I Don't Like It Round Here

I'm forever saying it, apparently. So I'm told.

"I don't like it round here."

Usually I say it when we're driving through some kind of urban wasteland. There are some parts of Leeds that I really like. Others that I really don't. Badly-built Sixties blocks. Delapidated Victorian ones. Boarded-up nondescript old shops. Litter everywhere. I don't like it. In my first years working for the actors' agency, I spent about seven years working in a windowless office in one of the nastiest bits of Leeds and I only stuck it because I enjoyed the work.

Okay, so what places do I like then?

I looked through the many thousands of photographs that I took last year and came up with just a few - and they're not even the best photos, perhaps, but they're all evocative of places that I really loved and of happy days that I spent there.

You can click on them if you wish, to make them larger.

Tenby, South Wales, in February:

Waterwynch Bay, near Tenby, February:

Earnse Bay, Barrow-in-Furness, summer (what there was of summer last year)

The River Seine, Paris:

Scarborough, North Yorkshire:

The Olympic Port, Barcelona:

Buttonwood Bay, Sebring, Florida:

Sunset, Florida:

Yes, all these photos have water in them somewhere, I know. I love the seaside and lakes and rivers. I like lots of other places too: but basically, if it's the sea or a lake or a river, I'll be getting my camera out, fast.

Of course, I should be contrasting all this with today's photo of a wintry, dark Leeds in the fog. But for once, I didn't take a photo. I'm fed up of it all. I'm waiting for Spring.