Green woodpecker on our west London lawn; I guess he was enjoying the ants which seem to abound in our garden.
Not wonderful photos as I was having to use my biggest lens at an awkward angle from the open study window in dreadful November light and having to push the ISO rating to get anything I could handhold. This probably the best from at least 150 shots taken over a period of 20 minutes.
A few more from this series on my Flickr Photostream.
My previous posting referred to the first English lottery being held on 11 January 1569, and Jilly asks in a comment if it was sold out, because the tickets, at 10 shillings each, were horrendously expensive.
Well I don’t know if it was sold out, a quick Google hasn’t provided an answer, but having researched a bit more I’m not sure if I would actually call this 1569 effort it a lottery at all! Here’s what Wikipedia says:
Although it is more than likely that the English first experimented with raffles and similar games of chance, the first recorded official lottery was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, in the year 1566, and was drawn in 1569. This lottery was designed to raise money for the “reparation of the havens and strength of the Realme, and towardes such other publique good workes.” Each ticket holder won a prize, and the total value of the prizes equaled the money raised. Prizes were in the form of silver plate and other valuable commodities. The lottery was promoted by scrolls posted throughout the country showing sketches of the prizes.
Thus, the lottery money received was a loan to the government during the three years that the tickets (‘without any Blankes’) were sold. In later years, the government sold the lottery ticket rights to brokers, who in turn hired agents and runners to sell them. These brokers eventually became the modern day stockbrokers for various commercial ventures.Most people could not afford the entire cost of a lottery ticket, so the brokers would sell shares in a ticket; this resulted in tickets being issued with a notation such as “Sixteenth” or “Third Class.”
According to measuringworth.com 10 shillings in 1569 would now be worth around £105 if you pro rata using RPI or £1210 if based on average earnings.
Interestingly lottery-results-info.com claims that the first ever lottery with prize money was held in Florence, Italy, in 1530. But as there are (apparently) references to lottery-type activity in The Bible, we’ll probably never know.
But don’t things like this make history fun! Much better than all those Corn Laws, Poor Laws, treasons and bloody battles that were inflicted on us at school!
Jamie over at Duward Discussion has laid down a new meme, so I just have to give it a go!
This is what you do:
Go to The Birthday Calculator, This Day in History and/or Google and enter your date of birth to find all sorts of interesting things about what was happening when you were born.
Now tell us about some of these interesting things.
Then, if you wish, tag a few of your friends to do the same.
And post a comment to this post so we know who’s followed the meme.
OK so here goes for me!
Birthday: Thursday 11 January 1951, 1250 PM GMT in University College Hospital, London. My mother has told me that I was 2 weeks early. This means I was conceived in the early days of May 1950.
Astrological Sign: Capricorn
Birthstone: Garnet; said to be a power stone
Alternative Birthstones: Emerald, Rose Quartz.
(Interestingly I’m not so keen on Emeralds, but I love Rose Quartz)
Fortune Cookie: There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.
Chinese Year: Tiger
Native American Zodiac Sign: Goose
Plant: Bramble
I share my birthday with: Golfer Ben Crenshaw (b. 1952) and Anthony Powell’s younger son John (b. 1946)
Lucky Day: Saturday
Lucky Number: 8
Ruling Planets: Saturn & Uranus
Birth Tree: Fir Tree, the Mysterious. Extraordinary taste, dignity, cultivated airs, loves anything beautiful, moody, stubborn, tends to egoism but cares for those close to it, rather modest, very ambitious, talented, industrious uncontent lover, many friends, many foes, very reliable.
Lunar Phase: waxing crescent
The day I was born:
There appear to have been no major world events, births or deaths.
Arsenal beat Carlisle United 4-1 away in an FA Cup replay.
London Algebra Colloquium met to discuss “Non-Archimedian Normed Spaces”
On this day in other years:
1973. Britain’s Open University awards its first degrees
1946. Enver Hoxha proclaims the People’s Republic of Albania
1922. First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient
1864. London’s Charing Cross station opened
1787. William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus
1569. The first national lottery is held in England; 40,000 lots, at 10 shillings each, go on sale at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London
Top Song of 1951: Mockin’ Bird Hill by Les Paul & Mary Ford
All in all it seems to have been a fairy dull day, so I guess I fit in well.
1. Cat Help Needed! Ajuda Felina Urgente!, 2. New Banksy Rat Mural in New York, 3. Bat, 4. Air raid Beano, 5. December 1931 Country Life Magazine Christmas edition, 6. Punch 1957, 7. Icy Waterfall in the Harz Mountains – Germany, 8. Dartmouth Christmas, 9. Calm water at Buttermere, 10. Adnams “The Bitter” (Cask), 11. beaujolais nouveau, 12. All true tea lovers like their tea strong……, 13. Gandalf the Grey, 14. “The Satanic Verses”, 15. Evelyn Vaugh, “Decline and Fall”, 16. We ♥ Norway, 17. Not of this Earth – The Bubbling Sulfur Pools of Iceland, 18. japan, 19. 69/365- Words are worthless when you’re laying in my bed, 20. 49 pigeonholes, 21. day 76: pebble-dashed sky, 22. Holy Water at St. John the Russian’s Church, 23. James Turrell, 24. Jabez Rounds House
Questions and Answers, with something about why I chose each sequence:
This week we’re going to do 8 rows of 3!
1. Three animals
Cat, Rat, Bat; because they rhyme
2. Three magazines
Beano, Country Life, Punch; I remember them all from my childhood
3. Three holiday destinations
Harz Mountains, Dartmouth, Buttermere; I’ve been to all three and would like to go there again
4. Three drinks
Adnams beer, Beaujolais Nouveau, Tea; three of my favourites
5, Three novels
Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkein), Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie), Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh); three of many that I can’t read
6. Three countries
Norway, Iceland, Japan; I’d love to visit them all but I won’t because I object to their stance on whaling
7. Three numbers
69, 49, 76; number of houses I’ve lived in
8. Three names
John, James, Jabez; three of my great-grandfathers
[Later] Actually four of my great-grandfathers; two were called James!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
From this week’s issue of Railway Herald:
Welcome to the age of the21 st century rubbish bin!
Rubbish bins could make a limited comeback on London Underground stations and city streets, due to a new type that have been built to withstand the blast of a terrorist’s bomb.
The steel armour-plated bins have been developed to withstand at least 75% of a blast’s force and contain the fireball resulting from an explosion. Hundreds of them are due to be installed through London’s financial district next year after the British company behind them spent five years testing them to destruction in the Mexican desert. The bins are designed to have digital screens on the side that will relay news, financial and travel information to passers-by throughout the day. Bins were removed from the London Underground in February 1991 following an IRA blast in Victoria station. Most were removed from the City the following year, and the last few were taken away after a large bomb left in a bin in Bishopsgate exploded in April1993. Environmental groups have blamed the lack of bins for an increasing tide of litter across the country, but with each new bin costing £30,000 and weighing roughly a ton. it is unlikely they will be used in anything but the most sensitive locations!
Thirty Grand! £30,000!! For a litter bin!? How many cleaning staff could we employ for that? Are we really that desperate? What’s wrong with transparent plastic sacks as used in other cities? Even if more expensive, recycled or bio-degradable plastic sacks would be a fraction of the cost!
If I’m not getting serious brain damage I should be — and yes, more than normal, even for me. Not to mention ringing in the ears. I’ve just had my mind completely blown away. I’ve been listening to a CD of handbells; change ringing on handbells. I know not everyone gets change ringing (or even bells) and it is a peculiarly English eccentricity. But if you line bells in general, handbells in particular or change ringing, then hunt out Change Ringing on Handbells issued on CD by Saydisc (CD-SDL310).
I had this on vinyl many years ago and recently discovered that Saydisc had eventually issued it on CD. I’d forgotten how incredible it is. It has seriously done my head in. Although I get the principle I can’t get my (mathematical and logical) brain round change ringing at the best of times but certainly not done on handbells and at the speed with which these guys manage it so faultlessly. Maybe the logic is the problem?
The CD is available from Amazon UK, Amazon.com or direct from Saydisc themselves. It is just incredible!
And there’s an interesting, albeit scientifically slanted, introduction to church bells and bellringing over at Cocktail Party Physics.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 34/52 (2008 week 42).
Yet more reflections.
Taken at Nico’s, the best “greasy spoon” in all London.
This week’s Flickr photo meme.
1. Small DSLR, 2. Popular Photography Magazine’s Featured Sunset *, 3. Eel in the smoke, 4. steam train through avondale july 07, 5. 1600×1280 – Morocco-beach – sun-sea-sand-pebbles, 6. Flowers for Mothers Day- UK 2nd March., 7. A locomotive To Brocken, 8. Winterwald, 9. Wellcome…into Alice’s Wonderland, 10. Bratwurst, 11. Mannequin Pis, 12. The most sacred place of Japan
Questions and Answers:
1. What is a must-pack in your travel bag or suitcase? (you just wouldn’t leave home without it) Olympus DSLR
2. What is your favourite thing to do while on vacation? Photography as an alternative to nothing with a bottle of wine
3. What is your great food/cuisine you have had or tried while traveling? Smoked Eel; heavenly
4. What is your favourite mode of travel – most enjoyable way to get there? Steam Train; first class, of course
5. What is your favourite way of “relaxing/unwinding” while traveling? Sun, Sea, Sand probably just edges out mountains and forest
6. Visiting friends and family sometimes involves travel – what relatives or friends do you visit most often when you go? (i.e. grandma, Uncle Bob, or Kate) My Mother
7. What was the best man-made wonder you ever saw/experienced while traveling? Steam Trains in Harz Mountains
8. What was the best wonder of Mother Nature that you ever saw/experienced while traveling? Winter Mountians and Forest
9. You could only take one book to read while travelling or on vacation – what would be in your bag? If I really can have only one volume then Alice in Wonderland; or more likely I wouldn’t take a book but buy something interesting along the way
10. Okay, you need a snack in that carry-on or backpack – what would it be? Bratwurst in a Bun
11. What is the “most touristy” thing you have done or place you have visited? Mannequin Pis; it’s such a horrible tourist attraction you have to see it once and be disappointed
12. You just won an all-expenses one-week trip anywhere in the world, where would you choose? Japan although it’s really too far for just a week
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 33/52 (2008 week 41).
Yet another reflection picture!
This week I’ve been eating out at the best “greasy spoon” in all London: Nico’s, 299 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 0EL. Open Monday thru’ Saturday, 0645 to 1900. It is right outside Bethnal Green tube station on junction of Bethnal Green Road and Cambridge Heath Road.
Greek Cypriot, now run by the second generation. You can have anything from a bacon roll, through Egg & Chips to Dolmades or Kleftico. The food is cheap and the portions are large; do not order the mixed grill unless you are a real glutton or starving: it comes on two(!!) oval plates, one of meat the other piled with chips. A steak sandwich comes with (free) chips on the side — a full portion of chips that is! And they’re real chips too. Everything is cooked to order and the kitchen is openly visible from the counter. Needless to say it does a steady trade! Eat in or take-away.
It is very close to the V&A Museum of Childhood, where Noreen works; I was there too earlier this week and was taken out to lunch at Nico’s: I had: 2 (large) Sausages, Mushrooms and (a pile of) Chips; can Diet Coke. Noreen had: Double Egg, Beans and (a pile of) Chips; can Diet Coke. Total cost £8.50.
Highly recommended for restoring the soul but not for either the cholesterol levels or the waistline. Pure food pornography. 🙂
I moved to London in 1973 to study Chemistry at University College, London. Here, if nothing else, I learnt that at degree level, Chemistry is Physics, Physics is Maths and Maths is impossible.
[Martin Dixon, Chairman of Subterranea Britannica]
I can tell Martin that it doesn’t change at post-grad level either! Except possibly to add that Maths is Computing.
