On the day Apple has announced the new Apple TV, I’ve a question about the current model.

This is the remote. It seems to be a single piece of metal, with the only obvious opening being the small one for the battery at the back, which only gives access to the battery compartment. So, I’m struggling to work out how it’s made: how do the innards get in? Does anyone know?

On reflection, perhaps this isn’t the best thing to have sitting next to my laptop while I’m doing Public Health work. At least it’s short…!

This bizarre flower display thingy (that may not be the technical term) at Wellington Square in Stockton used to be Wendy’s favourite flower display thingy in the whole of Stockton. This wasn’t because it was only a short walk from our house, but was mainly due to the large clusters of amusingly amorous pigeons which used to congregate upon it. Sadly, none were around today when I was taking this photo!

This was my view of my bedside table just now as I clambered into bed and suddenly remembered about “photo-a-day”… Wendy’s on nights at the moment, and so isn’t around to remind me! Goodnight!

As I was going about my business this afternoon in Gateshead, this extraordinarily clear rainbow appeared.

This was remarkably co-incidental, as I had already been planning to go and see Yvette Mattern’s Global Rainbow kicking off the Cultural Olympiad in North Shields this evening. It’s also visiting Preston (not far from my family home) and Newtownards (not far from Wendy’s family home) in the next few weeks, and has already visited New York, Berlin, Toulouse, Nantes, and Utrecht. It is a far more impressive sight than the photos here demonstrate, and has been spotted from 15 miles away in Sunderland.

To give a sense of scale, the white smudge on the right of both of these photographs is the famous St Mary’s Lighthouse.

Neither the real nor the Global Rainbow are especially easy to photograph using a mere iPhone, but I don’t think these turned out too disastrously!

It’s probably cheating to take a photo of the TV, but I really have nothing more exciting to offer today. I’ve just watched Norwegian Wood, having read the book some years ago. I could’ve sworn that I’d written a review of the book on here at some point – but if I did, I certainly can’t find it this evening.

I do remember enjoying the book – or books, I guess, since it came in two volumes – and, indeed, it appears to be listed as one of my favourites on Facebook. In retrospect, I’m not certain I enjoyed it as much as classics like Catch 22 or If on Winter’s Night a Traveller, mainly because as I sat down to watch the film my memory of the plot was sketchy to say the least. But I guess it must have made an impression whenever I was writing that list.

The film was alright, though featured a lot more sex and discussions about sex than I recall from the novel, and felt a bit less existential. But heck, I’m no film critic. I happily sat through it from beginning to end, got quite caught up in it, thought it was worth writing about here. So I guess it must have been quite good.

I’ll try and feature something altogether more interesting tomorrow!

I made these decorations for our bathroom some months ago. They comprise tea-light holders, coloured sand, and plastic flowers, all from Ikea. I think this probably entitles me to £25 and publication in the Top Tips section of Chat or something…

Continuing the theme started on Monday, this is the third of three Newcastle’s cathedrals: the Cathedral Church of St Mary, opened in 1844.

St Mary’s was designed by the famous and prolific architectural genius Augustus Pugin, who also designed the Palace of Westminster and, more parochially, my secondary school.

A small confession (appropriate, I guess, when featuring a Catholic cathedral): I actually took this photo yesterday, as St Mary’s is a stone’s throw from St Nicholas’s, which I featured yesterday: I’m sure you’ll forgive me.

The second in my series of three cathedrals of Newcastle is the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas Newcastle upon Tyne. I know that doesn’t scan properly, but that’s what they call it. This dates from 1359, and is the seat of the bishop of Newcastle, who – strangely enough – I’ve mentioned once before on here.

Of particular interest to my organist brother, it boasts a fine four-manual Grand Organ built by TC Lewis. I don’t really understand the meaning of those words in that order, but the organ has its own webpage, with very pretty pictures, which I’m sure Glenn will enjoy.

A little while ago, my organist brother Glenn and his family came to visit. Pete McGovern may have said of Liverpool that “if you want a cathedral, we’ve got one to spare”, but I was able to impress Glenn by pointing out that Newcastle boasts three cathedrals – or two to spare, depending on how you look at it!

He was a little less impressed when I confessed an inability to name them – mainly because he wanted to look them up in the National Pipe Organ Register (such fun!)

So, especially for Glenn, I’m going to try and feature photos of all three of Newcastle’s cathedrals this week. Here’s the first: St George and St Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Fenham.