Some environmental news and some pictures – enjoy.
INTRODUCTION
Having recently shared the latest of Anna’s posts about her campaign to prevent a big new road from being built through an area of outstanding natural beauty I thought a couple of stories showing a more sensible approach were appropriate (and I have some new pictures to share and was looking for something else to put in the post).
HYDROGEN BUSES AND A CLEAN AIR PLAN FOR LONDON
Hydrogen buses are already a feature of the streets of the city of Aberdeen, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan intends them to be in service in the capital by 2020. Buses are less damagaing than cars anyway because they carry more people, but hydrogen buses have an extra plus point – zeroemissions. To read an excellent article on this theme click the picture below:
A hydrogen powered bus.
Councillor and London Assembly member Caroline Russell has produced a very detailed plan for making London’s streets healthier, backed up with evidence of a successful scheme in Walthanstow. To read the whole document click on the infographic giving details of the Walthamstow success that appears below:
PICTURES
A Brunel £2 received in changeNext to uncirculated coin.The next four pictures show ice on the surface of the lower Purfleet (yes folks, here in the north of the world it is winter)
Some pictures from King’s Lynn – featuring Christmas lights and the Great Ouse.
INTRODUCTION
Here are some of my most recent pictures from in and aroun King’s Lynn.
PICTURES 1: MORE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
When the Christmas lights were first turned on in King’s Lynn I put up this post. Now I have some more Christmas light picturesfor you…
PICTURES 2: THE RIVERBANK
Regular visitors to this blog will know that walking alongside the Great Ouse is something I do a lot of, and I have some good pictures from earlier today when I did just that…
An analysis of my newly acquired collection of beer mats (complete with photos), a unique LNER display and some other stuff.
INTRODUCTION
This post features some stuff I have bought at auctions and some stuff I have been given, and features some links at the end.
BEER MATS
I mentioned in my post about James and Sons’ November auction that I had purchased a box of beer mats. Well I have just finished sorting through them and categorizing them, taking photos along the way.
MACALLAN
There are seven mats that relate to Macallan Scotch Whisky. Macallan are sposnors of one of the world’s most prestigious bridge tournaments as well as purveyors of whisky.
HEINEKEN AND ICE HOCKEY
I have 12 Heineken mats, one circular and 11 athletics track shaped. These latter 11 feature Ice Hockey Heroes – I have a run of numbers 2 through 9 of the original series of 10 and duplicates of numbers 7, 8 and 9.
RANDOM FOREIGN
Five mats referrg to foreign drinks.
COCA COLA AND COMPETITIONS
I have three mats advertsiign coca cola, two of which are duplicates, a schweppes mat and mat advertising a Holsten Pils competition.
The two central mats are duplicates – I have shown different sides of each.
GENERAL SCOTCHES
Four mats advertising scotch whiskies other than Macallan.
PRODUCE OF THE APPLE
Five mats where the focus is on drinks created from apples:
THE IRISH CONTINGENT
I have nine mats featuring products of the Emerald Isle.
The two big Guinness mats are duplicates, as are the three Murphy’s mats.
UNCATEGORIZED
Four mats that I could not think of a category for.
BEER MATS GENERAL
We now come to the best bits of the collection. Starting with nine mats featuring a range of beers from around the country.
The Webster’s mats at the top are duplicates save that they have different heroes on the back, as you will see later…
BEER MATS – EAST ANGLIA
There are ten beer mats in this group, all with a connection to East Anglia.
You have now seen every beer mat in the collection, but I was not quite finished yet…
THOMAS’ TOP THREE
This is an image of my three favourite beer mats.
THE RAILWAY CONNECTION
Some mats that are specifically railway oriented.
The Samuel Whitbread connection is a little tenuous, and I took the opportunity to show the Amy Johnson profile.
THE BUTTONS
One of my colleagues recently gave me some LNER buttons (LNER stood for London and North Eastern Railway), and had previously given me an LNER badge. I also had some other LNBER buttons and an LNER themed postcard from previous purchases, and assembled this into an LNER display.
The three buttons that set me thinking about the display – without using the flashthe same buttons with flashclose up of the locomotive buttonClose up of an LNER buttonButtons, the badge and the postcard mounted ready for display.The top of the display.The bottom fo the displayThe badge.
The display (it is housed in a plastic wallet).
LINKS
I start with some interesting pieces about the byelection that has surely spelt the end of Zac Goldsmith’s political career:
David Hencke, who usually blogs on legal matters offers his take here.
I have no pictures to share currently, but several important links which seem to me to be related.
A THUNDERCLAP AND A BYELECTION
Starting with the second, the result of the Richmond Park Byelection is in, and Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democrats has beaten the nominally ‘Independent’ but actually Tory Zac Goldsmith. The Tories in their arrogant certainty that Goldsmith would retain the seat and could then be persuaded to retake the Tory whip did not field a candidate against him. UKIP also declined to stand against Mr Goldsmith. On the other side the Green party did not field a candidate, while although Labour did have a candidate (transport expert Christian Wolmar) they ran a very low key campaign.
Since none of the candidates standing in this election supported the expansion of Heathrow Airport (the issue that triggered Mr Goldsmith’s resignation) this election was not about that. Nor in a constituency where over 70% of people voted to remain was it about Brexit.
This vote has come about because many Tory voters were not enthused by the prospect of voting for an ‘Independent’ Zac Goldsmith, and by way of being a backdated punishment for the appalling campaign Mr Goldsmith ran in the London mayoral election.
I have two links for you to get more detail about this byelection:
I have signed up to support the 24 Hours of Reality thunderclap the message of which is “We have a climate agreement – now it is time for bold action“. To be part of a thunderclap yopu need to have an account with at least one out of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. The thunderclap brings together all the connections of everyone who takes part. I would urge everyone who can to support this thunderclap.
James and Sons’ November auction took place yesterday at the Long Bar, Fakenham Racecourse. This post covers both yesterday and the aftermath today.
THE PRELIMINARIES
The setup was accopmplished on Tuesday, with more than a few hints of trouble ahead (see here for more details). There was a heavy frost in evidence when I set forth to catch the 6:28 bus to Fakenham (now that they have reduced the number of morning bus services I cannot get in early enough on an auction day on any other bus). The bus left on time, but only made it as far as Littleport Street (its first outward bound stop if anyone is there) before breaking down. The replacement bus took longer to arrive than it should have, given that the depot is only couple of miles away. This bus did make it to Fakenham, arriving at approximately 7:30, although it had no heating. The Long Bar is, for all its grand title, a wooden hut, and the heater would not work at first. When we did get it to work it pumped out smoke.
The IT setup did work however, and the auction started promptly.
One of the their postersThe auction venue.Some of the toysMore of their stuffAs well as posters and prints there are jockey’s silks on display at the Long Bar
THE AUCTION ITSELF
The auction started with coins, which fared very well. The coins were followed by banknotes, which sold phenomenally well. Then came the militaria, which was good in parts. After that came some aviation postcards. Lots 350-377 were toys, first toy cars, starting with the ‘Goldfinger’ Aston Martin DB5 in mint condition, and progressing through more toy cars, Hornby, Triang and a few dolls. After that we were into collector’s models – a few boxes of lead soldiers and a large quantity of model aeroplanes, which appropriately enough went sky high.
The stamp lots were patchy, and apart from a few bits of jewellery very little after lot 550 did anything of note, partly because the auctioneer was hurrying through things by that stage. A box of interesting beer mats went to me for £9.
Once the auction was concluded I was able to consume my sandwiches before helping with the clear up. I managed to get the 16:37 bus back, and this time I arrived in King’s Lynn in the same bus I had left Fakenham in! The only problem was the early evening traffic in Lynn (basically from Gaywood to King’s Lynn town centre was gridlocked).
TODAY
My only involvement with the aftermath of the auction was helping to unload to van – while three of my colleagues attended to the invoicing I was imaging some bulky stamp and cigarette card lots for our next auction on December 14, and in the process rendering the kitchen area navigable.
This was lot 268 – the last lot I imaged today.
Lot 478 – can you spot the ‘jewel in the dungheap’?It is of course this map.
An account of final preparations for James and Sons’ November auction.
INTRODUCTION
James and Sons’ November auction takes place at Fakenham Racecourse tomorrow, which combined with the somewhat stressed preliminaries led to the title of this post.
A CHANGE OF VENUE
Firstly, a miscommunication led to this auction being held in the Long Bar rather than the Prince of Wales Suite. Then when we arrived at the venue with the items for auction (as the picture below shows this was a very full van load) it was in state of disarray.
This is a full van load.
The next hiccough was the necessity of running a long cable from a building with an internet connection into the Long Bar, which involved stretching it across a bit of road that was due to be used by caravans, but some metal supports of the type more usually used for putting up shelving came in handy to provide a secure guard for that bit of wiring…
Here is one we made earlier!A close up of one section.
Also, the Long Bar has a very antiquated heater, which had clearly not been used in a long time.
I had a picture to take to resolve a query and also located a lot that had not previously been imaged…
This was the image used to resolve the query.This lot had not been imaged.
I also in odd quiet moments got some pictures from the Long Bar, and on the way back to the shop took a few pictures through the open window of the van…
This horse turned its head at the key moment, so the white flash down the front of its head is not visible here.
BACK AT THE SHOP
Back at the shop I had some big stamp lots for our December auction (on the 14th) to attend to, and was then required to buy some paper (there is a stationer down the road who sells plain A4 at £17 for five reams).
The box with the books in had fallen to the floor shedding some of its contents, so had to be dealth with as a matter of urgency.
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk borough council are currently considering plans for the redevelopment of the river front. Unfortunately, although they have launched what they call a consultation it is not really fit for purpose, so I am offering some thoughts here.
1. PURFLEET – ST MARGARETS LANE
This bit of the river frontage needs least work. I like the idea of a restaurant boat in the lower Purfleet, and new lock gates. Any new buildings should be for mixed purposes – somewhere the thrives by day and is dead by night will be no improvement on the present. I would support creating new mooring – the pontoon jetty has been an unqualified success.
2. ST MARGARETS LANE – MILLFLEET
This area currently has no buildings open to the public, and this has been the case since Bradley’s closed down three years ago. I am not sure what is best for this area, but at the moment it is a stretch of river bank one walks along to reach other places and never a destination in its own right.
3. THE NAR LOOP
Treated properly this area could and should be a huge draw. I believe it’s existing characteristics should be enhanced to create a wetland nature reserve, with the southern boundary being on the far side of the Nar Outfall, to include within it the area that the cormorants favour.
4. BEYOND THE NAR LOOP
I have only one thing to say about this stretch, which is that it’s eastern boundary is marked by Hardings Way, a road that is only open to buses – and this should remain so – if you open it to cars you create a rat-run which will be disastrous for the area.
SOME PHOTOGRAPHS
I end with some pictures from in and around King’s Lynn…
I sent this to our local polticians, who will decide to build a new big road that we don´t need. For english version, look below the Swedish text. I also translated the drawing. It´s not easy to translate, but I tried the best I could 🙂
Till TROSA KOMMUN, Kommunfullmäktige 2016-11-30 Angående Trosa förbifart/Infart Västra och expansionsplanerna för Tureholmshalvön Beslut om finansiering bör avslås. Syftena med byggnationen enligt avtalet från 2009 har upphört.
Avtal med Trafikverket avseende förbifart Trosa 2009
Avtalet som har träffades med Trafikverket 2009 anger att förbifarten ska byggas för att:
a) Avlasta Smäckbrogatan.
Enligt Trafikverkets utredningar kommer förbifarten inte att avlasta Smäckbrogatan.
b) Möjliggöra betydande expansion väster om Trosa.
Hela Tureholmshalvön omfattas numera också av förbifartsprojektet. Den ingick inte i det område, som avtalet från 2009 anger.
Expansionsbehov väster/söder om Trosa finns inte. Trosa växer naturligt åt öster/norr mot den framtida centralorten Vagnhärad när Ostlänken blir…
aspiblog 