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International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde (2nd L) speaks as IMF Deputy MD David Lipton (L), Chairman Agustin Carstens (C), UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres (2nd R) and IMF Secretary Jinhai Lin (R) listen as she address the IMFC meeting April 22, 2017 at the IMF Headquarters in Washington, DC. The IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings are being held in Washington this week. IMF Staff Photograph/Stephen Jaffe

Managed to injure myself while working out. Pissed off and frustrated. Took my anger out of marshmallows. Feel like shit. The end.

Managed to take a picture of it before it ran back to its lair.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and IMF Communications Department Director Gerry Rice during the Managing Director’s press conference at the 2018 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings on Thursday, October 11 in Bali, Indonesia. Ryan Rayburn/IMF Photo

 

Dr Lorraine Horgan, Head of Professional Development and Learning, Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland; Michael Diviney, Director of Publishing, Chartered Accountants Ireland; Dr Mary Collins, Senior Executive Development Specialist, RCSI Institute of Leadership; Prof Ciarán O’Boyle, Director, RCSI Institute of Leadership

We managed to get up to The Lake District for a few days at Easter. We got away from work on Good Friday afternoon and spent three hours covering 110 miles, the M61 and M6 were very slow or stopped. As ever once there we soon left the hassle behind. We were using a B&B that we used very regularly for ten years until the owner passed away quite suddenly. Now under new ownership it has been totally gutted and refurbished, it’s very nice but twice as expensive.

 

We were out in good time on Saturday, it was dull and cool but very calm. I’d deliberated for ages as to where to walk, wanting to avoid the worst of the Easter crowds. It was the busiest I’d seen the Lakes for a long time amd the North Lakes in particular had stunning weather, the South Lakes had dense fog in places until the afternoon and was much cooler – but not cold. Parking in Patterdale we headed up Arnison Crag, on to Birks aiming for St Sunday Crag. This was where it started to go wrong. I got a sudden pain in my right ankle, near a previous serious ankle injury, it’s not unusual to get a bit of pain in this ankle but it got worse. My ankle felt like it was in a vice. On the plus side the cloud which was very low initially was clearing higher at the same speed that we were climbing. We scrambled over Cofa Pike through some snow on to Fairfield and for a change the summit was clear with glorious views. I had to undo my gaiter and slacken my boot, my ankle was swelling and bruising. I took paracetemol and carried on – I didn’t have much choice really. We walked to Hart Crag out to Dove Crag, back to Hart Crag as we wanted to head down over Hartsop above How. We stopped for a quick sandwich and pot of lemon tea before heading down the rocky path. By now I was suffering but still able to walk fairly fast. The yomp back along the road to Patterdale was tough. We covered 11.5 miles in around five hours, which was OK for a first walk in the mountains for a while. We drove to Keswick wanting to get to Brysons tearooms for cake and coffee. Keswick was packed and sunny and we had to walk in half a mile, that was painful, my ankle was agony until I got it loosened up. Toasted Plum Bread, apple pie and ice cream and coffee made up for the grief.

 

On Sunday I knew I couldn’t walk much. I was applying Ibuprofen Gel regularly but it was going to be a car and camera day. There was dense fog when we set off so I decided we needed to be somewhere attractive when it started to clear, I just didn’t know when that was going to be. We drove into Langdale and the fog broke to reveal Blue sky and the top of the Langdale Pikes, it was fantastic. I immediately thought of Blea Tarn and drove up the pass out of Langdale. I expected to find, as is usual, tripods in a row, with photographers clicking away. There wasn’t a soul, it was so calm and peaceful – and beautiful – I couldn’t believe my luck. I limped as fast as I could to the Tarn, unfortunately an overnight camper, who I chatted with about the beauty, reflections and the camera I was carrying, did her best to encourage her dog into the water and she got in to get washed. It was so calm that the ripples would cross the entire tarn and spoil the photos. I shot as quick as I could, moving away from her all the time. I think I had around 15 minutes at the most before a breeze – that I couldn’t feel – started to ripple the water. The reflections disappeared and it was over. Without the bad ankle I would have missed this tranquillity as we would have been toiling up out first climb of the day. The fog stayed put in the South Lakes but we headed north over Dunmail Raise to blue sky and 17 degrees.

 

On Monday after 36 hours of Ibuprofen I felt that my ankle would stand a six or seven miler – but where? We had very thick fog in Ambleside so again I drove over Dunmail Raise and again it was fantastic. I could see the chance of some good photos around Thirlmere but I had to get waterside at a point where the view wasn’t obstructed with saplings and bushes growing out of the water. This was easier said than done, it took three attempts to get a decent location. I had reflections, hanging mist, water and mountains – and wet feet again, fortunately I had my walking boots and socks to put on for the walk ahead. After my photo chase we parked at Steel End and headed up the steep nose of Steel Fell. It’s a tough climb but the view over Thirlmere was great. We could see the wall of fog to the south and I was looking forward to getting to the top, hoping that we would be able to see over it with mountains poking out of a sea of white. This was exactly as it was, the Lion and the Lamb on Helm Crag looked like an island in the sea of mist. We walked along the ridge to Calf Crag with clear views to the north and a sea on mist to the south, it looked like the right choice again. We were going to head down Wythburn back to Thirlmere. Wyth Burn runs through a secluded hanging valley through an area called The Bog. I’ve walked down here a few times and at first glance it looks dry – they didn’t name it The Bog for nothing – it is extremely wet. It doesn’t matter how high you walk to avoid it – you can’t! We were wet above the gaiters by the time we got back and it was tough on the ankle. Brysons here we come, another beautiful hot day in Keswick but back to work tomorrow.

 

Managed jointly by the BLM and National Park Service, Craters of the Moon National Monument is a uniquely preserved volcanic landscape whose central focus is the Great Rift, a 62-mile long crack in the Earth’s crust. Craters, cinder coves, lava tubes, deep cracks and vast lava fields form a strangely beautiful volcanic sea on central Idaho’s Snake River Plain.

 

Local legends made references to the landscape resembling the surface of the moon. In fact, the second group of astronauts to walk on the moon visited Craters of the Moon in 1969 to study the volcanic geology and to explore an unusual and harsh environment in preparation for their trip to space.

 

Researchers continue to study the area - particularly the caves within the monument and nearby BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. A number of the caves provide hibernation habitat for Townsend’s big-eared bats, a sensitive species. And they provide a great learning resource for local students.

Model: Giselle Burgos

Make Up Artist: Melissa Ramirez

Coordinated/Managed by Daisy Villalobos

Photographer: J. Aaron Delgado

 

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The Tripartite Action to Protect and Promote the Rights of Migrant Workers within and from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS TRIANGLE) project aims to reduce the exploitation of labour migrants by contributing to the development of legal and safe recruitment channels and improved labour protection mechanisms.

 

Funded by AusAID, one specific mechanism of the GMS TRIANGLE project is managed cross-border migration services, as shown here in Lao PDR.

  

© ILO/A.DOW

Agenda, Wednesday, June 5

0830 Registration of Participants

0900 Welcoming Remarks

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Adviser and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

0915 Presentation: "The South China Sea in Focus"

Mr. Gregory Poling

Research Associate, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

0945 Break

1015 Significance of the South China Sea Dispute

Speakers:

Dr. Patrick M. Cronin

Senior Advisor and Senior Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program

Center for a New American Security

Mr. Alexander Metelitsa

Economist

Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1145 Break for Lunch

1200 Luncheon & Keynote Speech

Keynote Address:

Mr. Joseph Y. Yun

Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs

U.S. Department of State

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1315 Break

1330 Recent Developments in the South China Sea

Speakers:

Dr. Wu Shicun

President

National Institute for South China Sea Studies

Dr. Renato C. De Castro

Professor

De La Salle University

Dr. Yann-Huei Song

Research Fellow

Institute of European American Studies

Dr. Tran Truong Thuy

Director, South China Sea Studies Program

Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam

Moderator:

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1500 Break

1515 South China Sea in Regional Politics

Speakers:

Amb. Hemant Krishan Singh

Wadhwani Chair in India-U.S. Policy Studies

Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations

Vice Admiral Hideaki Kaneda, JMSDF (ret.)

Director, The Okazaki Institute

The Japan Institute for International Affairs

Dr. Carlyle A. Thayer

Emeritus Professor

University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy

Dr. Donald K. Emmerson

Director, Southeast Asia Forum

Stanford University

Moderator:

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1700 End of Day One

Agenda, Thursday, June 6

0800 Registration of Participants

0900 Role of International Law in Managing the Disputes

Dr. Xinjung Zhang

Associate Professor of Public International Law

Tsinghua University Law School

Mr. Henry S. Bensurto, Jr.

Secretary General, Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat

Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines

Dr. Peter Dutton

Professor and Director, China Maritime Studies Institute

U.S. Naval War College

Dr. Nguyen Dang Thang

Vietnam Lawyer’s Association

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1030 Coffee Break

1045 Policy Recommendations to Boost Cooperation in the South China Sea

Ms. Bonnie S. Glaser

Senior Adviser for Asia, Freeman Chair in China Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Mr. Leonardo Bernard

Research Fellow, Centre for International Law

National University of Singapore

Mr. Christian Le Miere

Senior Research Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, Defense and Military Analysis Program

International Institute for Strategic Studies

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1215 End of Conference

Here is a simple way to manage fake blood. Use Photoshop or simular program.,

Takes only a couple of minutes to create blood or some other non opaque liquid.

 

See example...

First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath records remarks for the peek into training on climate change and the IMF Summer School at the International Monetary Fund.

 

IMF Photo/Cory Hancock

1 April 2022

Washington, DC, United States

Photo ref: CH220401007.arw

 

Stephen Brown, Managing Director of Cohn & Wolfe Atlanta speaks at the Social Communications & Content Marketing Leadership Forum hosted by PR Newswire and the Business Development Institute on 11/15/11 in Atlanta, GA.

Stephen Brown, Managing Director of Cohn & Wolfe Atlanta speaks at the Social Communications & Content Marketing Leadership Forum hosted by PR Newswire and the Business Development Institute on 11/15/11 in Atlanta, GA.

We managed to get to the Lake District for the Easter weekend. We were open at work on Good Friday so I had to be in at work for a couple of hours and didn’t set off until 9.00am. We had a quick café stop and then jumped on the M62. It took us until 2.00pm to get to Langdale. We crawled up the M61 and M6, reminding me why we used to avoid Bank Holiday traffic. Although staying in Ambleside we drove to Langdale to get a couple of hours walking in. Langdale was packed but we found a place to park at the foot of the pass up to Blea Tarn. We headed up Pike of Blisco – against a steady stream of walkers descending at this time in the afternoon. I didn’t bother taking photos to any great extent, it wasn’t great light, windy and the appalling weekend forecast had depressed me – this was supposed to be the best day and it was nearly over. After a nice settled spell, possibly the first in the north of England this winter (now officially British Summertime) heavy rain and gales were coming our way apparently.

 

Each morning I studied the maps trying to second guess the light, wind and crowds. On Saturday it was initially dry, much to our surprise, we parked in Coniston and set off up Walna Scar Road. It’s a long steep drag to the top of the pass, the cloud was down and thick, the wind was getting extreme as we got higher – and we didn’t see a soul! We were heading over Brown Pike onto Dow Crag, we weren’t likely to get lost on a ridge. By now it was raining hard and the wind was making staying upright difficult. We slid off the rocky summit of Dow Crag on our backsides, the safest way. We dropped on to Goats Hause, the wind was screaming through and but I guessed there would be some shelter if we headed for the Old Man of Coniston. We met the first person of the day here, arriving at the summit just before him. There was still winter snow on north facing slopes but the wind wasn’t as bad as Dow Crag. It was grim, 30 metre visibility and there was very little point in staying on the tops as originally planned. Jayne was up for heading straight down the tourist track through the quarries. We have only ever ascended it before but we set off down at a trot, passing some fell runners along the way. There was a steady stream of Easter trippers heading up and judging by the questions we were asked on the way down they had little idea of what they were heading in to or how far they were from the summit, and all in appalling conditions. Lower down it was quite calm and many had little idea of the severity of the conditions on the tops. The countryside was rapidly waterlogging again after the belated dry spell.

 

Sunday brought more very heavy rain and gales on the tops. What looked like snow had accumulated on high ground overnight. It was actually several inches of hail and was horrible underfoot, like small wet marbles but trapping a lot of water on the lower slopes below the freezing line. We parked at Patterdale and walked across slopes that the recent floods had wreaked havoc on, with a lot of remedial work to be done this summer. The plan was to get to Boardale Hause and decide whether to go high – over Place Fell – or head in to Boardale and stay low by doing a circuit of Place Fell. It was raining hard and there was a howling gale but it was behind us, the cloud had lifted a bit so we went high. The summit plateau was a nightmare, covered in slippy, wet, slushy hail with the wind nearly blowing us over. We went north straight over the top and down the other side, the top was in thick cloud but the lower slopes were clear and we legged it off the fell, descending by Scalehow Force waterfall, which was in fine form with the heavy rain. We followed the path above the shores of Ullswater back to Patterdale. Another wet walk.

Monday saw us parked a mile or so south of yesterday’s parking place in Patterdale at Bridgend. With the weather being bad people weren’t out early, even on a bank holiday, so we didn’t have a problem parking. There wasn’t a plan, we were just making it up. Today looked promising, Storm Katie was battering the rest of the country but missed the north for a change. The tops were wintry, again it was hail accumulations not snow, on the high ground it was on very old lying snow and very difficult on steep descents. We decided to take the steady slopes of Hartsop above How to Hart Crag, on to Fairfield and then hopefully over Cofa Pike on to St Sunday Crag, Birks and finally Arnison Crag. This was just less than ten miles and it turned out to be a very tough five hours, exhausting, particularly after the three previous days. A large coastguard helicopter circled us repeatedly and finally landed on the path we were following to Hart Crag, we assumed it was on an exercise. The ground was frozen above 2500 feet and walking was easier as the snow/hail was load bearing and we could yomp on a bit. It was like midwinter with frequent squally whiteouts blasting in. The wind would pick up first lifting the frozen hail in a frozen spindrift that bounced along several feet high blasting our faces, this was followed by, what was more like frozen drizzle than snow, fine, but hard, we could feel it through our clothes it came at us that hard. I decided that we would head straight over Cofa Pike to St Sunday. A mistake with hindsight. The lake of footprints was the first bad sign but we were committed. We lived to tell the tale but Jayne had a bit of a near miss. The crag down to Cofa is steep and it was covered in hail on old snow, the layer of hail was shearing away from the underlying snow and we had to go down on out backsides, keeping a tight grip as we went. At one point Jayne failed to arrest a slide that was above a steep and deep drop. I had hold of her from a position in front of her and to her left and I was fairly well anchored so I felt in control and was sure of the outcome. From her point of view it was frightening and it subdued her for the rest of the walk. She had also ripped the outer lining of her Paramo waterproof trousers as well. Considering that we were going downhill it was hard going, every step a slip or a slide, with the underlying grass saturated and a thin layer of hail it was an unpleasant walk off the fell. At the end of Arnison Crag we took a pathless shortcut – that we swore we would never use again years ago – to save around twenty minutes of walking. This was the only day I had the camera out all day and had to cover it with a dryliner bag whenever a heavy shower came in. I also broke the lens hood. We drove to Keswick for afternoon coffee and toast at Brysons. The new Paramo store across the square was the next stop for new trousers. These Paramos had cost £85 14 years ago and they have just brought a new model out. We had two choices, The old model was reduced to…..£85 – after 14 years we could pay the same price or we could return the old trousers - cleaned – and get a £50 voucher towards the new model, which are £135, or £85 with the voucher. The old ones were ¾ of a mile away in the car – unwashed – so we bought the old model. Needless to say we had a couple of drinks in the Golden Rule in Ambleside every night before our tea.

 

The Discovery Museum is a science museum and local history museum situated in Blandford Square in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It displays many exhibits of local history, including the ship, Turbinia. It is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.

 

History

The Discovery Museum started life in 1934 as the Municipal Museum of Science and Industry. The collections were housed in a temporary pavilion built for the 1929 North East Coast Exhibition in Exhibition Park, Newcastle.

 

The collections and displays grew for another forty years, until the temporary pavilion could no longer meet the museum's needs. In 1978, the museum was re-located to Blandford House, the former Co-operative Wholesale Society Headquarters for the Northern Region. Designed by Oliver, Leeson & Wood in 1899, the building had been the distribution centre for over 100 Co-op stores across the region, and contained extensive warehouse space and offices.

 

The museum was re-launched as Discovery Museum in 1993 at which time the Turbinia was moved from Exhibition Park. In 2004 the £13 million redevelopment of the museum was complete and the following year the venue attracted 450,000 visitors.

 

Exhibits

The museum includes Turbinia, the 104 feet 9 inches (31.93 m) ship built by Charles Algernon Parsons to test the advantages of using the steam turbine to power ships, which could go up to 34 knots (39 mph; 63 km/h). It houses the regimental museum for the Light Dragoons (and its antecedent regiments) and the Northumberland Hussars, exploring the human side of 200 years of life in the army. It is a "hands-on" museum designed to interest both children and adults. It also features examples of Joseph Swan's early lightbulbs which were invented on Tyneside.

 

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

 

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

 

The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.

 

Roman settlement

The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

 

The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.

 

Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.

 

Anglo-Saxon development

The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.

 

Norman period

After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.

 

In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.

 

Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.

 

Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.

 

The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.

 

Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.

 

In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.

 

In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.

 

Religious houses

During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.

 

The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.

 

The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.

 

The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.

 

The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.

 

The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.

 

All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

 

An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.

 

Tudor period

The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.

 

During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).

 

With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.

 

Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.

 

The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.

 

In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.

 

Stuart period

In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.

 

In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.

 

In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.

 

In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.

 

In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.

 

A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.

 

Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.

 

In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.

 

In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.

 

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.

 

In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.

 

In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.

 

Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.

 

The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.

 

In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.

 

A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.

 

Victorian period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

 

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.

 

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

 

In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.

 

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.

 

Industrialisation

In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.

 

Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:

 

George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.

George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.

 

Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.

 

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.

 

William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.

 

The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:

 

Glassmaking

A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Locomotive manufacture

In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.

 

Shipbuilding

In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.

 

Armaments

In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.

 

Steam turbines

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.

 

Pottery

In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.

 

Expansion of the city

Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.

 

Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.

 

Twentieth century

In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.

 

During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.

 

In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.

 

Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.

 

As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.

 

In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.

 

As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.

 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.

 

Recent developments

Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.

St Martin, Acrise.

 

A friend managed to get inside a week or so ago, and I have been wanting to return some time, so I checked online and found that St Martin is now open 10 - 4 every day.

 

I rushed out, and found it was indeed unlocked.

 

Set down a track through a wood, past some old cricket nets, which was part of an old minor country house, and there is St Martin, sitting in its churchyard, bellcote at the west end, looking peaceful.

 

A warden was weeding the path, welcomed me to the church, and confirmed it is open every day thanks to someone living in one of the flats in the once grand house.

 

Always great views from the gallery where the organ now takes most of the space.

 

A fine church, with several monuments, although the electric lights were impossible to find, then I noticed candles everywhere.

 

Another step nearer normal.

 

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ACRISE.

LIES the next parish south-eastward from Eleham. It is written in the survey of Domesday, Acres, taking its name from its high situation, and the plenty of oak trees growing in it. It is vulgarly called by the common people in the neighbourhood, Awkeridge, by which name I have sometimes seen it written, both in wills and deeds. The north-east part of it, in which part of the manor of Brandred lies, is in the hundred of Folkestone, and the remainder of it within this hundred of Loningborough.

 

Acrise is an obscure parish, which, like all the others on these hills, is, though poor, exceedingly healthy. It is situated great part of it on high ground, in a wild, dreary and flinty country, among those hills which are here very frequent and steep. It is rather more than two miles long, and about one mile broad. In the south-west part of it, encircled by a large grove of trees, is Acrise-court, a respectable brick mansion, seemingly of the age of Henry VII. and almost close to it, on the north side of the church, about a mile from which stands the parsonage, and a small hamlet of houses round Acrise-green. At some distance further is Hode, the house of which is built of stone, with arched windows and doors of the gothic form, belonging to Mr. Nicholas Marsh, of Eleham; and at the northern boundary of the parish is the hamlet of Brandred, near which there is some coppice wood. The large heath, called Swinfield minnis, extends along the eastern side of this parish, part of which is within the bounds of it. The soil is mostly a red earth, mixed with quantities of flints, the rest of it is chalk, a barren unfertile soil.

 

There is a fair held here, on the Tuesday next after Oct, 10, yearly.

 

Acrise, at the time of taking the general survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of the bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in it:

 

In Nuniberg hundred, Anschitil de Ros holds of the bishop, Acres, which two brothers held, and each had a balimote; now it is for one manor, and it was taxed for one suling. The arable land is two carucates. In demesne there is one carucate and an half, and five villeins, with five borderers having one carucate. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs, aud a church. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth forty shillings, and afterwards thirty shillings, now sixty shillings.

 

Four years after the taking of the above survey, the bishop of Baieux was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown; upon which the seignory of this manor seems to have been immediately granted to the above-mentioned Anschitil de Ros, the mesne tenant of it, who thenceforward became lord paramount, holding it immediately of the crown in capite. Of his descendants this manor was again held by the family of Cosenton, or Cossington as they were sometimes spelt, who resided both here and at Cosenton, in Aylesford.

 

This manor of Acrise, alias Okeridge, was granted to them to hold of the barony of Ross, as of the manor of Horton Kirkby, which seems to have been the chief manor of that barony, and in imitation of whose arms, Or, three roses, gules, the Cosentons bore Azure, three roses, or. Sir Stephen de Cosenton possessed it in the 7th year of Edward III. and that year obtained a charter of free-warrenfor his lands in Acrise, Cossyngtone, and Suthbertone. (fn. 1) At length, after it had continued in his descendants till the reign of king Henry VIII. Thomas Cosenton, esq. dying in the beginning of it without male issue, his three daughters became his coheirs, and shared a large inheritance between them; upon the division of which, this manor was allotted to the youngest, Elizabeth, married to Alexander Hamon, esq. who bore for his arms, Azure, three demi lions, passant-guardant, or. He afterwards resided at Acrise-place, as did his grandson Alexander Hamon, esq. who died possessed of this manor in 1613, leaving two daughters his coheirs; Elizabeth married to Sir Edward Boys, of Fredville, and Catherine to Sir Robert Lewknor, to the latter of whom, by his will, he devised this manor and estate. He afterwards resided at Acrise-place, and bore for his arms, Argent, three chevronels, gules. His descendants continued possessed of it till Robert Lewknor his grandson, in 1666, alienated it, with other estates in this neighbourhood, to Thomas Papillon, esq. of Lubenham, in Leicestershire.

 

The family of Papillon, or Papillion, seems to have been of good account in this kingdom in very early times; for I find Toraldus de Papilion, one of the witnesses to a deed of confirmation of William the Conqueror, to the church of Durham. William Papilion was one of king Edward I.'s faithful servants, and recommended by him to the abbot and convent of Leicester, for a corodie from that house in the 31st year of his reign. (fn. 2) And from him it is very probable the Papillons, of Lubenham, in that county, derive their descent and first settlement in it. Thomas Papillon, of Lubenham, the purchaser of this manor, was an eminent merchant of London, for which he served in parliament, as he had before done for Dover, and bore for his arms, Azure, a chevron, or, between three butterflies, or papillons, argent. He was of the Mercers company, to which he gave 1000l. Philip Papillon, his son, served in parliament several times for Dover, and once for New Romney. His first wife was Anne, eldest daughter of William Jolliffe, esq. of Staffordshire, by her he had a son David. He married secondly Susan Henshaw, by whom he had a son Philip, who was of East Malling, and three daughters. David Papillon, the eldest son, was chosen to serve in parliament for New Romney, and for Dover likewise. He was one of the commissioners of excise, and resided both here and at Lee. He died in 1762, leaving by Mary, daughter of Timothy Keyser, esq. of London, a son David, and five daughters. David Papillon, esq. the son, resided at times both here and at Lee, and was one of the commissioners of excise. By his first wife Bridget, daughter of William Turner, of the White Friars, Canterbury, son of William, by Anna-Maria Papillon, he had surviving seven children, Thomas, born in 1757, now lieutenant-colonel in the East Kent battalion of militia, and by his father's gift the present possessor of this manor and seat; Philip, rector of Eythorne, and vicar of Kennington; William, in orders likewise, of Wymundham, in Norfolk, who married the daughter of the Rev. Richard Drake, of that parish; John-Rawsterne, vicar of Tunbridge, and George, Elizabeth and Sarah. He married secondly Hester, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Curteis, of Sevenoke, and prebendary of Canterbury; by his second wife, who died s. p. in 1782. Thomas Papillon, esq. the eldest son above-mentioned, the present possessor of this manor, married Anne, daughter of Henry Pelham, esq. and now resides at Acriseplace.

 

Brandred is a manor, in the north-east part of this parish, having a hamlet of its own name within it, which, at the time of taking the general survey of Domesday, seems to have been part of the possessions of the canons of St. Martin's priory, in Dover, under the description of which it is entered thus: The land of Brandet pays twenty shillings and six-pence to St. Martin in alms. And a little below, under the same title of their possessions: Among the common land of St. Martin there are, among others, one hundred acres of land at Brand which acquit themselves, that is, are free from payment of custom and scot.

 

This manor continued part of the possessions of the church and priory of St. Martin above-mentioned, till its dissolution in the 27th year of the reign of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed, as not having revenues to the amount of the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, those of this priory not amounting to more than 170l. 14s. 11d. clear yearly income, and was surrendered that year, with all its lands and possessions, to the king's use. But they did not remain long in the hands of the crown, for the king, in his 29th year, granted the scite of the priory. with all lands and possessions belonging to it, except the patronage of certain churches mentioned in it, in exchange to archbishop Cranmer, (fn. 3) in whose successor, they have continued to the present time, his grace the archbishop being now entitled to the inheritance of it.

 

In the hamlet of Brandred, is an estate, the house of which, though now only a farm-house, was, as early as queen Elizabeth's reign, the property and residence of the Marsh's, descended from those of Marton, in East Langdon, and it continued so down to T.Marsh, of Brandred, who died in 1664, leaving by Anne, daughter of Thomas Nethersole, of Nethersole, in Wimlingswold, a son, John Marsh, who in 1665, removed thither, in whose descendants it has continued down to John Marsh, esq. of Salisbury, afterwards of Nethersole, who is the present possessor of this estate, but now resides at Chichester, in Sussex.

 

Charities.

A person unknown gave land in this parish, for the benefit of the poor, now of the annual value of 1l. occupied at present by John Sharp.

 

The poor constantly relieved are about eleven, casually nine.

 

Acrise is within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Eleham.

 

¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Martin, is but small, consisting of only one isle and one chancel, having a tower at the west end, with a low turret on it, flat at top, in which there is one bell. The church is kept very neat. In the chancel, on a stone, is a memorial and figure of a woman in brass, for Mary, wife of Peter Heyman, esq. daughter and coheir of William Tirrill, esq. of Essex, obt. 1601. On a stone, a memorial in brass, for Alexander Hamon, esq. obt. 1613. A monument for William Turner, esq. late of Grays-Inn, obt. 1729; married Anna-Maria, daughter of Thomas Papillon, esq. obt. 1738; arms, Turner, argent and ermine, three fer de molins, sable, a pale counterchanged in fess, on a chief, or, a lion rampant-guardant, between two roses, gules, impaling Papillon; and a monument for Anne, late wife of Mr. Philip Papillon, of London, merchant, eldest daughter of William Jolliffe, esq. obt. 1693. There are many hatchments of the Papillon family round the isle; between which and the chancel there is a large pointed arch, with zig-zag ornaments.

 

This church was given, about the reign of king Henry II. by William de Cosenton, lord of the manor of Acrise, to the priory of Leeds, to which the patronage of it afterwards belonged; but it never was appropriated, and archbishop Baldwin, who lived in that reign, granted out of it to the priory an annual pension of forty shillings. In which state the patronage of it continued till the dissolution of the priory, or abbey of Leeds as it was then called, in the 31st year of Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of it, into the hands of the crown, in which it has continued ever since, the king being the present patron of it.

 

The above-mentioned pension of forty shillings has not been paid since the dissolution of the priory.

 

This rectory is valued in the king's books at seven pounds, and the yearly tenths at fourteen shillings. In 1588 it was valued at eighty pounds, communicants sixty-eight. In 1640 the like number of communicants, and it was valued at one hundred pounds.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol8/pp111-117

Agenda, Wednesday, June 5

0830 Registration of Participants

0900 Welcoming Remarks

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Adviser and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

0915 Presentation: "The South China Sea in Focus"

Mr. Gregory Poling

Research Associate, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

0945 Break

1015 Significance of the South China Sea Dispute

Speakers:

Dr. Patrick M. Cronin

Senior Advisor and Senior Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program

Center for a New American Security

Mr. Alexander Metelitsa

Economist

Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1145 Break for Lunch

1200 Luncheon & Keynote Speech

Keynote Address:

Mr. Joseph Y. Yun

Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs

U.S. Department of State

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1315 Break

1330 Recent Developments in the South China Sea

Speakers:

Dr. Wu Shicun

President

National Institute for South China Sea Studies

Dr. Renato C. De Castro

Professor

De La Salle University

Dr. Yann-Huei Song

Research Fellow

Institute of European American Studies

Dr. Tran Truong Thuy

Director, South China Sea Studies Program

Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam

Moderator:

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1500 Break

1515 South China Sea in Regional Politics

Speakers:

Amb. Hemant Krishan Singh

Wadhwani Chair in India-U.S. Policy Studies

Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations

Vice Admiral Hideaki Kaneda, JMSDF (ret.)

Director, The Okazaki Institute

The Japan Institute for International Affairs

Dr. Carlyle A. Thayer

Emeritus Professor

University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy

Dr. Donald K. Emmerson

Director, Southeast Asia Forum

Stanford University

Moderator:

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1700 End of Day One

Agenda, Thursday, June 6

0800 Registration of Participants

0900 Role of International Law in Managing the Disputes

Dr. Xinjung Zhang

Associate Professor of Public International Law

Tsinghua University Law School

Mr. Henry S. Bensurto, Jr.

Secretary General, Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat

Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines

Dr. Peter Dutton

Professor and Director, China Maritime Studies Institute

U.S. Naval War College

Dr. Nguyen Dang Thang

Vietnam Lawyer’s Association

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1030 Coffee Break

1045 Policy Recommendations to Boost Cooperation in the South China Sea

Ms. Bonnie S. Glaser

Senior Adviser for Asia, Freeman Chair in China Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Mr. Leonardo Bernard

Research Fellow, Centre for International Law

National University of Singapore

Mr. Christian Le Miere

Senior Research Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, Defense and Military Analysis Program

International Institute for Strategic Studies

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1215 End of Conference

Copyright Managing Director's Office of Special Events Photograph by Bill Z. Foster.

 

This Office of Special Events photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and for noncommercial personal use. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in advertisements, emails, products, or promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the Mayor or his Administration. Reproduction of this photograph requires attribution of ownership to the photographer.

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, First Vice President of Spain and IMFC Chair Nadia Calvino, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann, President of the World Bank Group David Malpass, President for the 2021 COP26 conference Alok Sharma, and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Simon Stiell participate in the Getting to Net Zero with IFIs and Multilateral Partnerships Seminar during the 2022 Annual Meetings at the International Monetary Fund.

 

IMF Photo/Alison Shelley

12 October 2022

Washington, DC, United States

Photo ref: AS221012162.cr3

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva visits the historical Florian Cafè in Venice

 

IMF Photo/Silvia Longhi

11 July 2021

Venice, Italy

Photo ref: G20_sun11-92222.jpg

Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde visited Government Buildings today where she met Taoiseach Enda Kenny and signed the visitor's book.

Managed to get out last night for a bit, I'm glad I did as well. This is a first for me so I am very happy with this.

Hoping to catch up with comments soon.

Best on black.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Christine Lagarde (R) and Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness (L) listen to Peter Blair Henry's keynote address at the 2017 High Level Caribbean Forum, Unleashing Growth and Strengthening Resilience, in Kingston, Jamaica November 16, 2017. IMF Photo/Alex Curro

Flightcase provides 24/7 world class Network Monitoring Center and efficient technical support. Flightcase is a Network Monitoring Center

Provider and a well - received managed service provider.

 

Managed to golf this morning, albeit, it was quite cold. Time to spread myself a peanut butter sandwich!

 

Our Daily Challenge ~ Spread ....

 

Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva meets with President of Colombia Iván Duque Márquez at the International Monetary Fund.

 

IMF Photo/Cory Hancock

2 June 2022

Washington, DC, United States

Photo ref: CH220602004.arw

 

Managed to sneak up to a higher viewpoint to get a better view of the outer part of the marina - it's a shame it was such a hazy day.

We managed to get to the Lake District for the Easter weekend. We were open at work on Good Friday so I had to be in at work for a couple of hours and didn’t set off until 9.00am. We had a quick café stop and then jumped on the M62. It took us until 2.00pm to get to Langdale. We crawled up the M61 and M6, reminding me why we used to avoid Bank Holiday traffic. Although staying in Ambleside we drove to Langdale to get a couple of hours walking in. Langdale was packed but we found a place to park at the foot of the pass up to Blea Tarn. We headed up Pike of Blisco – against a steady stream of walkers descending at this time in the afternoon. I didn’t bother taking photos to any great extent, it wasn’t great light, windy and the appalling weekend forecast had depressed me – this was supposed to be the best day and it was nearly over. After a nice settled spell, possibly the first in the north of England this winter (now officially British Summertime) heavy rain and gales were coming our way apparently.

 

Each morning I studied the maps trying to second guess the light, wind and crowds. On Saturday it was initially dry, much to our surprise, we parked in Coniston and set off up Walna Scar Road. It’s a long steep drag to the top of the pass, the cloud was down and thick, the wind was getting extreme as we got higher – and we didn’t see a soul! We were heading over Brown Pike onto Dow Crag, we weren’t likely to get lost on a ridge. By now it was raining hard and the wind was making staying upright difficult. We slid off the rocky summit of Dow Crag on our backsides, the safest way. We dropped on to Goats Hause, the wind was screaming through and but I guessed there would be some shelter if we headed for the Old Man of Coniston. We met the first person of the day here, arriving at the summit just before him. There was still winter snow on north facing slopes but the wind wasn’t as bad as Dow Crag. It was grim, 30 metre visibility and there was very little point in staying on the tops as originally planned. Jayne was up for heading straight down the tourist track through the quarries. We have only ever ascended it before but we set off down at a trot, passing some fell runners along the way. There was a steady stream of Easter trippers heading up and judging by the questions we were asked on the way down they had little idea of what they were heading in to or how far they were from the summit, and all in appalling conditions. Lower down it was quite calm and many had little idea of the severity of the conditions on the tops. The countryside was rapidly waterlogging again after the belated dry spell.

 

Sunday brought more very heavy rain and gales on the tops. What looked like snow had accumulated on high ground overnight. It was actually several inches of hail and was horrible underfoot, like small wet marbles but trapping a lot of water on the lower slopes below the freezing line. We parked at Patterdale and walked across slopes that the recent floods had wreaked havoc on, with a lot of remedial work to be done this summer. The plan was to get to Boardale Hause and decide whether to go high – over Place Fell – or head in to Boardale and stay low by doing a circuit of Place Fell. It was raining hard and there was a howling gale but it was behind us, the cloud had lifted a bit so we went high. The summit plateau was a nightmare, covered in slippy, wet, slushy hail with the wind nearly blowing us over. We went north straight over the top and down the other side, the top was in thick cloud but the lower slopes were clear and we legged it off the fell, descending by Scalehow Force waterfall, which was in fine form with the heavy rain. We followed the path above the shores of Ullswater back to Patterdale. Another wet walk.

Monday saw us parked a mile or so south of yesterday’s parking place in Patterdale at Bridgend. With the weather being bad people weren’t out early, even on a bank holiday, so we didn’t have a problem parking. There wasn’t a plan, we were just making it up. Today looked promising, Storm Katie was battering the rest of the country but missed the north for a change. The tops were wintry, again it was hail accumulations not snow, on the high ground it was on very old lying snow and very difficult on steep descents. We decided to take the steady slopes of Hartsop above How to Hart Crag, on to Fairfield and then hopefully over Cofa Pike on to St Sunday Crag, Birks and finally Arnison Crag. This was just less than ten miles and it turned out to be a very tough five hours, exhausting, particularly after the three previous days. A large coastguard helicopter circled us repeatedly and finally landed on the path we were following to Hart Crag, we assumed it was on an exercise. The ground was frozen above 2500 feet and walking was easier as the snow/hail was load bearing and we could yomp on a bit. It was like midwinter with frequent squally whiteouts blasting in. The wind would pick up first lifting the frozen hail in a frozen spindrift that bounced along several feet high blasting our faces, this was followed by, what was more like frozen drizzle than snow, fine, but hard, we could feel it through our clothes it came at us that hard. I decided that we would head straight over Cofa Pike to St Sunday. A mistake with hindsight. The lake of footprints was the first bad sign but we were committed. We lived to tell the tale but Jayne had a bit of a near miss. The crag down to Cofa is steep and it was covered in hail on old snow, the layer of hail was shearing away from the underlying snow and we had to go down on out backsides, keeping a tight grip as we went. At one point Jayne failed to arrest a slide that was above a steep and deep drop. I had hold of her from a position in front of her and to her left and I was fairly well anchored so I felt in control and was sure of the outcome. From her point of view it was frightening and it subdued her for the rest of the walk. She had also ripped the outer lining of her Paramo waterproof trousers as well. Considering that we were going downhill it was hard going, every step a slip or a slide, with the underlying grass saturated and a thin layer of hail it was an unpleasant walk off the fell. At the end of Arnison Crag we took a pathless shortcut – that we swore we would never use again years ago – to save around twenty minutes of walking. This was the only day I had the camera out all day and had to cover it with a dryliner bag whenever a heavy shower came in. I also broke the lens hood. We drove to Keswick for afternoon coffee and toast at Brysons. The new Paramo store across the square was the next stop for new trousers. These Paramos had cost £85 14 years ago and they have just brought a new model out. We had two choices, The old model was reduced to…..£85 – after 14 years we could pay the same price or we could return the old trousers - cleaned – and get a £50 voucher towards the new model, which are £135, or £85 with the voucher. The old ones were ¾ of a mile away in the car – unwashed – so we bought the old model. Needless to say we had a couple of drinks in the Golden Rule in Ambleside every night before our tea.

 

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva prepares for a Washington Post Live interview to discuss how the Fund is responding to the Global crisis at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on June 3, 2020. IMF Photo/Kim Haughton

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, and Mohamed A. El-Erian, President of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, participate in a seminar titled “Averting a COVID-19 Debt Trap,” moderated by Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, during the 2021 Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund.

 

IMF Photo/Joshua Roberts

6 April 2021

Washington, DC, United States

Photo ref: _JR15767.ARW

 

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva is interviewed by Al Arabeya during COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

 

IMF Photo/Georges Mohsen

6 November 2022

Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt

Photo ref: IMG_1979.JPG

We managed to get up to The Lake District for a few days at Easter. We got away from work on Good Friday afternoon and spent three hours covering 110 miles, the M61 and M6 were very slow or stopped. As ever once there we soon left the hassle behind. We were using a B&B that we used very regularly for ten years until the owner passed away quite suddenly. Now under new ownership it has been totally gutted and refurbished, it’s very nice but twice as expensive.

 

We were out in good time on Saturday, it was dull and cool but very calm. I’d deliberated for ages as to where to walk, wanting to avoid the worst of the Easter crowds. It was the busiest I’d seen the Lakes for a long time amd the North Lakes in particular had stunning weather, the South Lakes had dense fog in places until the afternoon and was much cooler – but not cold. Parking in Patterdale we headed up Arnison Crag, on to Birks aiming for St Sunday Crag. This was where it started to go wrong. I got a sudden pain in my right ankle, near a previous serious ankle injury, it’s not unusual to get a bit of pain in this ankle but it got worse. My ankle felt like it was in a vice. On the plus side the cloud which was very low initially was clearing higher at the same speed that we were climbing. We scrambled over Cofa Pike through some snow on to Fairfield and for a change the summit was clear with glorious views. I had to undo my gaiter and slacken my boot, my ankle was swelling and bruising. I took paracetemol and carried on – I didn’t have much choice really. We walked to Hart Crag out to Dove Crag, back to Hart Crag as we wanted to head down over Hartsop above How. We stopped for a quick sandwich and pot of lemon tea before heading down the rocky path. By now I was suffering but still able to walk fairly fast. The yomp back along the road to Patterdale was tough. We covered 11.5 miles in around five hours, which was OK for a first walk in the mountains for a while. We drove to Keswick wanting to get to Brysons tearooms for cake and coffee. Keswick was packed and sunny and we had to walk in half a mile, that was painful, my ankle was agony until I got it loosened up. Toasted Plum Bread, apple pie and ice cream and coffee made up for the grief.

 

On Sunday I knew I couldn’t walk much. I was applying Ibuprofen Gel regularly but it was going to be a car and camera day. There was dense fog when we set off so I decided we needed to be somewhere attractive when it started to clear, I just didn’t know when that was going to be. We drove into Langdale and the fog broke to reveal Blue sky and the top of the Langdale Pikes, it was fantastic. I immediately thought of Blea Tarn and drove up the pass out of Langdale. I expected to find, as is usual, tripods in a row, with photographers clicking away. There wasn’t a soul, it was so calm and peaceful – and beautiful – I couldn’t believe my luck. I limped as fast as I could to the Tarn, unfortunately an overnight camper, who I chatted with about the beauty, reflections and the camera I was carrying, did her best to encourage her dog into the water and she got in to get washed. It was so calm that the ripples would cross the entire tarn and spoil the photos. I shot as quick as I could, moving away from her all the time. I think I had around 15 minutes at the most before a breeze – that I couldn’t feel – started to ripple the water. The reflections disappeared and it was over. Without the bad ankle I would have missed this tranquillity as we would have been toiling up out first climb of the day. The fog stayed put in the South Lakes but we headed north over Dunmail Raise to blue sky and 17 degrees.

 

On Monday after 36 hours of Ibuprofen I felt that my ankle would stand a six or seven miler – but where? We had very thick fog in Ambleside so again I drove over Dunmail Raise and again it was fantastic. I could see the chance of some good photos around Thirlmere but I had to get waterside at a point where the view wasn’t obstructed with saplings and bushes growing out of the water. This was easier said than done, it took three attempts to get a decent location. I had reflections, hanging mist, water and mountains – and wet feet again, fortunately I had my walking boots and socks to put on for the walk ahead. After my photo chase we parked at Steel End and headed up the steep nose of Steel Fell. It’s a tough climb but the view over Thirlmere was great. We could see the wall of fog to the south and I was looking forward to getting to the top, hoping that we would be able to see over it with mountains poking out of a sea of white. This was exactly as it was, the Lion and the Lamb on Helm Crag looked like an island in the sea of mist. We walked along the ridge to Calf Crag with clear views to the north and a sea on mist to the south, it looked like the right choice again. We were going to head down Wythburn back to Thirlmere. Wyth Burn runs through a secluded hanging valley through an area called The Bog. I’ve walked down here a few times and at first glance it looks dry – they didn’t name it The Bog for nothing – it is extremely wet. It doesn’t matter how high you walk to avoid it – you can’t! We were wet above the gaiters by the time we got back and it was tough on the ankle. Brysons here we come, another beautiful hot day in Keswick but back to work tomorrow.

 

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde (R) holds up an IMF publication with First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton (L) at their press conference April 20, 2017 at the IMF Headquarters in Washington, DC. IMF Staff Photo/Stephen Jaffe

Finally I managed to get inside and get permission to shoot the old 1936 Grade II Listed Chester Odeon Cinema. Work is just about to start (in December 2014) in turning this building into a new world-class theatre, library and cinema (due for completion in 2016).

 

The building will be run by Chester Performs and will also house much of that company’s work, including the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre company, the MBNA Chester Music Festival and Essar Chester Literature Festival.

A few highlights from the mornings shoot where as follows:

-Still seeing a few (untouched but mouldy!) Juicy Strawberry sweets in the pick and mix.

-Two of the projectors still wired up in the main projection room.

-The smell of the building was odd but seemed to have a lot of history to it (like an old book).

-Finding a reel of unused tickets (I took one as a memento!).

-Seeing the “ODEON” sign marks on the wall (the original letters have been removed).

-Finding a sign for the film “28 weeks later” which looks like it might have been one of the last screenings in the cinema (from 2007).

 

For more information about the project and current plans (being submitted for planning application) see the web site:

www.renewchester.co.uk/

 

To see a recent film made by Chat Noir Productions Ltd for the project called “Ghosts of the Odeon”, see this link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7YkpgG8NRE

 

Many thanks to the team in RE:NEW for allowing me to shoot inside the building and I also look forward to hopefully revisiting the building during the restoration / building process.

Finally managed to photograph the elusive 002.

Flexity 002 seen leaving Gynn Square on the 20th April 2013.

Deputy Managing Director Bo Li takes a picture of Medleine Olbright statue in Pristina, Kosovo

  

IMF Photo/Armend Nimani

21 September 2022

Pristina, Kosovo

Photo ref: _NIM2098.jpg

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva meets with Former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd at the International Monetary Fund.

 

IMF Photo/Cory Hancock

17 March 2022

Washington, DC, United States

Photo ref: CH220317018.arw

 

managed to get away from it all this weekend... it was grand. i'll catch up with you all later today : ]

Delegate addressing during the AfDB's Annual Meeting 2014 - Managing MDB Exposure (Breakfast) on May 20, 2014, in Kigali, Rwanda.

Managed to get the sunlight shining through. Shot on my Nokia Lumia 1020, and edited the DNG in Photoshop.

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, speak with Mohamed A. El-Erian, President of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, during a seminar titled “Averting a COVID-19 Debt Trap,” moderated by Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, during the 2021 Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund.

 

IMF Photo/Joshua Roberts

6 April 2021

Washington, DC, United States

Photo ref: _JR25592.ARW

 

BLM California manages nearly 600 producing oil and gas leases covering more than 200,000 acres and 7,900 usable wells. Between 80% and 90% of all surface-disturbing activities related to oil and gas activities occur in the San Joaquin Valley on public lands administered by Central California District, Bakersfield Field Office. More than 95% of all Federal drilling occurs in established fields within the Kern County area of the San Joaquin Valley.

 

The oil and gas program in California is one of the more active in all of the western states, with 2013 onshore oil production figures ranking the State as the 3rd most productive state in the United States. In 2012, California was ranked as the 13th most productive natural gas producing state. BLM California is responsible for managing one of the most productive individual onshore leases in the lower 48 states, and four of the nation’s top seven producing oil fields are located in Kern County. As a general rule, California’s Federal production totals average approximately 8% -10% of California’s total oil and natural gas production.

 

Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.

Agenda, Wednesday, June 5

0830 Registration of Participants

0900 Welcoming Remarks

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Adviser and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

0915 Presentation: "The South China Sea in Focus"

Mr. Gregory Poling

Research Associate, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

0945 Break

1015 Significance of the South China Sea Dispute

Speakers:

Dr. Patrick M. Cronin

Senior Advisor and Senior Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program

Center for a New American Security

Mr. Alexander Metelitsa

Economist

Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1145 Break for Lunch

1200 Luncheon & Keynote Speech

Keynote Address:

Mr. Joseph Y. Yun

Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs

U.S. Department of State

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1315 Break

1330 Recent Developments in the South China Sea

Speakers:

Dr. Wu Shicun

President

National Institute for South China Sea Studies

Dr. Renato C. De Castro

Professor

De La Salle University

Dr. Yann-Huei Song

Research Fellow

Institute of European American Studies

Dr. Tran Truong Thuy

Director, South China Sea Studies Program

Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam

Moderator:

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1500 Break

1515 South China Sea in Regional Politics

Speakers:

Amb. Hemant Krishan Singh

Wadhwani Chair in India-U.S. Policy Studies

Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations

Vice Admiral Hideaki Kaneda, JMSDF (ret.)

Director, The Okazaki Institute

The Japan Institute for International Affairs

Dr. Carlyle A. Thayer

Emeritus Professor

University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy

Dr. Donald K. Emmerson

Director, Southeast Asia Forum

Stanford University

Moderator:

Mr. Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1700 End of Day One

Agenda, Thursday, June 6

0800 Registration of Participants

0900 Role of International Law in Managing the Disputes

Dr. Xinjung Zhang

Associate Professor of Public International Law

Tsinghua University Law School

Mr. Henry S. Bensurto, Jr.

Secretary General, Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat

Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines

Dr. Peter Dutton

Professor and Director, China Maritime Studies Institute

U.S. Naval War College

Dr. Nguyen Dang Thang

Vietnam Lawyer’s Association

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1030 Coffee Break

1045 Policy Recommendations to Boost Cooperation in the South China Sea

Ms. Bonnie S. Glaser

Senior Adviser for Asia, Freeman Chair in China Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Mr. Leonardo Bernard

Research Fellow, Centre for International Law

National University of Singapore

Mr. Christian Le Miere

Senior Research Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, Defense and Military Analysis Program

International Institute for Strategic Studies

Moderator:

Mr. Ernest Z. Bower

Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

1215 End of Conference

Managed to get a boat ride out to beside the giant wave for the finals of the Billabong Pro Surf Competition

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva visited Matipula School in Chongwe District, Zambia.

 

IMF Photo/Kim Haughton

23 January 2023

Lusaka, Zambia

Photo ref: KEH05351.ARW

We managed to get up to The Lake District for a few days at Easter. We got away from work on Good Friday afternoon and spent three hours covering 110 miles, the M61 and M6 were very slow or stopped. As ever once there we soon left the hassle behind. We were using a B&B that we used very regularly for ten years until the owner passed away quite suddenly. Now under new ownership it has been totally gutted and refurbished, it’s very nice but twice as expensive.

 

We were out in good time on Saturday, it was dull and cool but very calm. I’d deliberated for ages as to where to walk, wanting to avoid the worst of the Easter crowds. It was the busiest I’d seen the Lakes for a long time amd the North Lakes in particular had stunning weather, the South Lakes had dense fog in places until the afternoon and was much cooler – but not cold. Parking in Patterdale we headed up Arnison Crag, on to Birks aiming for St Sunday Crag. This was where it started to go wrong. I got a sudden pain in my right ankle, near a previous serious ankle injury, it’s not unusual to get a bit of pain in this ankle but it got worse. My ankle felt like it was in a vice. On the plus side the cloud which was very low initially was clearing higher at the same speed that we were climbing. We scrambled over Cofa Pike through some snow on to Fairfield and for a change the summit was clear with glorious views. I had to undo my gaiter and slacken my boot, my ankle was swelling and bruising. I took paracetemol and carried on – I didn’t have much choice really. We walked to Hart Crag out to Dove Crag, back to Hart Crag as we wanted to head down over Hartsop above How. We stopped for a quick sandwich and pot of lemon tea before heading down the rocky path. By now I was suffering but still able to walk fairly fast. The yomp back along the road to Patterdale was tough. We covered 11.5 miles in around five hours, which was OK for a first walk in the mountains for a while. We drove to Keswick wanting to get to Brysons tearooms for cake and coffee. Keswick was packed and sunny and we had to walk in half a mile, that was painful, my ankle was agony until I got it loosened up. Toasted Plum Bread, apple pie and ice cream and coffee made up for the grief.

 

On Sunday I knew I couldn’t walk much. I was applying Ibuprofen Gel regularly but it was going to be a car and camera day. There was dense fog when we set off so I decided we needed to be somewhere attractive when it started to clear, I just didn’t know when that was going to be. We drove into Langdale and the fog broke to reveal Blue sky and the top of the Langdale Pikes, it was fantastic. I immediately thought of Blea Tarn and drove up the pass out of Langdale. I expected to find, as is usual, tripods in a row, with photographers clicking away. There wasn’t a soul, it was so calm and peaceful – and beautiful – I couldn’t believe my luck. I limped as fast as I could to the Tarn, unfortunately an overnight camper, who I chatted with about the beauty, reflections and the camera I was carrying, did her best to encourage her dog into the water and she got in to get washed. It was so calm that the ripples would cross the entire tarn and spoil the photos. I shot as quick as I could, moving away from her all the time. I think I had around 15 minutes at the most before a breeze – that I couldn’t feel – started to ripple the water. The reflections disappeared and it was over. Without the bad ankle I would have missed this tranquillity as we would have been toiling up out first climb of the day. The fog stayed put in the South Lakes but we headed north over Dunmail Raise to blue sky and 17 degrees.

 

On Monday after 36 hours of Ibuprofen I felt that my ankle would stand a six or seven miler – but where? We had very thick fog in Ambleside so again I drove over Dunmail Raise and again it was fantastic. I could see the chance of some good photos around Thirlmere but I had to get waterside at a point where the view wasn’t obstructed with saplings and bushes growing out of the water. This was easier said than done, it took three attempts to get a decent location. I had reflections, hanging mist, water and mountains – and wet feet again, fortunately I had my walking boots and socks to put on for the walk ahead. After my photo chase we parked at Steel End and headed up the steep nose of Steel Fell. It’s a tough climb but the view over Thirlmere was great. We could see the wall of fog to the south and I was looking forward to getting to the top, hoping that we would be able to see over it with mountains poking out of a sea of white. This was exactly as it was, the Lion and the Lamb on Helm Crag looked like an island in the sea of mist. We walked along the ridge to Calf Crag with clear views to the north and a sea on mist to the south, it looked like the right choice again. We were going to head down Wythburn back to Thirlmere. Wyth Burn runs through a secluded hanging valley through an area called The Bog. I’ve walked down here a few times and at first glance it looks dry – they didn’t name it The Bog for nothing – it is extremely wet. It doesn’t matter how high you walk to avoid it – you can’t! We were wet above the gaiters by the time we got back and it was tough on the ankle. Brysons here we come, another beautiful hot day in Keswick but back to work tomorrow.

 

We managed to get to the Lake District for the Easter weekend. We were open at work on Good Friday so I had to be in at work for a couple of hours and didn’t set off until 9.00am. We had a quick café stop and then jumped on the M62. It took us until 2.00pm to get to Langdale. We crawled up the M61 and M6, reminding me why we used to avoid Bank Holiday traffic. Although staying in Ambleside we drove to Langdale to get a couple of hours walking in. Langdale was packed but we found a place to park at the foot of the pass up to Blea Tarn. We headed up Pike of Blisco – against a steady stream of walkers descending at this time in the afternoon. I didn’t bother taking photos to any great extent, it wasn’t great light, windy and the appalling weekend forecast had depressed me – this was supposed to be the best day and it was nearly over. After a nice settled spell, possibly the first in the north of England this winter (now officially British Summertime) heavy rain and gales were coming our way apparently.

 

Each morning I studied the maps trying to second guess the light, wind and crowds. On Saturday it was initially dry, much to our surprise, we parked in Coniston and set off up Walna Scar Road. It’s a long steep drag to the top of the pass, the cloud was down and thick, the wind was getting extreme as we got higher – and we didn’t see a soul! We were heading over Brown Pike onto Dow Crag, we weren’t likely to get lost on a ridge. By now it was raining hard and the wind was making staying upright difficult. We slid off the rocky summit of Dow Crag on our backsides, the safest way. We dropped on to Goats Hause, the wind was screaming through and but I guessed there would be some shelter if we headed for the Old Man of Coniston. We met the first person of the day here, arriving at the summit just before him. There was still winter snow on north facing slopes but the wind wasn’t as bad as Dow Crag. It was grim, 30 metre visibility and there was very little point in staying on the tops as originally planned. Jayne was up for heading straight down the tourist track through the quarries. We have only ever ascended it before but we set off down at a trot, passing some fell runners along the way. There was a steady stream of Easter trippers heading up and judging by the questions we were asked on the way down they had little idea of what they were heading in to or how far they were from the summit, and all in appalling conditions. Lower down it was quite calm and many had little idea of the severity of the conditions on the tops. The countryside was rapidly waterlogging again after the belated dry spell.

 

Sunday brought more very heavy rain and gales on the tops. What looked like snow had accumulated on high ground overnight. It was actually several inches of hail and was horrible underfoot, like small wet marbles but trapping a lot of water on the lower slopes below the freezing line. We parked at Patterdale and walked across slopes that the recent floods had wreaked havoc on, with a lot of remedial work to be done this summer. The plan was to get to Boardale Hause and decide whether to go high – over Place Fell – or head in to Boardale and stay low by doing a circuit of Place Fell. It was raining hard and there was a howling gale but it was behind us, the cloud had lifted a bit so we went high. The summit plateau was a nightmare, covered in slippy, wet, slushy hail with the wind nearly blowing us over. We went north straight over the top and down the other side, the top was in thick cloud but the lower slopes were clear and we legged it off the fell, descending by Scalehow Force waterfall, which was in fine form with the heavy rain. We followed the path above the shores of Ullswater back to Patterdale. Another wet walk.

Monday saw us parked a mile or so south of yesterday’s parking place in Patterdale at Bridgend. With the weather being bad people weren’t out early, even on a bank holiday, so we didn’t have a problem parking. There wasn’t a plan, we were just making it up. Today looked promising, Storm Katie was battering the rest of the country but missed the north for a change. The tops were wintry, again it was hail accumulations not snow, on the high ground it was on very old lying snow and very difficult on steep descents. We decided to take the steady slopes of Hartsop above How to Hart Crag, on to Fairfield and then hopefully over Cofa Pike on to St Sunday Crag, Birks and finally Arnison Crag. This was just less than ten miles and it turned out to be a very tough five hours, exhausting, particularly after the three previous days. A large coastguard helicopter circled us repeatedly and finally landed on the path we were following to Hart Crag, we assumed it was on an exercise. The ground was frozen above 2500 feet and walking was easier as the snow/hail was load bearing and we could yomp on a bit. It was like midwinter with frequent squally whiteouts blasting in. The wind would pick up first lifting the frozen hail in a frozen spindrift that bounced along several feet high blasting our faces, this was followed by, what was more like frozen drizzle than snow, fine, but hard, we could feel it through our clothes it came at us that hard. I decided that we would head straight over Cofa Pike to St Sunday. A mistake with hindsight. The lake of footprints was the first bad sign but we were committed. We lived to tell the tale but Jayne had a bit of a near miss. The crag down to Cofa is steep and it was covered in hail on old snow, the layer of hail was shearing away from the underlying snow and we had to go down on out backsides, keeping a tight grip as we went. At one point Jayne failed to arrest a slide that was above a steep and deep drop. I had hold of her from a position in front of her and to her left and I was fairly well anchored so I felt in control and was sure of the outcome. From her point of view it was frightening and it subdued her for the rest of the walk. She had also ripped the outer lining of her Paramo waterproof trousers as well. Considering that we were going downhill it was hard going, every step a slip or a slide, with the underlying grass saturated and a thin layer of hail it was an unpleasant walk off the fell. At the end of Arnison Crag we took a pathless shortcut – that we swore we would never use again years ago – to save around twenty minutes of walking. This was the only day I had the camera out all day and had to cover it with a dryliner bag whenever a heavy shower came in. I also broke the lens hood. We drove to Keswick for afternoon coffee and toast at Brysons. The new Paramo store across the square was the next stop for new trousers. These Paramos had cost £85 14 years ago and they have just brought a new model out. We had two choices, The old model was reduced to…..£85 – after 14 years we could pay the same price or we could return the old trousers - cleaned – and get a £50 voucher towards the new model, which are £135, or £85 with the voucher. The old ones were ¾ of a mile away in the car – unwashed – so we bought the old model. Needless to say we had a couple of drinks in the Golden Rule in Ambleside every night before our tea.

 

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has breakfast with other leaders before the G20 family photo at the Fontana di Trevi.

 

IMF Photo/Giuseppe Nucci

31 October 2021

Rome, Italy

Photo ref: G20 - IMF -31th October - HD with captions-2.jpg

Managed to make it to the beach this morning to catch the sunrise and breath in some fresh air, was a great way to start the day, this is at the Edge of Silver Sands looking towards Fort Trumbull Beach

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