The long-awaited resumption of my series of posts about Sweden. This one sets the scene for a number of posts about my travels on Inlandsbanan.
INTRODUCTION
It has been a long while since I last created a post, but I am now ready to go again with my accounts of my trip to beautiful Sweden. Having spent a very enjoyable few days in the company of my cousin and his fiance (see here for more details) it was time for me to make use of my one-country inter-rail pass, allowing up to eight days worth of rail travel in Sweden.
THE PROLOGUE TO INLANDSBANAN
My first journey on my inter-rail pass was a short hop of just over two hours from Stockholm to Kristinehamn where I would stay overnight before experiencing Inlandsbanan on days two and three of this part of the holiday (the distance from Kristinehman to the northern outpost of Gallivare, pronounced yell-ee-vara, is 1,364km which converts to roughly 850 miles).
At this stage I had not booked anything in advance, a mistake that I learned from after the experiences both on the train and at Kristinehamn, where I paid far more for a room than I ought to have done. Indeed one of the things I did in my room in Kristinehamn was make use of the wifi to book seats on three legs of Inlandsbanan and rooms in Ostersund fot the following night and then for two nights in Gallivare, although this latter did not work out, of which more anon.
The difficulties caused by my failure to reserve a seat on the train notwithstanding, I did get some pictures on the journey…
KRISTINEHAMN
I did some exploring in this pretty little town once I was settled. Here are my pictures from Kristinehamn…
Many Swedish stations feature this kind of diagram somewhere.
Having produced this little post I will start, probably tomorrow, on a succession of posts detailing the Inlandsbanan experience…
The first post about my travels in Sweden, with lots of photographs.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first in what will be a series of posts about Sweden, where I am currently on holiday. If you enjoy this post I recommend that you make Anna’s blog your next port of call.
AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES
Although I have only been in Sweden since Friday night, I already have a huge number of stunning pictures to share. For this first part of my stay I have been in the company of a cousin and his Swedish fiancee Ida. My cousin met me at Stockholm central bus station (Skavsta airport, where my flight landed is too far out of town for him to meet me there, so I got the Flygbussarna into town on Friday night. On Saturday we travelled to an island that has been owned by Ida’s family for some time. This journey entailed a bus to Stavsnas, a boat out to the nearest island reachable by commercial boat, and a walk across said island, on the other side of which we met Ida who rowed us across the sound to the island on which we would be staying. Here are a few pictures from this part of the stay…
These first couple of pictures were taken through the window of an aeroplane from high above.
The remainder were taken either from the bus to Stavsnas or the ferry.
The Island
This Island has no flushing toilets, and save for the main house no running water. It only got electricity in the 1940s. The sea is lovely to swim in, as I can attest from personal experience. We start with the house itself…
Here some pictures from inside the house…
I will be looking at more detail at the insect life I have encountered in a future post, but to whet the appetite here is a rare butterfly whose English name is Apollo…
Now, some general pictures taken while on the island…
As a lead up to the next section, here is a map of the Stockholm Archipelago.
SAILINGTHE STOCKHOLM ARCHIPELAGO IN AN OPEN BOAT
Richard and Ida had too much stuff to take back to their flat in Stockholm for the way we had reached the island to be appropriate, so we were escorted by private boat, along with Ida’s brother and his daughter. Here are some pictures from the Stockholm Archipelago…
Lars (skipper of the boat), setting off on his return journey to the island from Stavsnas
Stavsnas to Stockholm
The last stage of the journey to the flat in which I write this, before heading off later today to catch a train to Kristinehamn, southern terminal of Inlandsbanan was by bus and tunnelbahn (the Stockholm Undergound, which I will be covering in a later post) yielded a few more pictures…
These last six pictures feature central Stockholm, as seen from the bus as it approached Slussen.
A somewhat delayed account of Monday and Tuesday, with plenty of photos.
INTRODUCTION
A few brief commenst and some pictures.
AUGUST IMAGING
I havce made sure that nothing big has been left unimaged, with my flgiht out to Sweden now only three days distant. Here are a few imaghes from the last couple of days…
AN EMPHATIC ENGLAND WIN
Although for various reasons I did not catch much of the action in the second test match betwen England and Pakistan I congratulate England on responding in emphatic style to their defeat in the first match. While I consider the decision by Cook not to enforce the follow-on when looking at a first innings advantage of 391 to be bizarre, at least his team still managed to win. Possibly the most red-faced captain of all time over a decision not to invoke the follow-on was the Hon Freddie Calthorpe who in the final match of the 1929-30 series in the West Indies declined to do so with an advantage of 563 on the grounds that the match was scheduled to played to a finish. Unfortunately for him a combination of the weather and England’s return journey caused the match to be abandoned as a draw anyway. Six years earlier in a county game Calthorpe had suffered a different kind fo embarrassment when his Warwickshire side made 223 in their first innings, bowled out Hampshire for 15, and had them 177-6 after following on. Hampshire then made a spectacular recovery to reach 521 in that second innings, with Walter Livsey who had only reached even double figures three times in the course of the season before then making a century at no 10, and bowled a dispirited Warwickshire out for 158 in the second innings. Back to the present, and in the test match that finished yesterday evening Joe Root had the kind of match which had it been presented as fiction would undoubtedly have been laughed out of the publishers office – 254, 71 not out, four catches in the first Pakistan innings, and when given a bowl late in their second innings he picked up a wicket with his second ball!
SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
I conclude this post with a few non-work related pictures:
A brief account of a meeting of the West Norfolk Disability Forum and notice of a visit to Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Most of this post is devoted to events that took place on Wednesday, but at the end of it I will have a small section looking ahead.
THE AGM OF THE WEST NORFOLK DISABILITTY FORUM
My invite to this event came from NAS West Norfolk Chair Karan, who was invited by councillor Squire. The meeting was to start at 2:30PM, but before then we were assembling at 1:00PM for a tour of Stories of Lynn in order to see what was right and what was wrong about it.
STORIES OF LYNN
I enjoyed seeing what this establishment had to offer, though I would have been under-impressed had I had to fork out the £5 admission fee because there si simply no way that what they have is worth that price. The main issues noted were that there is not enough seating in the building and that there is a lack of audio options for those who cannot read. Here are some of the pictures that I took at this stage of proceedings…
The four big portraits tell you about themselves (all were born and raised in West Norfolk)
The Pillory was abandoned as a method of punishment in this country about 200 years ago. A radical publisher named Daniel Isaac Eaton was one of the last to be subjected to this form of punishment – the populace delivered their own verdict by providing him with food and wine, and generally turning his spell in the pillory into something of a public triumph.
Now that’s what I call a board game!???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The last room we saw is one where the exhbits will change periodically – this year is the 100th anniversary of RAF Marham, so at the moment that is the subject of the exhibits.Raf cap with cloth badgeRAF hat with cloth badgeThe beret to which this metal badge is attached was impossible to image properly.
THE TOWN HALL
Next door to Stories of Lynn is the Town Hall, within which the meeting was to take place. We were meeting on the first floor and given my own attitude to lifts and the lack of available lift space I used the stairs. We were very early for the meeting, but refreshments had been set up in the largest of the upstairs rooms, just outside the room in which the meeting would be happening.
The meeting room – visually spectacular, but as we to discover the accoustics were very poor.
During the pre-meeting wait the window panes within the main window that folk had marked to show when they had worked on it were shown to me. Yesterday I showed a single image that I had assembled to putting together all my indvividual images. Today, I present all the images plus a few others I took at the same time…
Here is the composite image as a quick reminder…I assembled a large frame by connecting together these individual images, including one of the whole window, as the single panes were not quite enough to do the job….
And filled the central space with an enlarged image of the whole window.
THE MEETING
The meeting began with the election of a chair and deputy chair (the former a councillor, the latter not). As newbies and therefore not qualified to form an opinion Karan and I both declined to vote.
Once council representatives on the forum had been appointed it was the turn of non-council representatives.
Then various matters were raised, including shop signs restricting access, the state of facilities at both the bus and train stations etcetera.
Proceedings drew to a close after just over an hour.
LOOKING AHEAD
This section is necessary because I am going to Sweden for a fortnight, leaving on Friday. During that period posting will be restricted for obvious reasons. Finally, to finish this post here are some more pictures…
Images from the last couple of days at work and a mention of a future plan.
INTRODUCTION
A decision to attend an evening meeting in the fine city of Norwich yesterday somewhat limited my computer access then, hence I am sharing stuff from more than one day.
AUCTION IMAGES
Here are some images of auction lots taken over the last couple of days…
The first of nine images I took of lot 390
This book warranted six images
The specs of two supersonic aircraft – fans of Matthew Reilly will recognize the top one as the plane that replaces the destroyed Halicarnassus (Boeing 747) at the end of the Five Greatest Warriors.
Another aviation book that warranted multiple images
Colour pics of the two supersonic aeroplanes.
Lot 393 – local interest as it is about one of Norfolk’s most famous families.
SOME NON-AUCTION WORK IMAGES
These images were required for use on Ebay…
COMING UP ON ASPIBLOG
On Wednesday I attended the AGM of the West Norfolk Disability Forum, courtesy of an invite that came from Councillor Squire by way of NAS West Norfolk branch chair Karan McKerrow. I hope to put up a post about this tomorrow but for the moment as an appetiser, here is a montage featuring the extraordinary upstairs window of King’s Lynn town hall…
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.
A grateful acknowledgement to the Lynn News for their coverage of the Autism Awareness Cup accompanied by a minor ethical quibble and also some images from today at work.
INTRODUCTION
At the end of this post I will be sharing some images from work today, but it is mainly about the Lynn News (and, one ethical quibble aside, positive about them).
THANKS FOR THE COVERAGE BUT AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WOULD BE NICE
Before creating the blog post I had also created a facebook photo album about the event.
Having published the blog post I then produced this email:
For clarification of the intended recipients, here is a second image…
Today the Lynn News produced the following:
You will note that save for the misplaced while between cup winners and Holland every word of this article appears in my blog post. While I thank the Lynn News unreseverdly for printing a story about this event, which will be the first of many, I would have been even more grateful had there been some acknowledgement, and maybe a mention of my blog.
An account of a day’s imaging, including some of the most interesting pictures.
INTRODUCTION
This post is about the imaging I have done at James and Sons today. In total I have produced 180 images today (no, I am not going to share them all!), using the scanner for the coin lots and the camera for the rest.
THE BULK JOB – THE FIRST TRANCHE OF COINS FOR THE AUGUST SALE
The coins I imaged today were lots 1-50 in the August auction, except that lot 3 was missing. Images of both faces of each coin were required, which meant two sets of scans, and then some editorial work, resulting in three images for each lot. Here to further explain the process is lot 1…
The image that becomes 1-a in the images folder1-bThe two images joined together (1 in the main image folder.
I scan these many lots at a time at very high resolution (600 dpi), the exact number of lots depending on the size of the coins, and on the number of coins that make up the lots. The 49 coin lots I scanned today were achieved in four tranches (i.e eight scans in total). Here some of the more interesting specimens…
Lot 5
Lot 6
Lot 10
Lot 13
Lot 17
Lot 23
Lot 25
Lot 31
Lot 38
Lot 45
Lot 48
Lot 50 – last of today’s tranche of coins
RECORDS FOR EBAY
There were some interesting items here. In total there were 11 separate items, all boxed sets of multiple records, and I offer you a selection of images…
Unlike a couple of others that I imaged today this is not a duplicate – it is a different recording of La Boheme to the one that I imaged on Tuesday.
THE FINAL SESSION – MILITARIA
Having finished the records it was time to image some items of militaria. This once again required the camera. Here are are a few highlights to conclude this post…
A post prompted in part by Mike Sivier’s excellent open letter to Angela Eagle and in part by having a few other things to share – enjoy.
INTRODUCTION
This post is a bit of a pot-pourri, although one of the links and the open letter are related.
THE OPEN LETTER AND RELATED LINK
The author of this open letter is Mike Sivier of Vox Political, on whose blog I found it. Here is the open letter in full, followed by a link to the blog post in which I found it:
Dear Ms Eagle,
As a Labour voter of many years’ standing, and a member of the party for the last six, I am writing to express my outrage at your comments following the vandalism of the Wallasey party office.
We can agree that the damage to the window – like any crime – is unacceptable. However:
How dare you claim that it was carried out by a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, “in his name”? Do you have any evidence? Do the police already know who did it? I think not – otherwise we would no doubt have heard about it.
In fact, Mr Corbyn has made it abundantly clear – many times over the past few weeks, that he finds such behaviour abhorrent and wants members of the party to discuss their differences in a cordial manner. This leads me to my second point:
How dare you try to pontificate to the rest of the party about “bullying”, after the behaviour you have forced Mr Corbyn to endure, together with the other 170+ PLP rebels?
Look at the behaviour that has occurred in YOUR name:
Months of secret plotting against Mr Corbyn after he won the Labour leadership last year;
The intention to mislead the public into thinking the Labour ‘coup’ was prompted by Mr Corbyn’s performance in the EU referendum when it had been pre-planned over many months;
The co-ordinated, on-the-hour resignations of shadow cabinet members throughout June 26 in an effort to BULLY Mr Corbyn out of the Labour leadership;
The purchase of a web domain entitled ‘Angela4Leader’ the day before those resignations;
The hasty and unconstitutional calling and passing of a vote of ‘no confidence’ in Mr Corbyn in another attempt to BULLY him out of office;
(It has been implied that some, or indeed many, Labour MPs were BULLIED into supporting that vote)
The attempted BULLYING of Mr Corbyn himself at a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting;
The many letters by your fellow Labour MPs, trying to BULLY Mr Corbyn into resigning; and
The fabricated smear stories intended to undermine Mr Corbyn’s support among members and, again, BULLY him into resigning – including your claim today about this broken office window.
If you are serious in your claim that bullying “has absolutely no place in politics in the UK and it needs to end”, then perhaps the best way to start would be by ending your own challenge to Mr Corbyn’s leadership, submitting yourself to the mercy of your constituents who are holding a ‘no confidence’ vote on your conduct later this month, and considering your own future in politics.
I have just put up a new post on my London Transport themed website centred on the Institute of Education.
SOME NEW PHOTOS
Just a few photos that I have not previously shared:
A work colleague who knows of my interest in railwayana gave me this badge. By the way, this union was one of those amalgamated to form the Rail and Maritime Transport workers union (RMT).Moorhen with two chicks, upper Purfleet, King’s LynnI saw this near Lynn Sport on Sunday
I have lots of new pictures, relating to the James and Sons’ August sale (Wednesday 31st). Today’s imaging has involved two types of item…
MILITARIA
You will notice that one item that has been included with militaria is actually not so, but most of these items do count as militaria…
Lot 197Lot 198Lot 199Lot 200Close-ups of both sides of the medallionEven closer-up of the ‘heads’ sideEven-closer up of the ‘tails side’The non-military item.close-up of the heads sideclose-upf of the tails side.Lot 202The cover of lot 202Lot 203close-up of the medal faceseven closer-up of the obverseeven closer-up of the reverse
Now it is time to move on to the other auction items I had to image…
EPHEMERA/ BOOKS
This section starts with lot 361, which can be thought of as an anatomisation of a rolls-royce…
The rest of the items were not quite this impressive, but there were a few other good moments…
Lot 362362-a – this mag still has it’s fold out poster (highly unusual)366366-a (again still has it’s fold out poster)Lot 372 – a box full of old calendars – I chose to showcase this one.From the very early history of cricketEngland recorded an innings victory in this match, Arthur Shrewsbury battimg six hours for a then Englan d record score of 164The Gabba over 60 years ago.Lot 376 – a scrapbook featuring cars376-a377377-aLot 551 – a remarkable album551-b551-g
EBAY IMAGES
In addition to the auction lots I had to image a few records for sale on ebay (the pictures I have included were only some of the records I imaged).
aspiblog 