A link to a very important petition accompanied by a short video – please sign and share. Also some stuff relating to the appalling decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow, some photos and a few other links.
INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of this post is to share a very important petition posted on change.org by autism advocate and anti-bullying campaigner Kevin Healey. I also have some other links that have come to my attention this morning and a few photographs.
BRENTWOOD COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL
PULL YOUR FINGERS OUT!!
Kevin’s petition relates to the case of Harry Gosling, which is covered in detail on the site. Please visit, sign and share the petition here. There is also a short video embedded below:
THE HEATHROW HORROR
The title of this section refers to the appalling decision by the ‘Mayhem’ government to approve a third runway at Heathrow Airport. I have three links to share in this section, starting with this one to a an article in the Guardian outlining just how expensive this crazy project will be even in purely monetary terms.
My other two links relate to the upcoming by-election in Richmond triggered by Zac Gioldsmith’s decision to resign and stand as an independent in protest at this awful decision (a gesture that in no way redeems him for the disgusting London Mayoral campaign he chose to run). They express differing opinions as to whether or not Labour should stand:
My own opinion: I do not think that Labour should stand a candidate in this election – I would recommend that they, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats get together and stand a single anti-Goldsmith candidate who can help to deliver a final damning verdict on Goldsmith by making his current status as an ex-MP permanent (the Conservatives have already said that they will not field a candidate against him, because, although this bit is unstated by them, they know perfectly well that any such candidate would lose).
PHOTOGRAPHS
Just a few photographs this time…
Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning (this picture was taken yesterday on my way to Norwich for James and Sons’ October auction which I shall be covering in another post)
SOME FINAL LINKS
I have three more links to share to end this post. My first, from New Zealand blogger Heather Hastie, is about the current state of healthcare in the US. You can visit this post, which is chock full of solid sense, by clicking the infographic below:
An account of James and Sons auction on March 3oth and 31st, with some other stuff at the end.
INTRODUCTION
As the main part of this post, about James and Sons’March auction (I am also sharing a few other bits at the end) develops it will become obvious why I am doing it now as one big post, and why I have posted very little these last few days.
PART 1: THE PRELIMINARIES (TUESDAY)
With the auction scheduled for Wednesday 30th (lots 1-699) and Thursday 31st (Lots 700-1051) the setup at the venue (The Prince of Wales Suite, Fakenham Racecourse) had to be accomplished on the Tuesday. This day did not require any earlier start than a regular work day would, and although a lot of heavy lifting was involved (a thousand plus lot auction, four people fit to do serious carrying) it was less draining than the other two days.
PART TWO: DAY 1 (WEDNESDAY)
I had to be at the venue by 8AM, which meant leaving my flat at 6:30AM to be sure of catching the 6:50 bus, to make sure that the IT setup was working and to assist with the viewing the precedes the sale. A couple of technical hitches at the start aside the day went smoothly. There were some great successes, although the flag that we had hoped would raise serious money did not attract a bid high enough to warrant selling it. The books tanked, as anyone with any experience of books at auction would have expected. Lot 466 fell to me, and lot 494, five volumes on Buildings of Scotland, found its way to East Rudham. Here are some pictures from day 1 at the venue…
This was still in the sky when I left my flat on the Wednesday morning!
Not one of ours – one the racecourse’s own pictures)
The view from the rostrum
The rostrum before the auction started.
This shell has been interestingly decorated, although it would still have looked better when it was on a turtle’s back.
The flag
A building frontage in Bridge Street, Fakenham that I had not previously noticed.
After the sale had concluded it was time to get the unsold lots from day 1 back to the shop (and they had to go on the top floor of the shop, including four plastic tubs full of back issues of Private Eye magazine). Then finally, work was done for the day.
PART THREE: DAY 2 (THURSDAY)
Fortunately I was able to set off an hour later than on the first day as although I would still have to do some preliminary IT stuff there were unlikely to be many viewers present (and indeed there weren’t). The internet was still very lively however, and a number of the early commemorative and proof coins on this second day sold exceptionally well. The stamps and postal history did not shine especially brightly. Lot 920, an Isambard Kingdom Brunel £2 set, went to me. The last lot went under the hammer just before 12:00, after which it was time for the clear-up. Once we had the first van load back at the shop we stopped for lunch, before doing the unloading, heading back to the racecourse for the last bits and getting them back. At this point there was a break from heavy lifting, during which I obtained a full printed list of those who had signed up to bid via http://www.the-saleroom.com, which ran to a James and Sons record 277 (paddle numbers 400-676 inclusive). There was a little bit more lifting to do before the end of my day, as it was necessary to get some stuff ready for loading for a collectors fair on the morrow. I have some pictures from day 2 as well…
One of theirs again!
This tapestry is also theirs.
Caravans parked where on race days there would be bookies.
Golfers in action, srrounded by the racecourse (hence no golf on racedays – a mishit shot might do more than frighten the horses!)
Che Simnor auditioning for the role of security guard!
An item on display in the shop.
The Fakenham Sign
A FINAL THOUGHT ON THE AUCTION
I have not previously been involved in running a two-day auction, and it was an incredibly tiring three days. However, the auction was very successful.
LOTS 466 AND 920
These were the two lots I bid on, and I got both. Both lots attracted my attention because of my special interest (in the best autism circles we do not use the word obsession) in railways (and indeed public transport generally – check out my website www.londontu.be).
LOT 466
This was a rail atlas of Britain, dating from around 1980 (Blake Hall station was open so it is pre-1982, but that whole section of the Central line – Epping– Ongar – was already being considered for closure), and it is very detailed, showing goods and passenger lines. Here are pictures, starting with the images that were available at auction and finishing with some later shots…
This was the image that people saw during the auction – the front coverThe three images starting with this one were also available to internet viewers.
A picture showing the Ongar page – and note where the Chelmsford oage continues to…The page from which this picture comes…A new post in ‘stations’ on my website will be coming soon.A joint pic of the images from pps 32 and 33 showing that the downright dishonourable “costs a Priti penny” Patel has nothing approaching a justification for claiming more in expenses than any other MP in the house – her constituency is hardly far-flung!
LOT 920
This was the Brunel £2 set, and I have the image that was available to auction followers, some images taken of it on display at the venue and some further images taken of it at home…
This image was one of the few at this auction not done me, hence the rookie mistake of showing an ‘obverse’ (just a portrait of a ridiculously over-privileged old woman), when the ‘reverse’ is the key face.On display at the auctionOne of the reverses (still at the auction)A picture taken at my workstation back at the shopThe outside of the folderThe two obverses.This one, showing both reverses and the accompanying info is an example of what the auction image should have looked like.A close up of the ‘reverse’ showing Brunel in his top hata close-up of the other ‘reverse’, a pattern based on Paddington station
What the folder looks like closed.
HAIRPIN POINT – UNINTENTIONAL COMEDY FROM THE GOP
I have called this ‘Hairpin Point’ because it represents a switch in direction on this post away from anything connected with my work to other matters. To set the scene, here is a screen-dump from my email inbox:
The Gun Obsessed Plonkers (GOP for short) have made a spectacular blunder here:
As my email address surely indicates (it ends .co.uk after all) I am not American.
Even I was American the odds against me ever even voting for a Republican, let alone being a registered member would be of the order of zillions to one against.
How someone came to perpetrate a bloomer on this scale I do not know, but it did provide a laugh.
And at the very end, a link to a piece by Mike Sivier of Vox Political about what Labour is doing to attempt to save British Steel, and a follow-up link to a petition on the same subject that has already garnered more than the 100,000 signatures needed for a debate in Parliament:
A section on IDS and benefit deaths, a section on the Labour leadership contest and some other stuff including pictures.
INTRODUCTION
This post is about the recent revelations from the DWP of just how many people have died shortly after having their benefits axed – revelations that were carefully timed to coincide with the dissolution honours in an effort to minimize the coverage they got. Having finally had to admit defeat after fighting a long rearguard action against making any revelations at all (well done Mr Sivier and Ms Zolobajluk for your roles in making this happen) they produce the figures at this time of all times!
THE INHUMANE DESPICABLE SOCIOPATH
Others have done a splendid job of publicising the figures already, and most of this section is devoted to linking to the best of the many pieces that this scandal has generated. First however, a couple of pics to set the scene…
This, courtesy of Mike Sivier at Vox Political is devastating revealing of the kind of monster we are talking about.This is a partial acrostic of my own creation – I could not think of sufficiently opprobrious words to link to the secondary letters of each of his names!
When to comes the various articles and other pieces that have been produced, I have to start with the instigator of it all…
I finish with a brief comment of my own: these figures should without a doubt gain IDS the prize of a one way ticket to The Hague – they constitute ironclad evidence of crimes against humanity carried out on a shocking scale.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
Here are some photographs from yesterday…
This will be lot 251 in James and Sons September AuctionA close up of the two stamps – a 2d blue (quite rare) and a 1d red/brown (common as muck)
This coin is lot 560A few pictures from yesterday morning’s walk
Close ups of each face of the coin.
Lot 601
THE LABOUR LEADERSHIP CONTEST
This will be a brief section. I am not a part of this process, not because I have been purged (although the Labour right are currently purging with truly Vyshinskian enthusiasm in a desperate bid to win by foul means a contest that are being thumped in by fair means) – I never sought a vote in this contest. I have three links to share:
This piece in the Guardian about the way this leadership election has degenerated. The only time I can recall an election looking sillier than this leadership election has been made to look by those who are hell bent on ignoring the will of the bulk of their support was when Baldrick got 16472 votes – and that was funny on purpose.
A new find for me, scriptonitedaily, provide this account of someone who is precisely the type of person Labour should be looking to win back but who has been purged for having previously voted Green. The piece contains details of a very friendly and constructive exchange with her (Labour) MP.
In this section I have three links that I wish to share that did not belong in the main body of the post. After that I have a request, an advance notice and a closing picture.
My second offering courtesy of Cosmos Up segues naturally to my last link, as it concerns a discovery made by Stephen Hawking.
The Mighty, so often a source of wonderfully inspiring material today provide an account of a cashier who helped when an autistic child was experiencing sensory overload – a story that should not stand out, but in today’s world alas it does.
My request is that everyone who has made it through this post should please share it as widely as possible. In line with this request I encourage you to use anything in this blog post that appeals to you just so long as you, as I always try to, give credit where it is due.
My advance notice is that I am working on a post that will be much longer than anything I have previously offered for public consumption.
Bilbo Baggins was once reduced at a banquet to saying “Thag you very buch” – I now conclude this post by offering the clarfiied version…
Pictures from King’s Lynn and East Rudham, mention of two uppcoming events at King’s Lynn Minster, a large number of important links and some high quality infographics.
INTRODUCTION
I hope you will enjoy this very varied post and that some of you will be encouraged to share it. Talking of sharing, here are a couple of recent comments about this blog from twitter:
@obiwandar “Great blog. pictures, activism, tips WOW” @spacesheepy loving the photos & duckies ~ nice blog Thank you for sharing 🙂
BIRDS, BOATS AND PLANES IN KING’S LYNN
In the break between innings of the delayed women’s ashes match at Worcester (yesterday was washed out entirely, so the whole game is happening on the reserve day) I went out for a walk and was delighted to see a cormorant in residence. As these pictures show, it was far from the only interesting sight of the day…
These model planes (two feature in these pictures – 5 pics in total) are by way commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
The Great Ouse looks a bit choppy.
Two boats at the jetty – “Pero” and regular visitor “Kalyptos”
The flag drooped at just the wrong moment, but the gull made the pic worth keeping.And I got the flag, plus an ornate weathercock as a bonus, at the second attempt.This stonework is on the side of the Magistrates Court
LINKS
I have a large number of links to share, and I am going to start with the various campaigns that feature in this context.
CAMPAIGNS
Within this subsection I am going to give each campaign its own small slot…
STOP TTIP
The campaign against TTIP is gathering momentum. 38 Degrees members, of whom I am proud to be one, are organising a day of action all around the country on August 22nd. The particular details for North West Norfolk are:
For more or (hint) to sign up for the event please click here. There is also a specific link for joining.
HELP YAZIDI WOMEN AND GIRLS KIDNAPPED BY ISIS
I encourage all of you to sign and share this petition from change.org. I am going to share a buzzfeed article that gives detailed coverage of this issue and the petition itself:
First up, courtesy of independenclive, a horror story about someone who dared to take part in a protest immediately before an appointment, was refused entry to the building and then sanctioned for missing the appointment.
My final link is to this piece about providing the police with training for dealing properly with autistic people.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
While at my parents in East Rudham for Sunday lunch yesterday I saw these two leaflets…
…While I am sure that both events above will be excellent, it is the one on October 10th which really appeals to me. All three headline composers are among my favourites, while the subtitle piece was the first piece of classical music I ever heard, initiating a life long love. Here is a close up of that leaflet…
A full listing of organ recitals at the Minster can be found here, while among the many things that can found at the Minster’s official website is this piece about the organ.
INFOGRAPHICS
Today has been a bumper day for infographics…
The next three pictures are all related…
A FEW FINAL PICTURES
I bring this post to a conclusion with these pictures from East Rudham yesterday…
My parents new camper vanInside the back of the camper van.Once this pigeon nest was identified as reachable from ground level it did not survive long.
This is going to be one of my ‘interesting mixed posts’ as John P Ointon of notesfromthenorth recently described one, featuring my main body piece, links, infographics and photos.
AUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH
James and Sons had their May auction this Wednesday just gone, at The Maids Head Hotel, Norwich and Thursday was therefore tied up with attending to tasks created by the auction. I made sure that my database was fully updated with details of people who had bid online, produced a word document containing a full list of all of these individuals for our records and also made a start on the press releases.
The auction day was marred by the fact that the venue was far too hot, and for much of the day we could not open any windows due the noise of roadworks going on outside. Nevertheless, there were some good moments, as there should have been given the quality of the stuff we had going under the hammer…
The dog decides to sample the view from the auctioneers chair!
There were two items which stood above all else, and gave the themes for my press releases, lot 218 a gold $20 coin in a sealed plastic box which having been estimated at £1,000 actually went for £1,800, and lot 251 a Waterloo medal, which was estimated at £1,500-2,000 and went for an eye-popping £4,700.
One the Thursday, while prepping the press releases I assembled a composite of all the images I had of the gold coin, and I will conclude this part of the post bu sharing the full gallery with you…
This is the composite image…While this image and the next five are the component parts of that composite.
INFOGRAPHICS AND LINKS
First up, my one stand-alone infographic…
A POST FROM AUTISM MOM
This wonderful post fully deserves a subsection to itself, and comes with some excellent infographics, which I have included here:
I have gained another new follower both for this blog and for my twitter account this morning, and I take this opportunity to share her latest blog post, a wonderful open letter to a fellow parent.
WIND POWER
Take Part Daily provided this superb feature on the possible future of wind power in the United States. As well as links to both the full post and the graphic I include a still of one part of the graphic:
I have three more links to share. First of all, this one from Vox Political on the DWP’s desperate attempts to avoid revealing what they obviously know will be a devastating truth. From Manchester comes this horrible story of a speeding motorist who killed someone, bragged about his speeding, and still only got sentenced to six years in jail. Finally, an important petition: El Salvador has one river still capable of providing it with clean drinking water, which will soon not be the case if one greedy mining company gets its way. I urge all of you to sign and share this petition.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Just before moving on to my final set of photographs I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you have I urge you to share it. These last pics are all from a display in Fakenham Library…
Next, news of a major victory in the battle to save the world’s bees, in pictorial form. While on the subject of conservation, I have a petition to share with you about that horror known as the ivory trade.
My next link is to a piece written by a lawyer who courageously and correctly stood up for his neighbours when they were being bullied by the DWP – it provides insight into just how vicious this department has become since the Idiotic Delusional Sociopath (IDS for short) took control. This post is simultaneously disturbing and inspiring. A natural follow on from that is a link to this post from refuted.org.
My next two links are related both referring to matters connected with LGBT rights. The first one was written in response to Nick Clegg publicly ruling out (a rather grandiose thing for soon-to-be ex MP to do in any case) any coalition involving the SNP, and points out just who he might find himself helping if he supports a coalition of the right – the gang of bigots officially known as the DUP. The second concerns the case of an asylum seeker facing deportion back to Jamaica and certain death – anyone actually carrying out this threat will be an accessory to murder and should be punished appropriately.
Finally, I include a link to an establishment being run by my latest twitter follower, which seems to be an excellent thing.
A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE
This card was sent to me by Rocio Watkins, an American researcher who I have been of some assistance to – it contained a small cheque for which I have thanked her.
This is the stamp on the envelope in which the car was sent. Although being current issue it is not yet of interest to philatelists I feel that I may be so eventually as circular stamps are not all that common.
YESTERDAYS NHS ACTION
Between 11AM and 1PM yesterday about 10 of us took to the streets of King’s Lynn to collect signatures for a petition which is at the heart of a campaign to Save Our NHS. Our numbers were a little less than they may have been because of late withdrawals and the fact that some people who would ordinarily have been with us were campaigning in Hunstanton as part of Jo Rust’s election campaign (including Jo herself who would certainly have been with us otherwise).
The weather was decent, and lots of people signed. I, and accosting people I do not know with a petition is something that having Asperger;s definitely does make more difficult, personally got 20 and must have had 10 times that number tell me they had already signed. Given how many others were also collecting signatures and the near certainty that I will have gathered the fewest of any of them we are certainly talking in terms of several hundred new signatures.
Finally, a few more pictures to end the post:
Look up and across from outside King’s Lynn Debenhams and you will see this window display!Details of a post-election public meeting that will very likely be the occasion of my next visit to the fine city of Norwich.This is my enlarged version of the victory for bees picture.
aspiblog 