A couple of classic autism infographics I spotted in the last 24 hours and some photographs of my own.
INTRODUCTION
The photographs which will be appearing in two tranches at the end of this post are mine, all taken yesterday. The two autism related infographics are shared from elsewhere (credit given at appropriate points). I saw the first of these yesterday evening and the second this morning.
AUTISM INFOGRAPHICS
First, courtesy of Patricia, who tweets as @pgzwicker, comes this gem:
The second was originally posted on Our Autism Blog this morning, and I link to that post so that you can comment on it there should you wish:
PHOTOGRAPHS
The first of the two sets of my photographs that I am putting up here were taken while out walking yesterday morning:
The Upper PurfleetA giant slug on the path alongside Bawsey DrainA moorhen swimming in a clear poolThis second pool was covered in water lilies.A town centre section of the Gaywood RiverIn the parkland area – this stretch of river is covered in algae.A magpie on the path alongside the Great OuseNear the end of the walk – some shots of cormorants and boats on the town centre section of the Great Ouse.
The last few pictures for today were taken yesterday afternoon while sitting outside my parents house in East Rudham. These are probably the last shots I will have from there as my parents are moving to Plymouth.
This post is my response to Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK’s challenge to come up with a dream cabinet. I do not quite have a full cabinet here but I do have names, positions and explanations and/ or justifications for all my choices. I will start by listing the names and positions, and will then go into a little more detail in the next section about my reasons.
THE SELECTIONS
These are the positions I have managed to fill:
Prime Minister – Debbie Abrahams
Deputy Prime Minister – Angela Rayner
Chancellor of the Exchequer – Richard Murphy
Home Secretary – Kerry-Anne Mendoza
Foreign Secretary – Clive Lewis
Business Secretary – Rebecca Long-Bailey
Health Secretary – Jo Rust
Environment – Caroline Lucas
Transport – Thomas Sutcliffe
Neurodiversity Minister – Paddy-Joe Moran (askpergers.wordpress.com)
Education Secretary – Michael Rosen
Arts – Anna Bohlin
Sports – Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy)
Scottish Secretary – Mhairi Black
Disabilities – Paula Peters (DPAC)
Science – Patricia Fara
Work and Pensions – Mike Sivier
Women and Equality – Kate Osamor
Welsh Secretary – Leanne Wood
Defence – Emily Thornberry
Housing and Planning – Sian Berry
We now move on to the the….
EXPLANATIONS/ JUSTIFICATIONS
I will take each position in the order in which they appear above:
Prime Minister – Debbie Abrahams
Debbie Abrahams has impressed me ever since she entered the shadow cabinet to the extent that I was determined to put her in a top position, and in the end I opted for the top position for her.
Deputy Prime Minister – Angela Rayner
Another who has been consistently impressive since her promotion to the front bench. From what I read of her performance on Question time when she had to contend with three very right wing fellow panelists, a Liberal Democrat and the mloderator, Mr Arch-Establishment Dimbleby (I was not able to watch for myself as I refuse to let the BBC have any of my money) she seems to have done a fine job of further underlining her credentials.
Chancellor of the Exchequer – Richard Murphy
We need his kind of economic vision as a matter of urgency, and how better to get it and than have the man himself as chancellor of the exchequer.
Home Secretary – Kerry-Anne Mendoza
Editor of The Canary and author of many splendid articles. I am sufficiently impressed by what I have seen of her that I have no doubts about putting her straight into one of the four so-called “great offices of state”.
Foreign Secretary – Clive Lewis
He was always going to feature somewhere in my dream cabinet, and I have decided that this is the right role for him.
Business Secretary – Rebecca Long-Bailey
Someone else who has said a lot of the right things since joining the front bench.
Health Secretary – Jo Rust
The Labour Party candidate for Northwest Norfolk (my constituency) at the last general election, active in many roles and a passionate supporter of the NHS. Exactly the right kind of person to take on the formidable task of repairing the ruin caused by the likes of Lansley and Hunt.
Environment – Caroline Lucas
I want environmental policy in the hands of someone who is committed to protecting the environment, and to me no one ticks that box more definitively than Ms Lucas.
Transport – Thomas Sutcliffe
I am aware that it is always risky for selectors to pick themselves, but I believe I can justify this one. I have a lifetime’s knowledge of and commitment to public transport. Although I am creator of a London transport themed website, London would actually be at the back of the queue for attention from me is at it is less badly off transport-wise than the rest of the country.
Neurodiversity Minister – Paddy-Joe Moran
Paddy-Joe is autistic, the author of several books about autism and also writes the askpergersblog. Having decided to revive the idea of this post (see here for more details) it was a question of who to select for it. I wanted my Neurodiversity Minister to be neurodiverse themselves and in the end I went for Paddy-Joe.
Education Secretary – Michael Rosen
He would bring a lifetime’s knowledge and passionate commitment to the post. Education in this country would improve massively with Michael Rosen in this role.
Arts – Anna Bohlin
I do not know whether we could persuade her to come over from Sweden, but I am sure that she would be excellent in this role and would work well with her cabinet colleagues. For more details about her consult her blog.
Sports – Elizabeth Ammon
Also known by hew twitter handle – legsidelizzy. In addition to her cricket writing and commentaries she has made some very sound political points.
Scottish Secretary – Mhairi Black
Always assuming Scotland have not yet declared indepence, I would want Mhairi Black, who is the youngest but also one of the most impressive MPs currently in the house, in my cabinet, and this would seem the ideal role for her.
Disabilities – Paula Peters
I have gone for someone who is disabled and heavily involved in DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) for this important role.
Science – Patricia Fara
Author of a book on the history of science, a scientist herself and an impressive speaker (I have heard her give a talk here in King’s Lynn). She got the nod ahead of Brian Cox because I decided that I wanted a woman in charge of science policy.
Work and Pensions – Mike Sivier
Author of theVox Politicalblog, carer and very knowledgeable about the misdeeds of the DWP under the Tories he would be an excellent person to undertake the task of putting this area back on track.
Women and Equality – Kate Osamor
Like several of my other choices she has impressed ever since taking her place on the front bench, and she would be well suited to this role.
Welsh Secretary – Leanne Wood
Occasionally sounds too excitable for her own good, but says a lot of good things, and I believe would do them in this role.
Defence – Emily Thornberry
As shadow defence secretary (before being moved to shadow foreign secretary) she was quite impressive.
Housing and Planning – Sian Berry
She ran an excellent campaign for Mayor of London which deserved better reward than third place (in particular, it was a travesty that she ended up behind Goldsmith after he ran such a disgraceful campaign, but also for my money Khan could have had no complaints had she won outright). This is a position I would definitely want in the hands of someone thoroughly committed to protecting the environment. To reuse a remark I originally made as a comment in response to one of Anna’s posts:
Preservation of nature needs to be at the heart of planning decisions, not an optional (and often despised) extra. Your battle in Trosa is a battle for all of us everywhere.
PHOTOGRAPHS
After all that text here are some photographs for a bit of light relief…
The first seven pictures are from yesterday – this is the East Rudham (my parents’ village) egg shop
Starting with this one my remaining pictures are from today.
Highlights from today at work, a mention of yesterday, a comment on the Melania Trump story and lots of pictures.
INTRODUCTION
This post is about today at work and a couple of other things.
TODAY AT WORK
Apart from the fact that it is so hot that for the first time in over three years as a James & Sons employee I went to work in shorts, the things I did at work covered three areas…
RESOLVING QUERIES RELATING TO THE JULY SALE
These numbered five, one of which was a repeat question therefore requiring no new work. Nos 2 and 3 which I will treat together featured a mishap over coin lots, which I was easily able to sort out, by producing and uploading the following images:
Lot 28 was an incorrect image, and he wanted to see both faces
Lot 29 was incomplete rather than wrong – now resolved.
Query no 4 related to a medal – someone wanted to see pictures of the rim, which are fiendishly difficult to produce, but I came up with these…
The final query was more involved, requiring detail as to whether the item was still in working order, and more info about its provenance. To help with this I produced these images:
The main bulk of my day’s work was…
IMAGING FOR THE AUGUST SALE
There were some interesting items today and a decent variety. I will start with the non-coin items…
This box of matches may be sufficiently old that they are not so safe as ton be impossible to strike!
The cloth and the two bowling balls fir snugly inside the carrying case
There was so much stuff in this lot that I took two images and joined them together.
Finishing the August images where the queries started, here a few more…
COIN LOTS
I am not going to share all the coin images I did today (even with a mere 18 lots done that would be 54 images) but here are a few of the best…
Lot 132
Lot 138
Lot 140
Lot 143
Lot 145
Lot 147
Lot 148
Lot 149
USING OTHER PEOPLE’S STUFF
I recently posted about the Lynn News taking the entire text element of a report that had the byline of one of their journalists from my blog (see here for more details) and pointed out that while I was grateful to them for covering the event I would have been even happier had they acknowledged me. Now today Melania Trump’s speech has hit the news for the wrong reasons – as whyevolutionistrue (who I am happy to acknowledge as my source for the quotes that follow) among others have noted it is all but identical to an earlier speech by Michelle Obama. For WEIT’s whole post click here, meanwhile for comparison, here are the two speeches:
Here’s the text from Trump’s speech:
My parents impressed on me the value of that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. Show the values and morals in in the daily life. That is the lesson that we continue to pass on to our son.
We need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. [Cheering] Because we want our children in these nations to know that the only limit to your achievement is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
And here’s Obama:
And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
In this latter case, of course we can be absolutely sure that Michelle Obama would not be pleased to hear her words from the lips of Mrs Trump.
To sum up this section:
If using stuff from someone else (and Melania Trump’s speechwriters must have been aware of the origins of the words in her speech even if she was not) make sure that you are using it in a way that the original author would condone.
Even if you have carte blanche to use stuff from someone else for goodness sake acknowledge the fact that you are doing so.
SOME FINAL PHOTOS
These last few photos come from yesterday, some of them featuring a barbecue lunch in East Rudham, with my parents, my aunt and my nephew.
Two boats moored on the pontoon jetty, South Quay (before setting off in the morning)
The first of two shots of my newphew tending the barbie!
Bees love the wild marjoram the grows just outside my parents house, and this was the best shot I managed to get of one.Heading for home that evening – a couple of shots of the newly restored building on Purfleet Street – I would have knocked it down and started over but this still a massive improvement on what was there.
An account of a walk yesterday morning, the journeys to and from East Rudham, and Sunday lunch in East Rudham, with a subsection devoted to bees enjoying wild marjoram.
INTRODUCTION
This post concerns yesterday, and us set part in King’s Lynn and part in my parents village, East Rudham. A running theme is nature. I hope you will enjoy it and that some at least of you will choose to share it.
PART 1: KING’S LYNN, MORNING
It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I decided to take a long walk from my flat, planned to finish at the bus station in time to catch the 11:55 bus to arrive in East Rudham for Sunday lunch. Right at the start, the upper Purfleet yielded these pictures…
South Quay then yielded a few more good pictures…
A gull swimming in the Great Ouse
A few minutes later came one of the regular highlights –
CORMORANT PLATFORM
The set of pictures I have this time indicate precisely why I have given this structure which sits at the meeting point of the Nar and the Great Ouse the name I have…
Before leaving the river there was just time for a couple of shots looking back at the town…
On leaving the river I headed through Harding’s Pits, which at this time of year means…
BUTTERFLIES
It is difficult to capture butterflies on camera, but I got a few pics…
After this, the next pictures worth sharing came from near the end of the walk, along a stretch of river near Morrison’s…
My photographic comment on Australia’s recent batting performances!
A VARIATION ON THE USUAL BUS JOURNEY
A combination of a spectacular day and herd mentality increased the journey time to Hunstanton and the sea to two hours and rendered the Knight’s Hill junction with the A148 effectively unusable for buses, so the X8 towards Fakenham went by way of Leziate, Ashwicken and Roydon joining the A148 just short of Hillington and its first out of town stop. Thanks to this intelligent alteration of the route the bus was only a couple of minutes late arriving at East Rudham.
PART TWO: EAST RUDHAM
Following a delicious lunch of roast beef the afternoon was spent sitting out in the courtyard outside my parents house, until it was time for me to get the bus home. I was reading the book by Robert Bakker that I mentioned in a previous post – keep an eye for a review in the near future – and also endeavouring to do photographic justice to…
THE BEES
As well as being useful for bringing out the full flavour of lamb, the wild marjoram that grows in abundance just outside my parents door is much appreciated by bees. Bees are a vitally important part of the ecosystem and are under ever increasing threat from the combination of the insensate greed of pesticide companies and the cravenness of governments (the latter do not have the guts to stand up to the former). Their activities so close to where I was sitting were an irresistable opportunity for the only sort of shooting I am interested in – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530!
THE RETURN JOURNEY
The bus turned up precisely when it was scheduled to, and until it hit the now customary traffic jam on Gaywood Road (at which point I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way) it ran exactly to schedule all the way.
PART THREE: KING’S LYNN AGAIN
In this last section I am going to share some pictures from yesterday evening and also the pictures I got of the bus station immediately before setting out…
The new London Connections map, one of the many things that can be obtained from the visitor’s centre at King’s Lynn Bus Station.On the reverse side the whole of the South East.
The front of the vistor’s centre and the Lynn museum
Focus on the visitor’s centreThe clock, courtesy of King’s Lynn Civic Society.The barrier at stand C – interleaving Captain Vancouver and the Custom House.
Some good links, including to a Tory candidate who showed who not to deal with the EDL – and a corresponding link to how to do so. A stack of splendid pictures from yesterday.
Another multi-part post – a links section, a section on King’s Lynn in the morning, a brief East Rudham section (I will be doing another post on the architectural features of a Norfolk village theme) and a section on King’s Lynn in the evening.
https://www.voteforbob.co.uk/ A campaign that I have been involved with since it began. I have contacted my Labour, Green and #FibDem candidates. Both the Green and Labour candidates are on side (the Green virtually had to be, and no one who knows Jo Rust would expect anything less of her) while the #FibDem has not responded as yet.
A somewhat late start meant that I missed the 9:25 bus so had to get the 11:55. In the interim I took a walk, divided by a stop at my aunt’s to water the plants and check that everything was OK. It was obviously going to be a splendid day for photography but I did not yet realise quite how splendid. Up to leaving my aunt’s house I had a few decent pictures…
The Great Ouse beyond my Aunt’s house provided the first clue as to how good the day would be, when “Cormorant Platform” provided some excellent pics…
Heading back towards the bus station I crossed the Nar, which provided these crackers…
Walking through the parklands to the town centre I collected some more fine pics…
Even the bus stations and the bus journey were not complete blanks…
Decorative brickwork is a regular feature of the houses on the way out to the hospital (yes that was shot through the window of a bus)
Although I am preserving many of my East Rudham pictures for another post, some belong here…
This rabbit was too far away to produce a really excellent picture but as the local landowner goes by the name of Mr McGregor I could not resist including it.
Because it was bright and sunny outside I got off the bus early, in Gaywood, and walked through the parkland to get home. This last little outdoors session provided a shot of Britain’s national bird to be, my best capture of flying aeroplane to date and some splendid shots of local landmarks…
Even after I got home there was one more classic moment – “red sky at night: shepherd’s delight”…
I am treating this as the first of a series of related posts owing to the fact that time restrictions on Wednesday when I took the photographs that are its raison d’etre meant that we (my mother and I) accounted for barely a tithe of the interesting buildings in the village (East Rudham).
We had hoped to start with the Manor House but this was not accessible, although the publicly accessible part of its driveway provided an angle to capture the rear window of The Old Reading Room and also a section of brick and flint wall…
Brick and flint walls are classic for the part of Norfolk.The rear window of The Reading Room
Having got a shot of the rear window of the building, The Old Reading Room was an obvious next port of call…
The front door of the Old Reading RoomA close up of the name plate.
Just across the road from the Old Reading Room, is the Wesleyan Chapel, these days a private residence rather than a religious building…
The Wesleyan ChapelA close up of the name and date plate.
After the Wesleyan Chapel came several very quirky specimens of local archiecture at the near end of School Road…
The lines of brickwork show the original shape of this building.A modern version of a brick and flint gable end.This outhouse roof section was a real curio.Another gable end whose history can be read clearly!Brick and flint is the regular mix in this part of the world, but this building features brick and carr (the dark brown stone)
From the near end of school road, we proceeded round the south side of the village green, starting with a shot of a section of brick and flint wall and continuing with a couple of a large barn behind which lurks a modern house…
Before proceeding to take front on shots of the barn and the cottages that adjoin it, I took a couple of panoramic views from the green…
The line of properties on the main road ends with one that until recently was both an eyesore and a health hazard (years of neglect had left it so run down that even the rats had moved on)The village pub and the tea room next door to it.
The barn has a very fancy weathercock above it…
Next we come to two cottages painted in pastel colours (one yellow, one blue)…
The yellow cottageBoth cottages in one shotThe blue cottage
These two properties are separated by the width of what I have called “Fox Gate” from the detached cottage called Caradon…
“Fox Gate”
CaradonThe name plate
Between Caradon and the old post office (a very short distance) were a number of other properties to be photographed…
The building that used to be the post office is now much improved from the mouldering wreck it had become before restoration…
From here, via a shot of the side of the pub it was on to the church, the approach to which goes past an old cottage…
I took several shots of the church, was is almost entirely 19th Century, with a few hints of older stuff around…
The entrance ti the building.
I spotted this quirky window on the way out of the churchyard.
Although it involved some mildly unpleasant walking, the churchyard provided a few other good brick and flint shots and a slightly tree obscured shot of the Manor House…
The penultimate phase of this picture gathering expedition involved taking close ups of London House and the adjoining building that had not so long ago been an eyesore and a health hazard – there were loose tiles on the roof, and a not terribly wide pavement between the front of the building and the A148 (and for all that for that part of its length IT IS THE VILLAGE STREET not many motorists take due note of this important fact)…
This is the replacement for the derelict shop which had become an eyesore and a health hazard.And this is London HouseThe name plate.
The final picture was this ‘home shot’ – on the right of the shot as you look is Mulberry Coach House and straight ahead is part of Mulberry Barn (this property now forms a right-angle, as two loose boxes have been converted into extra rooms)…
As I prepare for another day at work, I am listening to commentary from the Cricket World Cup. Bangladesh are giving a good account of themselves against New Zealand in Hamilton, while in between rain breaks in Sydney England look like finishing a truly appalling world cup campaign with victory over Afghanistan (maybe they should accept Cricket Japan’s invite to stop by for a few games on the way home!)
The pictures I will be sharing at various points in this post are from two sources, imaging for the March Auction (now practically complete) and some pics from in and around King’s Lynn. At some point in the future I will be putting up a post about architectural features to be found in the village of East Rudham, having recently taken some good pics there.
A lot of the imaging I did on Tuesday was of banknotes in albums, but a few other bits got in there as well…
This was one of a quantity of these that made up lot 349
This lot could appeal to postcard collecotrs, but also to those interested in stamps and postal history, so I have covered all bases!
My Wednesday morning walk was fitted in between the cricket commentary finishing and meeting my mother to go to East Rudham for lunch, photographing architecture, providing a tutorial in MS Access and finally playing bridge at the Jolly Sailors. This latter was enjoyable in spite of the fact that I had the kind of luck that should be toasted in extra bitter Fernet Branca!. At 5p a hundred I ended up £1.30 down on the evening – and on the three hands on which I was declarer I made two of the contracts and went one down undoubled on the other. Here are some of the highlights from the walk…
I will finish by showing you some images from yesterday’s mop-up operation…
I don’t normally image single coins, but the person who usually does them was not around at the time I located this one, so I did it.Imaging it the way I did meant I automatically had close-ups of each face – and if you’ve got ’em, use ’em
The next three items, lots 419,428 and 429 are sold with the usual caveats attendant on German militaria – at the buyer’s own risk.
Now come two lots of scenic postcards for each of what I produced two images.
This map is lot 719Lot 726 (This, and the remaining three pics) is very nice.
aspiblog 
