LEE PAYNE

Tag: palace

  • I Write Wednesday #3 – under a cloud, Blackpool Tower isn’t on fire and the darts sensation that makes us all feel inadequate

    I Write Wednesday #3 – under a cloud, Blackpool Tower isn’t on fire and the darts sensation that makes us all feel inadequate

    It’s a new year, and I begin 2024 under both a literal and metaphorical cloud.

    Here I am, soaked through and knackered, pushing trollies in the work car park last night. I took the photo because I didn’t think it would be believed that I actually had to go out there during Storm Henk. After an incredibly busy Christmas period, I am shattered. There are still two months until I get a week off work. I sense that I am on a downward slope.

    Anyway, that’s enough self-pity. Here’s a few things that have caught my eye this week.

    Daft news story: in the media, there are two ‘silly seasons’. One is in August, when everyone is on their summer holidays and nothing much is going on. The other is that weird week between Christmas and New Year. Last Thursday I was in a cafe with my mum and stepdad when my phone vibrated. The big breaking news story was that grand old Blackpool Tower was on fire! A bona fide English landmark was going up in flames! Not quite. It turned out to be some orange netting at the top of the tower blowing about in the wind. There was no fire. The media made a hasty retreat. In less than a week, the Blackpool Tower ‘fire’ has become a meme.

    A sporting sensation: Luke Littler, who is 16 but – let’s be honest – looks about 35, has taken darts by storm by cruising into the final of the World Championship in his debut year. Impressing everyone with his consistent high scoring and seemingly nerveless disposition, Littler only became world youth champion in November but has beaten Raymond van Barneveled and Rob Cross, who have six World Championship titles between them, in the main event. He plays the world number one and pre-tournament favourite Luke Humphries at Alexandra Palace in London tonight.

    I love the darts. I used to watch it with my dad when I was a kid. Even now, I think the Christmas period only really starts when the World Championship begins. It’s immensely entertaining, and fantastic to watch people who are good at things do what they do. Last year, an incredible leg in the final between Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen saw both players on course for a nine darter (the perfect leg of 501). van Gerwen missed the double 12, but Smith hit it. That got everyone talking – this year it’s Luke Littler that has captured the imagination.

    A book I’m reading: my Christmas presents this year consisted mainly of books, which is fine by me. One of them was Everything To Play For: The QI Book Of Sports, which I’ve been thoroughly enjoying because it avoids the dreaded sporting cliches and takes a step outside of the bubble us sports fans tend to be in to take a forensic look at what sport actually is, how it began and why it exists. I recommend it, even if you don’t like sport, because it will explain to you that sport is far from a pointless activity and that it is actually built in to the human psyche.

    Thanks for reading my musings this week. See you again soon.

  • In search of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

    Remember my Durham holiday photo challenge? That stemmed from me trying to avoid getting bored during a week off work. Well – I’ve had another week off.

    I always try to have a week off just before the Christmas rush starts, but I’m not very good at resting or doing nothing. So last week I decided to use one of my free days to go in search of something that had fascinated me for ages. I went looking for the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

    I had not been to London for a proper day out since last December. I’d been there for the play-off final at Wembley, but this was my first visit to the city itself in almost a year. As such, after getting off the train at Liverpool Street I wandered around for a while, taking in my surroundings and the big buildings before making my way anywhere.

    Eventually I went to Canada Water station and took the London Overground to Crystal Palace. When you come from Norwich you are used to everything being pretty close by – it took about half an hour to get from Canary Wharf to Crystal Palace! When the train finally arrived, I walked out of the station and was immediately filled with hope.

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    When you’ve come all this way looking for Dinosaurs, this was a pleasing sign to find.

    I was definitely on the right track.

    In case you don’t know, the Crystal Palace was a huge glass building that was built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. When the exhibition closed, the Crystal Palace was moved from Hyde Park to Penge Common in South London. It had such an impact that the area it stood in itself became known as Crystal Palace.

    The land surrounding the Crystal Palace was landscaped and became Crystal Palace Park. The Palace burned down in 1936, but you can still see where it would have been. And one of the elements of the original park that still remain are the dinosaurs.

    I followed the path and got my first glimpse of the sculptures.

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    You don’t get those in Eaton Park.

    These models have been in place since 1854. 161 years! They were the first attempt to make large scale models of dinosaurs in the world, and were designed using the Victorians’ best ideas of what they looked like -they were made a full six years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Scientifically speaking, we now consider the sculptures to be rather inaccurate. But for me that just makes them all the more interesting.

    The Iguanodon models, the Park's most famous residents.
    The Iguanodon models, the Park’s most famous residents.
    A close up of Iguanodon.
    A close up of Iguanodon.

    There are not just dinosaur sculptures there. The idea was to make models of extinct animals from different eras. The dinosaurs were one part of that.

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    This is a Megaloceros. You can probably guess it is related to the deer.

    It was well worth the trip out to see them. It takes a bit of extra time to get there, and it’s a little bit off the tourist track, but there is plenty to see out there. I might even come back when it’s a bit warmer.

    After ticking the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs off my ‘to do’ list, I headed back to central London and did the usual things tourists do when they are in central London.

    The London Eye is ready for Christmas.
    The London Eye is ready for Christmas.
    Parliament, taken from the other side of Westminster Bridge.
    Parliament, taken from the other side of Westminster Bridge.

    It was then time to head home. And I managed to make it back, despite Greater Anglia’s best efforts. My train back to Norwich was cancelled so I had to make a detour to Cambridge in order to get home! I didn’t mind that much though, it had still been a decent day.

    I have another week off work in January – I wonder what I’ll get up to then?