There's No Mushy Peas in Here

Walking through M and S in Doncaster to catch the dregs of the sale (my favourite time), I overheard a woman say to another in earnest 'There's no mushy peas in here'.

The reason for me not posting a blog for a while is that my friend Sheila fell on the black ice (on black ice Wednesday) and broke her arm.  It happened in a Park and Ride that had a box full of grit but the grit was in the box.  We have spent 3 hours in Rotherham hospital and very little money.  We have watched 3 Steve McQueen films (box set £10 in Asda): Bullitt, Never So Few with Frank Sinatra and Cincinnati Kid with Edward G Robinson.  The Bullitt in the box is the 2 DVD version with the Director's commentary and 2 feature-length films, one on how cool Steve McQueen is and the other about What is Editing.  Highly recommended.  Apparently Steve (I feel I can call him that now) loved English clothes and is often seen wearing turtle necks, sports jackets and skinny jeans so although the films are 40 years old they don't look dated. Said 'box' 5 times in that paragraph.

We went for a walk in Clifton Park in Rotherham.  They are doing a lot of work there (or rather they were until the sub-contractors went bust) and it is encouraging to see them making the most of an open space and adding educational and recreational facilities.  The Museum is well worth a visit.  It has a great collection of Rockingham and Swinton Pottery and the attendant was very helpful.  Intrigued by a collection of Meerschaum pipes, I asked about Meerschaum, is it a material or is it a maker's name?  He immediately went to find out and came back with an answer.  Meerschaum is a mineral, mainly found in Turkey and Greece.  It is soft and malleable but dries hard in the sun,  So there.

Last night I went to a meeting about saving the Earth Centre with my friends Mick and Steve.  The Earth Centre was a Museum of the Sustainable Environment in Denaby Main.  But more than that, it was a beautiful place to be, built on the old pit site.  It received a lot of Millenium funding, was not financially successful and has been closed now for 5 years.  Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council (DMBC) are the freeholders and are meant to maintain it for educational purposes.  The Council under the new Mayor - Peter Davis, are keen to dispose of the site.  They are in negotiations with the Rapid Technology Transfer Group (RTTG) who have worked with many influential private companies.  Steve and I were the only 2 people who actually live in Conisbrough at the meeting.  The rest were a disparate group of eco warriors, Friends of the Earth, Architects, an ex-employee, environmental activists and a couple of carpenters who were keen to promote Civil War re-enactments.  The eco warriors seemed keen to live on the site, the Architects wanted to see a Business Plan but there was no clear vision of what was wanted.  RTTG are holding 2 Open Days at the site on 9 February and 31 March.  Steve was fabulous, as he is on these occasions, championing sommunity involvement.  Gave them my email address but realised later that I had given them the wrong one.

Back to hippydom, you still just have to inhale on Haight Ashbury.

Pictures of San Francisco that are not taken inside Walgreens shop

These pics are taking so long to download that I may have to show them one at a time!

Nowhere Boy

Caught the X78 to Sheffield to join the over 55s watching a film, coffee and cake for £4.

The film today was Nowhere Boy, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood. I understand that Sam is going to marry the actor who plays John Lennon.  I don't blame her.  He is gorgeous.  He looks nothing like John Lennon and a small boy plays Paul McCartney.  The rest of the casting is sloppy.  It's too easy to pick Anne-Marie Duff, David Morrissey and David Threlfall for everything.  There must be loads of other good actors out there.  Having said that, the film is very good.  Kristin Scott Thomas gives a great performance as Aunt Mimi and the relationship with her sister Julia, John's mother, is very moving.  The B-word is not mentioned, it is a film about John's growing up and I recommend it most highly.

Snowmen

Decided to take a walk.

White Over

Conisbrough is white over.

Turkish and Ella Minnow Pea

Learned my Turkish for today.  It is very difficult not to dot an i but an i without a dot is pronounced uh and with a dot is pronounced ee.  A bit of Yorkshire creeps in with And you? in Turkish is Ya sen?

Also finished Ella Minnow Pea, A Progressively Lippogrammatic Epistolary Fable.  If you love words, you will love it.  I read it in 2 sittings.  It is clever and funny and a delight.