whimsy

    Not sure how, all of a sudden, I’m quite so old….but I’m lucky to have lasted so long

    A Senior Railcard valid until October 29, 2025, issued to Mr. M Penny in Salisbury, is pictured.

    I saw these today, near Canary Wharf. I imagine they come to life at night, when everyone’s asleep

    Mossy sculptures of people

    Watching an episode of the Cleaner and they refer to a sea monster called the Oilliphéist

    Apparently

    “an Oilliphéist cuts the route of the River Shannon when it hears that Saint Patrick has come to drive out it and its kind.

    In a comic addition to the story, the monster swallows a drunken piper named Ó Ruairc (O’Rourke). The piper is either unaware of his predicament or is completely unperturbed and continues to play inside the Oilliphéist’s stomach. The monster becomes so annoyed with Ó Ruairc’s music that it coughs him up and spits him out.” The Olliphéist - Wikipedia

    A sea monster - not necessarily an Olliphéist, sadly

    the temperature has dropped, and the fingerless gloves are back on

    I feel Dickensian

    fingerless gloves hand poised over a keyboard

    Some music-related AI pub signs

    Oasis:

    Auto-generated description: A vintage-style pub sign features two men in suits and caps, one holding a guitar, with a pint of beer beneath them and historical buildings in the background.

    The Pogues:

    Auto-generated description: A pub sign featuring caricatures of three people and the name The Pogue's Mahone is displayed.

    The fifth Beatle:

    Auto-generated description: A decorative sign features an artistic rendition of four musicians with the text The Fifth Beatle and 5 Mth Uni Debes, surrounded by ornate designs.

    The Waterloo Sunset:

    Auto-generated description: A vibrant pub sign features a sunset-lit cityscape, a man with an afro, a bird, and ornate details.

    #TodayILearned that

    While humans are split between right-handers and left-handers, elephants have a preference for which side of their trunk they use. Wrinkles reveal whether elephants are left- or right-trunked, study finds

    Pam Ayers has a pile of wood and rubbish in her garden which provides a habitat for hedgehogs and insects and such

    She has a genius word for it. It’s her ‘nonfire’

    Midnight Meets - Pam Ayres

    A friend has met Paul McCartney a couple of times

    I thought about what I’d say if I ever met him.

    I came to the conclusion that I’d ask him what his favourite Elvis song was

    I dreamt last night that I met Sir Paul in a cafe. I’m a bit disgruntled that in my dream I neglected to ask the question

    My favourite pub name is The Conquered Moon

    By the way…everyone should have a favourite pub name - what’s yours?

    The Conquered Moon was a pub on Bemerton Heath which shut down many years ago

    I searched online for a picture of the pub sign. I couldn’t find one, so I got an AI to do this

    More to come

    An ornate sign depicts astronauts on the moon with a British flag, against an illuminated moon backdrop, framed in a decorative border.

    It’s Saint Swithun’s Day today

    Saint Swithun is very much the British equivalent of Punxsutawney Phil

    St Swithin’s day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain St Swithun’s day if thou be fair For forty days ‘twill rain na mair

    Portrait of St Swithun in the Benedictional of St Æthelwold, c. 970s

    A friend who is a painter and decorator introduced one of his colleagues as a ‘brother of the brush’

    I thought that was cool

    I hope the blackberry berries are as prolific as the blackberry flowers are this year

    blackberry flowers

    From a bit in last week’s Times in which various writer-y types recommend books for the new Prime Minister (I hope)

    The last thing the next prime minister should do is to read a book about political history. He’ll draw all the wrong lessons - they always do - then spend the next five years worrying about how he’ll be remembered. Since one of the most important political assets is a sense of humour, he’d be much better off with PG Wodehouse’s The Code of the Woosters, a valuable reminder that behind the stern façade of even the most formidable politician, there lurks the potential proprietor of a lingerie shop.

    Dominic Sandbrook historian and columnist

    Text in the post now

    The dog, on instagram

    www.instagram.com/p/C7ZZPhW…

    Screenshot of our dog pretending to play the flute

    Another proposed entry for the next edition of The Meaning of Liff, this one for people of a certain age

    Lydiard Tregoze: the amount of time it takes to realise that you’ve got the wring flipping glasses on

    Proposed entry for a future edition of The Meaning of Liff

    Lockeridge: the time spent staring into space, wondering what that password that you use every day might possibly be.

    I think it’s important, on a Monday morning, to set one’s goals for the working week.

    My goal for this week: stop spelling ‘Terraform’ as ‘Terrafrom’

    Last night I was reminded that:

    • jogging in the countryside, and

    • being a man of a certain age who needs to pee fairly frequently, and

    • it being the height of stinging nettle season

    …is a bad combination

    🏃

    a stinging nettle

    Today in the UK we are celebrating Oh-my-god-i’ve-somehow-forgotten-mothers-day-oh-no-i-haven’t-its-just-the-rest-of-the-world Day

    It’s all very traumatic

    Our AI overlords may be about to take over and enslave us all, but I’m reassured that St Pancras still auto-corrects to St Pancreas

    glass roof at St Pancras
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