Venomous

This being notice of the short glossy book from the Natural History Museum at reference 1 about the world of venomous animals. Around 200 pages organised into seven chapters. Lots of flashy pictures. A good introduction to the subject, even though the ‘popular’ style rather grates. There is also a fair bit of repetition. 

A book which turned up, by chance, in the course of looking into the outgroups which resulted in reference 2.

Venom is here defined as ‘a toxic secretion produced by specialised cells in one animal that is delivered to another animal via a delivery mechanism – typically through infliction of a wound – to disrupt normal physiological functioning in the interests of predation, feeding, defence, or other biological processes that benefit the venom-producing animal’.

A definition which includes all the many animals which feed on live blood, such as ticks, leeches and vampire bats. It also includes all the Cnidarians of reference 3, many insects; some snails, bats, fishes and snakes. Plus some oddities like the loris and the duck-billed platypus. 

The cnidarians have been around for a long time, say half a billion years, and it remains a puzzle to me that their complicated miniature harpoons (contained in cnidocytes) evolved so early. Another curious feature being that these cnidocytes are sometimes taken over by other animals for their own purposes.

Notwithstanding, the venomous animals that most of us think of first are the snakes, which, while they do not usually want to eat us, will deliver a painful, possibly fatal, shot of venom if disturbed, threatened or otherwise frightened.

Snakes must have been a serious problem for early humans because fear of snakes appears to be built into our genes; we do not have to learn about snakes to be frightened of them. We are also curious: we want to look and they pop-up in all kinds of places. Not least, plenty of horror films.

Snakes still cause a lot of damage and death in the tropics, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent and the rest of southeast Asia. Perhaps involving 400,000 amputations and 100,000 deaths a year. A lot of them in places where many people either do not have access to effective treatments or cannot afford them.

Odds and ends

Venoms are usually more or less complicated cocktails of peptides and proteins, that is to say gene specified strings of amino acids.

A lot of venoms are about blood (thinning it or clotting it), punching holes in cell walls, pain (causing it or stopping it), or neurotransmission. I was reminded that small changes in genes can make big differences: so some of the toxins to be found in venom can be rendered harmless by altering just one amino acid. Perhaps the one which locks onto an important ligand-gated ion channel, perhaps a channel on the nerves which are involved in getting arms, legs, ribs or diaphragms to move about.

Some venoms can bring on anaphylactic shock, with the shock sometimes killing before the venom finishes its work. Which can take some time; after all the point is often to immobilise the prey. The predator is not much interested in anything else and the killing is a side effect.

The authors do not have much time for traditional doctoring of snakebites, despite its thousands of years of history. They prefer the antivenoms made from the blood of horses injected with suitable doses of the toxins in question.

Given my fear of heights and injections, there was an interesting table about fears and phobias, quite possibly from the inaccessible reference 6, so I have snapped it from (page 157 of) the book instead. Oddly, while there is quite a lot of stuff about out there about fears and phobias, most of it is inaccessible, although I dare say a bit more work would start to turn up some freebies. Plus, I imagine they are tricky things to tackle from a statistical point of view.

And thinking of statistics, I suppose skunks with their stinking sprays are on the borderline of any classification. Not quite venomous, but there are venomous animals which spray.

And thinking of the systematics of reference 2, perhaps venom is an example where classification by behaviour is more helpful than classification by ancestry. The fact that venomous behaviour has evolved many times in many different parts of the tree of life is secondary.

Conclusions

A handy introduction to the subject. Also the sort of book that is handy for the advertisements breaks on television.

References 

Reference 1: Venom: the secrets of nature’s deadliest weapons – Ronald Jenner, Eivind Undheim – 2017.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/outgroups.html. 

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnidaria.  

Reference 4: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/anaphylaxis/.  

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligand-gated_ion_channel.    

Reference 6: Specific fears and phobias in the general population: Results from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS) – Marja F. I. A. Depla, Margreet L. ten Have, Anton J. L. M. van Balkom, Ron de Graaf – 2008.

Piano 84

The Bösendorfer piano in the Beckstein Room at the Wigmore Hall. Presumably used for the more intimate concerts offered to their more serious friends. Captured on the occasion already noticed at reference 2.

The website is very full of Austrian heritage and craftsmanship, but Yamaha come clean at the bottom of the 'about page'.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/piano-83.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/ullman.html.

Reference 3: https://www.boesendorfer.com/en.

Group search key: pianosk.

Ullman

Just a fortnight ago, to the Wigmore Hall to hear Alexander Ullman do a Beethoven piano sonata (Op.110) and 12 Chopin études (Op.25). A chap whom the Wigmore archive suggests appeared a number of times 2014-2017 - although, curiously, the present concert does not appear. Perhaps the RCM just rented the hall for the occasion, giving the concert a subtly different standing from the point of view of the archive.

A mild, overcast day and the first event of note was coming across a suction lorry from Pier going around the Meadway roundabout. A brand first noticed a little more than a year ago at reference 1. I supposed that this one was assisting with the gas works in Hookfield - and also that the gas people continue to top up their own fleet of such lorries - which can often be seen lined up at their depot on Blenheim Road - by hiring.

New model train, the sort that comes with rather hard seats. But, on the up side, I discovered that TFL's Bullingdon stand map works perfectly well on my telephone. No need to download a screen scrape or anything tiresome of that sort.

Woke up in a rather curious way at Vauxhall, it taking me ages to work out what the announcer was on about. Then, taking the Bond Street route to Olle & Steen, I was sitting down with my coffee and bun there just under an hour after my train left Epsom. That is to say rather quicker than the run to All Bar One - and much better quality bakery.

In the Beckstein Room, scored my third Bösendorfer, yet to be posted. But I now know that both blog search and Word search care about the umlaut on the 'ö' , while File Explorer does not.

I was also intrigued by the backs of the chairs. I think the answer on close inspection was that they were some kind of cunning composite, but I am going to need to take another look to remind myself what kind.

The front part of the Hall was pretty full, including one young man, I suppposed a music student, sporting earrings which terminated with carabinas, which one might have thought were a bit heavy for such a purpose. Maybe the long term plan was to have stretched ear lobes, big enough to take some elaborate tattoos.

The performance was very much that of a young man, with plenty of both piano and forte, delivered with a physically florid manner. But none the worse for all that, and I liked the études rather more than I was expecting. And for some reason, he brought my late elder brother to mind, also musical in his own way.

From there to the Wigmore, the pub that is, for a light lunch, the pie experience of reference 2 notwithstanding. Some of their crab crumpets by way of amuse bouche, followed by some chicken thighs, probably on a bed of pasta with a few trimmings. Washed down with a spot of Picpoul. Just the ticket on this occasion.

Interesting beer mats which stuck to the table when under very slight pressure, but not otherwise.

Pulled a Bullingdon outside the Portuguese Consulate - no queue on this occasion - and down to Moor Street, just by Cambridge Circus. From there to the cheese shop.

From there to the stand opposite Lowlander in Drury Lane where I was touched for a fiver by a beggar, one of a pair of young men who appeared to be working the street. He claimed that he was homeless rather than hopeless. Lowlander where I used to be entertained occasionally by C&W and where, more recently I have taken moules frites with BH, for which see reference 3. Time we paid them another visit.

The second Bullingdon had a slightly flat tyre which meant that it would not dock at Waterloo, but my luck was in as there was a TFL man to hand who was able to do the necessary. By which time I might say that I was quite hot, with my telephone registering 18°C.

Nearly stunk out of my seat on the train by a nearby snack. Vinegar was probably the culprit.

Not tempted by the Half Way House at Earlsfield on this occasion.

But I did spot a large chunk of footbridge waiting to be lifted into place at Motspur Park. No doubt the 'Earl Beatty' will be glad when the building work is done and they get back some of their commuter trade which it has put off.

Out at Epsom to capture the trolleys noticed at reference 4.

And wound up the proceedings with a beverage at Wetherspoon's. Where there clearly was a join in the carpet noticed at reference 5. Can't think how it missed it first time around. more serious inspection called for.

And when I had finished with carpet, I moved onto to pondering about how Pythagoras's famous theorem about right angled triangles would play on surfaces other than planes, vaguely thinking the curvature of the surface came into it. Not something that I recall coming up in my mathematical days. Not something I got very far with on this occasion.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/03/new-pump.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/piano-in-town.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/back-to-stones.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/trolley-681.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/spoons.html.

Flower power

The pink chestnut was out in Longmead Road yesterday morning.

But the telephone could not manage a close-up. A reminder that, for this sort of flower at least, one needs the actual flower in front of one if one is to get a grip on how it has been put together, if one is to make a decent drawing. For the moment, I puzzle about the various different colours of their middle parts.

The camassias, the flower buds of which have suddenly opened up, were an easier proposition, even if the telephone has rather lost the delicate mauve of the left hand flowers. The plants as a whole are not looking terribly vigorous, a bit weather beaten, but maybe they will pick up as the season progresses.

Six petals and six stamens, with the petals appearing to be in two whorls of three.

And lastly a rose in a pot, sourced from Wisley. Five petals and lots of stamens. Petals which look to be arranged in a spiral rather than a whorl.

For the present, I can find no trace of the purchase of the rose from Wisley, or the subsequent purchase of a large, fancy pot from Chessington Garden Centre to put it in. Maybe the right search term will come to me later.

Later on, moving on from flowers, a game of Scrabble. An odd game, with a slow scoring middle part with rather a lot of very short words, then picking up to a closing part in which I made a number of fluky scores. Resulting in a clear victory for self and a combined score of 576 - excluding some modest terminal penalty - a good deal closer to 600 than we have managed for a while. For a month, if one allows the flawed game at reference 1. With the time before that being last July.

PS: next morning: failed to turn up purchase. But I did turn up another anniversary rose which predates this one, which at least puts a lower bound on the date. See reference 2.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-flawed-victory.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/10/blooming-october.html.

Trolley 685

A M&S food hall trolley, captured in the car park next to the Kokoro Passage, on our way down to Waitrose (for flour) and Wetherspoons (for refreshment), after a busy day in London.

Quite an old trolley, small size, weathered and with some minor damage to the basket. Returned to the stack in the food hall, cluttered with an untidy mixture of two sorts of larger trolley. The shop was fairly quiet, so it was not snapped up by a small trolley shopper on arrival, as small trolleys often are.

Home to find that, having not made the first cut for FUSION 24, I had not made the second cut either, this despite having received an invitation by email, some months ago now. Some talk of overwhelming response. To be fair, I am not qualified - beyond being a true believer in fusion energy - and I would probably have fallen asleep during the afternoon, assuming, that is, that I managed to stay afloat that long. By way of a consolation prize I am offered a ticket to the virtual event instead, which I shall decline: no glitz or glamour about online events at all. Not even a free drink and an inadequate sandwich from the Science Museum canteen. I can fall asleep at home without their help!

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/trolleys-681-683-684.html.

Reference 2: https://fusioniscoming.com/. 'FUSION24 is the ultimate fusion energy event for anyone who wants to learn more about the opportunities that this emerging industry offers businesses, communities and the planet'.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Ladder day

There was a good day for pruning hedges last week, so clearly an opportunity to exercise the new ladder, seemingly last noticed, perhaps last used, getting on for a year ago. With the tasks for the day being a spring trim for the yellow buddleia (the one lifted by cutting from mid-Wales, perhaps twenty five years ago) and an overdue trim for the firethorn (the one between the new bamboo and the buddleia).

Full performance and apart from the ladder I needed the wheel barrow, two sorts of pruner, the pruning saw (hard point), one small garden fork, the telescopic pruner (German) and the telescopic hook (left behind by a garden contractor working the other side of the back fence).

The vicious looking hook is visible just above top of the ladder in the snap above. Useful for hooking out branches which one has cut out but which do not fall out unaided. The red trim of the pruning head of the telescopic pruner is visible a little below.

The ladder proved its worth once again, providing a very steady platform for the older pruner, with the various positions on our not very level lawn requiring several leg-length adjustments.

A few downsides. In my eagerness to clear stuff away, I cleared away one of BH's two camelia bushes, largely hidden in the undergrowth. Then, careless with my handling of the telescopic pruner, I managed to bruise a rib. Like backs, something one does when one has forgotten about the last time and gets careless. And last but not least, the firethorn was cut back just before it comes into flower, which was a pity. Not as flashy as the hawthorn, but pretty good all the same.

On the upside, I managed not to puncture the tyre on the wheelbarrow on one of the vicious thorns on the firethorn. Thorns which retain their bite for quite some time after they have been cut; quite sharp and strong enough to punch through the soles of my shoes if you step on them straight on, never mind the tyre. Thorns which also serve to bind together all the prunings: one can lift the whole lot out of the barrow with the fork, rather in the way of a bale of straw. No need for handling.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-new-toy.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/captain-hook.html. Previous notice of the hook.

Blunden

In the margins of a rare visit to the Salisbury in St. Martin's Lane, I paid a visit to Cecil Court, which seems to be alive and well, mainly with special interest booksellers. And outside one mainly into medals and bayonets, I came across a book of poems in a box. A snip, I thought at £5, a slim book of 60 pages -  plus the all-important dust jacket. From a time when poets were educated chaps who were interested in words.

Among the poets on the back cover we have Edith Sitwell and Ian Serraillier, which last I remember as a writer of children's books, books which I once used to read. While Oxford is represented by Messrs. Bowra and Rowse. It seems that the former was up at the same time as the Christopher Hollis on whom I shall be reporting shortly. While I had thought Rowse a Cambridge man, being fairly sure he once came to talk to the history society at my school there. All ten of us.

I was pleased to find when I got home that I could put my hand on reference 2 in fairly short order, having been reasonably sure that it had not been culled: a very civilised memoir from a very uncivilised war. Although, as I recall, the powers that be took some care of him, giving him rather more than his fair share of the softer billets. I also recall reading that something of the same sort - looking after arty and literary types that is - went on in the German army too.

I don't read much poetry, so it will be interesting to see whether I read much of this.

Back with the Salisbury, there was deep thought about how to get there. Bullingdon from Waterloo or what? In the end, having taken a siesta in the afternoon, I got a lift to the station and walked from Waterloo.

I passed on the M&S trolley across the road from the entrance to Epsom Station, and I think it had gone by the time I got around to it, possibly the next day.

Lots of noisy school boys on the train, six formers I should think. I forget how loud one has to be at that age.

The Salisbury was busy and its decoration (heritage listed I shouldn't wonder) was as florid as ever. And where we came across a middle aged couple from Edmonton. I told them all about my Calgary antecedents - which confused them thoroughly - and I forgot to inquire about the fine dinosaurs to be found in and around the Red River - celebrated as I recall in Ottawa's fine museum of natural history. Just as well, as it turns out that the Red River is mainly in Manitoba, not in Alberta at all, rises just to the north of the great divide and flows north from there into Lake Winnipeg and from thence into Hudson's Bay. I associate this afternoon to a factory manager who once told me that the climate in Winnipeg was awful - always either too hot, too humid or too cold. Lots of bugs. He had opted to run a factory in Mexico instead.

Quite a lot of theatre outside.

A Romeo & Juliet which I think I had been told about, but had declined on account of it being too modern. Too much making it relevant to a younger audience. Pensioners not particularly welcome.

The Player Kings which we had seen at Wimbledon. Noticed at reference 3. Maybe I should go and see it again. But then, perhaps not, remembering about its running time.

Not quite the once hot spot 'The Talk of the Town' any more. But at Wyndham's on the right we had O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey into Night'. It is the sort of play I would have thought about going to, had anyone sent me an email, but I don't recall any such thing on this occasion. Checking at the theatre today, I find that I can get good seats for something under £200, fairly good seats for something under £100. So an expensive trip if we both go and take food after. Then checking the blog, rather to my surprise, I find that we have very little exposure to O'Neill. Apart from a DVD of 'The Iceman Cometh', just another production of this very play at this very theatre back in 2018, noticed at reference 4. A not very glowing reference, with one complaint being that it was an hour too long. Which is perhaps why matinées of this production are starting at the early hour of 13:00. So I think I will put the plastic away and sleep on that one.

Also passed on a sandwich at Waterloo. The sort of cellophane wrapped, spherical roll (perhaps corned beef and tomato) that they once used to sell at Wimbledon Station yes; just the thing for a mid-evening snack. But the stuff on offer on this occasion at Waterloo, no.

PS: a snip indeed, as I could pay eBay or Abebooks a lot more than the fiver I paid in Cecil Court. With the snap at the top of this being rather better than the one I took, not having bothered to remove the reflective plastic first.

References

Reference 1: Shells by a stream: new poems - Edmund Blunden - 1944.

Reference 2: Undertones of war - Edmund Blunden - 1928. 

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/geriatrix.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/03/eugene.html.

Curious sport

I have long been an armchair enthusiastic for adventures in cold places - either at one or other of the poles or up very high mountains - and have accumulated about a metre of books about such. People like Nansen, Scott and Herzog, to name but three. Herzog, for example, being noticed at reference 2, in the context of a book by his daughter which I have yet to finish to my satisfaction.

So the lavishly illustrated piece in the FT this morning - reference 1 - about a star in the world of base jumping caught my eye. The snap above is taken from Greenland.

While this one is from the Eiger.

And this one from Scotland.

The current plan is to jump off Lhotse, the big mountain right next to Everest, the place with the famous faces. It seems that these jumps are difficult and require careful preparation & execution - notwithstanding which they are still dangerous.

Howell is married to a base jumper who appears to accompany him on at least some of his trips, so presumably they understand each others' needs.

With thanks to the Financial Times for the use of their photographs. And to Microsoft's Paint for dealing with the AVIF format which they came in, a format which has caused me trouble in the past - and for which see reference 3.

PS: an opportunity to get out my fine map of Everest - just the thing for an armchair, detailed at reference 4 and first noticed at reference 5, back at the tail end of 2018. And my copy of reference 6. Third impression. But I have yet to sort out the proper name of the fearsome Lhotse face used by the 1953 assault teams; the one which faces north & west and is accessed from the western cwm.

References

Reference 1: The man about to leap from an 8,000-metre peak: Tim Howell is preparing not just to climb one of the world’s tallest mountains, but to jump off it — and make wingsuiting history - Tom Wilson, Financial Times - 2024.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/12/herzog-ii.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIF.

Reference 4: Mount Everest 1:50,000 - Boston Museum of Science, Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, National Geographic - 1991.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/festal-cheese.html.

Reference 6: The Ascent of Everest - Sir John Hunt - 1953.

Reference 7: https://inigoinsurance.com/risk-ambassadors/tim-howell/. The sponsor of the present adventure.

Fake 177

I noticed yesterday that Wetherspoon's in Epsom had moved into fake. Possibly something to do with tennis at Wimbledon. The sort of thing one sees quite a lot of in town these days: presumably there has been a step change in the price, making these sorts of display a runner.

I didn't check, but from a distance the plants in Wetherspoon's looked to be real. I was amused to think that when Mr. Martin started out, I don't suppose he thought he was going to wind up worrying about fake flowers and real pot plants. I wonder now whether he was a beer man by background - his houses having sold respectable warm bitter ever since they started, thirty years ago or so now. However, I learn from reference 1, that while his father might have done time with Guinness, he trained as a lawyer in the first instance.

I might mention another fake here, this one from the drinks business noticed in the last post, more particularly from the Chilean wine operation fronted at reference 3. Not content with giving their wine floral notes by stirring flowers into the mix, they also want the authentic taste of old French barrels. So they get new French barrels, made of French oak, and then have fires of wood chips inside to age them. Wood chips made from Chilean oaks which get blown down in storms. Or perhaps they smoke the barrels, rather in the way of kippers. In any event, a process which goes by the name of 'barroir'.

Quite keen on snazzy bottles too.

And while I am with the drinks business, I might also mention some push back on the bottling front. As I understand it, in the olden days, wine shippers in the east end used to import wines, sherries and port in bulk and bottle it up here for retail. Whereas now, many of us make a bit of a fetish of bottled on the estate. Encirc, the people at reference 4, are claiming that bottling here has all kinds of advantages, quite apart from the obvious eco-point that shipping wine across the world in tanks is a much more sensible method of transport than shipping all that glass across the world. With one that struck me being that wine in bottles, say stuck in the Red Sea, is much more apt to overheat than wine in a big container. Think of all that surface area exposed to the ambient temperature. Overheating which can damage the structure of the wine and so forth.

Quite go-ahead in the matter of mental health too. I wonder how many other businesses go in for this sort of thing.

PS: I have been reminded that it is a Mr. Martin who started Wetherspoon's, not a Mr. Wetherspoon.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/fake-176.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Martin_(businessman).

Reference 3: https://europe.vikwine.com/.

Reference 4: https://www.encirc360.com/.

Group search key: fakesk.

Songs

At the end of April a novelty concert at the Wigmore Hall, novelty in the sense that it was madrigals from Monteverdi, not something we usually go in for, the occasion at reference 3 being the exception that proves the rule.

Management decision that we would move off the Vauxhall route in favour of Jubilee Line from Waterloo to Bond Street, on grounds of proximity to Olle & Steen in Wigmore Street, which has taken over the snack before concert slot.

Where we both took Kløben buns. I took mine with expresso and orange juice, BH took hers with decaff. All very satisfactory. In the margins, I admired but failed to compute the chimney-scape opposite, while BH admired the passers-by, some of whom were quite interesting. Not what we are used to in Epsom at all - not least because some of them appeared to spend a good deal more on their clothes than the average punter in the market square in Epsom. Never mind the Wetherspoon's. There was also at least one real cigarette.

On into the hall via the Bechstein Room and the back door, snapped above. The back door having been used for entry during the plague, when we lined up in Welbeck Way outside.

The other side. From where I associate to once reading in one of the literary reviews an essay hung off a book about the back doors to big buildings. Apparently all big buildings have them and there are architects who specialise in them. And thinking with my fingers, I imagine that fifty years ago it would be have been easy enough to get into most buildings through their not very carefully guarded back doors. What with people having fag breaks, loading bays, stuff coming in and out and one thing and another. Not sure about studio doors at the backs of theatres, the thought there being that there is usually a door keeper in a little wooden box, keeping an eye on comings and goings. A chap who will take message for chorus girls from hopeful gentlemen. A thought which probably comes from films of same.

The concert was very good, with several of what I call throat-blocking passages. Five singers, with at least one of them usually sitting out. Some very light accompaniment from a small organ and a big stringed instrument - the sort with what I thought were a battery of drone strings - called a chittarone. Wikipedia tells me at reference 5 that this is another name for a theorbo, which I have to say is the word which came to mind when I saw the thing. On the other hand, I was quite wrong about the drone: it seems that all the strings are played, but they are tuned in an unusual way, although the explanation at reference 6 is a bit deep for me. What I think I did grasp was that it was a bigger and beefier version of the lute, better suited to the sort of bigger singing that was coming into vogue at the time of Monteverdi.

The only downside for me were the musical introductions offered by the organist & director. All a bit too much like what the Radio 3 presenter used to offer at St. Luke's for my taste.

Usual problem with the words. I settled for a quick read beforehand, then not attempting to follow them on the page during the performance. I dare say I am missing out, but this is what seems to work best for me.

All that aside, it can still surprise me how a single voice can fill the hall. At least that is how it sounded to me, perhaps ten rows back.

Afterwards, we almost called in at the Be-at-one to wind down with a little something, but in the end settled for the All-bar-one a little further along, which was quiet enough and was fine. 

But before we got there, we got an inside track on the construction of one of the grand, stone fronted buildings thereabouts. I think what is snapped above is a door opening which has been enlarged for the convenience of the builders doing some kind of a refurbishment. So three or four of inches of stone out front, backed up by a good deal more brick, somewhat obscured by some sort of box girder which might be something to do with the doorway or which might go all the way up. Be part of the frame of the building.

Regular Acrow prop of a sort that was around when I was young, right in the snap above. I wish now I had taken a closer look while I could. Perhaps BH was getting impatient for her lunch.

Getting back to All-bar-one, I was pleased to come up with an answer to the paella problem, the problem of one portion paella not being enough and two being a bit too much. Take a flat bread with cheese to pad out the paella: it only comes with a few thin slices of cheese, not great gobbets of toasted cheese, so it does not fill you up too much, leaves plenty of room for the paella. A bit like taking Yorkshire Pudding to fill yourself up a but before tucking into the roast beef.

It struck me as odd that one of the biggest pubcos in the country was run by a couple of brothers from a Muslim family (of reference 7). But thinking a bit more, I thought that they would not necessarily practise, any more than a couple of brothers from a CofE family would necessarily practise. Births, weddings and funerals yes; otherwise no. And then I remembered that All-bar-one was not part of the Stonegate family at all, but part of the Mitchell & Butler family. But Stonegate did have All-bar-one. I had thought, following reference 8, that the two went together. Whereas, maybe, I had conflated the Snug & Lettuce and All-bar-one brands. So much for brand awareness. But then, I am not young, so I guess the pubcos do not need to worry too much. Not something that I remember YouGov testing, despite brand awareness seeming to be their main business.

The next thought was that maybe, instead of throwing a lot of money at Ruanda, we should give it to the Irish next door. They have a lot more space than we do. But that one was not much of a runner either.

Tube pretty busy. Train to Shepperton, which gave us a visit to the platform library at Raynes Park. A reasonable haul, with 'Fosset's Memory' proving to be be an interesting find, which I shall report further on in due course.

While on the right we have a children's book about Schubert and his merry friends, published in 1947, a time when buyers were expected to be able to read and play music as part of reading to their children. There are quite a lot of these musical samples scattered through this short book.

In the same series we have Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Beethoven and Foster. This last being, according to Wikipedia at reference 9, the father of American music, the writer of many songs popular in the nineteenth century, with some of them still being around. A nod to someone from the US on the board of Faber & Faber at the time? Or an attempt to muscle into that market?

Old enough to include one of those little bookshop stickers inside the back cover: Barker's Library & Stores of Bexhill on Sea - for which the power of Google turns up the snap above.

I close with a few snippets from the March number of 'the drinks business'.

There is an upcoming wine fair at Olympia towards the end of the month. Swallowing the ticket price of £30 or so, I tried registering, but they seem fairly keen to exclude people such as myself. I dare say I could have blagged my way through, but I couldn't be bothered.

Sainbury's are trialling smart cupboards for their posh wine. I think the idea is that some clever computer program does things like take your picture if you are suspicious or locks itself if you are very suspicious. A cunning attempt to deter shop lifters without putting off genuine customers too much. All without doing anything so old-speak as going to a counter with counter-hands and machines for collecting your money.

Diageo are big enough in the shipping business for someone to be able to phone up the captain of a ship carrying some of their containers and suggest that maybe the Red Sea route is not very clever this week!

And lastly, a commercial court in Bordeaux has ruled against a couple of négociants who were paying a vigneron less than what it cost him to make his wine. Or perhaps grape juice. Either way, I would have thought that you are getting into tricky territory when a buyer has a duty to cover the costs of a seller. What happens when there is a fire sale or a glut? No doubt the writers of the EGalim law did think about all this. The snap above being turned up by Bing at reference 10.

A reliable magazine. Always something of interest.

PS: the Google advertisement generator is still awake, still firing on my various notices of my fine clasp knife from Laguiole. With this one turning up in my mail this morning. They can't be expected to know that I am not that keen on foie gras and am unlikely to spend this sort of dosh on servers for it. But I do remember from the dining experience shops in Luxembourg back in the 1970's that continentals are happy to spend a great deal of money on table furniture.

References

Reference 1: https://www.ifagiolini.com/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Monteverdi.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/04/sebastiani.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/vespers.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theorbo.

Reference 6: https://youtu.be/eVabz8LneI4. All about the theorbo.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohsin_and_Zuber_Issa.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster.

Reference 10: https://www.connexionfrance.com/.

Sense of humour?

I was prompted by the piece in the Guardian snapped above to ponder over breakfast this morning about how many heritage-eco protesters you would need to power treadmills which could generate as much power as a decent size, French built power station. I was mindful of the rather inefficient looking contraption which figured in a film about Oscar Wilde's time in Reading jail.

I got about as far as thinking that the heritage-eco costs of deploying what might be hundreds of thousands of such people and connecting them to the power grid might be quite large themselves. Then that asking Google's Gemini (of reference 1) would not be much use first because computers are not good at humour and second because Google's 'ism' detector (as in sexism, racism or pornography) might move into action and block the question.

At which point I moved onto the FT to find that the Indians have these troubles too, with the piece at reference 2 telling me of legally-mediated conflict of interest between an endangered species of bird and a large array of solar panels in a desert. I wonder if the Saudis have issues of this sort too - they are, after all, very keen on falcons and are, presumably, quite keen on preserving other birds for them to catch and eat.

To close, I thought I would ask Gemini after all with the prompt: 'how many eco-protesters on treadmills would you need to generate the same power as a mid range power station'. He plays it with a straight bat, tells me that I would need millions of protesters and concludes: 'while the idea of human-powered energy is intriguing, it's incredibly inefficient compared to established power generation methods. A focus on renewable energy sources and energy conservation is a far more sustainable and realistic approach to meeting our energy needs'.

Along the way he points out that: 'a fit person on a treadmill might generate 100-200 watts of sustained power. A mid-range power station produces hundreds of megawatts (millions of watts)'. Poking further, including enlisting the help of Microsoft's Copilot, I decide that the relationship between the power consumption of a treadmill in a gym and the power output of a person working a dynamo is too complicated for me. Quite possibly too complicated for Gemini. But I dare say the order of magnitude is about right. And I also get confirmation both of the value of these things as aids to disciplined, interactive learning - and of the pitfalls of relying too much on any of the detail.

So pretty good in a general way on the difficulties involved in large scale generation of power by humans on treadmills (or anything else of that sort) - but no sense of humour. Did not detect or chose not to react to my real motivation.

References

Reference 1: https://gemini.google.com/app.

Reference 2: Poor-sighted Indian bird flies into row over power lines in desert: Supreme court expected to reverse measures designed to protect endangered bustard from development - Chris Kay, Benjamin Parkin, Financial Times - 2024.

Trolleys 681, 683 & 684

Five trolleys, scoring a total of three (trips), taken from the Kokoro Passage last Saturday. Two from the M&S food hall, one from Waitrose and two from B&M.

One of these last have broken away from the flock. Not as awkward to walk them as it might appear: perhaps I am getting the hang of mixed walking.

There was another trolley, a special needs trolley from Sainsbury's, when I got to the passage leading to the Screwfix underpass, but not fancying the walk back to Kiln Lane at that point, I tucked it behind a tree just the other side of the underpass. Despite which, it had gone by the time I got back to it yesterday. Maybe the two lads who looked to up to no good in the underpass had had some sport with it.

What looked like wisteria escaping from a large bush just by Screwfix. Rather bluer in real life than appears here for some reason.

I also took some more snaps of the supposed whitebeam, last noticed at reference 2. More on that in due course.

The reward for all the trolleys took the form of an occasional treat, beef stew with dumplings for lunch. But, to be fair, prompted in part by kitchen larder action in the wake of the kitchen refit.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/trolley-681.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/trolley-680.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

The land and people of Burma

Following advertisement at reference 2, I have now finished a first reading of the short, easy read book at reference 1. One of the ‘Lands and Peoples Series’ published by Adam and Charles Black, lately of Soho Square. Once proud and independent, the publisher, inter alia, of Who’s Who, but taken into the Bloombury family in 2000. See references 3, 4 and 5. With the series of which the present book is part being missing from reference 3. Don’t catch Wikipedia out very often!

Despite having a dust jacket, the book tells me nothing about the author, probably C. A. Maxwell-Lefroy, the son of Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, an entomologist in the Indian Service who went on to found the company that became Rentokil. For all of which and more see reference 6. The present Maxwell-Lefroy became a general manager of Burmah Oil Company – a company which I had forgotten all about.

Just about a hundred small pages organised into fifteen chapters, plus a map and a modest selection of black and white pictures. While perhaps a little English and condescending – not to say patronising – in tone, a book by someone who loved the country. And a book which suited my needs very well, wanting a general introduction to the land and people – as it said, as it were, on the tin.

My copy was once the property of St. Monica’s secondary school in Belfast, probably now part of the school described at reference 8. I wonder if the nuns lectured their charges on the various parallels between the two countries – thinking here as much of the chequered ancient history, as of the colonial history.

I share a few snippets.

It could take years for rafts of teak logs to make it down the Irrawaddy to Rangoon from Upper Burma. Complete with on-board huts for the loggers and their families.

Oil was being extracted as early at the thirteenth century, while rubies were certainly being mined in the sixteenth century. There was also jade, prized by the Chinese, but we are not told when that started. Mogok, north of Mandalay, seems to be the big mining centre – and also seems to have been carved out of Shan State at some point. 

In the olden days, an oil and sand soup was scooped out of hand-dug wells in baskets, and then, after a bit of settlement, shipped down the Irrawaddy in earthenware jars for refining and sale for use in lamps. I didn’t find an oil field at Yenangyaung on gmaps, but I did find an oil field fire station, right in the snap above. Irrawaddy left. And it looks as if the UK is not the only place where they put lots of houses on flood plains.

Burma, now Myanmar, is a mainly Buddhist country with lots of pagodas – but Arakan in the northwest of the country, cut off from the rest by mountains, includes a lot of Muslims, mostly from Bengal to the north. Then a lot of shops in Burma were run by either Indians or Chinese. And before the second war and the arrival of the Japanese, a lot more Indians worked as labourers in the paddy fields. Most of these Indians have now left.

The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company once operated a large fleet of paddle steamers and cargo flats. Now to be found under new colours at reference 9.

I read that Asians are rather particular about their rice; fussy both about its milling and its preparation. With the stuff that we use for rice puddings being no use to them at all. Another parallel with the Irish, who, I am told, can hold long and interesting conversations about potatoes in public houses. Speaking for myself, while I can fuss about both rice and potatoes, I prefer to keep my powder dry for bread. Much more important.

We are reminded that it was the failure of the civilians to govern effectively in the decade following independence in 1948 which opened the door to the military – who have been there more or less ever since. With one of the triggers being Shan State deciding that it wanted to leave the Union – provision for which had been written into the constitution at independence. While the Burman military were not going to stand by while a large chunk of what they saw as their country was lopped off. From where I associate to the present troubles in the Ukraine.

Another good find.

References

Reference 1: The Land and People of Burma – C. Maxwell-Lefroy – 1963.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/my-vanished-world.html. 

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_%26_C_Black. 

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury_Publishing. 

Reference 5: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/. 

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Maxwell-Lefroy. 

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yenangyaung.  

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Joseph%27s_College,_Belfast. 

Reference 9: https://www.iwt.gov.mm/en.