blakeyboy

I've had a bad day- 8am I had my flu jab that I really didn't enjoy, and I have a very sore arm. It's rather screwed up my day. Mind you, having the flu jab done at Kwikfit was probably a bad idea, in retrospect...

Fortunately, the Desk Sergeant was surprisingly understanding.......

Here's one for people with certain brain types. Stayed in a hotel in Pickering. Sitting on the loo, looked at the view in front of me. Floor tiles not parallel to either wall in this corner, and they are not parallel to _any_ of the four walls, so the tiler must have started randomly in the middle and worked outwards.....??? The pedestal isn't parallel to the wall either. The ceiling has no 90˚ corner. Lying in the bath also did my head in.

I've been offered 500kg of pennies from change, in copper fire buckets. Gonna be £3k plus, due to the scrap. Seller is adamant they are unchecked, maybe true, since as I was talking with him on his market stall, I found an 1897 F148 'High tide' in one of his 10p tins.... All this takes me back to my dog-eared 'check your change' book, that went everywhere with me in the late '60's.... ...Co-op, probably 1967, corner of Bewdley Street and Crowther Street in Kidderminster, and I saw my mother receive an 1860- date visible only, but the oldest I had ever seen.....I think I still have it.....

Thanks Rob. Useful as usual!

Agreed, and the extra fat under the chin makes Victoria look likes she's put on a stone in the first picture...!

That 1880 is one of my favourite coins, because it was an accidental find, and explains a lot. I don't know of another. My feeling is that ten more need to be found, and it will then have known status and value.

I found this 1880 years ago, which i think shows that the Mint were concerned at some point about the 0 wandering up and moved it back down....

How d'you mean- "wiped" ?

I have a feeling that the message I sent him was the rudest.....!

What makes you think that?

Vey interesting list!! I've been trying to grow Solandra Maxima, and its on the NZ lists as a problem.

Hedychium Gardnerianum- amazing perfume...two months earlier than usual...strange year......

I released some old pound coins back into the wild a couple of years back, and I made sure I was away from major roads, and on the edge of some woodland.

Lovely to see Norman Collier celebrated.

If that is interesting, I forgot one other record- THE record - try this...good reading! https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/record-setting-jaguar-xk120/

Was working in Brussels this week, and on the way back I hunted down the remains of the original tarmac of the road that hosted the speed trials. These bits are right by the Total services by Jabbeke, heading NW. From the Wiki entry: Speed records In the 1940s and 1950s it was renowned for the number of speed records set on a measured kilometer of highway. Not just absolute speed records, manufacturers wanted each model's maximum speed measured and certified by the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium. For example, the Healey Elliottwith 110.65 mph in 1946, at the time the 'fastest car in the world in series production',[2]the Jaguar XK120achieved an officially timed 126 mph (202.78 km/h); the "Jabbeke Speed Record" Triumph TR2(124.889 mph) car was driven by Ken Richardson; André Piletteset a Belgian record in the 2 litre class in the VeritasRS 206 km/h (128.00 mph); in 1952 the RoverJET 1 turbine driven by Spen Kingset the first speed record for gas turbine cars at 151.965 mph (244.56 km/h) over the flying kilometre; and the exotic Pegaso Z-102clocked 250 km/h (155.34 mph) to make it the 'fastest production car in the world'.

3 1/2 years too early....! It's weird- Trump makes Reagan look competent, and Biden makes Reagan look young! Who'd have thought......?

Hi Alan Email the picture to yourself, choosing what size you want, and use that. That's all I do. Always works. Blake

I'll have what he's drinking, please....!!!! Excellent!!

Oh- I forgot to mention that when Eric and his family watched the Mr.Preview sketch at Christmas, at home ( I meant, above, to say it was in front of an audience, and there was really only time for one take- it was recorded, not live) he turned to his family and said "We can't top that"....he just knew it was the peak of his career. Previn had such a tiny amount of time to rehearse with M+W, they were pencilled in for a five-day rehearsal, which didn't happen because Preving mother was ill in the US, but was his wonderful wit that sparked his lucrative career in the UK music scene. He had his own beer glass in his local pub with "Mr.Preview" engraved on it.....

Oh yeah- in the Mr. Preview sketch, they do a lot of chat with Previn in front of the curtains. Eric was really really worried- Previns plane was late, so there was no time for a rehearsal, they had never met him, and it was live in front of an audience. During the banter, when Previn says he needs to go get his baton, and it's in Chicago, _watch Eric_. He's jubilant and punches the air, because he realises that Previn understands comedy, and that's when he decides it's safe to ad-lib later in the Greig sketch, and grab him by the lapels, since he felt, to his immense relief, that Previn can be trusted. I always enjoy the orchestra laughing behind them, who cannot believe what they are seeing.....

Well, interestingly, I played a lot of American friends the Mr. Preview sketch, and they all enjoyed it. However, when I played them the Cleopatra sketch with Glenda Jackson, that were all absolutely bowled over. You watch it again- its full of ad-libs, it's very fast paced and more like US comedy. Jackson, herself, has a masterful comic touch throughout. Incidentally, when Eric throws the grapes on the floor, treads them, then picks up a glass of red wine, he necks it in one, and coughs and stares at the glass, because it had been ribena in each rehearsal, and the production staff switched it for a strong red wine as a joke....