Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday I attended a launch party for a series of charity auctions commemorating WWI and raising funds for the Royal British Legion. This was held at Raynham Hall, seat of the Marquess and Marchioness of Townshend.

It went off extremely well, and so thought David James who will be running the auctions themselves (hence how a member of the hoi polloi like yours truly had an invite). Though  I do not possess a full suit, smart trousers, a previously unworn smart shirt, a red silk tie and my smartest jacket were sufficient to pass muster.

It was a delightful event and as you will see (there are a lot of images at the end of this post), the surroundings were really quite special.

Today I worked mainly on the database, but I also dealt with some high quality militaria…

Although I got to do a tiny amount of database work at the end of the day, today was mostly taken up with imaging as I had expected.

There were some interesting items in there, as the pictures I include below demonstrate…

I spent all of today imaging, principally lots for the April main sale, but also turning a brochure cover into a poster for David.

I also picked up the stuff (lots 1866 and 1885) from the Timed Bid sale that concluded late on Tuesday that my mother and I had bid successfully on (The invoices are on my desk to remind me to settle up with Kirsty tomorrow).

I hope to get some work done on the database tomorrow, but imaging has to take priority with the catalogue due to be sent to the printers on Monday.

There were some very interesting items to be imaged today and I have some good pictures for you…

 

I decided to make yesterday I proper day out in Cambridge, so got the 10:56 in order to give myself some time for a look around the town. It was unfortunate that I had five teenage boys sitting close to me and making a nuisance of themselves for the entire journey. I spent some time walking around Cambridge including going down to the banks of the Cam.

I decided that since I would be eating outside anyway on a day like that, and lunch marked the switch of my attentions from “Town” to “Gown” that Parkers Piece was the appropriate venue for consuming my sandwiches. Sadly, in spite of the excellent weather, no cricket of any type was being played, while some folk  were kicking footballs about, an act of desecration given that this patch of land was where both Tom Hayward and Jack Hobbs learned to bat, and also where on a casual day out K S Ranjitsinhji got roped into three different games of cricket and made centuries in all three.

The visit to the Herchel Smith building went smoothly enough, and at the end I was able to make the business of paying travel expenses quite straight forward because I had taken the precaution of getting a receipt with my train ticket which I could give to them, so a cheque will be put in the post for me.

The train journey back was another less than satisfactory one, as having stood from Cambridge to Waterbeach, the only seat I could then get was next to three noisy kids.

Just the one picture this time, as I did not take any in Cambridge…

After a morning spent working on the database, I switched tasks to imaging items for the April main sale, some of which were interesting.

I will make sure that I get all the remaining April imaging done by the end of this week, check everything against the descriptions, and will hope in the last couple of weeks before the auction (on 30th), I can concentrate purely on database work so as to make sure that the new system is really ready to go live.

Here are the pick of the images from today…

 

KLASS had its monthly group meeting last night, and it was a huge success. Alexa Pohl, the researcher from Cambridge who came along to talk to us about her research was hugely appreciated by all.

I had met her at the station, helped by the device of her name in block capitals filling as much of an A4 sheet as I could orchestrate (landscape, narrow margins, Arial Black 185 point, bold) so as to eliminate any chance of us not making contact, and as we had plenty of time to spare and she expressed an interest in the town I took on a small detour to show a few of the nicer bits that we would otherwise have missed. This included the statue of George Vancouver, who I had already told her about because there was no way of avoiding the eyesore known as the Vancouver Quarter. It turned out that she has friends from Vancouver and was therefore very interested to find out about his birthplace.

The meeting itself was such fun that eight 0’clock arrived almost before we knew it. Alexa departed for the station, and most of the rest of us headed for home, all very happy with how things had gone.

My photos, in keeping with this post, are of images relating to King’s Lynn’s tributes to its most famous son (I have already attached these to a thank you email that I sent Alexa)…

After getting back from a traditional Sunday in East Rudham I hoped to catch up on the start of the County Championship season. Unfortunately this proved rather frustrating as every match I tuned into at http://www.bbc.co.uk/cricket was abandoned due to the light within minutes of my tuning in.

Had anyone been playing in King’s Lynn they would have played right through to the scheduled close as the light remained good until about 7PM before starting to fade.

An important group meeting tonight, with a researcher up from Cambridge to talk about what she is doing.

As usual I have some good pictures for you…

Fortunately I was able to get my second day in Cambridge rescheduled from April 30th to May 7th, so I will be able to be at the April auction.

Today I did some more work on the database and also completed the imaging of medals and militaria for the April sale. Next Friday I intend to go through checking images and descriptions to make sure that they match, since the catalogue is due to be sent to the printers a week on Monday. I was somewhat disquieted today to notice that no descriptions had yet been put up for the militaria items I imaged today, so I will be doubly careful when checking
those.

I have selected some of the best/ most interesting images from today for you…

A productive day today, databasing until lunchtime and then imaging.

Some of the stuff I was imaging today is very interesting, and will I am sure go down well at the sale.

Having realised a conflict of interest I have just asked if my second appointment in Cambridge can be put back a week.

Enjoy the pick of today’s images…

I have signed up for yet more research into Autistic Spectrum Conditions. I will be travelling to Cambridge on the 30th as well as the 9th.

Yesterday saw the second day’s play in the matches between various counties and MCC University squads. The only live commentary was of the game between Yorkshire and Leeds/Bradford MCCU (the cream of the crop from Leeds Uni, Leeds Met, Bradford Uni and Bradford College). Although predictably one sided, there was some decent cricket played. Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance each made centuries and toward the end of the day Jonny Bairstow connected with some serious blows. For the students Ivan Thomas, who already has a contract lined up with Kent, bowled well. Unfortunately, having been rolled over for a beggarly 139, there was never any way that the students would make a game of it.

As usual I have some pictures for you…