This post is going to be in several parts. First off some good links for you to follow up, then a bit about yesterday’s auction, then an account of an evening’s bridge, then today, all interleaved with some pictures.
PART 1: LINKS
https://tompride.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/relatives-of-german-air-crash-victims-send-commiserations-to-jeremy-clarkson-on-losing-his-job/ Tom Pride in fine form as usual.
https://www.change.org/p/british-airways-stop-selling-trips-to-seaworld-end-your-support-for-these-cruel-orca-circuses/u/10195326?tk=oVXFDImifNTr-Vwe2Y6XEhoXCzfib-B6Fg6q1O-1ono&utm_source=petition_update&utm_medium=email An update on one of the petitions that I have signed.
http://seekingalpha.com/pr/12931686-hagens-berman-consumer-lawsuit-alleges-seaworld-deceives-public-while-its-orcas-suffer An in depth account of the pending lawsuit against Sea World
https://tompride.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/police-statement-north-yorkshire-police-to-investigate-jeremy-clarkson-attack/ Tom Pride mauls Clarkson again.
http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/03/26/after-aidan-burley-will-cannock-chase-ever-trust-a-tory-again/ Aidan Burley on the receiving end of a Mike Sivier special!
http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/03/26/its-time-for-labour-to-talk-tough-about-the-benefit-deniers/ Another quality post from Vox Political.
PART 2: AUCTION DAY
The first items under the hammer were the banknotes, the first part of a very large, very high quality collection which has come into our possession. This part of the sale was extremely lively, and there were some huge results. Here in pictorial form are five of the finest (four of the original images were scanned by my colleague Chris and have subsequently been edited by me)…
After the banknotes came some coins, then militaria, medals and badges. There was a brief lull when some postcards went under the hammer, and then after a break for lunch, it was time for the stamps. These fared respectably. The postal history and ephemera items brought up the rear of the auction, by which stage hardly anyone not helping to run the auction was still in the room, and they fared poorly.
Another feature of this auction was the presence of the latest advertising tool for the Great Centenary Charity Auction, which has already featured on twitter and facebook…
PART 3: JOLLY BRIDGE
Last night was another bridge evening at the Jolly Sailors. Although I finished up a few pence down on the evening, I had a good time. I pulled off a few good pieces of dummy play and played my part in more than one successful defence. The meal was excellent.
PART 4: TODAY
Today I have imaged some 50 lots for the April auction (Fakenham Racecourse, 29th), updated the client database with records of all the saleroom.com bidders at yesterday’s auction and created a press release, which I aim to put out early next week.
Building a Press Release
The text part of a press release is quick work. Creating and placing an image takes much longer. For the particular composite image I envisaged, going right at the heart of the piece I needed to create three half-way house composites and then assemble them into my final image…
With some carefully chosen text above and below you have your press release – but I will not share the full thing until I have actually released it.
Most of the imaging I did for the April sale today was not especially inspiring, but I have a handful of final pictures to share…
While these could appeal either to pottery enthusiasts or lovers of railwayana, they were beaten for breadth of appeal by lot 2085, which has stamps, postal history, medals and art (at least) covered…
This French medallion (lot 1502) came out well…
I finish this eclectic selection of images with some stamp album lots where I decided rather than photographing whole pages to focus on smaller quantities of stamps…
Lot 324, a set of four commemorative coins from Jersey, also seems worth sharing…
To finish, lot 344, a medallion issued by the Tower of London…
My final image regards a demonstration taking place in Norwich…
If you are going to be in King’s Lynn on February 28th and you would like to campaign on behalf of the NHS there is an event organised b y 38 Degrees happening in the town centre that day. People will be meeting up outside Top Shop at 11AM. Even if you can only spare a few moments every little helps!
On the subject of the rest of this post, the forthcoming General Election, one should first of all remember that it is not one single contest, but 650 separate contests, each decided on a first past the post basis. The second point is that for everyone except the rich another five years of Cameron as PM will be an absolute, unmitigated disaster. Fortunately, I am saved any great difficulty in my own constituency by the fact that the only candidate with any sort of chance of dislodging the current Tory MP happens to be someone I would be happy to vote for anyway. Jo Rust (Labour) is a Unison Rep, was involved in the successful campaign against the Saddlebow incinerator, was one of those who helped We Are Norwich to make the EDL feel as small and insignificant as they were. The contrast between the incumbent and the challenger is particularly marked when it comes to the NHS – Unison Rep versus shareholder in one of the companies who stand to benefit from the carve up of the NHS. If you are in Northwest Norfolk and want to see the back of the Tories make sure that on election day you get to the polling station and vote for Jo Rust.
Not much to add except that my twitter account 
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