Thomas

A Bloggers Bazaar

I will be starting as usual by sharing some important links, before moving on to some other stuff…

LINKS

To start with, a reminder that the autistic community is still awaiting an apology from Katie Hopkins. On this topic, a prominent supporter of our campaign is Lucy Hawking, daughter of Stephen and mother of an autistic child – check out this piece.

Next comes some information about bumble bees.

My penultimate link is to a list of demands to the next government on behalf of disabled people.

Last of all, courtesy of the Anti-bulliying Alliance comes a suggested anti-bullying charter for use in schools.

PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

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MIDDLESEX SECOND INNINGS WOES

Middlesex demonstrated in their match against Durham that batting again rather than enforcing the follow-on is no guarantee against a disastrous collapse. Middlesex reached their eventual 2nd innings total of 83 only because Tim Murtagh, batting at no 11 and suffering with a hamstring strain top scored. Chris Rushworth and John Hastings each took five wickets in this remarkable display.

I was sitting outside listening to the commentary on this and periodically enhancing my collection of photos…

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My best aeroplane shot yet... — My best aeroplane shot yet…

...with this one a decent second — …with this one a decent second

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Borough Council Elections

This post will be in three parts. First of all I have a very important link to share, then I will be writing about the Borough Council elections, and finally I will say something about the Test Match that finished late last night our time with two full days unused.

A HYPER-IMPORTANT HYPERLINK

This link is to a radio interview with leading autism campaigner Kevin Healey. Please listen and share!!

BOROUGH COUNCIL ELECTIONS

In King’s Lynn we have two decisions to make on Thursday, who to vote for in the general election and who to vote for in our borough council election. I have already made clear, both here and on my twitter feed who I will be voting for in the general election, and I will say no more in this post than that it would be folly for anyone in King’s Lynn who considers themselves even remotely progressive to vote for anybody other than Jo Rust. I have not previously mentioned the Borough Council elections, because I had not formed a definite conclusion. The game changer that has prompted this post was the following from our local Green Party…

Look to the central part of this leaflet in particular to see why I am so definite about the decision.

DSCN4885 Green

TEST MATCH HUMILIATION FOR ENGLAND

Not long after 10PM our time last night the final test of the series between England and the West Indies ended (with two days unused) in a defeat by five wickets for the visitors. England’s batting was woefully inadequate with the exceptions in the first innings of Cook who ground out a century and Ali who made 58. 123 all out at the second attempt when seeking to build on a lead of 68 tells its own tale of woe. The other problem for England was lack of a serious spin option (Ali, the ‘front-line spinner’ recorded match figures of 2-110 from 22 overs on a turner). If Adil Rashid was not the right option on this pitch he never will be.

Whoever they go for, and wherever they find them, England need a genuine front-line spinner (and not a batsman who bowls being bigged up) and they need one as soon as possible. A spinner who takes only two wickets in the match and goes for five an over on a turning pitch does not deserve to be described as such. It was not just the number of runs being leaked but the deliveries off which they were being hit – frequently short (including a substantial ration of rank long hops). Wilf Rhodes, a great spinner a century ago, used to say talking about the length he bowled “Ah were nivver hooked and Ah were nivver cut”

Congratulations to the West Indies on being able to take what was handed them on a plate.

Now for a few more pics…

On Saturday there were no fewer the seven boats moored at the new jetty (I am fairly certain that this is a current record)

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I have some important stuff to share with you before getting into the main body of my post, and I can promise you plenty of cool pictures.

LINKS

First up today, courtesy of 38degrees comes this tribute to Ealing Hospital.

Next, from change.org comes an update on the “Justice for Kayleb” petition. Having just mentioned one young boy with autism, I take the opportunity of introducing you to another, via a twitter feed set up to support him.

Tom Pride is on fine form, with two pieces exposing the Tories in different ways:
1)A selection of especially vile opinions expressed by Tories.

2)The story of a supposedly undecided audience member at a recent TV debate who was actually known to be a Tory.

My final link is to a picture that tells more than many words, and segues into the rest of the post.

This is the graphic I have linked to, with grateful acknowledgement to Team4Nature.

ON NATURE

I decided to do a very brief (words wise) post about nature because I received some important information that required sharing from Team4Nature, and having been out for a walk yesterday I have some pictures to share that fit with the topic.

Therefore, on the principle that one picture can speak a thousand words, here are some of the best from yesterday…

This is from Thursday, as is the next pic.

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A white butterfly enjoying itself among some green leaves.

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A King’s Lynn Walk

As usual, before getting to the main part of the blog I have some links to share…

First of all, a story in the Mirror about housing benefits profiteers (i.e. big landlords) accompanied by a link to list of 20 of West Norfolk’s worst offenders in this regard:

KLWN HB

A shocking story from the Independent about a scientific peer reviewer who in the year 2015 said that women should get help with their research from men.

Shocking but not in the least surprising to anyone who knows anything about destructive Dave the debate ducker and his mate Gideon is this story about the effect of Tory cuts on the disabled from the New Statesman.

Now, some political dynamite from Vox Political in the form of story about how the Labour and Green party candidates were omitted from 480 ballot papers sent out to voters in Hull.

Katie Hopkins has been at it again, and is the subject of another petition on change.org demanding an apology to the autistic community for her latest offensive remarks. Please sign and share.

My last story is of a good outcome to a horrible event. The people who attacked and almost killed Malala Yousafzai have been jailed for life, and here is the story courtesy of BBC News.

THE WALK

This afternoon I went out for a walk, which turned out be full of glorious spring sights. The first camera moment came within minutes of setting forth, as I was crossing over the upper Purfleet, in the form of this Moorhen…

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The Great Ouse rarely fails to provide some decent opportunities for pictures, and here are some from today…

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Neither Hardngs Pits nor the Nar provided much of interest, but the parkland areas (the Walks and the Recreation Field) certainly did…

Opportunities to photograph the South gate with no traffic interfering are not common.

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Tree sculptures, at the Tennyson Road edge of the Recreation Field.

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A front-on view of the loco showing a couple of trucks as well.

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Between Tennyson Road and Bawsey Drain there were a few small things of interest…

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Bawsey Drain provided two examples of a mother duck taking her little ones out on the water and some small birds of the beautiful but frustrating (because they are so hard to capture on camera) variety…

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I took the way home that leads via two ponds and a section of river to the Railway Station and thence home. This last stretch provided some further duckling pictures and as my final shot of the day a blackbird…

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One duckling that is already a fine swimmer.

Yesterdays Auction: A Personal Account

Before getting to the main meat of post I have a few links to share with you.

LINKS

My first link is to a devastating expose of the bogus organisation Autism Speaks, courtesy of The Art of Autism.

My next link, for those of a scientific bent is to an interesting post on Faraday’s Candle.

My last two links are related, in that they refer to the necessity of making sure that on this day next week Downing Street is the scene of an eviction. First of all, a piece focussing on the NHS. Secondly, and accompanied by the picture that is at it’s heart comes this expose of just how vile the Tories are courtesy of Vox Political.

YESTERDAY’S AUCTION

I have already written about the presence of a display for the Great Centenary Charity Auction on their website. Here is a single picture to whet your appetite for that…

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A combination of the necessity of being on a bus that was due to leave at 7:00AM and wanting have lots of time to make my preparations before setting off meant that I rose at a ludicrously early hour (suffice to say that even with summer approaching and the cricket season well under way I was up before the sun).

The presence of TV cameras filming Antiques Road Trip meant that I felt obliged to dress for the occasion, wearing a previously unworn shirt, a tie and a smart jacket that I knew would go with the shirt. I knew I would be on camera, because I was going to be on the rostrum next to the auctioneer when the road trip lots were going under the hammer. We were also providing training to a colleague, who did a couple of stints on the rostrum, immediately before the break to set up for the road trip stuff, and taking over after the road trip section had finished to do the final furlong (well we were at a racecourse!).

The two experts, Charlie Ross and James Braxton, both made a point of shaking hands with David and myself before leaving. It will be interesting when it finally goes out on air to see how it all looks.

After a quiet start, with the postcards doing nothing and the banknotes not all that much, things did pick up. I got one set of bookmarks, although not the ones I had really wanted.

The auction finished as expected just before 3:30PM, and then it was just a matter of clearing up. Finally, at 4:50PM the last van load was dealt with, giving me time for a pint at the Bull Inn, Bridge Street before catching the bus home.

I finally got back to my flat almost exactly 12 hours after setting out. A change of clothes, a quick call at my Aunts house to pick up the post and see if the plants needed any watering (they did not – it had evidently rained in King;s Lynn earlier in the day) and I was finally able to switch off.

Here are some pictures from the auction room before things got underway properly…

All the Antiques Road Trip Lots are visible in this shot.

Setting Up One Auction and Imaging for Another

This morning I helped with getting tomorrow’s auction set up at Fakenham Racecourse, and took the opportunity of photographing this display of uniforms, which will be part of a stall advertising the Great Centenary Charity Auction, on whose twitter account I have already posted it…

Uniforms Then, for the afternoon I was engaged in imaging lots for the May sale. There a some interesting items to image, a selection of which I now share with you…

455 455a 455b 457 457a 457b 457c 459 459a 459b 459c 472 472a 472b 620 620a 622 622a 622b 622c 642 642a 642b 642c 464 464a 464b In ascending order the lots featured above are 455 (Nature), 457 (Glastonbury), 459 (Robert Hooke – among many other things author of Micrographia, one of the first books ever written about the use of the microscope), 464 (Edmond Halley, a near contemporary of Hooke, now best known for the comet that bears his name), 472 (Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”), 620 (Alderney “Womble” stamps), 622 (Nassau Postcard with stamp and postmark) and 642 (Nepal postcard, with stamp and postmark).

If you have enjoyed this post please share it.

Links ‘n’ Pics

Time pressure dictates that this will be a brief post, but I have some important stuff to share…

LINKS

Autism Mom, as so often has provided some good material, in this case a new method of visualising the autistic spectrum. She in turn got her information from this post on asddad.com.

Another Autism related story, which I hope will prove to be the definitive debunking of the myth of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, comes courtesy of the good news network.

Next, a story about a mother facing deportation along with her autistic son.

PICTURES

Of course, one thing I am never short of is pictures to share…

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The stamp onmy 'letter from America' now mounted for display. — The stamp onmy ‘letter from America’ now mounted for display.

DSCN4512 DSCN4513 Stamp with background Trevithick £2 143 150 223c 476 476a 477

I will put a longer post in due time, but for the moment please share this one.

NHS Action Yesterday

Some very important links, an account of yesterday’s petitioning activity around the NHS and some pictures.

I have a variety of other things to share with you before I get to the main meat of my post…

LINKS

First of all a family of related links. Autism Mom’s latest post “autism-respect-the-beautiful-otherness-of-the-autistic-mind” is the original post that attracted my attention, and it in turn was inspired by two articles:

1)A piece published by the Royal Society and authored by Francesca Happe and Uta Frith.

2)A piece published on medicaldaily and written by Lecia Bushak.

Next, news of a major victory in the battle to save the world’s bees, in pictorial form. While on the subject of conservation, I have a petition to share with you about that horror known as the ivory trade.

My next link is to a piece written by a lawyer who courageously and correctly stood up for his neighbours when they were being bullied by the DWP – it provides insight into just how vicious this department has become since the Idiotic Delusional Sociopath (IDS for short) took control. This post is simultaneously disturbing and inspiring. A natural follow on from that is a link to this post from refuted.org.

Moving on, Tom Pride gives details of some vicious anti-semtism from a Tory candidate.

My next two links are related both referring to matters connected with LGBT rights. The first one was written in response to Nick Clegg publicly ruling out (a rather grandiose thing for soon-to-be ex MP to do in any case) any coalition involving the SNP, and points out just who he might find himself helping if he supports a coalition of the right – the gang of bigots officially known as the DUP. The second concerns the case of an asylum seeker facing deportion back to Jamaica and certain death – anyone actually carrying out this threat will be an accessory to murder and should be punished appropriately.

My penultimate link comes courtesy of julijuxtaposed and is counterblast to the increasingly rabid Scotphobia being shown by the right.

Finally, I include a link to an establishment being run by my latest twitter follower, which seems to be an excellent thing.

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

This card was sent to me by Rocio Watkins, an American researcher who I have been of some assistance to - it contained a small cheque for which I have thanked her. — This card was sent to me by Rocio Watkins, an American researcher who I have been of some assistance to – it contained a small cheque for which I have thanked her.

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This is the stamp on the envelope in which the car was sent. Although being current issue it is not yet of interest to philatelists I feel that I may be so eventually as circular stamps are not all that common.

YESTERDAYS NHS ACTION

Between 11AM and 1PM yesterday about 10 of us took to the streets of King’s Lynn to collect signatures for a petition which is at the heart of a campaign to Save Our NHS. Our numbers were a little less than they may have been because of late withdrawals and the fact that some people who would ordinarily have been with us were campaigning in Hunstanton as part of Jo Rust’s election campaign (including Jo herself who would certainly have been with us otherwise).

The weather was decent, and lots of people signed. I, and accosting people I do not know with a petition is something that having Asperger;s definitely does make more difficult, personally got 20 and must have had 10 times that number tell me they had already signed. Given how many others were also collecting signatures and the near certainty that I will have gathered the fewest of any of them we are certainly talking in terms of several hundred new signatures.

Finally, a few more pictures to end the post:

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Look up and across from outside King's Lynn Debenhams and you will see this window display! — Look up and across from outside King’s Lynn Debenhams and you will see this window display!

Details of a post-election public meeting that will very likely be the occasion of my next visit to the fine city of Norwich.

This is my enlarged version of the victory for bees picture.

Two Very Hectic Days

As usual, before getting into the main meat of this post I have some links to share with you.

LINKS

First of all, I urge everyone to sign and/ or share Joanne Fowler’s petition about the treatment of her 93 year old father.

The only other link I am sharing with you today is courtesy of Vox Political and while I would the first to acknowledge that Tory lies are no longer (if they ever were), the stuff of headlines, the scale and extent of the lying that Mike Sivier exposes is even by the standards of the political home of Mr Shapps/Green/Fox scandalous as the full post reveals.

When I wrote my intro to the Mike Sivier piece it was going to be the last link I included, but this story from the Independent about food banks, which I picked up via twitter was too important not to include – it exposes the sheer nastiness of how the DWP conducts itself these days.

TWO HECTIC DAYS

I was aware that Thursday and Friday were going to be hectic, since I had decided to attend an evening meeting in Norwich (of which more in a later post) in between two work days, and on the Friday evening I would be calling in at my parents house to pick up the post since they are currently away in Greece. What I did not factor in was losing half an hour at Castle Meadow, central Norwich not because a bus failed to show, but because the bus did show but failed to stop! This is at a very important stop, and with me approaching the bus with the fare already in my hand ready to hand over. I absolve Norfolk Green as a company of any blame for this incident, especially given the high standards of service I have generally received over a decade of being a regular user of their buses, but they clearly have at least one rogue driver. This meant that instead of arriving at my desk at 9:30 and being able to ease into Friday’s work I arrived on the dot of 10 and had to get stuck in rather quicker. Also, the down-time immediately post work was reduced by the necessity of getting a haircut (being on the rostrum with Antiques Road Trip filming and having a jungle on top of my head would not have been a great idea!).

Thursday was taken up with imaging in the main, although I did get a press release out early in the day, and created a poster near the end of they day. This was to advertise an antique Enfield-Snider percussion cap rifle which will be in the May auction (n.b. it is of a calibre that is no longer manufactured and hence can no longer be used as a firearm)…

Much of the rest of Thursday’s imaging was mundane stuff, but some is worth sharing…

252 252a 253 253a 253b 255 255a 255b 341 719a 719b 721 721a 721b

Friday morning was taken up with imaging lots for a Timed Bid auction, conducted via www.the-saleroom.com, not many of which were of any great interest. In the afternoon, in between starting to load the van ready for going down to the Racecourse on Tuesday, I imaged a handful of lots which needed special attention…

This gold coin, lot 218 in our May auction, was a particular challenge as it had to be imaged through plastic casing.

218a 218b

The only other imaging I got done in the afternoon was of the Soviet Union badges which comprise the last three images of this post.

Save Ashcroft Campaign

An introduction to the Save Ashcroft campaign, with some important links and cool pictures.

This post is going to be in three parts:

1) An Image to introduce you to what it is all about

2) Some links that relate to the topic being covered.

3)The main body of the post

THE SAVE ASHCROFT CAMPAIGN

LINKS

My first offering is a link to a wonderful piece detailing how mental health issues are misrepresented in the media, courtesy of an American health news site. Next comes an article on awareness, acceptance and how one can to lead to the other, posted on ramblingsofaspecialmom. My next link is to an online section of the Labour Party manifesto. Before continuing with my next links i will just say that while I am as mistrustful of manifestos as anyone if it comes to a choice between someone who is offering an improvement and someone who means to make things worse I know who I will be voting for! My penultimate link is to a an open letter that gives the Guardian’s “Secret Teacher” a well deserved telling off. My last link is to the Save Ashcroft Campaign’s facebook page, which I hope everyone will visit and like. Mention of social media brings to me to a landmark – aspitweets has just reached 2,000 followers.

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

The Wensum, near the heart of the fine city of Norwich

THE ORGANISING MEETING

Last night there was an organising meeting of the Save Ashcroft Campaign. The meeting was arranged for the Vauxhall Community Centre in Norwich from 7:30 to 9:30 PM. Not wishing to get back to King’s Lynn after midnght, and being even less keen on not being involved at all, I contacted the organisers to find out if I could stay overnight in Norwich. This duly arranged (many thanks to the kind woman who offered me a bed in her house), I arrived at the venue without incident at 7:15PM (precisely the time I would want to arrive for a 7:30 start). The meeting was very constructive, with many excellent suggestions being raised.

The next public activity on behalf of this very worthy cause will be on May 2nd at the Forum in Norwich, where they will have a place a stall being run by a larger campaign concerned with the whole of mental health provision (or rather lack of it) in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Before finishing with some more pictures, I ask you all to share this and to support Save Ashcroft any way you can – every little helps.

My T-shirt for Saturday's activity in King's Lynn — My T-shirt for Saturday’s activity in King’s Lynn

The first fo five pictures to show that my Aunt's pots are prospering. — The first fo five pictures to show that my Aunt’s pots are prospering.

This blackbird is getting bad habits - that is a chip from a mobile stall in its mouth! — This blackbird is getting bad habits – that is a chip from a mobile stall in its mouth!

Just before finishing this post where I started with the leaflet, I urge anyone who is in King’s Lynn on Saturday to come out and help as gather signatures against the creeping privatisation of the NHS.

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