Monday 17th June 2019

Advertisements

Sunday 16th June 2019

Richard posted this today.

Father’s day today and I’m wearing a watch passed down to me by my father, it was given to him at the age of 12 which makes this piece around 55 years old!

He actually gave it to me about 10 years ago, but back then I didn’t have a real appreciation for it and it sat hidden in a draw for years, last year I found it amongst some things, cleaned up the crystal and case, put it on a new strap and here we have it! It will always have a special place in my watch box, hopefully one day will pass it down to one of my boys. I don’t know much about it apart from the obvious branding on the dial, but it’s a lovely small hand wound piece and keeps time perfectly

In 1938 , Swiss watchmaker Peter Haas founded the JAGUAR brand. As the owner of the long-established watch factory SindacoIn the Ticinese Moralto, he broke with the vain tradition of naming his products with his own surname. He launched the first watches under the brand name Jaguar and thus created one of the first trend brands in the watch market. His stated goal: Each collection of the new brand should reflect the power, elegance and racy grace of this cat, which is considered a symbol of wild beauty in the savannah. Like her animal namesake, the brand has been able to withstand the tempestuous changes of times and civilizations by constantly adapting to their environment. That’s why the JAGUAR brand can still confidently look to the future and today – in homage to its founding fathers – celebrate its heritage, its know-how and its unmistakable style.

The JAGUAR timepieces represent the passion for the highest precision as well as the love for the smallest detail. They are manufactured in the ultra-modern Swiss location and assembled according to the purest Swiss watchmaking tradition. The old-fashioned know-how, the tireless search for ever new, more modern technology and the special creativity of the house, which is put at the service of an innovative design, have helped JAGUAR to meet the high standards of “Swiss Made” classification become. In this way, JAGUAR can also satisfy its extremely demanding male customers, who are only used to the best Swiss quality. The brand offers watches that measure the passage of time as reliably and precisely as possible.

In 1989, the Festina Group bought the brand and introduced it resolutely in various world markets. Following the successful relaunch of Jaguar, it was decided to reposition the brand and give the company more momentum. The energy of the Festina Group was impressive and the brand mastered the challenge. For the last 6 years, JAGUAR has returned to the sources of inspiration of its founders while addressing a younger audience. The brand has also earned an excellent international reputation.

 

Today, JAGUAR is a Swiss Made brand that is affordable to a wide audience. It combines an optimal price-performance ratio with guaranteed impeccable quality. The JAGUAR watches are available in stainless steel, stainless steel, gold or pure gold (18 carat) finishes and are fitted with Swiss automatic or quartz movements. The craftsmanship of JAGUAR watchmakers today produces timepieces that, like the JAGUAR itself, convince by natural elegance and discretion.

Harbury

Harbury is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. It is about 3 miles west-southwest of Southam and about 5 miles southeast of Royal Leamington Spa. The parish includes the hamlet of Deppers Bridge. The 2011 Census recorded the parish’s population as 2,420.

A middle Bronze Age burial (carbon dated 1530-1320 BCE) has been found near a Neolithic pit to the north-west of the village. Bronze age pits and hearths, carbon dated to c. 1000 BCE, were found in 1972 near Sharmer Farm in the north of the parish.

Although Harbury is close to the Fosse Way, a major Roman Road, only a few artefacts from this period are listed.

The toponym “Harbury” is from Old English, said to be derived from Edgar, an early tribal leader. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as Edburberie where it is listed amongst lands granted to Henry de Ferrers[4] by William the Conqueror. The land employed five ploughs and was valued at £4.

At the time of the Hundred Rolls in 1279 two windmills were recorded in the parish. The present brick-built tower mill in Mill Lane is late 18th-century.
It is disused and has no sails.

The earliest known bridge over the Itchen at Deppers Bridge was built by the Lords of the Manor of Ladbroke. It is known to have existed by 1397, when it was out of repair and their lordships were ordered to have it renewed.

In 1611 the legacy of Thomas Wagstaff, late Lord of the Manor, established a school in the parish. An inscribed panel on the building records that his will was contested until settled by a Decree in Chancery in 1637. The former schoolhouse is an early 17th-century building of limestone, with mullioned and transomed windows, a schoolroom and Tudor fireplaces.

The cover of a silver chalice from the parish church is inscribed Harberbery 1576. Christopher Saxton’s 1576 map of Warwickshire and Leicestershire marks the village as Harburbury. An open field system prevailed in the parish until an Enclosure Act passed by Parliament in 1779 was implemented, enclosing 120 yard lands (3,600 acres (1,457 ha)) of common land.

The earliest known record of a post office in the village is from September 1847, when a type of postmark called an undated circle was issued.

The Church of England parish church of All Saints has a 13th-century chancel with lancet windows. The southwest tower is later 13th-century, also with lancet windows. The south and north aisles and arcades were added in about 1300. The font and the embattled top of the tower are Georgian additions. In 1873 the church was restored and the south aisle widened and new Gothic Revival windows inserted in the east and north walls of the chancel.
The stained glass in several of the windows is from the 1890s.

In 1811 Thomas II Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry recast the tower’s bells as a ring of five. This may be when the top of the tower was rebuilt in brick.
In 1959 John Taylor & Co of Loughborough recast the bells as a ring of six, and in 1981 Taylor & Co cast a new treble and second bell, increasing the ring to eight.

Once again an Old Git assaulted me from his bedroom window telling me to get off PRIVATE land FFS! The whole of this country is PRIVATE land. I blame the Statute of Merton 1235. Over the course of a few hundred years, much of Britain’s land has been privatized — that is to say taken out of some form of collective ownership and management and handed over to individuals. Currently, in our “property-owning democracy”, nearly half the country is owned by 40,000 land millionaires, or 0.06 per cent of the population, while most of the rest of us spend half our working lives paying off the debt on a patch of land barely large enough to accommodate a dwelling and a washing line.

Friday 14th June 2019

Calling Elvis

Dire Straits

Calling Elvis – is anybody home
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone
Did he leave the building
Or can he come to the phone
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone

Well tell him I was calling just to wish him well
Let me leave my number – heartbreak hotel
Oh love me tender – baby dob’t be cruel
Return to sender – treat me like a fool

Calling Elvis – is anybody home
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone
Did he leave the building
Or can he come to the phone
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone

Why don’t you go get him – I’m his biggest fan
You gotta tell him – he’s still the man
Long distance baby – so far from home
Don’t you think maybe you could put him on

Well tell him I was calling just to wish him well
Let me leave my number – heartbreak hotel
Oh love me tender – baby dob’t be cruel
Return to sender – treat me like a fool

Calling Elvis – is anybody home
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone
Did he leave the building
Or can he come to the phone
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone

Romeo And Juliet

Dire Straits

A love struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade
Says something like “You and me babe: how ’bout it?”

Juliet says, “Hey, it’s Romeo. You nearly give me a heart attack.”
He’s underneath the window; she’s singing, “Hey, la, my boyfriend’s back.
You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like that.
Anyway what you gonna do about it?”

Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet, then you exploded in my heart
And I forget, I forget the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

Come up on different streets, they both were streets of shame
Both dirty, both mean, yes, and the dream was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

When you can fall for chains of silver you can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeah.
Now you just say, “Oh, Romeo, yeah. You know, I used to have a scene with him.”

Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
You said, “I love you like the stars above, I’ll love you ’til I die.”
There’s a place for us, you know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

I can’t do the talks like they talk on the TV
And I can’t do a love song like the way it’s meant to be
I can’t do everything but I’ll do anything for you
I can’t do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat, the bad company
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Juliet, I’d do the stars with you any time

Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
You said, “I love you like the stars above, I’ll love you ’til I die.”
There’s a place for us, you know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

And a love struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Find a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade
And says something like “You and me babe: how ’bout it?”

“You and me babe: how about it?”

Wednesday 12th June 2019

I just been in Castle galleries Stratford the manager of the shop was like a crooked car dealer. He said if I wanted to make money I should buy Bob Dylan.
Mmmmmm !

Well I said I didn’t but I like what he is painting now rather than what he was painting 5 years ago. I said stupidly that I have been paint this subject matter for years now.

He said “yes but your not Bob Dylan”!

BOB DYLAN

The artist’s journeys between cities and towns are personified by his expressionist lines, which capture the instant moment of a place, person and time. Repeated motifs encourage the viewer to explore the depths of colour and the evolution of his work.

His art has been likened to that of Pablo Picasso, with critics applauding the relatability of his collections, which include The Beaten Path, The Drawn Blank Series and The Brazil Series. He paints mostly from life, stating: “I’m pretty much interested in people, histories, myth, and portraits; people of all stripes.”

Also some work by artist Nic Joly which I like but I always like the work of Volker Kuhn who was doing the same work in the 70s.

NIC JOLY

His artistic career was born in a stained glass and metal workshop. Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, Nic explored his own unique style and began to create his tiny figurines. Each one is made from wire, paper and clay, with the sculptor recently turning his hand to LED technology and 3D printing.

Placed in their own little universes, his tiny characters offer viewers an intimacy akin to peering through the windows into a stranger’s life. But within that glimpse, we can recognise ourselves.

Nic says: “In my own small way, I strive to create my own worlds to ask and bring to the forefront the dilemmas and questions that we all feel day-to-day, as well as highlight the madness around us.”
VOLKER KHUN

STAN LEE

Often credited with transforming the industry forever, the late Stan Lee was an American comic book writer, editor and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

In collaboration with noted artists – including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko – Stan co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, the Silver Surfer, the Avengers and many other fictional characters.

He pioneered and advocated the use of comic books to comment on social issues such as bigotry, injustice and discrimination. As a result, Stan’s Marvel Revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to engage with the audience and create a community between the readers and creators. In 1984, Stan was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the United States Congress – the highest honour awarded to an individual artist in the USA.

In an interview with the Radio Times, Stan said: “It’s always great when people come up to me and mention how much they like the characters I’ve created. It’s a great feeling to hear that.”

In November 2018, fans of all ages across the world united to mourn the passing of Stan Lee. As the mastermind behind some of the most popular characters ever to grace the pages of Marvel comics, the 95-year-old was as much a legend to the generations he inspired as the superheroes whose trials and triumphs he crafted on his trusty typewriter.

 

Sunday 9th June 2019

I Would I Were a Careless Child

Byron

I would I were a careless child,
Still dwelling in my Highland cave,
Or roaming through the dusky wild,
Or bounding o’er the dark blue wave;
The cumbrous pomp of Saxon pride
Accords not with the freeborn soul,
Which loves the mountain’s craggy side,
And seeks the rocks where billows roll.

Fortune! take back these cultured lands,
Take back this name of splendid sound!
I hate the touch of servile hands,
I hate the slaves that cringe around.
Place me among the rocks I love,
Which sound to Ocean’s wildest roar;
I ask but this – again to rove
Through scenes my youth hath known before.
Few are my years, and yet I feel
The world was ne’er designed for me:
Ah! why do dark’ning shades conceal
The hour when man must cease to be?
Once I beheld a splendid dream,
A visionary scene of bliss:
Truth! – wherefore did thy hated beam
Awake me to a world like this?

I loves – but those I love are gone;
Had friends – my early friends are fled:
How cheerless feels the heart alone,
When all its former hopes are dead!
Though gay companions o’er the bowl
Dispel awhile the sense of ill’
Though pleasure stirs the maddening soul,
The heart – the heart – is lonely still.

How dull! to hear the voice of those
Whom rank or chance, whom wealth or power,
Have made, though neither friends nor foes,
Associates of the festive hour.
Give me again a faithful few,
In years and feelings still the same,
And I will fly the midnight crew,
Where boist’rous joy is but a name.

And woman, lovely woman! thou,
My hope, my comforter, my all!
How cold must be my bosom now,
When e’en thy smiles begin to pall!
Without a sigh would I resign
This busy scene of splendid woe,
To make that calm contentment mine,
Which virtue know, or seems to know.

Fain would I fly the haunts of men –
I seek to shun, not hate mankind;
My breast requires the sullen glen,
Whose gloom may suit a darken’d mind.
Oh! that to me the wings were given
Which bear the turtle to her nest!
Then would I cleave the vault of heaven,
To flee away, and be at rest.

Saturday 8th June 2019

High Civilization

Bee Gees

Cryin’ in the streets
They run for their lives
How can you lead them to heaven
They don’t realize
Children of the night
How far can we fall
That which we say is forever
Ain’t no time at all

Father and the son
Not too young to be old
Reach out for each other when
The world goes cold
Feel so good to be home
Are you ready for

] My high civilization
Are you ready for
My high civilization
Are you ready for
My high civilization
Civilization

Everything for us to see
The ultimate society

Keeper of the sword
You fight for your rights
How can you live for the hour
When there’s no yesterday
Dyin’ in the streets
Your number your name
All that which keeps us together
Is bringing us the pain

Thunder of the guns
Comes the criminal mind
Working for the power of
The evil eye
We are never alone
Uncivilized

New York, Paris, Tokyo
Vienna to Berlin
Baby don’t know you
L.A., Rome, Afghanistan
Cairo to Iran
No city can hold you
There’s no one in Avalon to show you
Minutes into seconds are you ready
For the end

Friday 7th June 2019

E.S.P.

Bee Gees

Dark is the night
High is the fire
Touches the sky
Love with no shape or form
I am in your mind’s eye
Just let your dreams run wild

Somewhere, out across the nation
Someone, waiting in the shadows
Listen, I don’t wanna hear
Return to, sender
Calling, I can see the future
Someday, signal with a single motion
Show me you believe in someone, somewhere

Oh baby you, you give, me
You give me the runaround
Just another night, with, you
You’re on my mind
And we got love
And love’ll take you higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher

E.S.P
I communicate with you
Tell me what it means to feel
What am I supposed to do
E.S.P
Nothing any words can say
Nothing that we know is real
But it’ll take your breath away
Your breath away

Danger, suddenly an early warning
Suddenly the soul is burning
But I still believe in someone, somewhere

Baby you, give, me
You give me the runaround
Just another night with you
I’m in your mind
And we got love
And love’ll take you higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher

E.S.P
I communicate with you
Tell me what it means to feel
What am I supposed to do
E.S.P
And love’ll take you higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher

Be prepared to make your sacrifice, tonight
Far beyond the point of no return, oh no

And we got love
And love’ll take you higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher, higher and higher

Ordinary Lives

Bee Gees

There’ll be one small light
all over the world tonight.
The search go on for the one,
it was love with no name
and we glowed in the sun.
There was one small dream
incredible highs and lows,
what little we knew living ordinary lives.
Made a dream for you, living ordinary lives.

Ordinary people living ordinary lives.
Ordinary people living ordinary lives.

We were be one small light
all over the world tonight.
The search go on for the one,
it was love with no name
and we glowed in the sun.
There was one small dream
incredible highs and lows,
what little we knew living ordinary lives.
Made a dream for you, living ordinary lives.

We were ordinary people living ordinary lives.
We were ordinary people living ordinary lives.

The clock on the wall keeps moving,
time stands still,
no matter how the dice may fall,
someone else always gets to call the number.

Say goodbye cruel world
No pity no pain tonight
Whatever the cost all is lost
If this is love with no name
Then it’s all in the stars
Whether it’s wrong or right
There’s no one to blame no lies
What else could we do
Living ordinary lives
Made a dream for you
Living ordinary lives.