Ardley Incinerator just before dawn

Pot Roasted Pheasant

back to JohnJ

A Mistletoe Christmas

Smokey Joe

RT's signal

All we need now is Smokey Joe!

Big Hugs

Wherever you are!

Nelson Mandela RIP

Lee

This is the view, now we need the menu

Gevrey Chambertin

I must have died and gone to heaven. Maybe there is a god!

Westward Ho

Spot the droid

Great Devon break with great company

Prototype Izzy Lights

Spell for banishing respiratory viruses

O ye demons, and all princes and every kind of demon whom your gods cast from heaven on high, I adjure you and order you to obey my command and my precepts. Just as God commanded the Jordan and it stood still and that the children of Israel might walk across without hindrance, so do I command you to obey my precepts day and night, at all hours and moments and be subject to my precepts. Just as the Red Sea obeyed Moses and Aaron when it divided and provided a dry path for the children of Israel, so by invocation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  I command you to obey me without delay and render the viruses perpetuating my common cold and flu sterile. Banish  them forthwith and protect my special friend from harm.

Sennacherib, king of Assyria (704-681 BC)

Sennacherib, whose name (Sin-ahhe-criba) means 'the god Sin has replaced the brothers', came to the throne of Assyria in 704 BC. The new king shifted the capital from Dur-Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad) to the ancient city of Nineveh, which he rebuilt in unparalleled splendour. This great palace, which Sennacherib describes in his inscriptions as 'without rival', is known today as the South-West Palace. Many rooms were decorated with alabaster wall reliefs.

Sennacherib was mainly preoccupied with trying to resolve the political situation in Babylonia, a region that had only recently been retaken by his father Sargon II. Sennacherib's main opponent was a local leader called Marduk-apla-iddina II (the biblical Merodach-baladan) who was supported by Elam. From 703-689 BC Sennacherib fought to control south Mesopotamia until finally, after a fifteen-month siege, the city of Babylon was captured and sacked. In 701 BC Sennacherib sacked the city of Lachish in Judah but failed to take the capital Jerusalem. His other campaigns in the southern Levant, Anatolia, and in the Syrian desert against the Arabs, were concerned with frontier security. In 681 BC Sennacherib was assassinated by two of his sons while he prayed in a temple. He was succeeded by another son, Esarhaddon.

Dolls House Lights Controller

Full steam ahead

JFK 50th anniversary

It was a Friday then. I was in Hope Street in Liverpool, so sad.

Flu

I have succumbed. I had the flu vaccination one month ago. I know sufficient virology to recognise that it's impossible to get Flu from the vaccination. So why have I got it. Well because the vaccination strain isn't the prevalent one. Just like last year, the NHS at great expense has got it wrong. Look at the mortality figures. The years they get it wrong mortality from Flu goes up. Of course in the state run national cover up service, they do!

Dog free zone

C S Lewis

So I know where I was when CS Lewis died but for a different reason

Christophe Rippert

Coming to a screen near you this Christmas

Il est né le divin Enfant

Il est né le divin Enfant

Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes,

Il est né le divin Enfant

Chantons tous son avènement

Depuis plus de quatre mille ans

Nous le promettaient les prophètes

Depuis plus de quatre mille ans,

Nous attendions cet heureux temps.

Ah! Qu'il est beau, qu'il est charmant

Ah! que ses grâces sont parfaites

Ah! Qu'il est beau, qu'il est charmant

Qu'il est doux ce divin enfant

Une étable est son logement

Un peu de paille est sa couchette

Une étable est son logement

Pour un Dieu quel abaissement

Ô Jésus, ô roi tout-puissant

Tout petit enfant que vous êtes,

Ô Jésus, ô roi tout-puissant,

Régnez sur nous entièrement

Shard View

So I should have gone to Specsavers!

Clan O'Hara

The Irish surname O’Hara is of patronymic origin,being derived from the Gaelic name Ó h-Eaghra, from first name Eaghra. The family originated in county Sligo in western Ireland, a branch of the family moved to county Antrim in the north east. It is said that they descend from Eaghra, chief of Leyny, and a member of the household of Ollum, King of Munster. In the 14th century the clan was split into two septs, and the chiefs of each branch were known as O'Hara Buide (the brown faced one) and O'Hara Reagh, (the rough faced one).  

Cotswolds Christmas Fayre

Torrents of tony, tory totty, ensconced in their natural habitat.

Privilege is alive and well in Oxfordshire. A different planet from your author's scouse roots. 

They speak a foreign language too!

November 11th

11th hour 11th month, always remember!

Dominic's new car

Has to match her dress!

Aston Rowant Talking trail

Up up and away!

Beyond Eldorado at British Museum

The myths of El Dorado

For centuries Europeans were dazzled by the legend of El Dorado – literally ‘the golden one’. Many different stories were told of El Dorado – sometimes it was imagined as a lost city of gold, sometimes as a man covered in powdered gold who plunged into the middle of Lake Guatavita (near modern Bogotá). The exhibition uncovers the fascinating truth behind some of these myths. Unlike in Europe, gold was not valued as currency in pre-Hispanic Colombia. Instead it had great symbolic meaning, facilitating all kinds of social and spiritual transformations. It was one way the elite could publicly assert their rank, both in life and in death.

Chipping Norton by election

Geoff Saul won the Chipping Norton by election with a little help from his friends. Taking the fight to Cameron's backyard and trouncing the Tory!

Happy Birthday Issie

Nothing to fear!

 email aliases R US, watch your meta data

Naughty but nice!

A resolute couple, a worthwhile cause, the resident elsewhere answering questions in the High Court.

A perfect day

Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spend it with you
Oh, such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on

Lou Reid RIP

Journey start

Howling wind lashing rain against the windows, the Thames whipped up and crashing against the floor. A perfect afternoon to savour the surroundings, from the cosy interior, contemplate the history of 1620, with a charming companion  in the Mayflower hostelry in Rotherhithe.

Good to be alive!

Survived, perhaps there is a god, a near miss, flashes of a past life! Two brown eyes, relieved we are still alive! A future bright, live for now. A quiet day,  contemplative,  thoughtful, good to have someone special.

Grey day at Ardley

Travel in style

DVT from a previous era now running peak trains on Chiltern Mainline

Fifth Estate

If the press was the fourth estate I suppose it follows that blogs, tweets, and indeed electronic leaks are the fifth. Excellent film, unusual in the sense that the characters depicted are in the prime of their lives.  I look forward to the sequel when both Julian Assange and Alan Rusbridger are contemplating the sixth!

Car Service

First time in an Auris

Average Bureaucrat

We seem to have a surfeit of these pedants at the moment!

Poetry recitals Ashmolean Museum

A great way to see art through poetry

Paul Malin Ennui

Big Brother

Smile you are on candid camera!

Dusty RIP

 "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"

Abbey View

A place to cip champagne with a charming companion!

European Elections 2014

Totally mystified about Labour's position on Europe.

We have to do much better!

Tooth Fairy cometh

Mark Cherry wins Banbury Ruscote

Royal Standard of England, Beaconsfield

Get your chauffeuse to take you to a most attractive  ancient hostelry. Perhaps not next week, when they are filming a biopic of Stephen Hawking 

Dishwasher RIP

My old Bosch dishwasher was 10. Three days ago it expired with a bang. Deposited two inches of greasy water on the kitchen floor.

O me miserum. So I stopped what I was doing. Baled out and have today installed a nice new one. Of course Bosch make plumbing it in difficult by having one ginormous water inlet connection. Needed to cut a hole in the side of the work unit the size of the Mersey Tunnel!

Life is good!

ever get the feeling of being watched?

55 Baker Street

Origami rules OK

UCLH Cancer Centre

It's not all doom and gloom in the NHS with centres of excellence like UCLH

Gog, Guildhall

Chartered Accountants Hall

Carpenters Hall