Meanwhile at the end of our street

Posted on February 5, 2013 by chevblue

Ipswich Star: “Several arrested as eyewitness describes dramatic armed incident in Norwich Road.” More.

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Town 4 Middlesboro 0

Posted on February 2, 2013 by chevblue

I wasn’t overly optimistic about the outcome of this one as Tony Mowbray has put together a decent side on Teeside. However, Town put in an excellent shift to record a 4-0 win, the biggest margin of victory in a home game since the West Ham trashing last January.

Two goals from Tommy Smith and one apiece by strikers David McGoldrick and Aaron McLean (two out of three of our new strikers are now off the mark) topped a solid all-round performance.

Smith’s first came seven minutes before half-time, heading home Aaron Cresswell’s corner kick, and his second, and Town’s fourth, was again from his head, this time from a Carlos Edwards corner.

McGoldrick’s goal was an excellent long-range effort from the right hand corner of the area into the top far corner of the Boro goal, and Mclean’s goal saw him cut in from the left and shoot powerfully home from twenty yards.

Goals aside, Smith put was solid at the back aided in no small manner by new loanee Richard Stearman, limiting the visitors to just a couple of meaningful goal attempts. McGoldrick was excellent again, Edwards put in his best performance of the season and Luke Hyam covered every blade of grass with his tireless running.

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Cranfield’s Mill and Paul’s Malt & Barley

Posted on February 1, 2013 by chevblue

The derelict Cranfield’s Mill and Paul’s Malt and Barley works on the Ipswich Wet Dock pictured in late 2004 and the summer of 2005. See Tuesday’s post.  Shortly afterwards  the developers bulldozers would move in to start the construction of the Jerwood Dance Centre, the 23 story “The Mill”, and other yet to be completed projects.

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Portsmouth’s War Memorial

Posted on January 31, 2013 by chevblue

The piece on the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin a couple of weeks ago reminded me of a memorial in Portsmouth. Not on such a grand scale as its Berlin counterpart but the Great War cenotaph, and the adjacent World War Two memorial, are equally as striking.

Close to the cities Guildhall Square the memorial consists of a large crescent shaped screen, a stone column – containing bronze rolls or honour – and two machine gunners, one a soldier and one a sailor.

These pictures date from 2007 – one of my many work related visits to the South Coast during that period.

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Cranfield’s Mill

Posted on January 30, 2013 by chevblue

Cranfield’s Mill and Waterside Development (above) taken from Stoke Quay with a close up of the Victorian frontage of Cranfield’s Mill (below). Development of this part of the wet dock stopped several years ago (the developer went into administration) and it seems likely that the frontage of the mill – originally intended to be form part of the new development – may well be demolished once work in the area starts again (whenever that may be).

Details of the original plan for Cranfield’s Mill and Paul’s malt and barley facilities can be found here. I’ll post a collection of pictures of this section of the wet dock as it looked immediately prior to the developers moving in later this week.

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Alton Water

Posted on January 29, 2013 by chevblue

A pair of swans come into land at Alton Water earlier today.

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Responsive Web Design

Posted on January 24, 2013 by chevblue

Last year was an unusual one in that for the first time in over 10 years PC sales were lower than the previous year. The reason for this is the huge growth in tablet sales which, worldwide, are expected to top the 100 million mark in 2013. The growth in the sale of smartphones is equally impressive.

But what does all this mean you may be asking? It means that the growth in non-PC internet access is increasing exponentially and web designers (as I loosely categorise myself) must take this into consideration. If a site doesn’t display or react well when displayed on a tablet or mobile phone then the user will quickly move on elsewhere.

The solution is to make websites work equally well on any device and this is where “responsive web design”, the new buzz phrase it the IT industry, comes into play. Responsive web design involves detection of what type of device is accessing the site, resizing the display, and changing the behaviour of the site appropriately. By doing so the site is interactive, accessible and viewable on any screen size – be that a PC, smartphone or a tablet.

Over the course of the coming year ExtremeGroundhopping’s mother site, Pride of Anglia, will see a major overhaul so that it too becomes “responsive” and by way of an experiment with the associated techniques I’ve converted another one of my projects, StingPedia, to be exactly that.

You can have a play with StingPedia here.

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Brrrrrr….. (Part Three)

Posted on January 21, 2013 by chevblue

Regular readers must now becoming familiar with picturesque views of the Orwell and St Mary’s Church, Wherstead, which were done no harm at all by the latest snowfall.

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Town 1 Barnsley 1

Posted on January 19, 2013 by chevblue

One of the poorest games at Portman Road for a while. Not quite plumbing the depths – performance wise – of the Derby and Sheffield Wednesday home games, but depressing nonetheless. Had it not been for some profligate finishing by former Town loanee Marlon Harewood we could easily have been three down at the break. Minimal quality on display in a performance seemingly bereft of any ideas other than to hoof the ball forwards “kick and run” style. We desperately need a midfield play maker to liven things up. Hopefully Mick McCarthy has someone lined up before the transfer window closes.

Full details.

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Brrrrrr….. (Part Two)

Posted on January 18, 2013 by chevblue

A few pictures of a wintery Broom Hill. The top picture is of Westbourne Library which was recently awarded a Grade Two listing by The Secetary of State for Culture Media & Sport.

The library was originally built as a public air raid shelter and gas decontamination centre for the population of Ipswich during WWII. Designed by Ipswich Borough Engineer E. McLauchlan, the shelter compliments the adjacent art deco Broom Hill lido which was also designed by McLauchlan and had been completed four years earlier in 1938.

To complete the wintery feel I’d like to point you in the direction of an album entitled 69º54´S-135º12´E by Lauki. The numbers represent the co-ordinates of a stretch of coastline in Antartica. Download here.

Posted in Ipswich, Music, Suffolk | Leave a comment