Surrey Secure Spectacular Success

A brief account of Surrey’s successful run chase, two infographics, some interesting/ important links, some photos and a call for support for two very important petitions.

INTRODUCTION

The layout of my last post having attracted positive comment, this post will be on similar lines.

SURREY SECURE SPECTACULAR SUCCESS

Having already featured one jaw dropping display of stroke making, this amazing match which featured over 1,500 runs in the four days was settled by another. Surrey terminated the Leicestershire second innings on 480 leaving them 216 to get in 24 overs for victory. Back in they day such a chase would have been considered purely nominal and the openers would have settled for quietly polishing up their batting averages courtesy of an asterisk in the scorebook. One of the batsmen who opened this innings for Surrey did get his asterisk in the scorebook, but Stephen Davies achieved this in anything but quiet fashion – he finished with 117 not out as Surrey completed their first victory of the season with two and a half overs to spare.

KING’S LYNN LIBRARY 110TH BIRTHDAY PLANS

King’s Lynn Library, one of three to be regularly patronised by your correspondent (Fakenham, where I work, and Norwich are the others) will be celebrating its 110th birthday this coming Monday. I have a picture of the advertising poster and of the building itself for you…

DSCN5149 INFOGRAPHICS ON HOMOPHOBIA IN SPORT AND
THE GENDER BALANCE IN PARLIAMENT

Two infographics for you, first this one, courtesy of Violetta Golding, on the gender balance of the House of Commons:

5050

Our second infographic concerns Homophobia in sport:

HIS

LINKS

First up, the Mirror on fox hunting.

A must-read post from julijuxtaposed.

Also, with the Human Rights Act under threat in this country, this is well worth a visit.

Finally for this section, a really quirky little piece about how the beak (bird) developed from the snout (dinosaur)

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

Some pictures taken today, going in here to break things up a bit (my next section after these pics is VERY IMPORTANT)…

DSCN5154 DSCN5156 DSCN5158 DSCN5160 DSCN5161 DSCN5163 DSCN5164 DSCN5166 DSCN5167 DSCN5168 DSCN5169 DSCN5170 DSCN5172 DSCN5173 DSCN5174

DSCN5175 DSCN5176
TWO VITALLY IMPORTANT PETITIONS CONCERNED WITH WOMEN’S RIGHTS

I have saved this item for the end of the post. A while back we won a victory over Julien Blanc, preventing him from being invited to this country. It now looks like  we will need to win this battle for a second time. The other matter is even more serious: Charlton Athletic Football Club are considering signing a man who took part in the gang rape of a fourteen year old girl. Although it comes close to making me physically sick that a football club could be thinking of offering a contract to such a person, the real problem is that football’s governing bodies have still not laid down rules about this. I have links to petitions relating to these issues, both of which I hope you will sign and share:

1) Julien Blanc

2) Football, with particular reference to Charlton Athletic.

I encourage you to share this post or anything within this post that takes your fancy and end with my usual message for those who have reached this point:

TY3

KP Brilliant, ECB Rubbish

INTRODUCTION

I am going to start with the part of the blog that has given this post its title, before sharing some links and other stuff.

KP BRILLIANT, ECB RUBBISH

I had hoped that the appointment of Andrew Strauss as director would lead to some better decisions being taken. Sadly, that hope has been almost instantly dashed. Kevin Peter Pietersen, playing county cricket for Surrey in a bid to win back his England place, produced the sixth highest score in county championship history, 355 not out, against Leciestershire at the Oval. The last 200 or thereabouts of these runs were scored in the company of numbers 10 and 11 in the Surrey batting order. Surely then, having demonstrated that he still has the appetite and commitment to play big innings in the long form of the game it was time for the ECB to bring him back into the fold.

Instead Mr Strauss effectively slammed the door in Pietersen’s face citing issues of trust. In 30 years of being an avid cricket fan (and therefore including the dark days of the late 1980s and most of the 1990s) I have rarely if ever seen a pettier, more short-sighted decision  Listening to the second day of this match (later today I will tune in for what is left) I was simply amazed by the quality of the batting. During the afternoon and evening sessions I was reminded of the line that Jemmy Shaw is alleged to have uttered when called up for another spell against an apparently immovable WG “Noa point boolin’ good uns now, it’s joost a case of ah puts where ah pleases an’ ‘ee puts it where ‘ee pleases”.

When after work yesterday I read the accounts of what had happened at the ECB I could barely believe it. If England, having turned their backs, apparently for good, on Kevin Pietersen do anything less this summer than beat both New Zealand and Australia then it is my belief that Strauss as the author of the final decision against Pietersen must go. It is after all, without a shadow of a doubt, the bowlers for those two countries who will be happiest about this announcement.

LINKS

While the Pietersen decision covered above rankles, it is as nothing compared to a decision that Charlton Athletic FC may be about to make. In the continuing absence of rules regarding the signing of convicted criminals, this football club may be about sign someone who was part of a gang that raped a 14 year-old girl. If, like me, you consider this an utter outrage,, here is a link to a petition for you to sign and share.

My second link is to another very important petition, this time against the repeal of the Human Rights Act.

My final link in the mini-section, before a pictorial interlude, is a to an interesting post from Faraday’s Candle

PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

The first two pictures you will see here are not mine, but come from other sources, however, I also have some of my own after that…

This, courtesy of the Mental Health Foundation is a very important infographic.
This, courtesy of the Mental Health Foundation is a very important infographic.
This diagram comes courtesy of Tax Research UK: http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/05/10/venn-diagrams-for-our-times-the-new-political-landscape/
This diagram comes courtesy of Tax Research UK: http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/05/10/venn-diagrams-for-our-times-the-new-political-landscape/

DSCN5126 DSCN5127 DSCN5137

AUTISM RELATED MATTERS

I am finishing this post with a few things that relate to autism, as I am on the autistic spectrum, and take a close interest in such matters. First of all, a call to keep the pressure on Katie Hopkins to apologise to the autistic community. Then I have two blog posts relating to autism to share with you:

1) A piece on parents of autistic children from Huffington Post.

2) A piece from a blog that I only discovered (via twitter) this morning, autisticglobetrotting.

I encourage everyone to share any or all of this blog post as widely as possible. I have one final message for those who have stayed with me to the end:

TY3

Thunderclaps and Hashtags

Some important links, notably about getting Katie Hopkins to apologise to the autistic community and about electoral reforms and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

I have given my post this title because a large part of it is given over to sharing links, including to thunderclaps.I also have some good pictures from Kings Lynn today.

#katiehopkinssaysorry2autism

The above is a hashtag now being used in our campaign to get Katie Hopkins to apologise to the autistic community for some very offensive comments. There are two links connected to this:

1) Petition, courtesy of change.org

2) Thunderclap, pooling social media reach for better effect.

If you decide to tweet about this campaign don’t forget the hashtag, and if you wish to retweet something someone else has posted about the campaign append a comment of your own and the hashtag (“quote tweet”)

ELECTORAL REFORM

One of the things the recent election demonstrated to everyone with eyes to see it was how badly flawed ‘first past the post’ is as a system. I have three links connected to this to share with you:

1) A blog post which makes the case superbly, from Dan Keeling.

2) A petition that I hope you will sign and/or share from change.org

3) Thunderclap (see previous section).

OTHER LINKS

First, a link and a picture relating to an anti-austerity demonstration

Demo

My final four links are all in their different ways responses to the election result:

1) A moving open letter to those who voted Conservative

2) A fact checker courtesy of Mike Sivier on Vox Political

3) A poem courtesy of julijuxtaposed.

4) Last and in the chief place, this from Caroline Lucas.

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

This picture can be seen at The Crown Inn, East Rudham
This picture can be seen at The Crown Inn, East Rudham

DSCN5111 DSCN5112 DSCN5115 DSCN5116 DSCN5117

A LOCAL DERBY MATCH

The first days play has just finished in the county championship match between neighbours Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Worcestershire would seem to be having the better of things, having bowled well, but one really needs to see both sides bat before attempting to form strong opinions.

MORE PICTURES

Can you spot the bee? Given it's size it did a fine job of hiding.
Can you spot the bee? Given it’s size it did a fine job of hiding.
Preparing for the ascent
Preparing for the ascent

DSCN5122 DSCN5123 DSCN5124

SHARING

I hope that you have enjoyed this post. I encourage you to share any or all of it. A final message for those who have made it to the end:

TY3

A Pot-Pourri of a Post

Some good links to various interesting and important items, an important infographic in among them, a couple of classic recipes and some excellent images.

Before I get into my own stuff, I have some links to share…

LINKS

I start with a series of posts about the general election that has just happened:

First up, the ever reliable Mike Sivier of Vox Political. It was also Mr Sivier who provided the introduction to the my next post, written by David Hencke. Another frequent source of good material is John P Ointon who blogs as notesfromthenorth and who provided a fine response to the general election. My final piece of election related material, given that the Tories have an absolute majority in the house on 36% of the votes cast, is a petition calling for a change in the system of parliamentary representation courtesy of change.org, accompanied by a graphic showing what the the break down of MPs would be under PR…

PR

My penultimate link is to the petition currently being run via 38 Degrees by the Save Southwark Woods campaign.

My last link is to a post from Autism Mom.

IMAGING AND OTHER STUFF

A combination of two busy and eventful days and a sleepless night in between (following the election) has meant that I have not posted recently. I revisited a classic recipe of mine this week, my own customised version of Madhur Jaffrey’s Lemony Chicken and Coriander, although rather than using thighs I used a half chicken cut into managable size pieces with the aid of ‘the world’s sharpest knife’. This recipe featured, along with another that I have not used in a very long time in my first ever blog post. Here are both recipes in a graphic…

Kitchen Specialities

The ‘PR’ graphic I put up earlier of course is based on actual votes and not on how people would have voted had PR been in force (e.g. I voted labour in the general election for a combination of reasons which would not have applied under PR – the question would have been whether to vote Green – as I did in the local elections – or for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, TUSC). In view of the number of people who clearly did not vote the way they had told pollsters they would, here is photographic proof that I did precisely what I said I would…

DSCN4993

I have done some interesting imaging at work this week, finishing off the May stuff and imaging one piece of stock for the June sale that needed to be protected from damage…

These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.
These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.

Flash No Flash - edited

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

No Flash

These date from Thursday, now some stuff from yesterday…

The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.
The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.
The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)
The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)

653a 653b 653c 653d 653e 768 768a 768b

ON SHARING

At the start of this post I shared various things from other sources, because they had made an impact on me. If you enjoyed this post I would be very grateful for you to share it, and I also encourage you to share individual items from within it if they particularly appeal to you. My final words, once rendered by the estimable Mr Bilbo Baggins as “thag you very buch” are embodied in the image with which this post concludes and apply to all who read it through to the end:

TY3

Stuff to Share

This post is going to be dominated by things to share (I have a lot of them).

LINKS

WALTHAM FOREST DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTRE

Two important developments concerning this project:

1)Council reconsidering their decision to cut all its funding and

2)A chance for you to help them secure funding.

GENERAL POLITICAL STUFF

I will lead into this section with an excellent infographic courtesy of Vox Political...

Turkey

Naturally,our next link is to a post that features the above picture.

Glynis Millward provides a post that full lives up to its title “Read it and Weep”

Press Gang UK offer an excellent post about Catherine Shuttleworth, ‘undecided voter’

Another UKIP candidate makes the news for the wrong reasons – threatening to put a bullet in one of his rivals on this occasion.

THE NHS

First of all, a link to a very important petition from change.org.

Secondly, an excellent piece from someone with very real chance of unseating Jeremy Hunt tomorrow, Dr Louise Irvine of the NHA.

RAMPING UP THE PRESSURE ON KATIE HOPKINS TO APOLOGISE TO THE AUTISTIC COMMUNITY

Three links here, first of all to the petition that is at the heart of this campaign and then two more to articles that have been published in

1) The Mirror.

2)Metro.

VOLCANOES ON EARTH AND OTHER PLANETS

A couple of related posts here, first Faraday’s Candle on vulcanology and second, from space.com a piece about possible volcanic activity on an exoplanet.

STUFF FROM OFFLINE

KING’S LYNN LIGHT SHOWS

Having been very successful at the Custom House, there are now six different light shows available around King’s Lynn at night, and here in the form of four pictures is the official publicity…

DSCN4983 DSCN4984 DSCN4985 DSCN4986

HANSE FESTIVAL

Coming up on the 16th and 17th of May is the Hanse Festival in King’s Lynn, and I will again let a picture (just the one this time) do most of the talking…

DSCN4992

A FEW FINAL WORDS

For my British followers don;t forget that tomorrow is the General Election – your chance to kick out the worst government of my lifetime. In King’s Lynn we also have Borough Council elections to vote in. In the nick of time (last day before polling) I picked up a delivery which enabled me to enhance my window display looking out on to the High Street…

DSCN4991

I encourage everyone to continue the sharing process.

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

DSCN4887 DSCN4888 DSCN4889 DSCN4891 DSCN4894 DSCN4895 DSCN4905 DSCN4911 DSCN4921 DSCN4925 DSCN4926

Close up of a swimming cormorant.
Close up of a swimming cormorant.

DSCN4890

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…

DSCN4936 DSCN4937 DSCN4938 DSCN4939 DSCN4940 DSCN4941

My best aeroplane shot yet...
My best aeroplane shot yet…
...with this one a decent second
…with this one a decent second

DSCN4952

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

DSCN4879 DSCN4878 DSCN4877 DSCN4873 DSCN4870 DSCN4869 DSCN4867 DSCN4866 DSCN4865 DSCN4864 DSCN4863 DSCN4862

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.
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.
This is from Thursday, as is the next pic.


 DSCN4800 DSCN4833 DSCN4837 DSCN4839 DSCN4840 DSCN4843 DSCN4844 DSCN4845 DSCN4847 DSCN4848 DSCN4849 DSCN4852

A white butterfly enjoying itself among some green leaves.
A white butterfly enjoying itself among some green leaves.

DSCN4858

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…

DSCN4765

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

DSCN4768 DSCN4769 DSCN4770

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

DSCN4777 DSCN4778 DSCN4779

The loco pulling a goods train.
The loco pulling a goods train.
Tree sculptures, at the Tennyson Road edge of the Recreation Field.
Tree sculptures, at the Tennyson Road edge of the Recreation Field.

DSCN4787

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

DSCN4792

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

DSCN4794 DSCN4796 DSCN4798 DSCN4799 DSCN4801 DSCN4803 DSCN4805

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…

DSCN4808 DSCN4809 DSCN4810 DSCN4811 DSCN4812 DSCN4814 DSCN4818 DSCN4819 DSCN4820 DSCN4821

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…

DSCN4825 DSCN4826 DSCN4827

One duckling that is already a fine swimmer.
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.

Despicable Tory Poster

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…

GCCA1

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…

Antiques Road Trip lots on display
Antiques Road Trip lots on display
All the Antiques Road Trip Lots are visible in this shot.
All the Antiques Road Trip Lots are visible in this shot.
The view from the rostrum.
The view from the rostrum.
The front cover lot.
The front cover lot.
The view from the back of the room
The view from the back of the room
Precious items in this auction.
Precious items in this auction.