All thriller – no filler
Just in case the last post made you feel depressed, think of the case of the twice-buried monk.
Oran, a sixth-century monk on Iona: having presumably been declared dead, he was buried, but was dug up again the following day and found to be alive. He is said to have subsequently been re-buried for heresy when he claimed that after his first burial he had seen heaven and hell.
This week is the anniversary of the London Beer Flood. Please bow your heads.
The London Beer Flood occurred on October 17, 1814 in the London parish of St. Giles in the United Kingdom. At the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, a huge vat containing over 135,000 imperial gallons of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000 imperial gallons of beer burst out and gushed into the streets. The wave of beer destroyed two homes and crumbled the wall of the Tavistock Arms Pub, trapping the barmaid under the rubble.
The brewery was located among the poor houses and tenements of the St Giles Rookery, where whole families lived in basement rooms that quickly filled with beer. The wave left nine people dead: eight due to drowning and one from alcohol poisoning.
Whilst we pause to reflect on this tragic waste of beer, check out this list of unusual deaths.
![800px-Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies [320x200]](https://www.wickham.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/800px-Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies-320x200.jpg "800px-Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies [320x200]")
Why do many (european) languages have male, female and sometimes neuter words? What’s the point of it? To we English it seems so unnessesary and makes learning a language much harder.
Having said that English is no picnic. We could certainly simplify our spelling, and I’m told that our use of articles (the, a) is fraught with illogical rules.
A very good friend from way back in college days, Hugh, got married in Prague this weekend.
Unfortunately we couldn’t go to the wedding but judging by the photos the weather was great and a good time was had by all…
Hugh was the best man at my wedding about 9 years ago and I was shocked by the amount of fantasy he wove into his speech. I can only hope his best man returned the favour on this occasion 🙂
Yes I suppose it’s a boy/man thing. While we visited the STEAM museum in Swindon, Jeanette went round the adjacent shopping centre and came out laden with shoes and clothes. I took the boys round the steam trains – much more interesting!
Freecycle‘s a great idea – give away the things you don’t need anymore so anyone willing to make the effort to come and collect them. There’s a kind of community noticeboard where you put up what you’ve got to get rid of, and people can also request items they need.
But surely, surely, it is taking it to extremes to ask for “Wanted: Working moped – any as long as it works, will pass MOT” and “Wanted – Car – Family car would be good, it would be nice to have something for just to go around shopping go see family with Children”?
I don’t mind that people ask for things, I saw one today asking for a Unicyle, and fair enough it might be something you have in the attic, not used for years and a request like that prompts you to get it down and give it a good home. But sometimes the Wanted requests make me mad! I’m waiting for the day I see “Wanted: Money, must be valid tender” next?
Why should anyone care if the email they get is “Sent from my phone” or not. Does it add anything of value? I don’t think so…
Doubly annoying is that when people get emails on their mobiles, the urge to hit reply is too much to resist, so you typically get this:
Thanks! Sent from my phone.Look – just leave it! Would you write some a letter or call them just to say one word?!
The sarcasm is back, the eye-rolling is back, the beeny-bags are back.
Property Snakes and Ladders C4, 8pm Tuesdays
Sarah is also one of the judges of this years “Shed of the Year“
I found out by chance the other day that ITV have shut down Westcountry TV and made most of the staff redundant.
I worked at Westcountry TV from 1990-1993, straight after University. It was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had and I’m rather sorry to see the old company disappear.
Wikipedia gives a good potted history of the station, which underwent quite a few acquisitions over the year – although when I was there it was under the original small company that won the ITV franchise. My bosses were Ray and Sim Harris
The company had made a commitment to local news in the franchise award, which meant I had the good fortune to be based in Exeter for my 3 years. Since there is now only one ITV Plc, I guess these commitments have been thrown out of the window now – there’s is apparently no way ITV can be run as franchises with all the benefits of competition this entailed.
The team in Exeter was small, just 4 of us most of the time, and we really felt we were our own little TV station – we put out our own little 2 1/2 minute “opt-out” from the main local 6pm news, broadcast live from the Exeter Arts Centre where our offices were based.
Steve ‘Buckets‘ Jennings, David Whitbourn, Broni Lloyd-Edwards and Sarah Windsor (from Barnstable as was made clear) were my first set of co-habitees in Exeter and we had a fantastic time there (when not being ordered about by the big bosses up in Plymouth!). Steve in particular was a mentor to me. His humour, intelligence and technical skills, along with unstinting kindness taught me so much in those 3 years.
After 3 years I was ready for a change, and drove off to France in my lovely old Triumph Spitfire.
