Mixed bag

This chick (what a whopper!) was taking it's chances the other night strolling nonchalantly along the road, his/her mother/father was perched on a nearby roof squawking fit to burst and dive bombing cars as they came around the corner.....luckily no lives were lost!

I could take a variation on this picture most mornings.....this fishing boat, the Stacey E, does a regular-as-clockwork sail-by around about 10 o'clock......top marks from me for colour coordination!

.....just a random chap with a dog on the beach.

OTHER STUFF

Haven't tried this game yet, but it sounds like a good stress buster, y'know, like after a Virgin train journey.....

"Virgin Trains have built a fantastic Street View zombie killing game to promote train travel in the UK.

In the game you have to follow directions in Street View to your nearest train station. But watch out for those zombies because just as you think your journey is going OK hordes of the living dead suddenly appear.

When this happens you have to grab your ticket machine and blast the zombies to kingdom come. As every zombie killer knows, just as werewolves can only be killed with silver bullets, zombies can only be killed by train tickets."

Play Don't go Zombie...go Virgin

BLAST FROM THE PAST

I've only had time to watch the first 10 minutes so far....but it looks good!

"Reporter Martin Young follows the fortunes of a group of Glaswegian holidaymakers as they spend their annual Glasgow Fair holiday in the seaside resort of Whitley Bay, Tyneside, during the blistering July of 1976. There's crazy golf and a trawl around the arcades, followed by a drink at the club and a snooze on the beach. Refreshments of cheese rolls and drinks from a thermos flask complete the picture."

Watch it here on the BBC website

Watching the traffic

WARNING.....work-based rant follows!
Minor victory for the 'little man' (read student) to report tonight. Out of the blue at the start of the week a huge hike in student printing/plotting costs was announced (more than a 300% rise, all down to 'central services', nothing we could do about it apparently) So I did a bit of number crunching yesterday to work out how 'they' could justify it.....the short answer being they couldn't, no way! The crunched figures went to a meeting this morning and returned victorious.....I took huge pleasure in going round our labs to rip down the posters 'they' had plastered on the walls, strangely satisfying somehow, must get a life!
RANT OVER

Still feeling 'under the weather' but soldiering on (sigh), the boy-in-the-attic however has the full-blown version and is wandering round in a dispeputable dressing gown with wads of tissue stuffed up his nose....not a pretty sight!

Family History stuff.....
Apparently 'the family' has a bit of  'Living in the Workhouse' experience (drinking and gambling!), luckily there's a website to document our wild and wanton ways

But now I'm off down to Jollity Farm, stoked up with a couple of Lemsips......

Some local history....in pictures

And the story....... (click on the image to enlarge)

From "The Illustrated Police News", June 8th 1878.

"The Illustrated Police News , Law Courts and Weekly Record was founded in 1864. It was the first, and most long-lasting, Saturday penny newspaper that combined two hugely popular Victorian genres: the police newspaper and the illustrated journal.
Its founder, George Purkess, was a London publisher who already specialised in the publication of cheap "true stories" of crime, accidents and domestic disaster. The subject matter of his newspaper was very similar. It collated sensational or unusual stories, often drawn from the London Police Courts, but also reports of mishap from elsewhere in Britain and the world. While repeatedly emphasising the "true" nature of the stories, it was their entertainment and curiosity value that was crucial to the success of the News.".....19th Century British Library Newspapers (it's a subscription service....and one of the fringe benefits of working at a UK university!)

On the same page there's stories of:

• Cruelty to a sheep
• A determined attempt to commit suicide
• A dangerous lunatic
• Two children drowned in a perambulator and
• A bull and lion fight

....so Daily Mail, eat your heart out!

PS....I wonder whether there's still any visual sign of the funeral in the brickwork of the Duke of Wellington, because it's still there.....I feel a lunchtime walk coming on!

The Doves of Cullercoats

Some local (Cullercoats) history for you..... 10mb pdf available to download from archive.org or you can read it online using their flipbook viewers here and here (beta version with more advanced features)

1832 - Cholera in Newburn

Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal Exhibiting a Concise View of the Latest and Most Important Discoveries in Medicine, Surgery, and Pharmacy

Click on the link above for the full story