Tag: sheffield

Temporary condition

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This rather bold statement:

atheism-1from here.

There are other interesting images on that post as well. Namely the two shots of the placard on (I think) Fargate in Sheffield, featuring words from the Bible.
It reminded me of going to the football as a kid and seeing the old man in the fluorescent orange waistcoat* on John Street with a placard. Every game, without fail, he’d be there, standing in the middle of the (closed) road outside turnstile 33. On one side of his sign was: “CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS” and on the other, more ominously ahead of any important match: “THE END IS NIGH”.

I suppose that “Nigh” (like “Temporary”) is a subjective measure of time: we’re 30+ years on and “The End” has yet to come.
Still, I guess that when it does, he’ll be able to claim that he was right all along.

* I didn’t think this memory could be right, but having looked it up, TIL that amazingly, hi-vis jackets have been around since the 1960’s.

 

Sheffield is my planet

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This is… odd. But strangely interesting and rather revealing too.

It’s an autocomplete map of the UK – what Google thinks you’re about to ask when you put in “Manchester is…” or “People from Birmingham are…”. This shows us the stereotype of each city in the UK:

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Of the places I’ve lived, Sheffield is my planet (ok), Newcastle is a hole (I disagree) and Oxford is hellish (it had its moments).

Have a look around, but a couple of highlights include “Swansea is the graveyard of ambition” (allegedly a Dylan Thomas line), “Worcester is the Paris of the ’80s” (apparently a T-shirt slogan from Worcester, Massachusetts) and, in the words of Hugh MacDiarmid, “Edinburgh is a mad god’s dream”.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Cape Town has the disappointingly predictable responses, “Cape Town is it safe” and “Cape Town is a racist city” – the latter just like Aberdeen. Maybe it’s something to do with granite.

As for the title of this post, Sheffield is my planet is revealed to be a city council initiative to combat climate change.
How exciting.

Arts Tower Views

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Another Other People’s Photos post.

It was a few (ten) days ago when I spotted some twitpics by Sheffielder @arepeejee taken while he was at the top of Sheffield University’s Arts Tower. (You may remember him from such blog posts as Better by tomorrow and What were the skies like when you were young?.)

Anyway, at the time, he promised that there would more to come from his “big camera”; and he wasn’t lying.

I love the architectural congestion in the foreground of this panorama, especially when it’s juxtaposed with the freedom of the blue sky beyond. And there are loads of other great photos to enjoy including two great panoramas here & here, some tiny trams here and what’s left of the hospital I was born in here.

All in all a bit of a tear-jerking reminder of my hometown.

Do take the time to go an persue the rest of his flickr stream.

Credit: Thanks to arepeegee for permission to use this photos.

Beyond Pathetic

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Slightly belatedly, but still amusing in the extreme is this Time.com article: The Worst Ever Opening Ceremonies. As they state:

The goal is to put on a show that wows the world and doesn’t embarrass the host nation.
But that doesn’t always happen.

Please enjoy then:

  1. The 1988 Seoul Olympics, when they incinerated the doves of peace.
  2. The Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, when a Canadian sporting legend was grounded.
  3. The infamous World Cup in 1994, when Diana Ross missed a penalty, despite having the world’s biggest goal to aim at.
    and:
  4. The lesser known 1991 World Student Games in er… Sheffield, where Helen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, fell over and dropped the torch, extinguishing the flame.

Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any readily available footage of that last one, which unlike London 2012’s efforts, really was beyond pathetic.

Take the crown

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Yes, I’ve been watching the Olympics and I’ve been happy with Team GB’s progress (once they started progressing, that is), but last night, during a cheese and wine event to celebrate Mrs 6000’s birthday, Sheffield’s own Jessica Ennis taking the gold medal in the Heptathlon was the crowning glory for me.

This photo (from my Dad) is the giant Adidas poster which accurately predicted Ennis’ success on one of the stores in the city centre.

Meanwhile, hundreds of local supporters turned out to watch the whole event on big screens at Don Valley Stadium, where Ennis began her athletics career.