The Best Roof in the World
Every time I pass by the British Museum I always pop in. It’s because the place that used to be so fussy and almost dust-ridden has thrown off all that gloom and not vibrates with people.
But the best feature of the museum is the roof.
How many visitors does it attract?
German Practicality
Two women have been arrested at Liverpool Airport trying to smuggle the body a dead 91-year-old German home.
Here’s the first couple of paragraphs from the BBC report.
Police have arrested two women after they tried to take the body of a dead relative onto a plane at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Staff at the airport became suspicious when the women tried to check the man in for a flight to Berlin on Saturday.
The 91-year-old man from Germany is thought to have died the previous day, and had been put into a wheelchair.
But they should have realised that because we’re not in the Shengen area, that passports would have to be checked.
It reminds of the story of the family in the early 1960s or so, who went on holiday to the South or France with an elderly grandmother. Sadly, she died in somewhere exotic like Cannes and they wondered what to do. They didn’t have any insurance to bring the body home, so they wrapped granny up in a blanket and tied her to the roof-rack.
When they got to Dover, they did what every dutiful Briton would do and reported it all to Immigration. The Officer just looked calmly and said that the roof-rack was empty.
A Lonely Horse
Or perhaps what a silly place for a statue!
As you can see the building could never be described as an architectural gem, but what possible point was there putting the horse so far up in the air.
Perhaps, it can be seen from the Chairman’s office.
Escape to the Country
Just watched the end of this program and the way I feel trapped here with no car and taxis few and far between, I want to escape to the city. And that really means the best of them all; London
A Pen that Signed the Deal
This is one of the Cross pens that was used by Lockheed and ourselves when we sold Metier.
The Cross Pen that Signed the Metier Deal
You can just see the Lockheed logo.
Sealed With a Tie Clip
The picture show the Bullocks Wilshire tie clip that was presented to all of us by Lockheed, when we sold Metier.
Bullocks Wilshire Tie Clip
The Discredited 070 Phone Numbers
070 numbers were heralded in the UK as personal numbers that you’d keep for life.
I can’t ever remember seeing one in recent years from anyone who was remotely legitimate.
On the one hand they are a marketing disaster, as people think they are expensive mobile phone numbers and don’t ring them, unless they have to.
And on the other hand, every scam seems to be linked to an 070 number.
So I’d never buy one or phone one for that matter.
Metier Pen and Pencil Set
I was clearing out a drawer in the bedroom and found this pristine Metier pen and pencil set by Cross. The label says it is 10 carat gold filled with a model number of 4501.
Metier Pen and Pencil Set by Cross
I don’t think it’s ever been used.
The House with the Private Beach
When we sold Metier in 1985, we bought a house on the Cap d’Antibes called Les Ondes on the Chemin des Ondes.
I had been worried that images from Google showed what looked like a large development where the house had been. But when I walked up the road, the house was still there and appeared to have changed little since we sold it in the early 1990s.
The beach had changed little too, although you will notice there is now a sign, which shows that it is a public beach. It was for most of the year private though, in that there was no parking nearby and others couldn’t be bothered to walk from Juan or Antibes.
But they had made the road one way up the hill!
We spent several happy summers at Les Ones, but in the end sold it as it was always getting burgled when we were there. We also had three hire cars stolen from outside. Talking to staff in the hotel, they felt that things had got a lot better. I hope that’s right. But then it was never too bad until May.
One holiday stands out. My wife and I took, one of her barrister colleagues, Martin, away to the house for a few days. He was and hopefully still is very outspoken. He would lie on that beach and say in a loud upper-class English voice, ‘Look at that lump of lard over there’ at some lady who’d been eating for two. Luckily, no-one understood his English or perhaps most were laughing with him.
That holiday too we went to a Michelin starred restaurant in Antibes, where the wine waiter was the spitting image of Stephen Fry, doing an impression of Lord Melchett from Blackadder, doing a cariacature of a wine waiter complete with tastevin. He never understood why we kept laughing at him.
I also remember this so well, as Martin paid for his holiday with a painting, that sits in my dining room.
Strange Translations
France is very good these days in putting up notices in various languages. This is unlike Montreal, which seems to avoid putting up anything in English at all. But then as they speak good English, it doesn’t matter to the Canadians. But it does to visitors like me with limited language skills. Especially as the Canadian French is not like I learned at school.
But look at this notice in the unisex toilet of the Picasso Museum in Antibes.
Strange Translations
Here’s the English.
Thank you to respect the cleanliness of these places. By measurement of hygiene, female protections must imperatively be thrown in the container reserved for this purpose.
You can understand it, but it does have a certain sense of the surreal about it.
I’m pretty certain that it was translated by BabelFish or some other computerised translators. Or at least when I type it into that site, I get this.
Merci respecter la propreté de ces endroits. Par la mesure de l’hygiène, des protections femelles doivent impérativement être jetées dans le récipient réservé à cette fin.
Which is not too far from the original French in the notice. Note that I can’t type that in directly, as it has too many accents.
Surely though, wouldn’t it be sensible if before the notices are printed, that they knock the translation into something that is better. Then they wouldn’t get pedants like me commenting on the quaint words.
I also feel that in the UK, we should perhaps put more notices up in other languages, but failing that we should all make sure that if there is a word that is the same in most languages then that should be used. For instance, on my trip I saw some French/English notices, where the French was completely understandable to any English speaker. So why put the English up as well?
