Continuing my account of Marxism 2018, with the second and third meetings of the Thursday.
INTRODUCTION
This post continues my coverage of Marxism 2018, which started with an introductory post. In this post I cover the second and third meetings of the opening day, which for me were Camilla Royle on the Politics of Science and Ken Olende on What Was Unique About The Translatlantic Slave Trade.
CAMILLA ROYLE ON SCIENCE
Camilla’s actual title was “Is science political?” Most scientists would like the answer to this question to be no, but desirability and truth are two different things. Camilla demonstrated many examples of science being coopted for political ends. This was an excellent talk and it set the stage for a splendid discussion.
KEN OLENDE ON SLAVERY
This talk was accompanied by slides which makes it easier to convey an impression of the ground covered.
The big screen, speaker and chaiur before the meeting.chair Jay introduces the meetingKen starts his talk
A depiction of Moorish forces fighting for the Roman Empire – while Rome was a slave holding society skin colour did not come into the equation.
The extent to which the translatlantic slave trade dwarfed its predecesorsThis was a slave market in Yemen in the 13th centuryAs this close-up shows skin colour again was not decisive.
I heartily recommend that you read Olaudah Equiano’s book.
London Chartist leader William Cuffay – the establishment used the same sort of terms about him as they did about slaves.
Introducing the GoGo hares – worthy heirs to the elephants and dragons that preceded them.
INTRODUCTION
The charity Breakhave established something a tradition involving large painted fibreglass animals – it started with elephants, then dragons, and now for a third installment we have hares. This year they are looking beyond Norwich – there is one in Fakenham, which I saw on Friday, there is one in Dereham which I saw through the windows of the ExCel bus travelling to and from the auction that my employers had in the fine city of Norwich yesterday and there are a load of them distributed around Norwich, some of which I captured on camera.
PICTURES OF THE HARES
The first five images relate to Lancaster, the Falenham Hare, whose acquaintance I made while banking my wages.
This Egyoptian style hare adorns the market place in Dereham
This hare resides at The Maids Head Hotel where we had our auction.Cruella De Vil might like this hare, located outside the Forum.This kafkaesque creation can be found just outside Norwich Millennium libraryWhile this one is inside the libraryThis “Norfolk birds” hare is in the main Tourist information office in Norwich
The late legendary Richard Whiteley would probably have described this as a hare-tigger (he specialised in this kind of pun).
An account of yesterday’s auction at Fakenham Racecourse.
INTRODUCTION
Yesterday James and Sons had an auction at Fakenham Racecourse, the first in 2018 to take place anywhere other than our shop in Fakenham, and the first at that venue with me in sole control of the IT side of things (the latter being a cause of some trepidation). The auctioneer and I had visited the racecourse the Friday before to establish that our IT setup (including the card terminal as part of the IT setup) would work there, and the auction lots and IT stuff were moved down to the racecourse on Tuesday.
GETTING THERE
I caught the 7:00 bus to Fakenham (the earliest, and my regular one on workdays anyway these days) and on what was already a warm sunny morning enjoyed the walk from Oak Street to the Racecourse (which is located not as its name suggests in Fakenham but just outside the adjoining village of Hempton), arriving at the venue at just before ten past eight. The auctioneer arrived a few minutes later and I was able to accomplish the IT setup before any viewers arrived. We had Croc’s providing catering at the event, and I took the opportunity in a quiet period to fortify myself with a bacon bap.
Crossing the Wensum en route to the racecourse I spotted this pair of mute swans enjoying the sun.
This bridge across the Wensum gives Bridge Street, Fakenham its name.
A BRIGHT START
For various reasons (to do with a combination of over-ambitious planning and an important member of staff being absent for a long period of time) this auction had some odd numbering of lots (it started at lot 741, and then there was a 50 lot gap between the end of the first section and the start of the coins at lot 901, then a massive gap after the last coin lot, no 1072 to the start of the Militaria at 1,466, then another major gap from the end of the militaria at lot 1,620 to the start of final segment at lot 1,920, with the last lot of the sale being lot 2,000), but although there was a range of almost 1,300 between the first and last lot number there were only 503 lots in the sale. We originally planned to take a short break at the end of the coin section before starting on the Militaria, but this as you will see changed part way through.
The first big success of the auction came at lot 747, three gold rings, which had been valued at £70-100 but ended up selling for £150…
Then lots 757 and 760, a ladies cigarette case and a ladies powder compact of similar styles, both esitmated at £30-40 went for £65 and £60 respectively, both to the same online bidder.
Lot 757 (three images)
Lot 760 (two images
These however were a mere curtain-raiser for…
LOT 764 – A PHOTOGRAPHER’S TRIUMPH
There were indications that this elegant Mantle Clock, with a case carefully designed to show off its workings was going to do extraordinarily well, but we were all absolutely gobsmacked by what actually happened. The item had gone in with a modest valuation of £10-20, but I having noted the effort to which the makers of this clock had gone to put the workings on display created an image gallery for it which reflected this:
The main image, showing the whole clock.This metal plaque was obviously of some significance, hence a close-up photograph of that.And since the makers had been so determined to make the workings visible I devoted no fewer than four photographs to ensuring that thsi was reflected in my online image gallery.
The opening bid was £310! Then, a bidding war between four internet bidders who all obviously saw something that eluded those who are not experts on clocks pushed this already barely credible looking price up to an eye-popping £750!!
Incidentally, just for the record, the valuer himself said that it was the photographs that did it for us, hence my title for this subsection. Here are some photographs of this item that I took during the break:
UP TO THE BREAK
After the events described above almost anything else was going to feel a little anticlimactic, but a few items fared well nevertheless. Lot 919, a forged 1791 farthing estimated at £5-10 ended up going for £35.
The other effect that the early excitement had was that we were progressing slower than normal, and in the end the auctioneer brought our midauction break forward to lot 1,000.
AFTER THE BREAK
We finished the coins, ending with lot 1072, which went to me for £4 (it is a small medallion, which I considered to be railwayana by association since it refers to Isambard Kingdom Brunel):
The Militaria section went pretty well, with most items selling, and two doing very well indeed:
With this lot of badges being sold as one I could not spare the time to provide close-ups of all the badges……so I nselected a couple of what I considered to be good ones……the lots had been valued at £100-200, but interest possibly stoked by my choice of close-ups, pushed the final price up to £300.
The other big success in this range was lot 1584, valued at £80-100 and going for £140.
Please note that the fact that we as auctioneers sometimes handle Nazi memorabilia does not mean that any of us entertain anhy sympathy for Nazi ideology.
The books fared poorly, although The Royal Liverpool Golf Club by Guy Farrar which I had given a deliberately cautious estimate of £15-20 fetched £55.
The auction over, all that was left was the clear up, which was done by 3PM. I had one worrying moment when it seemed that a problem was developing with the internet connection, but fortunately it never got serious.
On Saturday the action shifts to The Maids Head Hotel, Norwich and the focus to cigarette cards. A full caftalogue listing for that auction can be viewed here.
A post celebrating recent successes for the England men’s and women’s cricket teams.
INTRODUCTION
The last few weeks have been magnificent for English cricketers of both sexes. Each side has been very dominant through a sequence of games, and each have set a team scoring record during the sequence of games.
THE WOMEN
The women warmed up with an ODI series against South Africa, losing the first match but winning matches 2 and 3 very comfortably, in each case with their efforts being spearheaded by centuries from Tammy Beaumont. Then they moved into a T20 tri-series featuring South Africa and New Zealand, the latter fresh from three straight 400-plus ODI tallies against Ireland, the last of which featured the first part of a ‘script rejection’ performance by Amelia Kerr – 232 not out with the bat, and then to settle things 5-17 with the ball. No author of a cricket themed novel would dare have a 17 year-old do that in an international match, but it happened in real life.
On Day 1 of the tri-series New Zealand opened proceedings by scoring 217 from their 20 overs against South Africa, which at the time was a new record in that form of the game, and won them the match comfortably. That record lasted until later that same evening when England took on South Africa, and with Beaumont scoring yet another century (getting there in a mere 47 balls) and Katherine Brunt responding to a promotion up the order by running up 42 not out off just 16 balls reached a total of 250-3. This proved way out of SA’s reach. On Saturday, the second set of games in the tri-series, England lost to South Africa but bounced back to beat New Zealand in the other match.
THE MEN
The men started the limited overs segment of their summer by losing to Scotland at The Grange, but then they commenced a five match series against Australia and were absolutely dominant through the first four matches, winning all comfortably and racking up 481-6 in the third match. The fifth match was a very different kettle of fish. Australia were all out for 205, a modest total that featured the most misjudged leave-alone in cricket history (perpetrated by Ashton Agar). England then collapsed to 114-8 and I was getting ready to point out that wins in dead rubbers don’t really count. However, Jos Buttler was still there, and now Adil Rashid provided some sensible support, and the pair put on 81 for the ninth wicket, turning the match into a nail-biter. Jake Ball, the England no 11 only scored 1 not out, but he survived 11 deliveries, while Buttler first completed an astonishing hundred (with a six that on sheer distance should probably have been a nine) and then sealed England’s one-wicket victory in this game and with it a 5-0 whitewash against the old enemy.
Tim Paine thus became the second Tasmanian born captain with a surname that begins with P to surrender a match in which the opponents had needed 92 with only two wickets left (look up Mohali 2010 for more details).
Buttler’s innings secured him both the player of the match and player of the series awards. Buttler was 110 not out in a score of 206-9, and the joint second biggest scores were 20 for Alex Hales and Adil Rashid, and he finished the series with 275 runs at a handy 137.50. In the course of this innings he passed 3,000 ODI runs. Unlike most of his previous big innings which have been all about putting opponents to the sword (his 3,000th ODI run came up off only just over 2,500 balls faced in this form of the game) this one involved getting his team out of trouble and probably rates as his finest for precisely that reason.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS
Both the men’s and women’s teams have benefitted from the fact that everyone has contributed somewhere along the line, but each also have had certain players who have been especially outstanding (see Buttler above), and I offer the following composite list of the best:
Moeen Ali: Watching the way the Aussies tackled his off-spin you might have thought they had been put in a time machine and taken back to 1956.
Jonny Bairstow: about the only thing he did wrong all the way through was get out in the game at The Grange when he was putting Scotland to the sword and would have had England firmly in control had he batted a few more overs. None of the Aussie bowlers, even the highly impressive Billy Stanlake, had any idea where to bowl at him.
Tammy Beaumont: the smallest player in physical stature in this list (5’3″ tall) she has been a metaphorical giant in these matches with three centuries from her position at the top of the order.
Katherine Brunt: In the first match she made 72 to give England something to defend. After her 42 not out in the 250-3 T20 game she followed up by picking up 2-18 from her four overs. Ignore talk of imminent retirement – so long as her body remains in one piece she will keep going.
Jos Buttler: The batsman-keeper did all that was asked of him in the first four matches of the series against Australia and when the going got tough in fifth match he got going and carried England to victory.
Alex Hales: started these matches as favourite to miss out once Stokes was available again but played several incredible innings, and I would now say that for all his all-round credentials Stokes has to be considered as far from certain to regain his place.
Adil Rashid: another of the ‘role-reversal’ aspects of this series was that on this occasion it was Aussie batsmen who looked like rabbits in headlights when facing an English leggie. In addition to his success with the ball he played that crucial little innings in the final match.
Jason Roy: the leading run scorer of the series with 304, including a ton which spearheaded the chase-down of 310 in the 4th game.
Anya Shrubsole: reliable as ever with the ball, and when really needed in the game against New Zealand on Saturday she delivered some quick runs.
Sarah Taylor: quite possibly the best wicketkeeper of either sex on the planet at present and she also scored some important runs.
Danielle Wyatt: opening with Beaumont in the 250-3 game she was quite magnificent, and she had other successes through the season.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Time now for some photographs, starting with a cricket themed one from James and Sons’ upcoming cigarette cardauction.
While not super-famous these cricketers all have some noteworthy achievements: Vallance Jupp achieved the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in each of eight successive seasons, Fred Root once took a seven-for against Australia. Percy Fender once reached a century in 35 minutes. Dodge Whysall batted no 3 for Nottinghamshire for many years. Ernest Tyldesley scored more first class runs for Lancashire than anyone else. Percy Chapman led England to victory in each of his first eight matches as captain. George Gibson Macaulay was a very successful bowler and enough of a batsman to have scored 76 in a test match. Charles Hallows was one of three cricketers to score 1,000 first-class runs within the month of May (half a dozen others reached 1,000 first class runs for the English season before the start of June, but had runs in April in that record). Herbert Strudwick was England’s first-choice keeper for 15 years in spite of regularly batting at no 11. Frank Watson was a good county player, who once made a triple-century.A spectacular creature, presumably some form of dragonfly.
I saw this jay yesterday. This species is not threatened, but I use this caption to draw your attention to one that is, the nightingale. There is a petition to protect a threatened habitat for this bird at Lodge Hill – please sign and share it.
Welcome to the latest in my series of posts about my holiday in Greece (May 12th to 19th). After the last postin which I gave the animals their due we resume our coverage of the Friday, having dealt with Dimitsana.
ON FROM DIMITSANA
Those of you who read my first postabout Dimitsana will recall that my mother was not well that day, necessitating changes to our plans, including an abandonment of our plans for lunch. Thus we decided that my father and I would make do with what we could find in Karytaina town, and we would stop on the way back to buy some good food for supper. Here are some introductory pictures:
A distant shot of Karytaina Castle taken while travelling.Two shots taken looking up at the castle from the town.
A couple of public maps of the area.
My father and I did locate a place in the town serving food, but the sole merit of the meal was cheapness – neither the ham & cheese toastie nor the drink had any flavour at all. Having had lunch it was time for the ascent to the castle.
WATCHING TWO RIVERS
Karytaina Castle was built by the Franks in the 13th century, and its location was chosen because it commands a direct view of two rivers, the Lousios and the Alpheios, both of which flow all year round (most rivers in Greece do not). The ascent from the town to the castle is quite steep, although the path is fairly well maintained, so it is not unduly difficult.
The town as viewed from the castle.
THE TWO RIVERS
I finish with some pictures of the two rivers the castle overlooks (mainly the Lousios, but I did get one shot of the Alpheios as well):
This has been a recognised crossing point of the Lousios for hundreds of years.
Some of the creatures I observed in the course of my holiday in Greece.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in Greece (12th to 19th May). This one is an almost purely pictorial post showing some of the plant and animal life that I encountered there.
THE FLORA AND FAUNA I CAPTURED
This little green lizard was the only such creature I amanged to capture on camera, but I also saw a larger yellow/brown lizard at Methoni, although it made itself scarce before I could photograph it.
We had decided that we would put out cat food, but no treats, so the cats who visited were genuinely hungry..
This picture and the next demonstrate that not all the butterflies in Greece are brightly coloured.
I saw this mountain snail during the ascent to Karytaina Castle, on the Friday, after the visit to Dimitsana.I could not identify this one with any confidence, although the shape suggests an arachnid of some sort rather than an insect.The size and shape of tbhis creature and the apparent solidity of its carapace suggested a large beetle, although such creatures do not usually display their wings when on the ground.
During one of the walks I saw a tiny snake which concealed itself very quickly, and I missed many other intended shots, but I think I got a fair selection!
The tannery at the open-air museum fo water power in Dimitsana.
INTRODUCTION
In my previous post in this series about my week in Greece(May 12th to 19th) I wrote about the Open-air Museum of Water Power at Dimitsana, and stated that I was going give the tannery a whole post to itself, and here it is.
THE TANNERY
As well as containing everything used in pre-industrial leather making this section features a short video detailing the process in its entirety. To get from a batch of skins to leather from which stuff could be made would take a couple of months.
This is the centrepiece of a fascinating museum. The tannery is the second-furthest part of the museum from the entrance, with the gunpowder mill directly below it.
An account of the opn-air museum of water power in Dimitsana (apart from the tannery, which I am giving a post to itself).
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to my latest post about my holiday in Greece (12th – 19th May). We are now dealing with the Friday, the centrepiece of which was to be a visit to the Open-air Water Power Museum at Dimitsana and a meal at a restaurant that serves meat from wild animals shot by the proprietor. This post deals with the Dimitsana section of the day apart from the tannery which I shall give a post to itself.
BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN
For Thursday night’s supper we had eaten pork chops, and my mother had failed to finish hers. This it turned out was the first warning of a stomach problem that would lead to a serious alteration of our plans for the day. Although she felt well enough to make the journey by about 10 o’clock, the restaurant meal was out of the question.
THE JOURNEY TO DIMITSANA
The journey from Tseria to Dimitsana is somewhat over two hours in duration. It involves quite a lot of scenic stuff but also one truly abominable eyesore, modern Megalopolis (to give you an idea of the sheer visual awfulness of the place its most prominent features are a pair of giant cooling towers). Little remains of the original city – some pillars from the theatre is about all one can actually see.
This monastery is actually modern and Russian funded, but there are also some much older monasteries in the area.
THE OPEN AIR WATER POWER MUSEUM
Dimitsana is a mountainside town, which means that going round the open-air museum involves going downhill and then back up at the end. The water was running more vigorously than it had been on my previous visit – perhaps because it was earlier in the year.
Most of the gunpowder the the Greeks used in their war of independence in the early 19th century was manufactured in Dimitsana.
I do not know where this path ultimately leads, but there is a sign warning that you follow it at your own risk.
This is a classic view of a Greek mountainside village.
This museum is well worth a visit, and we were there on Museum Day, meaning that admission was free.
Welcome to the next post in my somewhat spread out series about my holiday in Greece. This post follows on from my post about Nestor’s Palace, in which you can find links to all my previous posts about this holiday. Unlike my previous posts in this series this one covers events from two different days, the Monday and the Thursday.
MONDAY: KARDAMILI AND TRACHILA
There were a few things to be done in Kardamili, including finding some sandals for me, and we decided havuing finished there to make the journey to Trachila, which is at the end of one of the roads beyond the resort town of Stoupa (the other, the main road, goes up into the mountains to Areopoli and then on into the inner Mani and down to very southern tip of mainland Greece). This was a pretty journey, and Trachila itself is very pleasant.
This map is part of the decoration of the shop from which my sandals came.
This is how I was able to get so close to the sea.
The sea at StoupaOn our way back we stopped at Akrouali’s in Stoupa for lunch – these lights were close to our table.
THURSDAY: STOUPA & AGIOS NIKOLAOS
On Thursday morning my mother was going to Stoupa for a “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch” session at Patriko’s, while I made use of their internet connection. Then we were going to walk along the sea-front to the village of Agios Nikolaos, have a light lunch at an establishment there that my parents knew, and then walk back to Stoupa before heading back to Tseria. This was deliberately a day on which we did not go on any major journeys as major excursions were happening on Wednesday and Friday.
A natural window in the rocks, between Stoupa and Agios NikolaosA painted stone used as a table decoration at the place where we had lunch.
Two shots of house martin nests in Agios Nikolaos
A shot of a house martin visiting the nest to deliver food to chicks concealed within.Not much remains of the 13th century Frankish castle which stood on this flat topped hill.
Through a combination of work commitments and still having large numbers of photos to edit it has been a while since I posted, so just to remind people I was in Greece from May 12th to May 19th, and have so far produced five posts relating to that holiday:
Aperiftif – setting the scene for subseqent posts going into more detail about the holiday and various aspects thereof.
Whereas nothing at Methoni is above 800 years old, and most of it is around half that age (making it a youngster in terms of Greek sites) Nestor’s Palace at Pylos (about 15 kilometres from the modern town of that name) was in its pomp 3,300 years ago or thereabouts, which means that even by Greek standards it counts as old (although Gortyn on the island of Crete is about twice as old as even this). In an effort to preserve these remains a shelter has been built around the site, and part of this structure is a raised walkway from which visitors view the site – no walking round at ground level these days.
NESTOR’S PALACE IN PICTURES
It is now time for the combination of my camera and photo-editing skills to take over and give you a virtual tour of Nestor’s Palace…
There is lots of informatrion about the palace and the kingdom it was a part of.
some detail from the inside facing of Nestor’s bath.
The first of several sea views I captured from Nestor’s palace.
SEA VIEWS FROM THE PALACE
Here are my remaining sea views from the palace itself…
aspiblog 