— Stop Heathrow Exp (@StopHeathrowExp) November 19, 2016
It is time to move on to…
A KING’S LYNN WALK
Here are most of my pictures from today…
I have saved two pictures for their own section…
A SEAL SWIMMING IN THE GREAT OUSE
The Great Ouse is a tidal river, so occasionally one sees things that are more associated with the sea than with a river. This was one such – a seal swimming in the river. It was on the other side of the river from me, and only its head was visible above the water:
A good news story about nature from the village of Balcombe, West Sussex, a King’s Lynn walk, some stuff about music and a few other things.
INTRODUCTION
This post incorporates a King’s Lynn walk but also features plenty of other stuff.
NATURE
This morning I reblogged a post by Anna about the folk of Trosa and their continuing fight to preserve their nature from greedy road builders. I start this section of the post with:
GOOD NEWS FROM WEST SUSSEX
The small village of Balcombe, West Sussex (and having done a walk in that part of the country some years back I can confirm that it is indeed small) was targeted not so long ago by fracking villains Cuadrilla. Not only have they beaten back the frackers, they are on the way to becoming a solar-powered village. Please watch the video below for more:
This is what new developments for the 21st century should look like – big new roads are so last century!
A KING’S LYNN WALK
Although it was not terribly inviting outside I went for a walk this afternoon, taking in the Great Ouse, our river. Here are a few pictures:
At this point I saw a rare visitor to King’s Lynn –
A GREY HERON
Here is a picture taken looking across the Great Ouse, and the page of my bird book that gives info about the Grey Heron:
After the Grey Heron there were no more exceptional sights but a few more photo-worthy moments:
MUSIC
As part of today’s Hili Dialogue, Grania at WEIT mentioned that among those born on this day (happy birthday Ayaan Hirsi Ali) were Leopold Mozart (father of the more famous Mozart) and Fanny Mendelssohn (older sister of Felix) and linked to this video of a performance of Leopold’s Toy Symphony, which I offer you below:
Also, last Saturday was a Musical Keys session, and I have a few photos from there:
A keyboard that enables the player to produce the sounds of other isntruments. The coloured patches stuck to various keys come in to play when Kirsten held up a sheet to indicate which colour one should focus on – although I was on a guitar by then and was using my left thumb to press on a coloured patch, shortening that string.This instrument, here held for me my Kirsten, one the people who runs the Musical Keys sessions is filled with beads and played by being upended, held until all the beads have fallen and then upended again for as long as you care to.
I played the red guitar.
WHAT IS NORMAL?
I found this infographic on twitter and had to share it – I think it is splendid:
HONEST AND DISHONEST PHOTO EDITING
I have shown you some examples of honestly edited photos already in this post. What follows focusses on dishonestly edited photos. Two “newspapers” whose names I refuse to give, one owned by the fourth Viscount Rothermere and on which the good folk of Liverpool refuse to buy, produced photographs purporting to show Jeremy Corbyn dancing towards the Cenotaph yesterday (Remembrance Sunday). To do this their photo editors had cropped out from their original picture the 92 year-old WWII veteran who Mr Corbyn was accompanying and who hotly denies any suggestion that he was dancing:
Two incisive infographics juxtaposedthe individual infographics.
A personal account of the opening day’s play in Dhaka, and a photographic walk concentrating on trees. Some interesting links at the end.
INTRODUCTION
As well as my view on the opening day’s play in Dhaka which I listened to earlier this morning this post contains details of a walk around King’s Lynn that I took after play had finished and some interesting links.
DRAMA IN DHAKA
A wonderful opening day in the second Test Match between Bangladesh and England in Dhaka has finished with England 50-3 in response to Bangladesh’s first innings 220. When Tamim Iqbal and Monimul Haque were speeding along at four an over Bangladesh seemed to be headed for much for than 220, but Tamim’s dismissal shortly after completing a sparkling century triggered a collapse from the high water mark of 171-1 to 220 all out, Moeen Ali picking up five cheap wickets. The loss of Cook (captaining the England test team for record equalling 54th time), Duckett (just starting his international career) and Ballance (who has not been batting long enough lately for anyone to see what kind of form he is in) meant that by the close Moeen Ali was batting, and with some assistance from the weather he and Joe Root managed to hang on.
In some ways this match has similarities with Old Trafford 1902, when a lightning century from Victor Trumper (who reached the landmark before lunch on the first day) gave Australia a strong start which was then hauled back. Australia had a brief mid innings revival on that occasion and reached 299. England lost early wickets but then two middle order batsman, Len Braund and Stanley Jackson steadied the ship, the latter reaching one of his five test hundreds (all scored against Australia in England), and England were a mere 37 behind. A magnificent second innings bowling performance from England saw Australia all out for 86, and when England in pursuit of their target of 124 reached 92-3 the game appeared to be done and dusted, but then England panicked and started losing wickets, Clem Hill took a spectacular catch along the way, and suddenly debutant Fred Tate found himself going out to bat at 116-9 – he snicked one four, survived two further deliveries and was then comprehensively bowled to give Australia victory by three runs. If this match is as close I will be delighted, and as I stated in an earlier post, I will be particularly delighted if said close result goes against England because I believe that a victory against top table opposition for Bangladesh will be good for cricket as a whole.
To finish this section, although Bangladesh are pretty new to international cricket, Dhaka under its old name of Dacca has a much longer connection to the game, being one of the few cities to have hosted home games for two different countries. Going back further still, Bransby Beauchamp Cooper who played for Australia in the first ever test match in 1877 was born in Dacca.
A WALK FEATURING TREES
I got the idea for doing a walk in which I focussed mainly on trees at this transitional time of year from Anna, who put this post up recently (I recommend that you check the comments as well!). This then is my version of a tree walk…
SETTING OUT
As this first set of pictures, taken from my outside space show I don’t have far to go to be able to see trees:
Heading across Baker Lane Car Park towards the Purfleet which I was then going to follow the Great Ouse provided these pictures:
A SOUPCON OF HISTORY AND ALONG THE RIVER
Since I wanted to be in that vicinity to photograph trees on the other side of the river anyway I took one non-tree related photograph before heading along the river, and this set of pictures actually features a second. This stretch ended with a brief diversion from the river front to skirt Bole Quay.
The second non-tree related photo.The view along Millfleet
SKIRTING BOLE QUAY AND LEAVING THE RIVER
After skirting Bole Quay I briefly rejoined the river front, before leaving it by way of a path through Harding’s Pits.
HARDINGS PITS TO SEVEN SISTERS
From Hardings Pits I headed by way of the South Gate to Seven Sisters where I entered the parkland area.
THE PARKLAND
I headed from Seven Sisters to the Band Stand, and the from the Band Stand to St John’s Walk, which I followed until I left the parkland heading in the direction of the train station:
HOMEWARD BOUND
Even after leaving the parkland there were a few more photographs:
Decorative brickwork above a pair of shops on Norfolk Street.The upstairs portion of the building that houses an imaging business – I have never used it, but you can get digital photos printed here among other things.
LINKS
My first is a little gem from travel vibes on twitter, introducing the word thalassophile (not all readers of this blog are on twitter, and this is a goodie).
First the definition: Thalassophile (n): Lover of the sea, ocean. Here are the real reasons for posting this, the accompanying pictures:
My second concerns the Kevin Healey petition calling on Brentwood County High School to expel a gang of bullies who have been preying on an autistic student. Since I put up a link to this petition in a previous post details have emerged of a second shocking case of bullying at the same school. For more details, please click here. As a coda it is sadly abundantly clear from the comments that bullying has been a major problem at this establishment for a long time and that the head teacher in particular and other senior staff have been taking the ‘ostrich’ approach to the problem.
My next link is to a campaign to secure better working conditions for Uber drivers (and now is a particularly good time to pile on the pressure as Uber have just taken a hit in court). Click here for more details and to support the campaign.
I give the final word to Britain’s youngest MP, Mhairi Black, here hammering Concentrix – and managing to be very funny in the process:
I have a few other things to share, but I will be starting this post with cricket.
BANGLADESH AND THE WEST INDIES
England’s men are in Bangladesh, currently endeavouring to chase down 278 to stay in the series and making a decent fist of it (107-1 off 19 overs – 169 needed off 31 for victory). This is not quite a full strength England, but nevertheless winning the series would be a considerable feather in Bangladeshi caps.
Meanwhile half a world away in the West Indies England’s women are tied at 1-1 in a five match ODI series, with the three remaining matches counting in the ICC championship (the first two did count, and please do not ask me to explain as working out the rationale behind such administrative decisions is beyond my capabilities). The two matches in this series so far have been low scoring, with the highest total in the four innings being England’s 149 in the first game. The West Indies are current world T20 champions, while England blitzed Pakistan in England this summer, so we have two sides who are used to success in action.
FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE
This is a new campaign that has been set up to defend the Welfare State from ever increasing attacks by the Tories. More details are available at:
A report from the National Audit Office has just come out revealing that even in crude financial terms the proposed Garden Bridge across the terms is a shockingly bad idea. In terms of its negative impact on the South Bank it is an even worse idea. Here are a couple of links for you to follow:
Our unelected prime minister Theresa May does not intend to give Parliament a vote on the details of Brexit. Many are dissatisfied with this display of arrogance. Alexandra Runswick of Unlock Democracy has put together a petition calling for a change of mind – click here for more details and to sign.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I end with some photographs. The photographs feature boats moored at the pontoon jetty, one of which had the name Cheetah Marine prominently displayed on its side…
A cormorant dived just before I could photograph it……but moments later I did get it.
Overall I am not unhappy with this document, but there is one thing on which I have to pick them up – their use of the word ‘autistics’, which to me feels dehumanising as compared to such phrases as ‘autistic person’ or ‘person wiith autism’.
NAS SCHOOL HONOURED
The Sybil Elgar school in Ealing, which is run by the National Autistic Society, has had a visit from the Mayor of Ealing, who had the pleasant task of handing out awards to 13 students who have successfully completed the ASDAN transition challenge. To read more about this story click here.
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY
For general information on World Mental Health Day and what it is all about please read this article. Also on World Mental Health Day is this courtesy of the TimetoChange twitter account:
I have some pictures to share, and a few links, but no main subject matter, hence the title of this post.
THE MUSEUM OF LONDON
This is a signpost to my London transport website, and simultaneously a mention of James and Sons’James and Sons’ next auction, since the post was built around lot 737 in said sale…
How does this poster connect to the Museum of London? To find out follow the link below.
http://www.londontu.be/the-museum-of-london/
AN AUTISM RELATED PIECE ON WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK
This story is about a 4 year old boy who was hospitalised after being fed a ‘holistic cure’ for autism on the advice of someone describing themselves as a ‘naturopath’. The notion of any sort of ‘cure’ for autism is of course offensive nonsense. Equally, the idea that a ‘naturopath’ should be entitled to prescribe remedies for anything should probably be considered offensive nonsense. The combination of one person’s belief in the offensive nonsense of a ‘cure’ for autism and one person’s cynical willingness to exploit this gullibility created a situation that was very dangerous for an innocent child. The full piece can be viewed here.
SAJID AND THE FRACKERS
Some of you will know that the Dishonourable Sajid Javid has recently made a decision to ignore the will of a community and give Cuadrilla the go ahead to frack there in defiance of clearly expressed local wishes. Mr Javid receives big money from fracking companies and as such should have had the decency to admit to a conflict of interest and say that this was a decision that he could not be involved in making, but of course Tory and decency do not go together, and so unsurprisingly he made a decision in favour of his rich mates and against the community and against the environment. I end this section by linking to a piece that details the environmental impact of fracking.
THE PHOTOGRAPHS
I am presenting this pictures in two tranches, starting with the general…
I bring this post to a finish with some pictures of the new £5 note, which before I got this one in change I had not seen in the flesh…
The two faces of the note in one pictureThe Churchill sideThe Queen side
A sneak preview of the 2017 Photographic Wall Calendar.
INTRODUCTION
As some of you know I created photographic wall calendars last year. I recently mentioned that I was going to do again this year. This morning my inbox contained an offer from Vistaprint that was too good to refuse, so the calendars will be arriving with me some time around October 20th.
THE FRONT COVER
This time, there will be no borders, and no added text. It will surprise few who have followed this blog recently to find out that I have chosen an Inlandsbanan picture for the front cover…
The actual calendar will be much bigger than this of course.
THE MONTH PAGES
Here are the individual pages for each month…
This picture was taken quite recently, but I decided that it looks wintry enough for February.
This picture is one of my Swedish ones, but not inappropriate for the month.
This picture was taken on Heritage Open Day, which in King’s Lynn is always the second Sunday in September.Two pictures both from October 1st joined together.
Another two pictures from very recently joined together for this purpose.
Some stuff about autism, some important links and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
Although this post includes some links that are not specific to autism, and of course some photos, enough of it is autism related to warrant the first word of the title.
AN IMPORTANT EVENT ON MONDAY
This Monday an ‘autism positive’ event is taking place at the Theatre Royal in Norwich. I will be present in the dual capacity of autistic adult and branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk. As well as a display with full information about our branch we will be distributing leaflets about efforts to get some adult oriented events and activities going. Apart from the official NAS branding and header which I copied and pasted from the website the leaflets are entirely my work…
This is a screenshot of the whole document – two leaflets to the page.This is a close up of a single leaflet.
Advertising attended to, the second part of this section relates to:
AUTISM AND EMPLOYMENT
First of all, here is the grim truth about autistic people and employment in the UK:
75% of us are unemployed.
Others are employed in low paid and/ or part time work, so that 85% of us are classed as underemployed.
So, what can be done about this? Well, recruitment practices need to change and here is for me the single most important thing that could be done:
Abolish standard interviews, which place one in a position that one will never be in when in the job, making skills testing mandatory instead. Many autistic people however mujch preparation they put in cannot do themselves justice in interviews, while if you have them do the kind of work that they would be doing in the job they will fare much better, and you will learn not whether they can say the right things but whether they can actually do the work.
As a segue into the next section of the post, here is a link to a petition created by an autistic adult (Chris Packham), which calls on the Government to:
My first link in this section comes courtesy of the consumer group Which? who have managed to get the Consumer Rights Act to cover all travel sectors. Please read the full piece here.
I give the last word before the photographs to DPAC, who have prepared some online action to coincide with the Tory conference for the benefit of those who cannot make it to Birmingham but want to be part of the protest. Please click the link below to see how you can be part of…
A variety of things that have come to my attention recently.
INTRODUCTION
This post is about a mixture of things from the last few days, hence the title.
CHAMPIONSHIPS AND CONTRIVANCES REVSITED
Some of you may remember that I put this post up on Thursday, with Somerset having secured an emphatic win in their game and Middlesex and Yorkshire going head to head in theirs. Sadly, when I checked what was going on on Friday afternoon, Lyth and Lees (the two opening batsmen, neither with any sort of status as bowlers) were purveying out-and-out filth for Yorkshire to help Middlesex set an agreed target. Yorkshire paid for accepting such an arrangement when their batting subsequently collapsed handing the title to Middlesex. Sadly, Somerset were innocent victims of this scam by Middlesex and Yorkshire, being robbed of would have been their first ever county championship not by good cricket but by dirty back room dealings.
BEES AND PARKS
This refers to two important issues that came up this weekend. Firstly, Greenpeace have exposed Bayer and Syngenta as having covered up evidence that their products were hugely damaging to bees. Greenpeace’s release can be viewed here, and here is a copy of their accompanying picture:
The parks part of the title of this section refers to an effort by 38 Degrees to secure better protection for our parklands. Living in King’s Lynn at this time gives this a particular resonance for me, so:
Britain’s parks are at risk. There’s no legal responsibility to look after them and squeezed budgets mean our local green spaces – from playgrounds, to the park you relax in on your lunch break – don’t have the money they need. We could end up being forced to pay to use our parks – or lose them altogether.
A group of MPs are looking into the crisis right now. They’re thinking of making protecting parks a legal requirement, and they’ll advise the government on what to do. A huge petition, signed by all of us, will prove how much we love our parks. It could convince the MPs to come up with a water-tight plan for protecting them.
Can you sign the petition now and demand that looking after our parks is made a legal requirement by the government? It only takes 30 seconds to add your name: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-parks
Here are some pictures of my own, including a few from King’s Lynn’s own parkland areas:
LABOUR LEADERSHIP ELECTION
I will let these beautiful infographics culled from twitter do the talking for me on this one:
SOME AUTISM RELATED STUFF
As NAS West Norfolk Branch Secretary and as someone who is #ActuallyAutistic I am always glad to share really excellent autism related content, and I have two absolute gems for you:
Finally to end this section, as regular readers will know one of the activities I am involved in via NAS West Norfolk is Musical Keys, and this is an advert they have recently produced:
THE FINISHING TOUCHES
One of my favourite blogs is that of singer Charlotte Hoather, who has just started at the Royal College of Music in London. Her post about her first week there can be viewed here.
To end this post I give you a series of pictures starring a snail…
This is the original picture that I took.This is cropped but not otherwise edited.This is the snail after my normal editing routine.This is a colour-boosted version.This version has the contrast enhanced.Finally, this version has had the colour boosted and the contrast enhanced.
A brief post showcasing some cormorants from earlier today and announcing my intention to produce a calendar.
INTRODUCTION
This post combines showing some new pictures with being the official announcement that I shall be repeating last year’s experiment of producing calendars as Christmas presents.
CORMORANTS
I decided once I had completed my online NAS branch officer’s training this morning that I would go for a walk, and I was delighted to see the structure I call ‘Cormorant Platform’ was very busy…
The first of the cormorant images – this one shows precisely why I call it ‘Cormorant Platform – notwithstanding the three Caspian gulls also on there, it is the cormorants (five on this occasion) who stand out.
Just before leaving the river I got this picture of a cormorant in flight.A couple of moorhens to finish with…
CALENDARS
The calendars will be large, month to page, each month decorated with a picture. Learning from last year I will be aiming to have no borders, and certainly no patterned borders, just pictures taking up the whole available space. This is very much a work in progress, but here are the pictures I have so far picked out as being good enough (feel free to add your own suggestions of pictures you particularly enjoyed when I first posted them in the comments sections, although remember that I am limited to 13 pictures (front cover plus 12 months):
This picture showing the two Inlandsbanan trains together is earmarked for the front coverI will use one of these two ducking pictures
Likewise, I will use one these two butterfly pictures.
This photo, from the Stockholm Archipelago, will be July’s
This picture was actually taken in January.This picture might get the nod for AugustThis is nailed on for April, since it was in that month that the Positive Autism Awareness Conference was held at this establishment.This is provisionally September’s picture.
aspiblog 