Monday, 13 January 2020

Tea you couldn't drink

Back to lines and geometry and what have you.  This time in Portrush, a good place to go when the light is strong.  This is up near the station and is a general plaza type area where you can sit and eat your sandwiches and have your flask of tea when the weather is decent.  The Irish are great tea drinkers, y'see.  Or were.  Strange how you almost never see anyone with a flask of tea any more - back in the day everyone had them.  Nowadays people seem to prefer plastic bottles of water or fizzy pop.

Portrush Plaza, old Tri-X on Adox MCP312 paper.

When I was younger, a trip to Belfast (about 50 miles East of us) was a Big Thing.  A good big flask of tea was definitely required and usually a few rounds of sandwiches too.  Sometimes you would even stop en route to have something to eat&drink - on the way up and back.  Nowadays with better roads and faster cars it's only about an hour's journey - stopping halfway is not something my wife or I would even consider.  But my mother still wouldn't entertain going to Belfast without packing a flask and would insist on having a cuppa in the car on arrival.  Well, she's not going to pay £1.95 for tea you couldn't drink from one of those cafes, now, is she?
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5 comments:

  1. Marcus Peddle19 January 2020 at 02:15

    That looks like a great spot for some nice geometrical photographs. Shadows, shadows everywhere.
    We also had sandwiches made by 'Mudder' when we was on road trips. Sometimes we would get a treat and stop into the Mary Brown's Fried Chicken restaurant in Goulds halfway between my hometown of Grand Falls and St. John's, the capital of the province. I think we had Pepsi etc to drink with the sandwiches. With Diet Pepsi for Mudder. Fadder drank tea at home and Mudder drank coffee.
    I take a flask of tea with me when I go somewhere a bit far from the house for photography. I'll take sandwiches if I'm going somewhere for a whole day and there isn't likely to be a restaurant around.

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    Replies
    1. Michael McNeill20 January 2020 at 08:22

      It's a good place for a wander when the light is strong, Marcus. I think next time I'll take a short telephoto lens for something different - maybe isolate a few objects.

      I checked out St John's Newfoundland on Google Maps. Looks like an interesting place. I was in London, Ontario years ago for a conference but that's my only visit to Canada - I've more experience of Chicago since that's where Brother lives. You've ended up a long long way from where you started.

      I had a smile at Mary Brown's - that's my wife's mother's name. But not her restaurant, obviously :)

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    2. Marcus Peddle21 January 2020 at 10:12

      Ha. Is your mother-in-law from Scotland? How's her chicken? :)

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    3. Michael McNeill22 January 2020 at 20:10

      Donegal, as far as we can trace back! I think chickens were in short supply in Ireland back then, although I remember my Uncle telling a story of his granny sitting on the doorstep when a hen grabbed a crust of bread out of her hands. The punchline was she grabbed it back...

      So I google mapped me St Johns, as I said. That same day I went on FB & one of my friends posted a photo of...drum roll...St John’s. Isn’t it weird when that stuff happens?!

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    4. Marcus Peddle22 January 2020 at 22:56

      Half of Newfoundland is originally from somewhere in Ireland. The other half is from Devon/Cornwall/Somerset.
      Funny story about the chicken, haha.
      St. John's is in the news these days because of the big snow storms. My parents live in Central Newfoundland and didn't get it so bad, but my father was out several times a day with the snowblower. I told him he should just buy a huge sack of potatoes and sit out the winter inside.

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