three shots from usk

i like usk.

it's a small town in wales not far from abergavenny.

abergavenny is possibly the food centre of wales.

there are three very highly rated restaurants there:

the hardwick, the walnut tree and the foxhunter.

if you go to abergavenny for a foody weekend break then i would

recommend you take a drive to usk at some point. it has a few good boozers,

an interesting castle and it's a very picturesque place.

anyway, enough of my rambling. here are three things i spotted in usk last sunday.

1. the hairdressers window display

a welsh dragon made from combs, curlers, scissors, clips and a hairdryer.

outstanding work !

2. a sign on the floor

in english, and the language of heaven.

by the way, 3 years ago i had a shoot in usk and i wore my bright orange

patent leather kaws / bapestas. everybody was looking at my footwear and

staring at me like i was an alien. so i swore i'd wear more sensible footwear if

i ever returned to usk,  so i would blend in with the locals...

sensible footwear fail.

3. conkers

now when i was a nipper conkers were a big deal. kids at school used to sell them in the playground. we used to go far from home at the weekends to do some conkering.

throwing sticks up at the trees, searching on the ground for conkers... yes, 

conkers were a big deal.

but in 2011 usk, i saw literally hundreds of conkers lying on the ground unclaimed

and unwanted. i guess kids these days are too wrapped up in their playstations, x-boxes

and such-like to be bothered picking them up.

we used to take them home, soak them in vinegar, cook them in the oven, pierce them with a rusty nail then thread an old shoelace through them. 

 every school break-time the playground would be full of conker fights...

i'd better stop this post now before i say "kids these days eh ? they don't know they're born"

grrr !