tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post5446103326478074217..comments2023-11-05T09:33:34.696+00:00Comments on The 'Spill: SPEAKING OF MAPS!Blimpyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062521891682719767noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-375215203729862732009-05-18T23:12:00.000+01:002009-05-18T23:12:00.000+01:00Hi GF - that's the link I gave you, so perhaps it ...Hi GF - that's the link I gave you, so perhaps it only works through Google? Anyway, glad you found it!AliMundayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03702895287972476882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-48259546019636718192009-05-18T20:48:00.000+01:002009-05-18T20:48:00.000+01:00Thank you, thank you, absolutely no one could poss...Thank you, thank you, absolutely no one could possibly object. Your comment "'cliff face' of Sheffield Hallam University" meant nowt, t'university's up on Glossop road near t' Weston Park! <br />So you prompted me to google it and find a wonderful page with lots of info, pictures and sound. It's at:<br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2007/11/01/andrew_motion_poem_feature.shtml<br />There's several more poems there by Sheffield people, a couple of which made me laugh out loud. <br /><br />There used to be two stations, the LMS and the LNER, the LNER was down by the market. The LMS was on Pond street and they built a large bus station there, I remember there used to be some steps that led up to somewhere near the main library. If you're curious there's a bookshop on that street next to the town hall that specialises in all books 'Sheffield', I once picked up a 1903 census map of Sheffield there, an interesting resource for remembering 'the good old days', it hardly changed through the '40s.goneforeignhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05903220453599675348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-39185444666142833592009-05-18T09:54:00.000+01:002009-05-18T09:54:00.000+01:00Goneforeign - here is:
What If..? by Andrew Motio...Goneforeign - here is:<br /><br />What If..? by Andrew Motion<br /><br />"O travellers from somewhere else to here<br />Rising from Sheffield Station and Sheaf Square<br />To wander through the labyrinths of air,<br /><br />Pause now, and let the sight of this sheer cliff<br />Become a priming-place which lifts you off<br />To speculate<br />What if..?<br />What if..?<br />What if..?<br /><br />Cloud shadows drag their hands across the white;<br />Rain prints the sudden darkness of its weight;<br />Sun falls and leaves the bleaching evidence of light.<br /><br />Your thoughts are like this too: as fixed as words<br />Set down to decorate a blank facade<br />And yet, as words are too, all soon transferred<br /><br />To greet and understand what lies ahead -<br />The city where your dreaming is re-paid,<br />The lives which wait unseen as yet, unread."<br /><br />it's displayed on the 'cliff face' of Sheffield Hallam University and you can read it as you walk up from Sheaf Square to the town centre. If anyone objects to my quoting it here, then 1,000 apologies, but it's so appropriate I thought I should share it with someone who likes Sheffield too.AliMundayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03702895287972476882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-62452150072420833392009-05-17T13:58:00.000+01:002009-05-17T13:58:00.000+01:00Well Michael Haag, you sound like a true kindred s...Well Michael Haag, you sound like a true kindred spirit and a fellow Durrell fan, I certainly didn't expect that response. Burg el Arab plus Karm Abu Girg are the places I wanted to find the location of. I shall now have another go with your assist. You sound as though you've lived in or visited Alexandria? Where are you now; is this your first visit to the Spill, I haven't noticed your name before, welcome and stick around.<br /><br />Ali: Such a nice comment, thank you. I don't know what it is about the BBC, they act just like the Stasi. EVERYTHING with bbc in the URL is private, off limits to anyone outside the UK so consequently I wasn't able to see the poetry website! It's also the same with all their programs that they advertise so much online.<br />You mention eating lunch outside in Sheffield, when I was a lad my Granny would make my lunch everyday, usually a bowl of tapioca or semolina and place it in a bowl on the kitchen windowsill to cool with a saucer over it. I'd come home from school at noon and the saucer was always covered with black spots, effluent from all those chimneys, that's what we were breathing!<br />It's not just that that's changed, whole streets and neighborhoods have gone, I tried navigating streets that I used to know well and suddenly they dead ended or went off in totally 'wrong' directions.<br />I grew up there and have many fond memories of it as it was then, I'd love to spend time there and see it now.goneforeignhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05903220453599675348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-47339880549439825012009-05-17T12:20:00.000+01:002009-05-17T12:20:00.000+01:00In fact Abousir (or Abusir), which is the modern n...In fact Abousir (or Abusir), which is the modern name for Taposiris, is the site of a Ptolemaic or Roman tower which in medieval times became known as the Tower of the Arabs, ie Burg el Arab in Arabic. So Abousir is Burg el Arab. But also in the 1920s a settlement was built to the south of Abousir, and this was also given the name Burg el Arab. Durrell writes of driving along the coast to swim, and says in the distance there is something that looks like a crusader fort -- the latter is the 1920s settlement which was built like a Tuscan walled town in miniature.<br />Another place Durrell mentions is Karm Abu Girg, where the Hosnani family have their home. This is in fact an ancient town that exists only as a ruin. It lies about halfway between Ikingi Maryut and Taftish Gianaclis, both of which can be found on Google maps. It is due south of Alexandria as the crow flies, though to have got there in Durrell's time one would have first driven west.Michael Haaghttp://www.michaelhaag.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-83770763242585367862009-05-17T11:56:00.000+01:002009-05-17T11:56:00.000+01:00One of the places Durrell mentions west of Alexand...One of the places Durrell mentions west of Alexandria is Burg el Arab -- but he spells it Bourg el Arab, I think. It is just south of Abousir. Both can be seen on Google maps.Michael Haaghttp://www.michaelhaag.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-1875215743618842992009-05-17T10:33:00.000+01:002009-05-17T10:33:00.000+01:00Like everyone as soon as I heard about it I checke...Like everyone as soon as I heard about it I checked if I could see my own neighborhood, but I've never thought of using it to visit places I used to live. Duh. So thanks for the idea, and as I have moved around a bit over the years, see you all in a week.tincanmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12200557175717172969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1533372025110910037.post-74008649108975624852009-05-17T07:45:00.000+01:002009-05-17T07:45:00.000+01:00Goneforeign - I used to travel through Sheffield o...Goneforeign - I used to travel through Sheffield on the train when I was on the way to visit my brother, further up country. This would be about 35 years ago. At night you could see the red glow from the steelworks as you went by. Now, you see the green glow from Meadowhall shopping centre - a sort of infernal Royal Pavilion! Whatever one feels about the demise of industry in the UK, and the seemingly inevitable rise of 'the mall',it's true that Sheffield has turned itself around and now prides itself on its 'greeness'. I travel there quite often for work and I really enjoy walking up from the railway station, there are now fountains and 'water features' outside on Sheaf Square and the university tower block has a poem by Andrew Motion displayed down the side. You can sit and eat your lunch in the Winter Gardens if it's raining,or in the square in front of the Town Hall, which is full of flowers in the summer, if it's dry. Sure, there are still grotty bits but I think the planners are doing an amazing job, for once. here's a link which will tell you a bit about the poem, which is appropriate for Sheffield (but which I won't reproduce here in case the copyright police get cross): http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2007/11/01/andrew_motion_poem_feature.shtml<br />Sorry, seem to have gone on a bit!AliMundayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03702895287972476882noreply@blogger.com