World's Tiniest

My brother-in-law kindly sent me this video.  It's quite long, about 9.30 minutes, but it's impossible to stop watching. http://www.wimp.com/tiniestengine/
Engineers can be quite annoying people but you have to admit spending 1220 hours on making this from scratch is one heck of an achievement.

Sunday's Column - Bowling

S.W.M.B.O. has become a bit of a demon at bowling.  She goes along every week to play in a league and is steadily improving  This week's column is about bowling and something of it's history.  Did you know for instance that bowling is the world's oldest sport?  I didn't until I began to do some research on the activity. But an Egyptologist found a grave going back 5,000 years with some bowling equipment in it.  You can read the entire article on www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels once the paper gets the page up on its Web site.

Sweep

We had our chimney swept the other day.   Now this is work that has hardly changed in several hundred years.  Maybe we don't put children down the chimney any more, but it's still a case of brushes, and long pieces of screw-in poles.

Living in the mountains with cold nights one of the pleasures is burning logs on an open fire.  We also use those clever paraffin logs for the purpose, they help implement the regular wooden types.  But there's the question of whether or not they leave flammable deposits, which could cause fires in the flu.  So along came the sweep about 12 months after his last visit.  It took about 15 minutes and in spite of his dire warnings, there was only about a cup full of soot to collect after the sweeping.  I therefore shall not be repeating the exercise next year as it seems at $125, a little too expensive an operation to keep on doing.

Music Track - The Ventures

I know my friend Kevin down in the Marina is going to like this one.  He raved at Booker T's Green Onions when I put it up.  Well, this is from the same era and it's perhaps not the most famous of The Ventures music, which was Perfidia.  But this is certainly the second favorite.  When I was stuggling with adulthood in 1960, this would come on the wireless a lot - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-evJ0J08Jw&feature=related

Bikes

For about two years now London has been experimenting with commuter bikes.  These are rented using a special credit card and can be taken and returned from various racks around the city.

These were parked close to St. Paul's and the lot seemed pretty full.  I wonder what happens if you arrive at a rack and find it full, do you have to cycle off somewhere else to find a vacant slot?

The bikes are very easy to spot with their Barclay's Bank panel on the rear fender, and I believe they are quite heavy.  I lifted up the back wheel and they seemed OK, but that's not a very good test.  The incidence of theft has been extremely small.

I wonder how successful such a scheme would be in Los Angles.  Perhaps you could have them on the outside near Metro stations so that people could drive to the outskirts and then cycle on for the rest of the commute.

It would be an interesting idea for the city.

Movie Number 9

Number nine in the list of follow up movies is Mulholland Falls.  In the top ten, I listed LA Confidential, and that this one is also a great favorite of mine.  I sometimes get confused between the two.

But this stars Nick Nolte and he and his team of hard-nosed LA cops get themselves in a plot of great seriousness.

There is a great performance by John Malkevitch as well.

Florida

Well, I'm on the big silver bird again.  This time it's to Florida.  I'm going to see my old friend Paul, who comes out there every year for three months to dodge something of the English winter.  I spent a little time there with him two years ago and I'm really looking forward to my return.

One of the things we like to do is cycle down a little way to a small hotel with a lovely swimming pool, where we can sit and enjoy a drink and some serious conversation.  By the end of a week, we will have sorted out most of the world's major problems.  My destination this time is Sanibel Island which is on the Gulf Coast about halfway up.  Great place.  S.W.M.B.O. says she doesn't much like Florida, so she's going to spend a week with the grandchildren in Reno.  We both fly out of Ontario and arrive back within an hour of each other.  Airlines permitting!

Traitor?

During our visit to the Tower of London we stopped at Traitor's Gate.  Evan took this picture of me in front of it.

It was originally built by Edward I  in the 13th century to allow the royal family access to the palace from the River Thames. Remember, the roads in those days were very bad and sometimes almost impassable. The river therefore was the great highway.  Later on in the 16th century it was used to bring in prisoners for their incarceration, and also their execution.  On the way they would pass by the mounted heads of other executed people.  It was just this sight that greeted Ann Boleyn when she was brought here in 1536.  I may have deserted the UK 30 years ago and choose now to live in the US, but I don't think it actually makes me a traitor, does it?

Brekkers

I always enjoy my visit to Heathrow on the return leg of trips to the UK.  Perhaps it's because I know I'm going home.  On this occasion, I was accompanied by S.W.M.B.O. (She Who Must Be Obeyed!) and Evan, my grandson, who is 16.  He like all teenagers was hungry and so he ordered a "Farmhouse," which is three of everything.  My school reports always said I was easily led, so I had the same.

That's three eggs; three rashers of proper English bacon; three sausages; baked beans; fried potatoes and a mushroom.  And of course, toast! The more observant of you will note the glass half full above the plate.  I was given that special look that wives reserve for their husbands when found drinking beer before 10 in the morning!  I passed when the stewardess offered me lunch on board.

Sunday's Column - Hoover Band

Sunday's column was about my trip to see the Glendale Hoover Marching Band.  It was a first for me and I have to say that I was very impressed with the entire show.  I had expected a bunch of unwilling teenagers murdering Sousa, but instead I saw eight bands execute difficult pieces with tremendous discipline.  The event was very well done and the bands came and went with military precision.  I think some of the music chosen was more to impress the music teachers' peers, but in all it was a great first for me.You can read the entire column at www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels  It may take a day or two for the paper to get the piece up on the site.

Docents

On our trip to England we went along to Fishbourne Palace.  This place was discovered in 1960 by a developer, preparing the ground for a large housing estate.  He uncovered Roman remains that date back to the year 100 A.D or if you prefer it C.E. (common era.)
I visited the museum in the 70's and wandered around not really understanding what I was looking at, but this time we talked to one of the docents there.  He showed us some of the details of the floors which I had completely missed on my first visit there all those years ago.

This floor for instance is made to have several optical illusions that play with perspectives.  You have to look at it for quite a while to see the designs.

This floor was designed for a rich man.  It's susbsidence is due to an iron age rubbish tip underneath.  They lifted the floor and found another underneath, then replaced the one you see here.  The different stones were brought from the Mediterranean except for the gray ones that were quarried locally.

New Sponsor

Today we welcome a new sponsor to the blog - CLUB BOMBAY.  This wonderful new bar has opened up in the village under the ownership of Bob Curtis and his lovely daughter Heather.  It is next to the Himalayan Restaurant on Pine Knot. http://www.clubbombaybbl.com/

Bob, who is also the designer and oftentimes the craftsman of this new, relaxing watering hole has taken as his theme the 1920's era English/South Asian life and also coupled that with live music many nights of the week.  He is also a musician.  If you are in the area, Club Bombay is the place to visit.

Music Track - Barry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Jw6_Xgszk&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL6175761C9BBA91AC  I'm compiling another list of Movies.  These are the ones that didn't make the top ten but came damned close (To badly quote the Duke of Wellington!)  One of them is The Ipcress File made in 1965 with Michael Caine.  The music was written by John Barry who died this year at 78.  He wrote so much wonderful music to go along with films and this is typical.  It takes about a minute to get into the main theme.  I wonder if you remember it.

Sussex

We stayed in Sussex for most of our trip to England.  Many thanks to brother and sister-in-law Tony and Jean for their wonderful hospitality.  Sussex lies immediately south of London and backs onto the English Channel. It is a lovely county and has a lot of rural charm.  We visited a number of places including a museum devoted to old houses.  Some of them going back to the early middle ages.

Tudor House

It was very interesting to walk around these dwellings that have been brought from all over the South of England.  Of course the houses were mostly the properties of well to do people, as the lower orders lived in wattle and daub shacks.  That's willows woven and then plastered with mud, dirt, and yes, even manure.  They didn't always last through storms.

Open fires were burning in some of the houses and after an hour or two we all smelt of the embers.

But we did sample some bread straight from the oven made by one of the docents there.  It was OK, but a little tasteless.

It was also nice to see livestock wandering around in a natural state.  I particularly liked the sheep; their coats were extremely oily.

Saxon church in Singleton - over 1000 years old



Weald and Downland Museum



Chichester Cathedral - 900 years old