I know we’re supposed to love Sainsbury’s for embracing traffic light labelling, but when those traffic lights show data for a single liquorice comfit in a bag of 44, it’s difficult to conclude that they’re really entering into the spirit of the exercise. Especially when the same packaging claims that a single serving is 11 comfits…!

This is the M6, looking North from Southwaite services. Southwaite’s Wikipedia entry has me convinced that it is the place to be: it’s most notable features are a railway station on the west coast mainline that closed 60 years ago and a phone box. What more could the modern tourist want?

Meet Woody, Annabel, Maxwell, Lady Hillary and Sir Nathaniel Westminster, the original family of five piggy banks given away by NatWest between 1983 and 1988. Each successive figure was earned by reaching a child’s saving account balance of £5, £25, £50, £75 and finally £100. I’m not entirely sure whose these belong to – possibly my sister, maybe my brother? Maybe some of them are mine? Might be best not to ask!

These days, a complete set sells for about £200 – the prices of the individual figures reflect the account balance required to collect the figure, as that’s obviously proportional to their rarity.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a Cousin Wesley, who’s worth a similar amount alone and was released in 1998 to reward those investing £1000 in a children’s savings bond. He’s now worth £200 alone! We also don’t have the grandparents, Lady Margaret and Lord Henry, who were released in 2011, or Master Richard (another cousin), released just this year. But then, there’s only so much room on the shelf!

This is what’s left of Penrith Castle, built between 1399 and 1470 by William Strickland, who later became the Bishop of Carlisle. Richard III lived there for a bit, but William III gave the castle to his good friend Hans Willem Bentinck, though the King’s subjects weren’t all that impressed with his decision to give a castle to a Dutchman.

The King wasn’t particularly bothered about what his subjects thought, and went on to give Bentinck 135,000 acres of land in Ireland, too. he wanted to give him a fair chunk of Wales as well, but got scared when the whole House of Commons was united in opposition.

If Elizabeth II has a spare castle or hundred thousand acres she wants to give away, I’ll happily take them off her hands…!

I was moaning on Tuesday – not least on Twitter – about my inability to make good coffee at home, and as a result, I’ve been given a Nespresso machine. These are some of the pods that go in it.

It’s by far the poshest kitchen gadget I’ve ever owned. I rarely eat in restaurants with hardback menus, yet know I have one in my own home describing the 16 Nespresso “Grand Crus”…!

The coffee is very tasty – but at 30-odd pence per cup, it isn’t cheap!

I’ve been again to give blood today (you should too – see blood.co.uk). My local donor centre has just replaced its beds with these reclining chairs… I have to say that I found the process of being reclined a little unnerving!

This pair of signs features in the car park of one of my local hospitals. It’s hardly the end of the world that two nearby signs contradict one another, but I would’ve liked to think, even if only for the sake of neatness, that the person putting up the new sign on the left would have obscured or removed the old sign on the right.

I wonder, too, whether the new sign is more effective: how many people would bother to read the small print, and how many would miss the main message given the reduced font size?

This is another of John Dobson’s many contributions to Newcastle: the 1840 Market Keeper’s House. It’s notable for standing in the middle of the very modern International Centre for Life.

Originally, the downstairs housed the offices of toll collector and market keeper for the surrounding cattle market, which featured 10,000 or so animals each week. The upstairs held accommodation for their families.

Despite its historic appearance, these days it could barely house a more modern company: QuantuMDx, the current occupants, research and manufacture handheld genomic sequencers, along with similar cutting-edge near-patient diagnostic medical stuff. But I don’t think the employees’ families get to live upstairs any more…!

This is part of ~Flow, floating electro-acoustic musical machinery powered by the River Tyne. ~Flow looks a bit like a floating shed moored at Newcastle Quayside, but has intriguing musical innards which produce music according to various aspects of the Tyne’s character at any given time, from its salinity to its turbidity. Apparently, the recent flooding in the North East broke bits of it, but I think they’ve been fixed now.

~Flow forms part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and was created by the Owl Project and Ed Carter.

Monument Mall, whose cupola is on the left of this shot, is currently undergoing major redevelopment. The new configuration will fill in the mall spaces to create several large units accessed from the street, providing space for Jamie’s Italian, Armani, TK Maxx, and several other stores besides. It’s a shame in some ways, as Monument Mall used to sport some very distinctive gold and glass escalators (there’s an amazing picture of those here), but I guess small shop units are just out of fashion these days.

Earl Grey can be seen on the right, standing some 40m above Grey Street. The fascinating story of his head can be found back on day 70 of this project…