Tag: Zac Goldsmith

Beer Mats, Buttons and a few Other Bits

An analysis of my newly acquired collection of beer mats (complete with photos), a unique LNER display and some other stuff.

INTRODUCTION

This post features some stuff I have bought at auctions and some stuff I have been given, and features some links at the end.

BEER MATS

I mentioned in my post about James and Sons’ November auction that I had purchased a box of beer mats. Well I have just finished sorting through them and categorizing them, taking photos along the way.

MACALLAN

There are seven mats that relate to Macallan Scotch Whisky. Macallan are sposnors of one of the world’s most prestigious bridge tournaments as well as purveyors of whisky.

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HEINEKEN AND ICE HOCKEY

I have 12 Heineken mats, one circular and 11 athletics track shaped. These latter 11 feature Ice Hockey Heroes – I have a run of numbers 2 through 9 of the original series of 10 and duplicates of numbers 7, 8 and 9.

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RANDOM FOREIGN

Five mats referrg to foreign drinks.

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COCA COLA AND COMPETITIONS

I have three mats advertsiign coca cola, two of which are duplicates, a schweppes mat and mat advertising a Holsten Pils competition.

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The two central mats are duplicates – I have shown different sides of each.

GENERAL SCOTCHES

Four mats advertising scotch whiskies other than Macallan.

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PRODUCE OF THE APPLE

Five mats where the focus is on drinks created from apples:

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THE IRISH CONTINGENT

I have nine mats featuring products of the Emerald Isle.

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The two big Guinness mats are duplicates, as are the three Murphy’s mats.

UNCATEGORIZED

Four mats that I could not think of a category for.

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BEER MATS GENERAL

We now come to the best bits of the collection. Starting with nine mats featuring a range of beers from around the country.

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The Webster’s mats at the top are duplicates save that they have different heroes on the back, as you will see later…

BEER MATS – EAST ANGLIA

There are ten beer mats in this group, all with a connection to East Anglia.

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You have now seen every beer mat in the collection, but I was not quite finished yet…

THOMAS’ TOP THREE

This is an image of my three favourite beer mats.

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THE RAILWAY CONNECTION

Some mats that are specifically railway oriented.

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The Samuel Whitbread connection is a little tenuous, and I took the opportunity to show the Amy Johnson profile.

THE BUTTONS

One of my colleagues recently gave me some LNER buttons (LNER stood for London and North Eastern Railway), and had previously given me an LNER badge. I also had some other LNBER buttons and an LNER themed postcard from previous purchases, and assembled this into an LNER display.

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The three buttons that set me thinking about the display – without using the flash
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the same buttons with flash
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close up of the locomotive button
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Close up of an LNER button
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Buttons, the badge and the postcard mounted ready for display.
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The top of the display.
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The bottom fo the display
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The badge.

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The display (it is housed in a plastic wallet).

LINKS

I start with some interesting pieces about the byelection that has surely spelt the end of Zac Goldsmith’s political career:

  1. David Hencke, who usually blogs on legal matters offers his take here.
  2. The Skwawkbox blog offer this view.
  3. Mike Sivier of Vox Political has this to say.

My final link is to a petition which can be accessed by clicking the screenshot below.

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A TWITTER FIND

If you are interested in trees then the following, tweeted by a certain James Rees, will certainly appeal:

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A COUPLE OF KING’S LYNN PICS TO FINISH

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A gull using the flagpole at the top of Clifton House tower as a perch.

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Environmental Matters

The Richmond byelection and a thunderclap.

INTRODUCTION

I have no pictures to share currently, but several important links which seem to me to be related.

A THUNDERCLAP AND A BYELECTION

Starting with the second, the result of the Richmond Park Byelection is in, and Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democrats has beaten the nominally ‘Independent’ but actually Tory Zac Goldsmith. The Tories in their arrogant certainty that Goldsmith would retain the seat and could then be persuaded to retake the Tory whip did not field a candidate against him. UKIP also declined to stand against Mr Goldsmith. On the other side the Green party did not field a candidate, while although Labour did have a candidate (transport expert Christian Wolmar) they ran a very low key campaign.

Since none of the candidates standing in this election supported the expansion of Heathrow Airport (the issue that triggered Mr Goldsmith’s resignation) this election was not about that. Nor in a constituency where over 70% of people voted to remain was it about Brexit.

This vote has come about because many Tory voters were not enthused by the prospect of voting for an ‘Independent’ Zac Goldsmith, and by way of being a backdated punishment for the appalling campaign Mr Goldsmith ran in the London mayoral election.

I have two links for you to get more detail about this byelection:

THE THUNDERCLAP

I have signed up to support the 24 Hours of Reality thunderclap the message of which is “We have a climate agreement – now it is time for bold action“. To be part of a thunderclap yopu need to have an account with at least one out of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. The thunderclap brings together all the connections of everyone who takes part. I would urge everyone who can to support this thunderclap.

Autism and Bullying

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…

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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)

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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:

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Same Difference have produced a post to alert people to a new dirty trick that the DWP have come up with.

Finally, this piece ends where it started, with autism, in the form of this post on The Mighty about the pressure on autistic people to attempt to act normally.

Cricket Classic

An account of the finish of the Nottinghamshire vs Surrey game in the county championship, some quality photos and some important links.

INTRODUCTION

As well as an account of a classic finish in the county championship match between Surrey and Notts I have some photos and a few links to share.

SURREY’S UNAVAILING FIGHT BACK

Thanks to Kumar Sangakkara and Arun Harinath in their second innings Surrey came into the final day with half a chance of completing a Lazarus like come back. Surrey’s second innings ended on the stroke of lunch with them having built a lead of 168 – just enough that things might get interesting…

Opener Greg Smith played a solid innings for Notts, but when he was out the score was 152-7 and an upset was definitely possible. However, nos 8 and 9, with a pair of genuine tail-enders to follow saw through the danger to get Notts home by three wickets. There was no play anywhere else in the country.

PHOTOS

Owing to the nature of the day (cricket in the middle thereof), I took two walks, one in the morning and one in the evening and I have pictures from both to share…

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Shot through the window of a bus yesterday.
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All Saints Church
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The side of All Saints Church – note the checkerboard panel.

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These butterflies were enjoying the sun and the dandelions near Old Boal Quay

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This pic and the next have gone down well with my twitter followers.

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These three shots of the Brunel £2 set demarcate morning and evening pics.

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LINKS

My first link is to a piece in the Mirror which shocked me. This is a story of a school using leg gaitors to restrain a six year old autistic child.

My second link is a thunderclap “#Kidsneednature”

My next three links all relate to:

ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES

The folks at disabledgo have put out a top 10 of fully accessible attractions in London which has led me to create:

  1. A new page on my London transport themed website, called “Attractions” and
  2. The introductory post to what will be a series based on the disabledgo piece.

My remaining links also belong together, constituting

THREE MORE REASONS FOR LONDONERS TO
VOTE FOR SIAN BERRY IN THE MAYORAL ELECTIONS

Sian Berry has been running the best campaign of all the contenders for London Mayor by the proverbial country mile, and today she has responded as a potential decision maker to not one or even two but three change.org petitions that I have signed. I have links below to the pages that show her very detailed and very positive responses to all three.

  1. The first is a call for a statue of a suffragette to be placed in Parliament square.
  2. The second calls for mayoral candidates to invest in youth work.
  3. Thirdly and finally is a call addressed by the creator of the petition to Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan, but today answered by Sian, to protect independent shop owners in the capital.

 

 

 

A Very Important Petition and Imaging for the May Auction

A signpost to a pwtition that should get very biog very quickly, some of the best images from today at work and a couple of links relating the latest blunder by the Goldsmith campaign for London Mayor.

INTRODUCTION

A two part-post, as I was always going to be sharing some images from today, and I have something else that needs to be given prominence…

PETITION: QUALIFICATIONS OF HEALTH PROFESSIONAL FOR PIP/WCA
MEDICAL TO BE OPENLY AVAILABLE

I received a comment on my recent post “Many Things” (I have the commenter’s permission to quote verbatim) that runs as follows:

i started a petition to have open transparency about the Health care professionals that do the WCA a assessment on behalf of the dwp, the reason for this is that are they qualified for the role there doing ie a physiotherapist doing a mental health assessment for bi-polar, ask directly for there qualifications and you will find a wall of hiding behind laws, so to make it easier the petition is about having this in public domain so vunerable adults do not have to go through loops to find out the information and decide whether the person that assessed them is fit for purpose, in light of channel 4 dispatches nothing has changed so this is more important now. can you sign please the link is below https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/126229

This petition struck instantly, and I followed up the link, which revealed the following:

Petition

I have signed this petition, shared on twitter & facebook, and urge everyone to sign and if you are able share it. Please use the link below:

VIEW, SIGN AND SHARE PETITION HERE

MAY IMAGING

Today at work I made a stgart on the imaging for the May auction, and here are some of the highlights for you…

Lot 1 – a vewry ornate photograph album
Lot 3 – not so ornate as lot 1 but on similar lines
Lot 4 – a pretty little item
Lot 4 in its closed state
Once on a time lot 3 was lockable, but this lock is no longer functioning
Lot 6
A close up of the lump of iron pyrites with two figures on top
Lot 7
The trademark from lot 7
Lot 8
Lot 10
The first of two close-ups of this piece
Lot 101
Lot 103
Lot 105, followed by two close-ups of the handle
Lot 107
A close-up of the axe-head segment of lot 107

THE CASE OF MR GOLDSMITH
AND THE SCRAPED BARREL

Mike Sivier at Vox Political set me on to this story, which is typical only worse of the way in which the whole of Mr Goldsmith’s campaign for London Mayor has been run:

  1. Mike’s post, which signposts…
  2. This Guardian piece.

 

A Varied Day at James and Sons

An account of today at James and Sons, featuring the construction of a press release, a bonus explanation of the origin of the phrase ‘bent as a nine-bob note’, and at the end a couple of important links.

INTRODUCTION

I have some old images to share, some new images to share, and a press release to talk about. Additionally I have a couple of important links that I will be sharing at the end of this post.

THE CREATION OF A PRESS RELEASE

There are several stages involved in creating press releases/ bulk emails. Stage 1 is working out what to cover, which in this case involved two aspects:

  1. The success of the March 30th and 31st auction, with large numbers of internet bidders, and…
  2. Advertising the April auction, complete with a link to the online catalogue listing.

Each of the foregoing for maximum effect needed to be accompanied by an appropriate image. Hence:

IMAGE SELECTION

For the March image I was looking for something that had sold for well above estimate, and would look good in an email. Thus my attention focussed on lot 720, which I recalled as being both interesting visually and spectacularly successful in the auction room. Thus I needed to view the full image gallery and select from within that…

This full image is too busy for use in an email
This image showing the coins and ingot in their natural alignment looked good
I could have used this but decided against it
The obverses on their own are not very interesting – it is the reverses that are distinctive
It was close a call for this one.
The ingot on it’s own could not be used, but there were possibilities involving it…

I decided, given the shape of image I was looking for to combine the shot of the four coins and the ingot and the close-up of the ingot into a composite image (I considered the four reverses on their own, but wanted both parts of the image to have the same colour background).

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The composite I created for the occasion.

For the image to accompany the text advertising the April auction the task was easier – I went for the front cover item for very obvious reasons.

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Incidentally the above denomination of banknote provides the origin for the phrase “bent as a nine-bob note” – ‘bob’ was a colloquialism for a shilling, and as shown above, a ‘ten-bob’ note was kosher while a ‘nine-bob note’ would absolutely not have been.

ASSEMBLING A MAILING LIST

Coming up with the text for the press release is a straight-forward task, and assembling a mailing list is a simple matter of noting which categories of items are prominent in the upcoming auction, selecting the appropriate lists from the database and combining them into one big list. In this instance there were almost 400 names on the final list. As a security measure (and a guard against people hitting the ‘reply to all’ button) I am the designated recipient of the emails (my James and Sons email address, not my personal one) and the true recipients are bcc’d. Thus, given that our system can handle approximately 100 people being bcc’d at a time, this one involved sending the email four times.

THE FINAL PRESS RELEASE

I have a jpg of the final press release, and also a link that will enable you to view the document in its original word format.

INTERNET INTEREST SPARKS JAMES AUCTION SUCCESSpr

SOME LATE ARRIVALS

In addition to the above, some work on the database and some fetching and carrying there were also a few items that had been catalogued but had not previously been in our possession so still needed imaging…

This ‘claymore’ type sword is an absolute monster – stood vertically it reaches my shoulder!

A COUPLE OF LINKS

First up, courtesy of WEIT comes a horror story about a secular blogger being hacked to death in Bangladesh.

Finally, to end this post on an upbeat note, a story from the New Statesman by way of Prides Purge about how badly the Tory campaign for London Mayor has come off the rails (attentive followers of this blog  and my London transport themed website, www.londontu.be, will know that if I had a vote in that election I would be using it on Sian Berry’s behalf, but whoever ends up benefitting – most likely Sadiq Khan – bad news for Tories is good news for me!)