Navigation
Home | Links | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Videos | Oxted Paris Cycle Ride | Scarlett | Site notices
About This Site
About
A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...
Members
Most recent entries
- Cyclists! Look out for each other
- Yellow vest is the new snow?
- Paris Gare du Nord
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Where you going to sleep tonight?
- Wildfire
- Francisco Alomar
- Cap de Formentor
- Kamel’s halaal butchery
- Versailles
- Oxford Street
- Hip-hopspital
- Street furniture
- Ebbsfleet International Station
- It’s in the gênes
Recent entries with comments
- Indications of Autumn - (1)
- Temple roofs - (2)
- My first experiences cycling in Paris - (2)
- A shrine on Limpsfield Road - (4)
- Zebra Crossing Part Two - (1)
- Courchevel - (2)
- Mersea Island - (2)
- Old school rice packaging - (1)
- Were you one of these car drivers in Oxted who nearly killed me yesterday? - (4)
- This Charming Man - (2)
Feeds
Categories
Tweets by @bigbluemeanieMonthly Archives
- December 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
Links
Lately listening to
Site Statistics
- This website has been viewed 4330547 times
- Page rendered in 0.2227 seconds
- 47 queries executed
Site Credits
- Based on a design by:
BlogMoxie
The original content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
I used to think that PDA only stood for personal digital assistant, but Parisist advises that Paris est romantique (et tactile), or in English Paris is, guess what ... romantic. Their attention was grabbed by this article and how Parisians are
described as having very little taboos when it comes to showing the loved one how deep is your love, your love, how deep. And in public.
I undertook a long drive by car this afternoon from the Midlands to the South of England. En route I had the misfortune of stopping at a service station on the motorway. I remember as a child hearing fantasies of cars that could drive on water, and how wonderful this would be because it would lessen our dependence on that expensive commodity, oil. Even some of my teachers repeated this poppycock, and it struck me when I noticed the price of the water in a motorway service station, just what poppycock this fantasy was.
Filed under: France • (1) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
Christmas puddings, Christmas cake, stollen, mince pies, and other Christmas fare on sale in my local superstore, as reported yesterday.
Earlier this month Annie Mole, of the London Underground blog, asked the question:
What’s your favourite tube song?
See 6 September 2005 post. In the comments I recounted my favourite tube song, performed on the Picaddily Line to Hammersmith one night as we were going with my visiting American cousins to see a show
My favourite tube song was perfomed by some buskers on the Picadilly Line about 5 years ago. They lasted about 2 stops around about Shepherds Bush while performing several numbers before being arrested by the transport police. The whole event, being somewhat unusual, was enjoyed by all present especially my two American cousins who were on a tourist visit.
These two homeless-looking guys got on the train and sat down on the one end of the carriage. The one guy strumbs his guitar (pling pling) the other guy slaps his drum a few times with his hand (plump plump). The one with the longer beard then announces: “Our next song is a protest against the rules introduced by the london underground which prohibit people from washing and shaving in their public toilets. These regulations are discriminate against homeless people. The song is called ‘If you can’t shave in a public toilet, then where can you shave’”. (pling pling, plumb plumb plump). And they were off for about 3 minutes singing (I use the term loosely) this song, the lyrics of which are simply “If you can’t shave in a public toilet, then where can you shave?” (repeated many times).
Later one of my American cousins told me that she hadn’t understood the song. I repeated the lyrics, but she still looked confused, and asked “But why would anyone want to shave in the toilet?”. The penny dropped, I explained that they were referring to the restrooms, which contain hand basins, and not the actual toilet bowl!
It turned out that I wasn’t the only one in the room who recalled these home-challenged roving performing artists, and Annie pointed me to her lyrics page where she had the (nearly complete) lyrics of the famous If you can’t shave in a public toilet ... song as well as some more information about the musicians.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (1) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
Edit: I refer to this post in another post of today. I wote it yesterday but simply saved it as a draft, so it never appeared. I have updated the date to today so that it appears with the relevant photograph.
In recent years the festive season has been commencing in early November, just after Halloween ends. However we are clearly in a state of flux this year. The seasons are not as clearly defined as they used to be. Global Warming has wrecked havoc upon the usual seasonal patterns, and we find ourselves hit by extreme or unseasonal hurricanes, tornados, floods, drought, fires, snow, and other evidence of climate change.
Today in my local supermarket I noticed another seasonal change. This supermarket, which made record profits of over 1 billion pounds in the last financial year, recently announced record profits of over 900 thousand pounds in the past six months. Some time since last week they whipped all the barbecue and gardening items out of the aisle labelled seasonal and replaced it with Christmas products: puddings, mince pies and chocolates. In so doing they have broken another record: that of bringing the Christmas season forward to September.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
This is another view of the Moira furnace, showing the Ashby canal which runs alongside it.
This evening Kate joined Mart and I for our evening jog along the canal. Besides for the one time in the rain, the weather was much cooler than ever before. It was quite pleasant, there’s something to be said for exercising in sharp and crisp rather than hot, humid air. About this time of the year one might wonder what winter has in store: are we in for a mild or severe one? Rising Slowly - the UK Weather Blog - uncovers the contradictory messages.
This week I discovered that Laura K. Lawless my French Tutor is also running a website and mailing list about vegetarianism and healthy eating, The Veggie Table.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (2) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
This is the Moira furnace a Napoleonic era iron furnace which serviced the local Rawdon Colliery. Having had a relatively short working life, it is now a well preserved museum, housing
touchscreens, hands-on interactives and displays showing how the furnace worked and the history of the buildings on the site. A visit includes a tour of the museum, on your own or in a group, as well as the Limekilns, tramways and towpaths which cross the site. There are also craft workshops on the site, where craftsmen produce pottery, soap, and stoneware. The newly-opened section of the Ashby canal runs alongside the furnace, and visitors can take a furnace boat trip in the summer, travelling along the canal from Donisthorpe Park to the national forest visitor centre. The site has a woodland area, Little Smelters adventure playground an under 5’s area, which are accessible to people of all abilities.
Moira has been described recently by Andrew Hedgecock as:
the heart of post-industrial Leicestershire.
Coal mining has been superceded in the area by various other industries, from food distribution to high tech manufacturing. There are links to various unemployment statistics at the Government Office for the East Midlands website.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
This sculpture of a bird of prey is situated at the Moira furnace. Its relevance to the furnace is not clear, although there is a small wooded area adjacent to the furnace and canal. The bird is appropriate to the theme of the poems that flank posted. Last night I went to see Pride and Prejudice. I enjoyed the film but feel it has certain weaknesses. According to the IMDB link above Emma Thompson did a complete rewrite of the script of the movie, which she is not credited for (but for which she gets special thanks in the end credits of the film. It would be good now to watch the more substantial 1995 version by the BBC.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (6) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
Last night, before the rain, I went for a walk along the canal at Moira where we normally go jogging. I left just before the heavens broke, at sunset.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
One of these days I’m going to end up with a stooped back from all this looking at the ground. It is officially autumn and I am reminiscing about finding puddles of foggy ice on muddy country paths.
Meanwhile James Torio, a student at Syracuse University wrote a Masters Thesis on blogging, and has made it available on the Internet.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •