A grand day out .....

..... in Leeds.

At lunch time today I decided to have a trip in to Leeds to buy a few bits and pieces for various projects I have on the go at the moment. First stop though was to get some lunch, so I headed to Leeds market and decided to try the Caribbean restaurant/cafe out. I was greeted by a smiling man singing a reggae version of lady in red, Dean the owner of the cafe. I chose the jerk chicken with rice and peas and salad and Dean kindly gave me a few free tasters of the mac and cheese, plaintain and jerk curry as well. There was a lovely friendly atmosphere in the cafe, with Dean smiling and singing for everyone that came in. After finishing the lovely food I asked Dean if I could take his photo then headed off to do a bit of shopping.

I quickly managed to find and buy all the bits and pieces I was looking for and was waiting for it to get dark so that I could take a few photos of the newly erected Leeds wheel all lit up at night, so I had a wander down to the White cloth gallery. I always seem to manage to visit the gallery as they are setting up a new exhibition and today was no exeption. I had a chat with Peter who runs the gallery about the new exhibition of photos by Donald Weber and Maciej Dakowicz and he very kindly put me on the guest list for tonight's private view.

I headed back in to town and took a couple of street portraits including the one I've blipped and then when to the market and photographed the Leeds wheel against the now dark sky before heading back to the White cloth for the private view. It's a great exhibition with two very different sets of photos Details here. I loved Maciej Dakowicz's photos depicting the carnage that is Cardiff town center on Friday and Saturday nights, full of drunks in fancy dress and all the lust and violence that comes with it. I ended up buying a copy of his book which he kindly signed for me ( it was the least I could do seeing as I had got in for free and was being given free wine as well ).

After a grand few hours chatting to photographers, artists and musicians I headed back home, grabbed a take away Chinese ( It was too late to cook ) and then wrote this blip and uploaded a few more photos from today here I'm now slightly tipsy from free wine and should get to bed as it's almost midnight. It would be great if all days were as good as today, so today's blip is .....


..... A grand day out in Leeds.