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Picked this up this evening...

Minolta X-700 with a 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 zoom.
Sun 2x teleconverter
Vivitar 20mm f3.8
And a 36exp roll of film about 5 years old (estimated by the guy that gave it all to me)

Weekend In Phone Shots

My neighbours 'new' van, Chevy Astro.


His cat.


Wal-Mart


Very clean '64 Mini in Waitrose car park this morning.

Braderie De Lille

Got back from the Braderie De Lille today.

Imagine the outcome if a giant car-boot sale, antique fair, jumble sale, flea market, January sales, fete and festival all collided then the result would be the Braderie De Lille.

We went over on Friday lunchtime on the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk and then it's only about an hour or so's drive down to Lille.

We stayed in the Ibis hotel in Villeneuve D'Ascq a suburb on the south-eastern edge of Lille.

After arrival we went out for a stroll to check out the whereabouts of the Metro and shops and restaurants etc. Both were about a 5 to 10 minute stroll away.

Late Saturday morning we left the hotel for the short stroll to the Metro.
The Metro is a narrow rubber tyred driverless train that hurtles between stations, 7 stops later (about 15 minutes) we were in the cente of Lille and left the station amidst the throng of people heading for the action.

The shops in the pedestrianised shopping centre have stalls outside with special Braderie goods on sale at discounted prices, interspersed between them are locals from the apartments above the shops who peddle their wares and services such as selling coffee and waffles from machines plugged into long extension leads.

There are whole districts given over to antiques but not exclusively.

We walked almost non stop for 6 hours only pausing to look at goods on sale.
Not one skateboard spotted but I nearly bought a 1960's wooden water monoski which would have made a nice deck but at €50 it wasn't gonna happen.

Back on the Metro, freshen up then out for a meal.
Up this morning, drive back to Dunkirk and home on the ferry, a great weekend.

Next year, we're going to stay Saturday/Sunday night and do both days as this year we missed a lot and probably only covered about half of it.

Pic up the top isn't mine I found it on Flickr. it was taken by bpmm there's more of there shots here

I only took my Vivitar UWS with me and haven't quite used the film up yet.

Oh and when they said on the television news in the hotel on Saturday morning that 2,000,000 visitors were going there I didn't think they really meant it, I do now.

Class

Saw this outside Halfords in Guildford this morning.

Didn't hang around long enough to see who was driving it.

Not Fed Up...

...in fact I'm quite happy with the results from my Fed5B even though I had problems with the film snapping whilst I was rewinding it.

Here's three pictures of the glasshouse at Wisley Gardens, got a nice muted vintage feel to them.

Sizzle

Remember these with the funky wheel release sytem?



I saw some rollerskates in a charity shop a few weeks back, wish I'd bought them now, they only wanted £5 for them.



Yep Mattel Sunrunners, same truck and wheel design.

Greg Gibbs R.I.P

pic by ~lox~

I heard last night that Greg died on Thursday.

He was a talented skateboarder, screen-printer, musician and a good internet friend and inspiration.
A co-founder of oldkookskating.com

R.I.P Greg your wisdom and insight will be missed

Guess Who?

You'll probably never believe it if I told you.

Now aged 50, pictured in 2004.

Clue: Turner Prize winner.

Powerflex 9's

Never had any myself but rode a mates board with some, nice wheels.

Interesting to see in this ad from July 1978's Skateboarder that they were still measuring them in inches.
My theory was that after Kyptonics came out measuring wheels in millimetres everybody followed suit, oh well bang goes that theory.

RS

Loving the micro cars in France.
This is a Ligier X-TOO RS.

Diesel 4 stroke twin cylinder 440 cm3
Aluminum block, camshaft head
Bore 68 mm - stroke 60.6 mm
Maximum power: 4 kW at 3700 rpm
Direct fuel injection with electronic control
Maximum torque 20.0 Nm at 1,800 rpm

Yep a whole 4kW @ 3700 rpm.

That's 5.6 horsepower.