Hot pink isn't my favourite colour, but I do pay attention to it when it's the colour of a car...even more so when that vehicle is a Beetle or a Cadillac! Until recently, I'd only seen hot pink Cadillacs and Beetles in movies, and the hot pink vehicles I've seen elsewhere hve usually been vans or trucks.

Car wash (2)

Back in early 2012, I posted a couple of pictures from a drive-thru car wash; here are three more from when Dad and I went to the car wash this morning:

I'm not sure if I like #2 or #3 more: I love the shiny, silvery water pattern of #2 but I also love how #3 almost looks like blue fire. Which of the three do you like the most?

These images were all taken with my phone.

Ice cream truck

As I have mentioned a few times before, ever since the hosepipe ban came in effect the majority of the weather has been rain, and as such, the temperature cool/cold. This afternoon, my brother and I went for a walk during a gap in the rain; however, it was still cold and very windy. Then, we heard a particular sound normally associated with warmer weather.

The ice cream truck! Regardless of the fact it was cold, windy, and rainy, the ice cream truck was about and happily playing its tune. Judging from the gaps in the tune, some people were actually getting ice cream in the current weather conditions. Evidently it is their choice, but I found it amusing that the ice cream truck was out and people were getting food from it on a day not usually suitable for ice cream.

As an aside, I was surprised the first time I heard and subsequently saw an ice cream truck over here, driving around the neighbourhoods: I had not read or been told anything about them while living in the United States, so I assumed they were a feature located solely in America.

Hosepipe ban

Tomorrow, we will be under what is called a "hosepipe ban". Essentially, this means we will officially be under restrictions on how we use water: we will have to keep an eye on how much water we use when doing something that requires the use of water, such as dishes or having a shower (and we can save water by making efficient use of left over water from dishes and timing our showers).

Among the things we will not be able to use a hosepipe for include: watering our lawns/gardens, filling up a personal pond/water feature, washing home walls and windows; and cleaning cars or boats. There are exceptions to these: giving animals water (livestock, fish in a personal pond), and washing away health hazards and graffiti are exempt; and as far as I know we will still be able to clean windows and outside furniture by using a bucket and sponge rather than hosing them down. Anybody who has a pipe connected to a personal water source or rainwater instead of through the mains is also exempt from the ban.

I expect the ban to remain in place from now to throughout the summer, unless we somehow get massive amounts of rain all over the country during the next two months. I am not familiar with how long these normally last, but I do not anticipate it being lifted until fall or winter.

The part of this I find hilarious is that for the last couple of days, including today, we have had rain! Unfortunately, as said just above it will not end the hosepipe ban before it even starts, but I do appreciate the irony in it raining when the ban is about to take effect.

Day in Nottinghamshire

My Dad, brother, and myself spent the day in Nottinghamshire at my grandparents' house. We went up there to take our car in for its scheduled maintenance, but our trip doubled as a visit to family. I took a countless amount of pictures on a lengthy walk my brother and I went on...I will upload some of them tomorrow!

Water restrictions

Following-up on my post to do with people washing their cars too much, here is an article about the potential water shortage in the United Kingdom, and steps being taken to preserve water, such as limiting showers and not filling up personal swimming pools.

A simple step not covered in the Telegraph article would be to tell people who wash their cars every single week to cut back on how many times they clean their vehicle; as I wrote in my previous post, the cars are often mostly clean anyway: they do not need a weekly wash, and there is less reason for weekly washes in the face of restrictions on water usage.

Coventry pictures

I selected eleven pictures from our visit to Coventry yesterday: six are from me and five are from my brother. While slightly more of my pictures have been included in this post, my brother photographed more than I did because I spent most of our time in Coventry indoors at the meet with my friends.

These are the images I took; all were done with my phone:

A "Welcome to Coventry" sign, taken from within our car.

This is a lot where we parked at temporarily before we found a parking garage located near the middle of Coventry. The tall building in the left/middle part of the background is a Ramada Inn, and the larger buildings to the right are related to Coventry's rugby.

A road my brother, Dad, and I were walking alongside towards the city centre. I do not know what the names of any of the buildings in this picture are.

This picture is an odd one: it was taken from the top of the parking garage our car was ultimately parked at, and done while our car was in motion. Rather than turn out as a blur, the camera on my phone seemed to compensate for pictures taken inside a moving car by having everything in the image appear "wavy". I think it is neat, and better than a blur.

I think this is King Richard Street, or Road. I took the picture while our car was stopped in traffic.

Contrary to what the sign says, there were no accidents in that direction: we were just paused in traffic again. I wanted to get a couple of pictures of the houses in the background, and have one that included the sign.

The rest of the pictures were taken by my brother. He mainly photographed the area around Coventry Cathedral:

A view over towards the old Coventry Cathedral. The building was mostly destroyed when Coventry was bombed during World War II, but parts of it, such as the spire, still remain to this day.

This is a picture of a pub in the vicinity of the cathedral.

My brother said that this is another part of the old Coventry Cathedral.

Another picture of the spire for the old cathedral. Yesterday really was an ideal day to get some great pictures.

These are the roofless ruins of the old cathedral. I hope to see the cathedrals for myself in a future trip to Coventry.

That brings us to the end of this post. I hope you liked the pictures: I can say that while I am pleased with the ones I took, I am impressed with the ones from my brother!

Some thoughts on car washing

Dad and I took the car to the wash a few days ago, hence this post about pictures taken during the washing. At that time it had been a couple of months or so since its previous clean, and it did need a wash. On average our vehicle is taken to the car wash every couple of months and I think that frequency is reasonable.

For whatever reason, there are a few people in my neighbourhood who wash their vehicles at least once a week: they use a large amount of soap and water each time they perform a wash, and a couple of them spend up to an hour or more washing their car. Often the vehicles are not even dirty at all.

Now normally I do not comment on how other people spend their money, and in all fairness they are paying for the water they use. However, there have been a lot of complaints recently here in the United Kingdom that we have not had enough rain this winter, and there have been talks about restrictions on water use (according to my parents, if any restrictions were implemented, it would not at all be the first-time it would have happened). If people are really concerned about a lack of water, a simple measure to help counter the problem would be for certain people to stop washing their cars every week. The more water wasted on washing a clean car every week means that everyone will have to pay more for water later.

From what I have observed, on average vehicles do not really get too dirty over here. There is no need to have a weekly wash of a car unless you go mud bogging, but as the vast majority of the British driving population does not engage in such an activity or ones related to it, I think people who clean their cars a lot could easily cut down on the frequency of their washes.

Car wash

Dad and I went to have the car washed this afternoon. Using my phone, I took a couple of pictures of the washing as the car was pulled through!

Okay, I will admit that it does seem strange to want to take a picture of our car being taken through a car wash with us inside the vehicle, but I did want to test the camera on my phone out some more, and this seemed like as good an opportunity to do so as any: I am pleased with how well the images have turned out. The first picture is definitely my favourite...it looks as though we are in some sort of wave.

Rogue Valley Manor

Most times when we went to Downtown Medford during our life in Southern Oregon we could see the Rogue Valley Manor buildings (I think their names were Main Manor and Skyline Plaza, and the area is a retirement complex), as their position of top of a small mountain rising above the city made them easy to spot from afar. I always loved watching the towers get closer as we drove into Medford.

For several years, I wanted to take a picture of them, as I liked the buildings, and I was vocal about this, but the circumstances were never right to get a picture of them (the most common cause was not having the camera with us). In our last week in the United States, a chance finally arose for me to get a picture of them, but rather than just one picture, I took a few. Here is one of them:

It was taken in the evening from a parking lot for a shopping area, and I was able to get a picture without a car in the way. I do miss the varied views of the Rogue Valley Manor: I always thought they were impressive looking buildings, and I have not moved from that opinion.