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  • Bath – Beckford’s Tower (Tomb of William Beckford)

    Bath – Beckford’s Tower (Tomb of William Beckford)

    The tomb of William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844), with Beckford’s Tower in the background, more on which in another post. Beckford managed to have quite a few interests, aided with a substantial legacy from his father of the same name, which included literature, art collecting, travelling and building design.

    Beckford was buried at Bath Abbey cemetery on 11 May 1844 and the tower where he wanted to be buried, then called Lansdown Tower but now better known as Beckford’s Tower, was flogged off to the publican of the Freemasons Arms on Abbey Green who planned to use the land as a beer garden. I doubt Beckford would have been entirely satisfied at this, but fortunately for him, his daughter was able to buy back the land and in 1848, Beckford was buried outside the tower in this grand pink granite tomb. This had proved impossible earlier on as it was consecrated ground, but permission was granted and there are now around 5,000 other burials at the site.

  • Bath – December 25th Shop

    Bath – December 25th Shop

    When I took this photo in 2017, I assumed that this was just a shop set-up for Christmas, although I thought that they were being a little enthusiastic opening in August. The shop on Cheap Street was though much more permanent, run for over 30 years by Graham Tomkiss, but it sadly closed in 2018. A pop-up shop opened on New Bond Street for Christmas 2019, but there’s no confirmation yet whether there will be anything for 2020.

    For children though, this must have kept the excitement of Christmas alive for the whole year.

  • British Airways – Booking Again

    British Airways – Booking Again

    It’s a relief, for the first time in months, to be able to book a flight and see this e-mail arrive. OK, it’s just a domestic flight for later in the year, but nonetheless….

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty-Five

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty-Five

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

    Coliander or Coriander Seeds

    Defined in the dictionary simply as “money”, I don’t have much to add to this, although it’s slightly intriguing that the word used to have two forms of spelling. The root of the word is from the Greek ‘koriannon’, so the change from the ‘r’ to an ‘l’ must have been a confusion as the word evolved into English, but there are written references to its spelling as coliander for nearly 1,000 years.

    As an aside, the use of the word ‘coriander’ has been relatively common in texts for nearly 300 years, albeit with a more recent surge in the usage over the last few decades.

    Back to the meaning as money, Green’s Dictionary of Slang states that “seeds provide a form of growth necessary for life, thus figurative synonymn with money”, although this seems a bit convoluted as there are many different seeds and why would coriander be singled out?

  • British Airways – Executive Club

    British Airways – Executive Club

    British Airways e-mailed this morning with the subject title “something to make you smile”. And, the e-mail did, so that’s my loyalty to the wonderful BA confirmed for years to come. And, most importantly, I hope that BA are able to ensure their staff all remain in employment and that routes don’t need to be dropped.

    Dear Mr White,

    We all love to hear some good news every now and then. And so today, we wanted to tell you something that we hope will make you smile.

    As the world prepares to fly once more, we know there is still a long road ahead, and we wanted you to know that we’ll be right there with you every step of the journey.

    To say thank you for all your loyalty and support, we’ve added 12 months extra onto your Silver Executive Club membership. So you have more time to enjoy your benefits, whenever you’re ready to return to the skies.

    What’s more, it will be even easier to retain your Silver status next time you’re up for renewal, as we’ve decreased the amount of Tier Points needed by 25%. This is the same for upgrade thresholds too, making that next Tier more achievable.

    You can read more information here, and other ways we’re supporting you during this period.

    We hope that put a smile on your face. Thank you again for your loyalty.

    Your Executive Club Team

  • Phoenix – Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport T3 Opening

    Phoenix – Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport T3 Opening

    It’s six years since I’ve been to Phoenix, but it seems they’re doing great things with their renovation of T3. After spending a cool $590 million on their terminal, it opened in February 2020 which wasn’t entirely perfect timing for an aviation launch, but relative normality will return soon enough.

    What they have done is made an effort to get local restaurants to open at the terminal and not just rely on national brands. So, they’ve got the Ajo Al’s serving Mexican food, Giant Coffee which is self-evident, the Phoenix Beer Co serving craft beer, Scramble who specialises in breakfasts, SanTan serving craft beer and The Tavern for burgers amongst other things. There’s also a Habit Burger Grill, a Panera, Shake Shack and Starbucks for those who feel more comfortable with chain restaurants.

    This is one problem with Heathrow T5, nearly all of their outlets are generic chains and there’s no nod to localism. Hopefully I’ll be back in Phoenix in 2021 at some point…..

  • Bristol – Banksy Artwork

    Bristol – Banksy Artwork

    This artwork was stencilled onto this wall on Frogmore Street in Bristol by Banksy in 2006. My photo is from 2013, after the artwork was vandalised with a paintball gun which had fired blue paint at it, but before it was attacked with black paint. It’s five metres up from the floor, which required Banksy to erect scaffolding and the council discovered the artwork when they removed that structure.

    Although Banksy had been painting on walls in Bristol for some time before this, the artwork gave the city council a challenge. They were against graffiti on buildings, but the works produced by Bansky proved popular with locals and they were of a higher quality than much of the other graffiti that was scrawled onto walls. So, in this case, the council went along with it and it has remained in place since.

  • Bath – Views from Bath Abbey

    Bath – Views from Bath Abbey

    Just photos from a few years ago, from the roof of Bath Abbey which can be accessed as part of a behind the scenes tour of the building.

         

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty-Four

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty-Four

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

    Cold Pig

    This cheery little phrase is defined as “to give cold pig is a punishment inflicted on sluggards who lie too long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes from them, and throwing cold water upon them”. The phrase was relatively common in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, then started to fade away and instead meant damaged or returned goods. The phrase is still used today by some shops who use the term to mean seconds or returns, but the original definition of cold water seems to have been lost.

  • Bath Abbey – William Oliver Tablet

    Bath Abbey – William Oliver Tablet

    This lengthy memorial tablet is to the memory of William Oliver (1659-1716), a medical pioneer who was the uncle of William Oliver, also a medical pioneer from the city, who invented the Bath Bun and Bath Oliver. He was buried in Bath Abbey, which is where this tablet remains in place today.

    This William Oliver spent some of his time as the surgeon responsible for Lord Monmouth’s army, something which would have rather an innovation at the time.

    His tablet reads:

    “In memory of William Oliver MD FRS. He was descended from the family of Trevarnoe, in the County of Cornwall. While he was prosecuting the study of physick in foreign universities. The miseries of his country called aloud for a deliverer. He was ambitious of contributing his might to so great a work. He came into England an officer in King William’s Army in 1688. He was appointed physician to the fleet in 1693 and continued in that station till the year 1702. He was appointed physician to the hospital for sick and wounded seaman at Chatham in 1709 and in the year 1714 he had pleasure to have his old fellow sailors committed to his care. He being then appointed physician to the Royal Hospital at Greenwich in which honourable employment he died a bachelor on 4 April 1716. His love to this city, where he practised physick many years appears in his writings”.