Watching the street

It bothers me very greatly that surveillance cameras are now ubiquitous.

This is a back-street in a densely-housed area, yet, despite that, it seems that this this location has no choice but to be observed by this seeing-eye, Big Brother style. 

But maybe the people of Shelton welcome it.  I don't know.

Still, warm canal

These May days are great for walking - still and warm.

This is the canal that goes through Shelton.  At one time, the place would have been inside a hot, steamy fog, as, on these banks was once the Shelton Ironworks.  Now, it just seems abandoned.

Go compare... away

The 'Go Compare' TV ads, which feature an operatic tenor, are possibly the most irritating and over-repeated adverts in any of the media. So I have some sympathy with the graffiti-guerilla who defaced this billboard poster (note the crook around the tenor's neck about to haul him off-screen...).

In fact, I burst out laughing when I saw it in Shelton.
One shouldn't laugh really, as this defacement is hardly a legal act - but ... it is SUCH an irritating ad!

STOP PRESS: Thanks to Andrew Woodvine (see his comment below), who alerted me to the fact that, er, I'd been had.  Yes, this 'graffiti' is all part of a clever advertising spoof by Go Compare themselves. Well, it certainly fooled me!

Women explain Islam

The Islam Exhibition is in Shelton this weekend. Intended as an introduction to the faith for both locals and non-Muslims, it profiled Islam through a series of exhibits and displays.

The most worthwhile element of it all was, I thought, the local Muslims, who acted as guides to the exhibition and who answered questions about the religion surprisingly candidly. I was very impressed.

Among the ‘guides’ were many local women – both converts and those raised in the faith. The prominent presence of these women - who responded in a relaxed way to visitors’ concerns about a perceived second-class role of women in Islam, among other questions – was another surprise for those of us who dropped in.
Zaynah and Aaliyah were even happy to have their photo taken.

Link: Islam Exhibition

Regeneration - inside-out

The artist who created life-size 'inside-out' houses might have enjoyed a walk through north Shelton (near Hanley) right now. The regeneration process, in which the old terraced houses are gradually being knocked down, occasionally leaves what were once interior walls now exposed as exterior walls.

I find it a bit embarassing. A private bedroom is now on public show, its insides and its wallpaper (once only rarely glimpsed) now revealed to all.
These walls look almost naked to me.

This post was featured on the My Town Shoot-Out Photo Blog

Refugee Week celebration

It's Refugee Week, and in Shelton (in the city of Stoke-on-Trent), The Shelton Women’s Drop In Group were celebrating it with a tea-and-scones morning. Some forty or so people - some of them refugees or asylum-seekers themselves, some of them supporters - turned up for the event in the meeting-room at St John's. A clown was on hand to entertain.

Funding cuts mean that the support-group for refugees at St John's is now run on a string and a prayer, by volunteers - but they seem strong.

Links: Refugee Week