From a Small Clothes closet to a Cozy Room

I'm quite pleased with my long Summer project of transforming my small clothes closet
into an extra little spare room. And last weekend I went about building a book shelf
cabinet which I fitted on to the back wall. And it does seem to add some charm to
this small space. Perhaps with a more comfy chair and it would make a nice reading room.
Of course I still keep that fold up bed in there as the room is also a guest room.
And yes those shelf candles are battery operated. We don't want any accidents.

Further down below are a few pictures of the room building and transformation.

The original post on this room construction can be seen HERE.
 

Above:  September 2018 when the newly converted space was turned
into a guest bedroom.

Vintage Chat Show Anecdotes

Above: Two British actors no longer with us, Oliver Reed and
Richard Harris, share a few anecdotes on The Michael Parkinson
show back in 1973.
Oliver Reed conveys a story on how George Bernard Shaw was
propositioned by a young socialite at a cocktail party.
While Richard Harris reflects back to the time on the set of that great
troubled movie Mutiny on the Bounty and how the star of the
film Marlon Brando had problems remembering his lines.

I suppose for some fans of vintage tv it must seem strange seeing
Oliver Reed completely sober on a tv chat show as he was well
known for turning up completely plastered while sipping from
a large jug of vodka and orange as he famously once did on
The Michael Aspel show back in the late 1980's.

Above video was taken from The Best of Parkinson.

My Cabinet Console.... A Test Video.

Below is a slightly disappointing test video of my home built Console which was
originally a vintage cabinet. I think this video was the fourth one I filmed.
And it looks like the new phone I recently bought is a bit of a letdown. It won't
even film in low light and with only 8GB of internal memory I'm lucky if 
I can film anything over three minutes.
What I don't get with a lot of these phones is that if you buy one with only 8GB of
internal memory they actually already use up 7GB due to the preloaded apps,
apps that I don't even need, one or two which I did indeed get rid off.
But the answer and solution might lie in reverting to my Lumix stills camera as it
has a HD built in video camera, and a good one too. So I've downloaded what I'm
guessing most people use and that's Windows Movie Maker.
So hopefully once I'm able to work it all out then I can make videos without all
the stress.

The original blog post of this building project can be seen HERE.

 Above & Below: Evening low light images of the Console. Something
my stills HD Video camera can capture, but sadly not my
phone.
Although the one and only saving grace of the phone is that
it has a video stabilizer, a vital facility that Youtube sadly withdrew.

Above: The start of the project last year.

Below: The original Cabinet.

Below: The Cabinet as I first saw it in a local second hand shop.

Return to Hastings

Above and below are some pictures from our late Summer trip to
Hastings on the East Sussex coast. And the reason for the visit
during our exceptional Summer was to go and check out the newly
renovated Hastings Pier. It seems like ages since we were last there.
Sadly the Pier was destroyed in a fire back in 2010 but after several
years and at a cost of £14.2m the pier is well and truly back.

But what surprised and slightly shocked me about it was that unlike the
more cluttered and busy looking Pier prior to the Fire, there's actually
not very much on it. Just a handful of local food and souvenir outlets.
And the word that comes to mind is minimalism. And it came as no surprise
to me recently to discover that the Pier won last years Stirling Architecture
Prize as the best building of 2017.
The great swathes of open spaces makes the Pier look like some kind of art
installation. Perhaps in time more local businesses might take up residency on
this iconic structure.

But at least we were thrilled that it's back and that it wasn't just left abandoned
like some of our Piers scattered around the British coastline.

Above: An online Library image of Hastings Pier in 2005.

Below: Hastings Pier - Summer 2018. And you can see a great
difference before and after the renovations.

Hastings Pier from high up at White Rock Gardens.

Lets all go to Hastings Beach and...... look at our mobile phones!

Above: The recently new Jerwood Art Gallery on the Hastings seafront.

Above: Some sporting sparring in the Gardens of White Rock which
overlooks Hastings Pier.

Later that afternoon after some local Fish & Chips we headed off up to The
East Hill and the Coast Path to one of our old haunts, Fairlight Glen
where there is a public nudist Beach, although we haven't been able to get
to it for quite a few years as the cliff edge rocks keep falling in to the sea.
But we thought we'd see if any new paths would lead us there. Unfortunately
we had hardly got a quarter of the way when the path was shut off, once again
and we saw this sign (below image) which told us to go no further.
There was some kind of long winded diversion path to get there but as the
afternoon was getting on we thought we'd leave the coast path and head back
to town. Perhaps we'll try it next time.

Above: The view from the top of The East Hill looking towards
West St Leonards, and beyond that, Bexhill.