A brief account of yesterday;s episode of Antiques Road Trip, which featured both my home town and my employer. Also some photographs and some links.
INTRODUCTION
Although I do have a few other things to share this post is mainly concerned with yesterday’s episode of Antiques Road Trip, which happened to feature an auction at Fakenham Racecourse (which took place on April 29th 2015).
For those who watch, I am the person in the red jacket sitting next to the auctioneer.
This was the start of a new week, so we were introduced to the two experts and shown the car that they would be using first. Then the buying part of the episode happened, which features some excellent footage of King’s Lynn among other places.
The episode concluded, as they all do, with the auction. While I do not know much about what happened to these items after the auction I can tell you that following a couple of other unsuccessful outings the baker’s scales are still on the James and Sons van.
The program was well made, and even though I of course already knew which items were destined to be bought for sale at that auction, nevertheless it held my attention all the way through.
A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE
I mentioned that there was some good footage from King’s Lynn on yesterday’s episode of Antiques Road Trip, and here some photos from King’s Lynn…
St Nicholas Chapel, taken in AugustThe Corn Exchange, also from AugustThe Custom House, from AugustTaken yesterdayTaken yesterdayTaken yesterdayOne of three images of the flag flying above King’s Lynn station, all taken yesterdayThe Red Mount Chapel, taken yesterday
Taken yesterdayTaken yesterdayIt is not often that a poll produces this result! – the story was about a Tory lord who was claiming that their daily allowance was insufficient!The front of the Duke’s Head Hotel where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference will be happening on April 15th.
WWW.LONDONTU.BE
I conclude this post by sharing a few recent posts connected with my London transport themed website:
An account of the launch of project to build a museum that really is dedicated to the women of east London. A section on London Underground that opens with some support for the workers who run that system in their effort to secure a limitation on the number of night shifts they can be forced to work and concludes with some quirky stuff about London Underground.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this post with a triple purpose title. Those purposes are:
A tribute to a wonderful piece of music, composed by Edward Elgar
This is the first of several posts that I will be putting up today
Also, some elements of this post will indubitably be springboards for launching future posts.
LONDON TOWN
The Cockaigne Overture is a musical invocation of London Town, and it fits with this post because this post is about London. There are two elements to the body of this post:
Some stuff about an exciting new project in East London
And some stuff about London Underground
EAST END WOMEN’S MUSEUM
This is the most important part of the post, being dedicated to the exciting project mentioned above. Before I get right into it, I must mention as an extra sharing forum my newly created second personal email address, thomasavsutcliffe@gmail.com and its associated google+ account. This project has grown out of the anger at a piece of vile duplicity, when what was claimed to be a museum dedicated to the women of East London turned out to be dedicated to Jack the Ripper. The first response, by way of 38degrees, was this petition entitled “Celebrate Suffragettes not Serial Killers“.
Then came the idea to create a museum that really was dedicated to women of East London, for which I offer the following links:
I conclude this part of the post by urging all of you to get involved in any way you can with this really excellent and exciting new project.
LONDON UNDERGROUND
Before getting into the two main parts of this section, I draw your attention to my series of posts “London Station by Station“.
THE STRIKES
The first thing to say about the strikes that are currently rocking London Underground is to make a point that opponents of these workers are doing their damnedest to deliberately obscure: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY. The dispute is about working conditions, and specifically about changes in connection with the introduction of the Night Tube (as it’s instigator, BoJo the Clown calls it). What these workers want and which management have thus far refused to do is a guaranteed upper limit on the number of night shifts any individual can be made to work in the course of a year. To finish this introduction by I reiterate the opening point: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY.
I support these workers wholeheartedly in their struggle and I conclude, because this really cannot be over emphasized by saying one final time: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY.
SOME OTHER STUFF ON LONDON UNDERGROUND
I have two links and some accompanying graphics in this subsection.
Welcome to this, my third post about Marxism 2015, the five-day political festival hosted by the Socialist Workers Party at the Institute of Education in London. I hope that you will enjoy this post and be inspired to share it.
ACCOMMODATION
I was booked to stay with somebody in Walthamstow, and although their house is not close to a tube station, it would nor amlly have been easy to get there. However, the tube strike meant that we had to go by bus to Clapton and get a London Overground service to Wood Street. In the heavy traffic generated by the tube strike this took considerable time. Getting in the following morning was easier, but I failed to allow enough time (a very rare occurrence) and arrived a little late for the first meeting…
AT THE EVENT
Here is a photo of my timetable for the day in question, showing the meetings I decided to attend…
All of these meetings were magnificent, but I am going to concentrate for photos on the first two, and for most of my text on the third.
Here then are some photos from the first meeting, and fascinating stuff it was too, with a convincing demonstration of egalitarianism in early human history…
Anatolia.CatalhoyukCayonu
These reconstructions are wrong in one respect – the houses had neither windows nor doors, being approached through the roof, with most of daily life taking place on said rooftops (there being no roads).
A mother goddess from these ancient remains.A 19th century South American village on similar lines.
For the second meeting I attended that day on Mental Health, photos really can tell most of the story…
Another connection to where I grew up – Jeremy from Streatham talking about the Mental Health Charter.Jo from London tells of family memories of living near a mental hospital (When we first moved to London there was exactly such an institution within a few minutes walk of our home)
This picture adorns one wall of the Elvin Hall where the meeting took place.
Susan gives her opening talk on Mental Illness: A Disorder of Capitalism.The feature image for this post.
A GERMAN-CENTRIC TAKE ON CLASSICAL MUSIC
Although I thoroughly enjoyed this meeting I was a little disappointed that it was so dominated by German and Austrian composers, with only brief mentions of the Italians (my favourites). Before moving any further I must pay tribute to Siobhan from East London who stepped in at the twelfth hour when the person who should have been chairing the meeting could not be located, and did an excellent job…
Siobhan from East London who stepped in as chair at the twelfth hour.
Although as I have said I would have preferred more credit to be given the Italian composers, I did enjoy this meeting, and overall Sabby Sagall acquitted himself well in slightly testing circumstances…
Sabby Sagall speaking about Classical Music.
I will finish this post with a few pictures from later in the day…
Mark L Thomas addresses a packed house on “Are the Greens a Left Alternative?”Shahrar Ali, leading Green, offers constructive comment from the floor.Sarah Creagh introduces “Rosa Luxemburg and the German Revolution”A moment of whimsy -a close up shot of on of Sarah Creagh’s earrings.Blackhorse Road Station, from where a 123 bus gets to the end of the road on which I was staying, by night (definitely the best time to see it!)
Welcome to this, the second post in my series about Marxism 2015, the five day political festival currently taking place at the Institute of Education in central London. The first post can be viewed here.
LIGHTING THE RED TOUCHPAPER
The opening rally, expertly chaired by Emma Davies, was such a fantastic occasion, with so many fabulous speakers that I cannot possibly do justice to it in words, so I hope that the various photographs I use do the job for me…
Emma Davies was entrusted with the task of chairing the opening rally and did an excellent job.
On the day the London was brought to its knees by a tube strike, it was only appropriate that the first speaker should be one of the strikers. Unjum Mirza revealed a great piece of international solidarity in the form of a bilingual English/ Greek banner, and another in the form of a collection that raised over £100 for the SEK, Greek sister organsiation to the SWP who host Marxism.
Unjum Mirza with Panos Garganos in the shot.Unjum, Panas and a Unison rep diplay international solidarity, holding up the bilingual banner.
Next up were these three…
Jenny Sutton, TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) candidate for Tottenham (polled 1,300 votes) spoke next…
I cannot remember all the rest of the speakers, but a group oc campaigners against the privatisation of the National Gallery were among them…
Panos Garganos had his own moment as a member of SEK in the spotlight…
The evening was brought to a close by event organiser Amy Leather…
aspiblog 