Swedes 2 – Turnips – 3
I bet that headline turns up on one tabloid in the morning.
They could have played a bit better, but this was only Roy Hodgson’s fourth match in charge.
That Was A Strange Half
England are winning, but it was one of the strangest halves of football I’ve ever seen. it was so slow! Even the goal was good and slow!
Ball Bearings, The Mosquito Airliner and The Gay Viking
This story from Coast last night was fascinating, as it told the story of how the British ran the German blockade of Sweden during the Second World War to obtain essential supplies of ball bearings and other advanced technology.
I have been fascinated by the Mosquito, de Havilland’s Wooden Wonder, since I was a child and after reading the definitive book on the aircraft about thirty years ago, I realised just what a superb aircraft it was. Last night, they showed rare film of Mosquito airliners of BOAC, running the blockade to Sweden to obtain the ball bearings.
But they could not carry very much, although they were successful despite being unarmed.The airliners had a pressurised cabin, so they could go very high and remember that at the time the Mosquito was one of the fastest aircraft in the world. So they relied on height and speed for defence.
This was where the Gay Viking and her siblings came in. They were fast motor gun boats, built by Camper and Nicholsons, who are more well-known for their yachts for the rich and famous. They could bring in forty tons of cargo. The trips are described on Gay Viking’s Wikipedia entry.
Clerkenwell Design Week
I went along to Clerkenwell Design Week today, which lasts until Thursday.
Clerkenwell Design Week
It was well worth a visit and was a much more worthwhile event than Grand Designs Live.
The first thing of note, I saw was this folding chair concept called a Flux Chair from The Netherlands.
Flux Chair
This video shows how it opens and folds flat.
Now I have to admit that I like origami and a designer, Reg Bentinck I used a few years ago was a great exponent to create interest in a product.
Anglepoise is a respected British company, renowned for the famed lamp.
Anglepoise Lamps
They had a big display, with lots of new versions. I’d love a large one in brass to go with my colour scheme in my new house.
I walked around the floors of the Farmiloe Building and saw some impressive furniture and lights, but none that really struck me for my needs. There were lots of pendant lights, which are no good for me, as I have concrete ceilings and no points wired to put any. I didn’t see any decent wall lights at all.
As I left this caught my eye.
Furniture Construction Set
It is a sort of construction set for small items developed by Pal Rodenius from Sweden. He had some clever ideas that I liked and I’ll look out for his name in the future.
A Different Approach
This idea of his, is a method for constructing objects, by cutting around different coloured lines to get a chair, a table or a desk. It is a very different approach to creating affordable furniture. I may have got this wrong, but it seems you just trace the design on a piece of plywood and then cut around the appropriate coloured line to get your furniture. See his web site for more of his fascinating work.
I couldn’t miss this as I left to catch a bus home.
A Striking Floor
it was advertising a company, who’ll put any image you want on your floor. Like this map.
A Map as Flooring
I might go back again to dig a bit deeper. It is certainly worth a visit. Especially, if you’re interested in design, as either a practitioner or a purchaser.
Engineering Pornography
I needed a 17 mm. ratchet spanner to try to fix the stairs. They may be more expensive, but they are so easy to use if you have gammy hands. Or just one good one like me!
So I bought this double-ended one made by TengTools from Franchi in the Holloway Road.
A TengTools 17/19 mm. Ratchet Spanner
It looks, feels and works so good it’s almost pornographic.
Twenty years ago, this sort of hand-tool, might well have been made in the United States, but TengTools are a Swedish company. So perhaps the United States isn’t building on its traditional strengths to get itself sorted out.
Should We Nominate Inept Suicide Bombers for Darwin Awards?
The Swedish suicide bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, seems to have been particularly inept, just as I hope most killers and would be terrorists are!
If like Taimour, they kill no-one else, then surely they have made themselves eligible for a Darwin Award, by removing themselves from the gene pool. Sadly, he did injure a couple of innocent people, so this probably means he’s ineligible for an award.
The Stockholm Bombings
I don’t know Sweden well, as I’ve only been once to Stockholm on business. and that was years ago!
I do hope that the Swedish police get to the bottom of this and it doesn’t end up like the enquiry into the murder of Olof Palme, which came to no satisfactory conclusion at all.
Nude B&B – What Next?
The Times yesterday had a review of a nude bed and breakfast in Sweden. It must also be a first for a pierced male nipple on the travel pages of that newspaper.
This must be a good idea, as it will cut down the need of things to take on holiday, so you can get below the dreaded 10 kilo limit on Ryanair.
Funnily enough, the B&B is on the route I would take for something I’ve always wanted to do – Drive all the way round the Baltic.
I don’t know whether I could hack it. But at least my body doesn’t carry any excess weight, so I don’t look that bad with my clothes off!
The Anonymous Widower 