Matt's Journal

Shingles

2009-07-06T21:25:56Z

Off work bored today. Developed shingles last week and although itssettling I feel rotten and the tablets are making me sleepy as anything. I keep forgetting what I am doing. Nearly drove my car into the back of someone else on Saturday 'cos I'm too sleepy. Anyway tablets finish on Wednesday so back to normal after that I hope.
I did make some fake tilt and shift photos at the weekend though and I think some of them are pretty good.
Some more are behind the cut and the rest are in my Flickr photostream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39844762@N02/sets/72157620962462034/

Two abandoned prisons in Brazil

2009-07-04T10:31:47Z

I posted a couple of these earlier on in the year.
These a some pictures of two abandoned prisons on Ilha Grande in Brazil that I found on holiday a few years ago.

This was one of the few structures that was still reasonably intact.

On the other side of the island, next to one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, was this other really tiny prison.

And the little creek right outside the prison door.

Hope you enjoyed thes pictures.

Tat Bank Branch canal

2009-06-26T23:45:38Z

As part of my ongoing project of visiting the more obscure (and abandoned) parts of the Birmingham Canal Navigations system I visited the Tat Bank Branch this week.
The canal leaves the Titford canal at the Titford Pumphouse and the first part of the canal is used for moorings. The rest of the canal is unnavigable. The first part of the unnavigable section is still in water but has no accessible towpath; the second part is dry and has been sealed off with a dam.

I found a part of the canal that still has the towpath along side it next to a chemical works (which also looks abandoned) and a tube factory. The security guard at the factory car park let me in when I asked if I could get some photos (but clearly thought I was bonkers).
This is a section of the disused canal next to the chemical factory.

Another view of the disused canal and factory.

Close up of pipes on the factory. I really like these.

I love the way these pipes look like a crop of Chinese mushrooms.

More Chinese mushrooms.

And a closer image of the pipes.

At the end of this section of the canal is a dam sealing off the rest. You can see it as the concrete structure under the bridge with a sluice gate.

Looking down from the bridge onto the dam.

The other side of the bridge.
The canal here is dry and completely filled in and overgrown.

I cycled round the roads with my OS map to find the other end of this completely abandoned section and nearly missed it.

Where the fence is broken at the left hand edge of the fence you can get into the old section of canal but to get any further would require a machete and skin like rhino hide to get through all those nettles.

On my way to look for the other end of the canal I passed a lot of other abandoned buildings and factories. I only stopped to get a photo of this one as I liked the way the evening sun reflected off the cracked windows. Obviously whoever built this building knew that windows are seen as targets in Oldbury as they must have put reinforced glass in so most of it is cracked and not broken. Not many good throwing arms in Oldbury if they are only reaching the first floor.

Pictures fom the Gothenborg botanical garden

2009-06-25T21:33:38Z

These are photos of flowers I took while on holiday recently in southern Sweden. These are from the Botanic gardens in Gothenborg.

Hope you enjoy them.

Titford pool photos

2009-06-25T14:48:46Z

I am trying to find my way around all the cnals on the Birmingham Canal Navigations system. These are some photos fom the Titford pools and the Portway branch of the Titford canal. I particularly like the more deserted parts of the system. The Portway branch is crossed by the M5 which has led to some of it being silted up so it is now unnavigable. It feels very desolate and remote up there.
I read "Three Miles Up" by Elizabeth Jane Howard a couple of years ago. A fantastic short horror story about deserted places and canals. I could not help but think about it as I was cycling around this canal.
If you enjoyed the pictures please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Titford pool

Big view

M5 over canal

Titford pool wide view

M5 closer

Reed bed

newschmoo @ 2009-06-24T01:01:00

2009-06-24T00:07:31Z

I have decided to post liks to my postings in the abandoned places community as it does not seem to be searchable.
First posting
http://community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/2009/04/17/

Second posting
http://community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/1785832.html

Third posting
http://community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/1810555.html

Fourth posting
http://community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/1813638.html#cutid1

First posting

2009-04-17T02:46:46Z

Welcome to my Journal
I feel an incredible pressure to get this first entry right. Set a standard against which all other journal entries will be judged in the future (and I am wittering already).
I am working a night shift on the renal unit at UHB at the moment and it is pretty quiet (dull would be a good word for it). I saw a couple of patients earlier on in the evening and sorted them out for the night and since then I have spent most of my time either reading a book on statistical modelling and when that got too much (which didn't take long) surfing the net.
Most of the evening I have been in the Abandoned Places website admiring the photography of some of the people who post there and submitting my own first post of an abandoned prison for political prisoners I saw in Brazil a few years ago.
Fortunately this is my last night on call for a couple of months so I can get back to my far more interesting day job (medical research).
I think that is all I have to say for now.