Planarchy Archive - December 2003


 

Old Photos

A wonderful series of old photos (with link) on the back of today's Grauni. They are from the late 19th and early 20th century by an unknown photographer... so it's a mystery too!  Wonderful in both composition and (apparently) resolution. The guy (or guyess) got around a bit... there are pictures from all over Europe and down into Egypt. Go take a look.... this is my favourite.  And those modern day snappers, such as I, who worry about memory cards and hard disk space, should spare a thought that this guy/guyess was carrying around glass plates for his photos!

20031229   12:55

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Warm

Amaryllis....detail from Zee's wonderful table decoration.

20031228   16:47

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Life on Mars

Strange that none of the pre-prepared animations, that we're seeing every few minutes on TV in the UK, covering the Beagle 2 expedition cover the possibility of something going wrong..... a crash landing or a Martian vandal snapping off the antenna (it was a very bad 'hood they chose).  No imagination these people!

Shame..... sadly, I don't appear to have any software that edits Quicktime files.

20031227   18:39

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Candles

..are hard to photograph. Or capture digitally even, they might as well have been light bulbs! Which is a shame as they're not and the candelabra looked even wonderfuller than usual this year. 

Other favourites were the sprouts which, after years of me suggesting it, were lightly dousled with garlic butter.  Wonderful!

The household most unusual Xmas dinner award went to young Kay.  She ate most of Zee's delicious Stilton Souffle with grape, walnut and lettuce salad for her starter but then departed from both veggies and carnivores by sticking to parsnips (9), chocolate (many), ginger beer (lashings of) and custard with cream (litres) but none of my mother's beautiful Xmas pudding.

20031227   12:03

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Have a Good Time....

....all the time...

20031227   12:11

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Hurrah!

Now it can begin in earnest. 

I've finished work and back at home.  A word of warning to anyone about to enter out onto the roads.... if they're driving as badly on your route as they are around here, be very careful.  It's Sunday driving without glasses... nearly everyone is driving like a complete Dickhead... not just the Merc drivers (as is more usually the case).

Anyway, seasonal Free Thinking Greetings to y'all... xxx

20031224   12:01

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Pretty Early

One of the benefits of my early morning journey to work is sights such as this. The skyscrapers at Canary Wharf welcome me every morning.

Lovely.

20031223   20:05

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At last!

For the last three months I have been trying to ascertain what time I could take off over the Christmas/Noo Year break.  Today I found out and whilst I don't have the usual 10 day break it is good to finally know for sure.  You can make plans if you know, can't you?

20031222   18:01

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Man of Straw

So, whilst Zee and the girls decorated the tree (maybe tomorrow if you're good!) I embarked upon an altogether more challenging horticultural task.  Though we haven't yet had any sign of a severe frost, 'tis time for the banana plant to receive it's permanent winter coat.  I had to travel way north (well, outside of the M25 so it's North to me) for a bale of straw (£1.40!!!) but I'll do anything for my plants. 

The final straw monolith with white sack top (which the stoopid plant always pushes off if we get a warm spell) may look somewhat sinister...... "Wicker Man" meets Mr.Blobby but I'm pretty sure neither Edward Woodward, Brit Ekland or indeed Noel Edmunds are inside. 

But I will let you know if any Druids turn up.

20031221   17:21

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Spend, Spend, Spend?

Paying for the weekly shop in Sainsbury's today I thought again of the supposed £811 per person spend on Christmas.  Today's shop was nearly three times the usual weekly Saturday shopping bill BUT there will be 9 for Christmas dinner and at least one extra mouth to feed and water for several other days over the festive period AND that did also include a few last minute presents.... so I looked for a breakdown on what exactly I'm supposed to be spending this money on to see how I compared with Mr./Ms.Average out there....

  Average Me
Clothes for the big day £162 £0.00
Socialising in the run up £143 £0.00
Christmas Presents £363 £350?
Christmas day (decorations, tree, food and a drink or two) £143 £30?

I don't get it.  We are an above average income family yet we're way under (and I think we've spent much too much).... are the stats a complete load of bollocks or what?

20031220   22:28

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Heavy Snow

Well I too have turned the snow off as it appeared to require about 50% of my year old CPU's activity even when the page was in the background..... that's the problem with Javascript, it's running on your PC unlike good old PHP which is on my server.  PHP, however, can't make it snow as far as I know.   Nevermind, maybe it will come back again at some point over the holiday break.  In the meantime, for those that missed it, the original snow is here and the anarchic flakes are here.

20031220   15:36

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PlanarSnow

Oh, no!  It's snowing badly drawn anarchy symbols!

 

...nicked from Blue Witch, original code here.

20031219   18:04

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T'Coffee

OK, I've just invented a new drink.

Take a thermos of freshly caffetiered Fair Trade Coffee from your thermos and poor it into your coffee cup when you arrive at work. At this point you will realise that your normally jet black brew is a strange murky brown colour. It appears that it had the dregs of yesterday's mid-morning milky tea in the bottom. The problem is that you really need that cup of coffee and the stuff from the canteen is quite frankly disgusting. So you try your newly discovered drink.

It's not too bad.

No, hang on , it's rather good!

Hurrah, T'Coffee is invented.

I know it's not a very good name but you try and come up with a tea/coffee conglomerate word that doesn't sound like one of the original components or a chewy confection....

20031219   7:38

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Competition Update

Well, so far I've received one entry... all the songs were correctly identified but a couple of the artists mentioned were not the one I was thinking of.....

In case you've forgotten or are unaware, the aim of the competition is to correctly identify the artists who provided the Xmas Lyrics that are randomly inserted just above the latest post.. refresh the page to get another.  I stress that a few of the songs have been performed by more than one artist and you need to guess the artist I was thinking of.

The second part of the competition is to think of a prize.

20031219   5:18

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The Wright Stuff

I decided to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of a bloke flying by wandering up the road to the bizarrely named Hollow Ponds for a quick chat with some birds that weren't (flying).  Mainly Canada Geese in the pictures today, but I like them and if you don't then I also managed to snap some Coots, a Heron (just), a Magpie and some Gulls.  Incidentally, are Canada Geese called the same thing in Canada or is it another French Letter type thing?

20031217   20:26

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Fish Light

... and while we're on the topic of lighting here's the bizarre fishbowl come light fitting spotted hanging high above us in a restaurant last night. 

20031217   8:50

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Mad Bras

And this is the light fitting, should you be interested. When we pointed it out to the guy in the shop he said "What, the mad one?"... unbeknownst to us at the time this was actually it's name and not a style comment.  I assume B&Q are after the same bizarre naming philosophy that saw an IKEA wardrobe called BRA.  Anyway, it's hard to phtograph lights.... but I think you get the general idea.

20031215   17:57

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One Hump or Two?

Before we set off to buy a new light for the sitting room, young Kay had been taking pictures of everything and nothing, inside and out, with my Digicam.   Being well aware of her propensity to put things down in strange forgetable places (so, just like me then) I asked her as we got into the car,

"What did you do with the camera, darling?".

"What do you mean?" says she.

"What do mean?" is a classic stalling answer of course.   It actually means, "I know exactly what you're talking about but I need time to work out if what I did was wrong and if so, how it was really my sister's fault."   Since this answer is so often forthcoming I also have a ready reply, which involves repeating the question slowly.   But Kay has a secret weapon as her next answer:

"Oh, camera, sorry, I thought you said CAMEL,"

Hmmm, very good, but Kay has 20:20 hearing, I think she's picked up this deliberate mishearing trick from me with my rubbish 5:20. Of course then I still have to ask,

"What Camel?"

Kay is ready for this, "What do you mean?"

Aaaahhhhh!

20031215   7:24

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Another Competition

OK, following on from the success of yesterday's competition (zero so far.. obviously too easy) and as a result an article in the Grauni this week claiming that London's so called Gherkin tower is nothing like a gherkin.  To test this ridiculous hypothesis I've set you all a simple test.... I couldn't find a gherkin so it's spot the difference between a courgette and Norman Foster's London tower of glass.

20031212   17:42

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Competition Time

OK, as you'll know if you've been reading the comments from this morning's post, BW has suggested a competition to name all the artists featuring in the Random-Xmas-Lyric-Thing above.  I had thought of this already but, my record on prize giving isn't good. You see I still owe the three winners of last years Glen Miller thing a re-recorded version of my classic song "Glen Miller is Missing"..... I did start guys, honestly!  Anyway, I trigress..... the first part of the competition is to correctly identify the artists who recorded the songs from which I've nicked the Random Christmas Lyrics..... beware, there are a couple that more than one artist has recorded and you have to guess the one I was thinking of. 

The second part of the competition is to think of a suitable prize.

The closing date will be when I decide but almost certainly before Christmas day.  I'll give you a final date nearer the time.... (Planarchists eh?)  Oh, and unlike any other competition I've ever entered Correspondance Will Be entered into.... cos a good chat is what it's all about isn't it?

Answers by email to nic[at]you know what domain.

20031211   19:44

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Annoying?

You know how all the shops have been annoying us by playing all those Christmas hits since the balmy days of August?  Well, here at Planarchy I've decided to help you relive the experience.... I've swapped the Random Day of Week Lyric thingy that used to reside just beneath my leetle Bleurg Stickmen for a Random Christmas lyric..... refresh the page for another one!  I realise it's not quite as intrusive as it should be.... but I prefer the gradual build-up type of approach.  The scrolling lyrics and blinking lights can wait until closer to the happy day.... don't say i didn't warn you.

20031211   7:38

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Shy

Mr. Blackbird, meanwhile, comes close but insists on keeping his beautiful orange beak hidden behind a branch. 

20031210   14:57

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Woodpecker Update

Heh, heh, my cunning plan worked!  By saying that they only visit early in the morning I've managed to convince Mr. Woody that it's safe to do so mid-morning.  Sadly it's still grey and gloomy and he didn't get closer than the willow tree (which, I add he didn't peck!) so I still haven't got the picture I want.

Yes, I'm at home today... after a week and almost nothing there could be a lot of blogging today.

That should kill it dead.

20031210   10:44

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Mrs Woody & Old Pix

I'm almost certain I spied Mrs Woody on the nuts this morning... but by the time I'd got the camera she'd flown... a shame... both she and hubby only seem to visit in the dim early morning light when it's hard to get a sharp picture anyway.  I wondr if they'd mind being floodlit?  Hmmm.  Elsewhere.. here's some nice orange leaves which I forgot to post last month.

20031210   10:20

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