Category Archives: personal

amusements, personal

Listography – Ice Cream

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It’s summer! Well at least that’s the theory. And in acknowledgement of summer this week’s listography is to pick out top five favourite ice creams (or ice lollies). Hmmm. I’m not a great ice cream eater, however …

Magnum Ecuador Dark. I like Magnums, all of them. But this dark chocolate is especially good.

Real Strawberry Ice Cream. It has to be real strawberry, with chunks of fruit in it, as made by a number of the small local firms and often available at the seaside.

Rowntree’s Fruit Pastille Lollies. Definitely the best of the ice lollies currently available.

Double Ripple Ice Cream. This is one I remember from my childhood in the ’60s, which probably isn’t available now. Made by Wall’s and available only as a brick, it was normal vanilla ice cream with a ripple of two red flavourings: one was obviously raspberry, but I don’t remember if the other was strawberry or cherry. And I don’t think it was available for very long; maybe only one summer as a trial.

Top Quality Chocolate Ice Cream. It really has to be good quality chocolate and quality ice cream; I especially like Beechdean Double Chocolate as sold by Waitrose.

books, history, memes, personal, science

Ten Things – July

Number 7 in my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month I list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same for each month of 2011. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things about me.

  1. Something I Like: Beer
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Parachute
  3. Something I Want To Do: Visit Scilly Isles
  4. A Blog I Like: Not Exactly Rocket Science
  5. A Book I Like: Diary of Samuel Pepys
  6. Some Music I Like: Amanda Palmer, Map of Tasmania
  7. A Food I Like: Cheese
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Tapioca
  9. A Word I Like: Numpty
  10. A Quote I Like: It will pass, sir, like other days in the army. [Anthony Powell]
history, personal, topographical

Priceless Records

Grubbing around in family history again this afternoon, I’ve happened upon a couple of absolutely priceless extracts of London parish registers on Ancestry.co.uk.

01 Dec, 4 Elizabeth [1537] — True Bill that, from the said day even until now, John Hardy [… and 34 named others …] have without reasonable excuse neglected to provide themselves with bows and arrows, and neglected to practice archery, in contempt of the statute in this matter provided.

And quite right too. The English archer remained a potent weapon for probably another 50 years by which time the arquebus/musket was taking over as the weapon of choice. So it remained important that all healthy Englishmen were at least competent archers to defend the realm.

Tuesday after the Feast of St Martin ao 10 Edward III [1322], information given to the aforesaid Coroner and Sheriffs that Simon Chaucer lay dead of a death other than his rightful death in the rent of Richard Chaucer, his brother, in the parish of St Mary at Aldermarichirche in the Ward of Cordewanerstrete. Thereupon they proceeded thither, and having summoned good men of that Ward and of the three nearest Wards, viz.: Queenhithe, Brede Strete and Walbroke, they diligently enquired how it happened. The jurors — viz.: William de Chelrythe [… and 25 named others …] — say that on Monday before the Feast of St Luke last passed, the above Simon Chaucer and Robert de Uptone, skinner, were quarrelling after dinner in the High Street opposite the shop of the said Robert in the parish aforesaid, when the said Simon wounded the said Robert on the upper lip; that John, son of the said Robert perceiving this, took up an instrument called “Dorbarre” and therewith struck the said Simon on the hand, side and head and forthwith took refuge in the church of St Mary de Aldermarichirche, whence he secretly made his escape on the following night. Chattels none. They further say that the said Simon lingered until the Tuesday aforesaid when he died at sunrise; that the said Robert was captured, before the holding of the inquest, on suspicion and taken to the house of John de Northhalle, the Sheriff […]

Don’t you just love lay dead of a death other than his rightful death? What more picturesque circumlocution could there be?

history, personal, quotes, science

Quotes of the Week

A rather temporal theme this week …

What is time? If no one asks me, I know. If I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.
[St Augustine, Confessions]

Time is Nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.
[John Archibald Wheeler]

The universe is a simple place. True, it contains complicated things like galaxies and sea otters and federal governments, but if we average out the local idiosyncrasies, on very large scales the universe looks pretty much the same everywhere.
[Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here: the Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time]

Apart from Earl Alan, the Lord of the Manor, there is no record of local names. As to the women, who one must assume formed the usual percentage of the community, not one word!
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt commenting on the Domesday Book entry for Cheshunt]

I just love the preambulatory greetings in old documents, which are maintained even to this day in royal letters patent.

To all Christ’s faithful people unto whom this present shall come, Peter, by the grace of God, Abbot of the Church of St Peter of Fulgeres and of the Convent in that same place, greeting in the Lord!
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt translating a 12th century document]

Conan, Duke of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, to all the sons of the Church of the Holy Mother, and its steward and chamberlain, and to all its servants, and to all its men, French and English, and to all Britons, and all its well-wishers, greeting!
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt translating a 12th century document]

The constant recurrence of old familiar names in the ancient Parish registers seems to show that some of them have long taken root in the place. “Lowin” and “Adams” and “Archer” and “Cock” and “Tarry” and “Dighton”, and a good many more household names, are plentiful as blackberries in the old Registers.
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt quoting comments on parish registers by Revd Arthur Brown]

books, medical, memes, personal, photography, pleasures, science, topographical

Listography: What I want to do this Summer

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Keith at Reluctant Housedad is running Listography again this week while Kate Takes 5 has a break and we’ve been asked to say five things I want to do this summer.

Hmmm … well .. I thought summer was over. Wimbledon has finished, the first blackberries have been picked and it’s raining. Sounds like the end of summer to me. 🙂

But in the spirit of beating my brans out (‘cos I actually found this hard!) here is my rather pathetic list …

Run a Successful Conference. For the Anthony Powell Society; at the beginning of September. Yep, I’m organising it (again — that only five of the last six!). It certainly promises to be good, but you never know until you get there if some joker or other is going to be put into play. So let’s hope all the speakers turn up; the venue works OK and the events all run smoothly.

Kill off my Depression. I’ve had depression for far far too long. It’s high time it b*ggered off for good. It’s certainly better than it was; I’ve halved my dose of anti-depressants this Spring and the hypnotherapy seems to be doing some good. Now for the remainder, please!

While we’re at it can I also Get Rid of my Hayfever once and for all. It had really p’ed me off more than usual this Summer as I’ve been having really itchy, watering eyes despite my usual anti-histamines. After 50-odd years enough is enough. Thank you!

Visit Kew Gardens at least once on a nice day. Kew is one of my favourite places, but despite living only a few miles away we get there all too seldom. At least one visit is a must this summer.


Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, home of the late Derek Jarman.
© Copyright Dr Keith C Marshall, 2010.
Finally we need a Holiday. But it ain’t going to happen until after the conference in September. Does that still count? We’re going off to wallow in decent B&B in New Romney, Kent. The Romney Marsh area is another of my favourite places: wide open spaces; Dungeness; seaside; medieval churches; RH&D Railway. And I have ancestors from New Romney and around the edges of the Romney Marsh, so we’ll be doing some family history while we’re there too. Mix and match depending on the weather, but get away and get some good sea air — and even better if it is warm and sunny.

Will that do?

personal, photography

Alphabet of Me

For some time I’ve been working on the idea I saw a long while back, “an alphabet of me”: something about me for each letter of the alphabet. Som people do this one letter at a time, often in random order. I’ve chosen to do it as a single entity, with an appropriate image from amongst my photos for each letter.

The first and last images are the dust-jacket; A-Z runs through images 2 to 27 inclusive. Below you’ll find a key and links to the original images on my Flickr Photostream. Here then is the finished product.

  1. Me
  2. Anthony Powell: Anthony Powell Society Members at Wysall during a trip to the Widmerpool area of Nottinghamshire
  3. Books: Work in Progress
  4. Cats: Tabby Tiger
  5. Dora: My Mother at 92, (she’ll be 96 this October!)
  6. Eccentric: Deckchair Love
  7. Family History: David Masey Grave at New Romney, Kent. (David Masey is one of my great-great-grandfathers
  8. Girls: “Now I think we go that way …”
  9. Heroes: Dinner Party Meme showing people who are my heroes
  10. IBM: Office Reflections; one of the places I used to work
  11. Jessie: My Aunt Jessie with Portrait of her Mother (my Grandmother)
  12. Kent: Bales by Brenzett; land of my grandfathers
  13. London: Westminster Night. I was born in London and have lived most of my life in London.
  14. Marriage: OMG! Wedding 1979. Yes, this is our wedding. Scary!
  15. Noreen: Noreen in Rochester. See marriage!
  16. Obesity: With & Without. Nasty; maybe I should have banned this!
  17. Photography: Rose: Maiden’s Blush; I’ve been taking photographs for 50 years. Eeeek!
  18. Quirky: Self-Portrait of a Foot. Yes, I’m mad.
  19. Romney Marsh: Prospect Cottage Panorama. More land of my grandfathers. This is Dungeness.
  20. Sexuality: Reading in the Sun in the Bishop’s Garden. Yes, let’s not deny this is part of all of us.
  21. Trains: Double Departure from Alexisbad.
  22. University: University of York Cricket Club Tour 1971; taken at the end of my second year as an undergraduate. I’m in back row, third from right, in the full sized image.
  23. Victoria & Albert Museum: Megalopoda vitreum. Important because Noreen made her career here, which kept us living in London.
  24. Wine: Anti-Depressant; or beer!
  25. XY: In the Hotel. Guess what?! I’m male!
  26. Yummy Food: My Meme: Thanksgiving 12-Course Banquet
  27. Zen Mischief: Rites of Passage Meme. My motto!
  28. Me