The written word
Posted: Wednesday, 01 October 2008 |
Hello dears, back again. Well I had me hols, a trip south to attend the Fairport Convention music festival and a dash round as many antique fairs and car boot sales as I could manage. Wee car performed satisfactory with no major ailments and hauled my bargains and booty ( that is as in "plunder" rather than in reference to my perfectly proportioned rear) home with out complaint. The South was warm but mostly damp. Also it was much changed from how I remember it, by which I mean I got lost and that my map although only twelve years old is out of date. Did you realy expect a Luddite like me to have G.P.S. "No way" as I believe the young people might say.
I am of a generation whose earliest visits, well not earliest, to the doctors was made palatable by the stack of old Punch magazines that were to be found there. These were a progression from the well thumbed copies of the Eagle whose natural habitate was also the waiting room. I didn't read Punch at that age but did read all the cartoons and so became familiar with that vein of humour that is satire. Later at college I read it properly and so discovered writers such as Alan Coren. Punch's stroppy younger sibbling Private Eye opened my eyes to the sleazy realities of political and business life. Later still came the many underground magazines such as International Times , Black Dwarf, and Country Bazaar. The latter a lovely magazine that is still held dear by anyone who encountered it.
Now wot about our atom factories? Well following my last rant our Goverment has decided to part nationalise them. Unfortunatly the public who are to own them are the French (EDF are 80 percent owned by the French Government) . Considering that we managed to build the first nuclear powered generating station in the world (do you remember the dream that it would be so cheap we wouldn't have to pay for it?) it seems staggering that successive governments have allowed us to fall so far behind.
Apparently I, and perhaps some of you, have a part ownership in a few houses here in the good old U.K. and possibly even quite a few in the U.S. The present parlouse state of the economics has found me quite feather bedded. I can't speak for spitting feathers!! But that will have to wait for another day.
Now I know many of you listen to Radio Four, you are all so bright it is obvious, so currently on the humour front what is and what is not funny? Hut 42 and The news quize is, The charm offensive isn't. Well off you go.
All the best, The Sparkie.
p.s. turned a bit chilly here, has someone left a door open in the north?
I am of a generation whose earliest visits, well not earliest, to the doctors was made palatable by the stack of old Punch magazines that were to be found there. These were a progression from the well thumbed copies of the Eagle whose natural habitate was also the waiting room. I didn't read Punch at that age but did read all the cartoons and so became familiar with that vein of humour that is satire. Later at college I read it properly and so discovered writers such as Alan Coren. Punch's stroppy younger sibbling Private Eye opened my eyes to the sleazy realities of political and business life. Later still came the many underground magazines such as International Times , Black Dwarf, and Country Bazaar. The latter a lovely magazine that is still held dear by anyone who encountered it.
Now wot about our atom factories? Well following my last rant our Goverment has decided to part nationalise them. Unfortunatly the public who are to own them are the French (EDF are 80 percent owned by the French Government) . Considering that we managed to build the first nuclear powered generating station in the world (do you remember the dream that it would be so cheap we wouldn't have to pay for it?) it seems staggering that successive governments have allowed us to fall so far behind.
Apparently I, and perhaps some of you, have a part ownership in a few houses here in the good old U.K. and possibly even quite a few in the U.S. The present parlouse state of the economics has found me quite feather bedded. I can't speak for spitting feathers!! But that will have to wait for another day.
Now I know many of you listen to Radio Four, you are all so bright it is obvious, so currently on the humour front what is and what is not funny? Hut 42 and The news quize is, The charm offensive isn't. Well off you go.
All the best, The Sparkie.
p.s. turned a bit chilly here, has someone left a door open in the north?
Posted on From under me bonnet at 10:36
Treasure
Posted: Monday, 06 October 2008 |
Just a quick one, the swag I returned with was not what I went to buy. I bought a lathe (pre-war Myford) a stack of 50's Model Engineer magazines, a box of primus stove spares, an art deco bowl, numerouse old books, a bowl I fell in love with that cost more than I would dream of spending (Grimwades "byzanta") a small pile of machine tool parts, more magazines from the 60's on antique arms, a small block plane for doing end grain, and that is just what I can bring to mind.. Hope that has answered a question. Oh yes and from a junk stall a couple of Waverley novels wot I have now read. chin-chin, Sparkie
Posted on From under me bonnet at 20:26