Pretty Buildings are all the rage

When I was a kid, Southbank was a bit of a mecca for skateboarders. There were lots of cool places to hang out down there, and although I never got to go, it would be featured in the skate and bmx mags on a pretty much monthly basis.

I'm sure it's all changed now, and with it comes lots of new buildings. One that's still not built yet is this one - apparently project planning took so long (4 years) that the original design was obsolete, so they came up with this new one. I think I want to just hang out on the 10.000 sq ft terrace on the roof.

Trash Compactor

One house we rented in Breck when my (youngest) brother was across here had what is apparently known as a trash compactor. A machine mystical in its operation, that means you can keep stuffing the big bags full of rubbish long after it should be full.

We needed one over Christmas when we were back in England - lots of takeaways, gift wrapping and random boxes, combined with the bin men enforcing the one bin only rule per house meant we were struggling for space long before it was time for the wagon to come around. Enter the Newcastle version of the trash compactor - much more manual in its approach to solution, but a lot more fun.....