Category: Uncategorized

Porthmeor Beach, St. Ives

Ten years ago, a spunky young newsletter called Need To Know was reporting the launch of Mac OS 8, the Unixy future of the Mac (BeOS, not Steve Jobs), a new program called Alexa that allowed you to annotate websites, and Netscape shares dropped 18%. Wish I’d bought Apple shares around that time.

I know it’s been said before, but the bit of Brum behind the ICC is really a spectacular bit of regeneration. Not always perfect, but when you consider what was there before…

A German firm is renting out photogenic youths to protest
organisations, to swell the numbers at their marches and
demonstrations. One critic quoted in the 25 January 2007

The Department for Work and Pensions are getting a bit disaffected, it seems.

940th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, and I’m in Battle for a huge re-enactment. It’s very spectacular, though of course the result is never in doubt. Even more spectacular, and a lot less organised, is the melee of kids with wooden swords charging around while their parents watch the battle.

A surprising sight walking down to Southwark tube the other day. A
quick shot on my phone in the rain doesn’t really do it justice, but
underneath the railway viaduct is the huge (original?) sign for
Blackfriars station – a small station on the London Bridge – Charing
Cross line that was open at this site for a few years in the 19th
century. The question is – who took the trouble to restore the old
station entrance and sign, and why?

A strange mix of social signals on my train today. A rather well-
dressed young woman sat down opposite me, plonked a copy of Crime and
Punishment on the table, and then started devouring Best magazine,
featuring a lose 5 lb in 5 days superdiet, and more Jordan baby news
than you could shake a stick at. Perhaps I’m being an old snob about
Best magazine, but I would have thought the crossover audience for
real life stories and Dostoevsky was quite small.

Spotted on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex – Hudson’s soap is for the
people, unlike those other soaps that are for the
Establishment, for the Church or perhaps for Aston Villa.
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