Discount from a Dutch Flower Company
I’ve just been offered a discount from a Dutch flower company, because we have a royal wedding. Are the Dutch getting excited too?
What’s Going On?
I happened to pass Westminster Abbey this morning on the top of a 24 bus.
This is the video I took.
What’s going on?
The Light From IKEA
As I said here, I bought a light and here it is installed by the front door.
IKEA Orgel Vreten Light
It looks good for something that cost just £20.47. It also uses three small SES bulbs. I got three in Sainsburys in Dalston for just £2.99 each. They were 8W Phillips Tornados.
I think that possibly the one from Selfridges may be more elegant, but at £75, it should be.
Sainsburys should be congratulated in pricing energy-saving bulbs at a competitive price. John Lewis are cheaper, but most retailers charge about £4 for this bulb. Especially, as you can buy tunsten bulbs for pound or two in the market next door.
Now Is The Time For All The Good To Come To The Aid of Universities
A friend and I recently gave some money to Liverpool University for pancreatic cancer research.
What we hadn’t realised was that as Liverpool University is in tier three of the government’s Matched Funding Scheme, this means that they add one pound for every three pounds raised. So if you say give £100, which with Gift Aid is actually £125 to the University, another £42 will be added. There are conditions and not all universities get a one to three topup.
Full details of the scheme are detailed here.
The scheme ends in July 2011, so if you are thinking about giving some money to a University, perhaps now is the time to do it!
People Look Different on the Radio
I’ve listened to Louise Perry many times on BBC Radio 5 doing the traffic reports and I suppose I had a picture of her in my mind.
But today she appeared on BBC Breakfast and if it wasn’t for her voice and the caption underneath, I wouldn’t have known it was her.
But as the late great Brian Redhead said, “If television had been invented first, radio would be the dominant medium, as the pictures are better.”
Melvin Bragg on the King James Bible
Melvin Bragg has just said on BBC Breakfast that the establishment was very much against publishing the bible in English, as then everybody could read it. He then said asomething like they thought it would destroy society and that there is still a view in the establishment that the general public shouldn’t know anything.
He also said that once the bible was in English, then everybody could discuss religion.
So did the King James bible break the superinjunction of its day?
London Is Heaving
There must be something going on in London later in the week.
I was trying to locate some lights for my hall, so I decided to take the Underground to Warren Street and then walk to Selfridges by way of Habitat, Heals, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.
A couple of years ago I bought some bedside lights from John Lewis, that are touch on and touch off. I would show you a link to their web site, but they are not there, although they were in the Oxford Street store. Here’s a picture of the bedside light.
John Lewis Touchable Table Lamp
They work well and what I want is three tall ones, so that I can place them at strategic points in my hall. And as I walk past in the dark, they will automatically switch on, when I touch them.
In fact, you can play lots of games with this type of concept. Perhaps, when you are out or it is pitch dark, they should switch on and they could text my mobile phone to say that someone was about.
The possibilities of this sort of technology are endless. The text message facility could even be used to locate where you have put your mobile phone. I once had an e-mail from a friend, asking to call his mobile phone, as he’d left it somewhere in his house and couldn’t find it. Like many these days he didn’t have a landline. He does now!
I finally found an elegant tall lamp in Selfridges, but why are there so few?
I can’t be the only person, who when they enter their house in the dark, doesn’t have a light in the hall, that is close to hand. But I have a space between the door and the wall, where I could put such a light.
A Space for a Tall Lamp
Ideally it would be touchable, but a foot switch would be an alternative. Note the switches on the wall. They are for the outside lights, or at least I can’t get them to work any others. At least, I’ve got a suitable powerpoint, but note the cracked plaster above it. Jerry’s electrician didn’t have a clue.
You might argue, why I don’t have a light in the hall? Jerry didn’t put one in to save money and to put one in would mean trunking all over the place as the ceiling is a concrete slab. Wall lights are so naff! And yes, I’ve got lots of really hideous ones, probably bought in some bastion of good design like Fred’s El-Cheapo Lighting Emporium in Dalston Market. Don’t knock that market, as I think, Lord Sugar started his business careeer there.
The trip wasn’t helped by the fact that London seemed to have many more people about than normal. To make matters worse there were lots of smokers lining up outside the shops having a cough and a drag. Some were even sitting on the floor, creating more unseen hazards for people with limited vision. I did think about deliberately falling over a particular well-upholstered couple dragging away with one hand and eating a burger with the other but I decided against it, as I would have hated to have contact with such an awful pair of individuals.
Let’s hope that London gets a little bit less busy as the week goes on. I have a lot of shopping to do!
Bilingual Signs
I’ve said before that I don’t like bilingual place names. Mainly with concern to Belgium, where they suddenly change language of the signs to the place you are going. In one case it led to a detour of about fifty kilometres.
Take this sign in Cardiff station.
Cardiff or Caerdydd
Surely, it should be in English or Welsh but not both! If the inhabitants of the city want Welsh to be the name, then so be it! An interesting example is London, where although there is a French name for the city, most French of my acquaintance, have used the English form, when speaking to me.
Obviously, where there can be confusion, like this informational sign both common languages are needed.
Bilingual Information Sign
In a few years time incidentally, this sign will be unneccessary as new regulations will mean that toilets will not be able to flush directly onto the track.
How Not To Put Up Blinds
The blinds in the living room are broken and haven’t worked since I moved in.
The Best of the Broken Blinds
This picture shows the best of the unuseable blinds.
Yesterday, I decided I’d had enough and decided to take them down.
It wasn’t as easy as it should have been as Jerry or one of his ilk had struck again.
Plugs In a Wooden Batten
Look how in the picture, he’s used plastic plugs to attach the brackets to the wooden batten under the lintel. Consequently, he’s split the batten.
What a Grade A Tosser!
The Latest Example of Jerry’s Handiwork
One of the features of my house is the chocolate-coloured steel beams used to hold up the roof, form the staircase and as a design feature. This picture shows the beam above the windows in my living room.
Steel Beam Above the Window
You will notice what looks to be brass bolts holding the beam up. In fact they are not bolts at all, but crude brass-coloured pads stuck on the beam.
Yet again Jerry has done the cheap and nasty, rather than followed the instructions of the architect. Well I hope so, as if the architect specified foundations in the same way, the house will fall down.
It looks like I’ll be making some special bolts again.
