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  • London – Camden – British Museum (South Metopes)

    London – Camden – British Museum (South Metopes)

    I have no in-depth knowledge of these, but there’s plenty of information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metopes_of_the_Parthenon about these metopes. They were carved in around 446BC and have had quite the adventure over the centuries.

    But, the bizarre situation now, and without getting political, is that the main sections of some of them are in the British Museum and the heads of these figures are still in Athens (and some are dotted around other parts of Europe).

    This is South Metope VI (SM7) and the catalogue description for this reads as follows, split into three different sections.

    Parthenon SM.7 (Acropolis)
    Title: Parthenon, South Metope 7
    Collection: Athens, Acropolis Museum
    Subject: Centaur head

    Parthenon SM.7 (Paris)
    Title: Parthenon, South Metope 7
    Collection: Paris, Musee du Louvre
    Subject: Head of Lapith
    Subject Description:
    The head of a young Lapith belongs to metope S7, now in the British Museum. He has short hair, large eyes rimmed with thick lids, a mouth with a full lower lip and no beard. The head is represented in an almost frontal view, though the left side is not completely finished.
    Condition Description:
    Head in relief, broken across back. Nose in broken and worn. Heavily weathered

    Parthenon SM.7 (London)
    Title: Parthenon, South Metope 7
    Collection: London, British Museum
    Subject: Lapith and Centaur
    Subject Description:
    Centauromachy: Lapith (left) charges against Centaur with left arm forward, mantle clasped at right shoulder. Centaur (right) rears up, his left foreleg against stomach and groin of Lapith, his cloak flying out to right.
    Form and Style:
    Note veins in left arm of Lapith — a Severe Style trait.
    Condition Description:
    Missing: upper right corner of slab, most of right leg, left foot, right hand, and lower mantle of Lapith, left rear foreleg and left arm of Centaur. Heads in Athens and Paris (Louvre Ma 737). Surface abraded.

    So, anyone who wants to see study this metope will have to pop along to the Louvre, the British Museum and the Acropolis Museum. It’s not ideal….

  • London – Camden – British Museum (Re-opened)

    London – Camden – British Museum (Re-opened)

    The British Museum has taken a little longer to open that some other historic attractions in London, but I was able to pre-book a ticket to visit today. The facade of the building is under repair and is expected to open next year, the first restoration of this since it was damaged during the Second World War.

    There’s some muddled logic about the entire opening and I’m surprised that the British Museum were struggling with this, although perhaps the professionalism of some other museums has made it look too easy in what are different circumstances. The British Museum limit entrance to the complex ten minutes before the time on the ticket, which isn’t clearly signed anywhere. It’s not illogical, it just means that people then hang around outside the entrance to the museum in a beautiful small crowd. Which isn’t ideal.

    As for bags, they’re letting in some enormous backpacks, something which I was slightly surprised about. I suspect they’d be better limiting this to some degree, although the security process was quick to go through.

    The inside of the British Museum’s Great Court, where there was plenty of space for visitors to walk around. The cafes and shops are also open, although the seating capacity of the former is quite limited.

    And the beautiful old reading room, now unused for its original purpose as the British Library has its own premises at St. Pancras.

    As for the interior, the museum had made what I considered to be a bizarre decision to funnel everyone together when they entered. So, they ended up with relatively crowded areas, which isn’t really an ideal situation given what is going on at the moment. I suspect that the staff are meant to restrict entrance, but there’s a limited amount they can do. The photo above isn’t of the busiest areas, but I didn’t entirely like their one-way system. None of the other museums I’ve visited over the last few weeks has tried to operate with a one-way system, sometimes it’s best to get people away from each other. If visitors see a nice quiet area, then they can go and visit that, rather than have to stand around together in an area where they might not feel entirely safe.

    These photos were taken in order and what ended up happening was that there was a clump of people at the start of the one-way process and then nearly no-one hanging around as they reached the end to their visit and perhaps rushed through. The one-way system is in places difficult to follow, a chunk of people walk against it and that’s not through any fault of theirs, as in some places I found it illogical.

    Anyway, it was nice to see the British Museum open again, I usually visit every few months and look around a certain section each time. There’s lots closed off at the moment, but there’s still a reasonable amount to see. Definitely some thought needs to be put into the flow of visitors though and letting them self-regulate to a degree so they can feel safer and less crowded.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 165

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 165

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Jack Tar

    Grose didn’t exert himself with his definition of this phrase, noting solely that it was “a sailor”. As this is a common phrase even now, a fair bit of work has been done by others in trying to work out where the term originally derives from. It’s likely that the ‘Jack’ was just a colloquial word for a man, but the ‘tar’ bit is more unknown. Sailors would sometimes put tar on clothing to make it waterproof, but ships were also known for their ropes covered in tar, so either route might have led to the origins of the phrase.

    It’s thought that the term would have been relatively new by the time that Grose wrote about it, probably dating to around the mid to late eighteenth century by the time it was in more common usage. There are though some references to it at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but it became much more frequently used in the early nineteenth century.

    By the late nineteenth century, the term was used less frequently, although it’s yet to entirely die out.

  • Swadlincote – Sir Nigel Gresley

    Swadlincote – Sir Nigel Gresley

    To provide a little context, we visited this pub in Swadlincote whilst on our sixth LDWA 100 training walk.

    This was the final pub of the day, the JD Wetherspoon operated outlet in Swadlincote, named after the famous railway engineer who lived nearby in Netherseal. It was a pub, albeit a bit run-down, before JD Wetherspoon took it over in 2001, previously known as the Granville Arms.

    I took this photo with the hope of identifying the real ale that I ordered, but I didn’t take it clearly enough and I’ve since forgotten. Anyway, I know that it tasted fine and seemed well-kept. Not that this information is of use to anyone, but it’s the best I’ve got here….

    The interior of the pub, quieter on a Saturday night that I had anticipated.

    The chicken vindaloo curry, which they clearly hadn’t sold out of on Thursday’s Curry Club, but it was £3.99 and tasted fine. It was probably just a bit too spicy a thing to order on a Saturday night, but it was hot and everything was cooked appropriately.

    And, I had a little at the pub reviews, which aren’t generally the best in the chain shall we say.

    “I have used the disabled toilet in the pub as I have a radar key. I find really helpful as you have room to move around and it’s private, or at least I thought it was. Someone tried to come in while I was inside and I carried on, but to my amazement and shock they managed to get in with their key.”

    I’m surprised that this doesn’t happen more often, but I’ve seen this a few times in different Wetherspoons. The staff often knock on the door, wait about two seconds and then open the door. It’s admittedly exciting drama, but not for the person inside the toilet….

    That’s about as notable as the reviews get, although more seem to complain about other customers than the actual pub itself. Anyway, this was a perfectly comfortable and welcoming pub, with it being rather handy that they were still serving food so late. And, other than the few miles walk back to the accommodation, it marked the end of what had been a long and exciting (well, what I call exciting) day….

  • Kettering – Marketplace Timeline

    Kettering – Marketplace Timeline

    I like this idea of having a timeline made out of stones in the market place of Kettering, encouraging people to be reminded about the town’s history. This stone, where the wording was apparently a little botched by the local council, told the interesting story of Geoff Perry and Derek Slater with their remarkable efforts at Kettering Grammar School to launch a successful Satellite Tracking Group.

    The borough council has decided that nothing sufficiently exciting happened between 1966 and the space exploration story until 1991, when the A14 opened. I’m sure this was important in improving transport in the area, and reducing congestion in the town centre, but perhaps more other stories could have been found.

    The most recent addition by the council is from 2014, marking when the Anglian Regiment was presented with the Freedom of the Borough of Kettering, which is a rather nice gesture. Quite why nothing has been added in honour to James Acaster is a different matter, but hopefully the council will reflect on this in years to come.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 164

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 164

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Hush Money

    Little has changed with the meaning of this phrase, defined by Grose as “money given to hush up or conceal a robbery, theft, or any other offence, or to take off the evidence from appearing against a criminal”. This does perhaps feel like a more modern construction, but it dates back to at least the beginning of the eighteenth century.

    ‘Hush’ comes from ‘huisht’, meaning to be quiet or still, with the ‘t’ at the end likely going missing over time as people mis-took it for being in the past tense.

    The phrase has remained in common usage over the last three centuries, becoming more frequently used over the last few decades.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    This is the third time that I’ve taken the Greater Anglia service from Norwich to London Liverpool Street over the last month, another £10 bargain fare. Although the first train service into London for that price left at 13:00, arriving under two hours later.

    As with my previous journeys, the train was quiet in Norwich. It was also clean and well presented, with all of the power points working well.

    The train became busier towards London, although it was nowhere near packed. There were frequent announcements that made warning that customers might be fined £100 if they didn’t wear a face mask, but I’m not exactly sure who was meant to be doing this enforcement. I haven’t seen any presence from the British Transport Police on any of my recent journeys, so I suspect it’s just said more out of hope than anything else. There was high compliance with the rule though, with customers not moving around the train much.

    The train arrived into London Liverpool Street on time and, unfortunately (or probably fortunately really), it was all rather uneventful. I still think that this new train looks beautiful and graceful, just a slight shame that there are so few people on the bloody thing.

  • London – Rush Hour at Canary Wharf

    London – Rush Hour at Canary Wharf

    There was a grand plan to get office workers back into London today, with the Evening Standard having a full-page editorial saying that some sort of normality is now required.

    This was the 17:00 underground service from Canary Wharf…..

  • Aylsham – Gate of India

    Aylsham – Gate of India

    I’ve certainly had my fair share of discounts from the Government’s ‘eat out to help out’ and this was the last meal of the month, on Monday 31 August 2020. Richard and I had been meandering around some churches in North Norfolk and this was one of the few food options available to us, since we hadn’t bothered to book anything (or more precisely, most places we wanted to book at the last minute were full).

    The menu at the Gate of India in Aylsham.

    I have to temper my expectations here a little, I wasn’t back in India (which I miss very much) and I wasn’t at the on-trend Indian restaurants in London that I’ve been fortunate enough to try recently. As poppadoms and chutneys go, these were OK but weren’t particularly inventive or exciting. The drinks were also expensive, a pint of Coke was £3.75 and I’m not exactly sure what brand they were using.

    The Peshwari naan bread was again OK, but lacking in any depth of flavour and they were reliant on some sort of paste that didn’t have any texture. That’s the chicken biryani, again lacking any particular depth of flavour, although the chicken was well cooked and tender. There was some texture to the rice, with everything properly cooked and at the appropriate temperature, but it needed something more exotic in terms of the taste.

    This came with the biryani, again lacking any depth of flavour, which is not entirely usual for an Indian restaurant or any variation thereof.

    Service was efficient if not engaging, but it was timely and we were never left waiting. I was, shall we say, surprised that the restaurant forgot to apply the ‘eat out to help out’ 50% discount. The bill was though immediately corrected and I can’t much complain here because mine came to £10 after the discount was applied and I paid using Amex and shop small kicked in, meaning that I paid £5 for the entire evening’s food and drink. For that price, I was entirely happy, so this proved to be a marvellous choice for Richard and me.

    I’m not sure that there was anything exceptional enough for me to want to return though. The restaurant is reasonably well-reviewed (although not quite as good on TripAdvisor), somewhere in the middle of restaurants in the area, and so I don’t think there’s anything particularly bad, but perhaps standards in Indian cuisine have just moved so much in the last couple of years that there are better options out there.

  • Ashby-de-la-Zouch – The Shoulder of Mutton

    Ashby-de-la-Zouch – The Shoulder of Mutton

    This JD Wetherspoon outlet in Ashby-de-Zouch has been a pub since at least the early eighteenth century and it takes its name from when an early landlord was also a butcher.

    There are many complaints that could be levelled about JD Wetherspoon, but there are many positives, such as their sensitive restoration of older buildings.

    There’s more of a cafe bar feel to the main serving area of the pub.

    The traditional breakfast, which pleased me by having a runny egg and is a cheap and cheerful option. The coffee was their usual unlimited hot drinks option, although they only had one machine and this was an older-style one. The wait for coffee was a little bit excessive, they probably do need to get another machine in operation to speed this up a little.

    Reviews for the pub are a bit mixed, mainly complaining about it being unclean, although that wasn’t a problem when I visited. A customer did complain on-line about the pub serving off-beer, which is interesting as JD Wetherspoon are usually on top of this. I assumed the customer was referring to real ale, but then I saw he was commenting on Stella.

    This incident sounds exciting though….

    “In regard to bar staff being told a tree in a planter had fallen over and hit a customer, my partner had to remind the staff on 2 further occasions that this had happened for a staff member to make an effort and ask me if I was ok and offer a drink as way of an apology. My partner had to move the tree himself to prevent this happening to any other customers, with staff members making no attempt to secure the tree. Unfortunately the tree blew over again and hit another customer before we left.”

    And not long before that this happened:

    “The seating is in a poor condition. A lot of the single stools are splintered. I had the misfortune of learning about this too late and suffered a leg full of splinters which were so deep and numerous they had to be removed by the NHS. Despite raising this with management the next day as the bar was 3 deep on the night, the approach seems to be one of denying responsibility rather than sorting out the problem as the poor condition chairs remain in place.”

    And, not long before that they had this excitement:

    “Popped in for a bit of food with my husband and daughter half way through my loaded chips i found a metal nut!! Told the waitress who was shocked like us and she went straight away to fetch the manager.”

    Anyway, we didn’t experience any of this drama. As JD Wetherspoon outlets go, this was perfectly acceptable and was clean, organised and the member of bar staff was particularly friendly and engaging. All very lovely.