Winter 2004

Bakerlite.co.uk

The area around Cardiff Bay is changing all the time, that's what makes the area so exciting. It seems every time I go, there's another restaurant, statue, monument, building to be enjoyed. Some of these pics were taken just before Christmas, some in January 2004.

	The Bay, at night, (obviously I hear you say) looking out towards the St David's Hotel with the Turkish Restaurant in the foreground.		The Pier Head building, all lit up. looking at 180 degrees to the previous shot
As above...		Just around the corner...
	The Millennium Centre nears completion. It is to be the place where the welsh National Opera can stage its performances. But a lot more is promised too. I like the way the bronze cladding picks up the sunlight.		No, the pillars don't lean: tis just the wide angle lens.
This tall reflective pillar must have some significance, I know not what, but it looks pretty special on this bright January day. The film 2001 comes to mind...		They do go awfully well together, don't you think?
	The crane has now gone....		This taken in mid February. The crane has gone; I was right!
Bute street has a great deal of history behind its splendid facades. It links the city centre with the Bay, or the Docks as it was. Tiger Bay was here, my friends.		Here is someone who was instrumental in helping to make Cardiff the way it is. The Marquis of Bute: he lived at the Castle just up the road.
	The interplay of light and shade always fascinate me.		You don't have to go far to see evidence of Cardiff's ever changing skyline.
More cranes. How do they build them, that's what I want to know.		I heard on the 'telly' that HMS Monmouth was visiting town. I rang up the Naval recruiting office to get details of where it would be, and whether it would be open to the public. They said it was open to the public and I couldn't miss it 'cos it's very big and grey'
	Fine, but this (very) young man with a weapon said that it wasn't open to the public. And as he had a weapon of individual destruction, I concurred and backed off down the 'gangplank'.		'You can take pictures from the jetty', he said.
So I took this rather pastoral picture from the lushness of Britannia Quay.		Words fail me here, but at least I got the photographic splash of red in the foreground. Thank you sir. Don't look behind you now, though.
A bright, low winter sun shone over Cardiff Bay			The sharp end.
	I hope the crew read the notice	Meanwhile, Penarth sits where it always has done, beyond the newly flooded Bay, beyond the silhouette of the Norwegian Church.
On the way back, there is the Pier Head building shown in all its brick magnificence			This monument is dedicated to the ill fated 'Terra Nova', which set sail from Cardiff in 1910 to the Antarctic with a certain Captain Scott. The full story is told in the next panel.
			Another statue, sculpted in black to reflect, I guess, Cardiff's history of the black gold that was mined in the valleys and left in great steam ships to all corners of the Empire.