Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo talking about those early attempts by our species at codifying ethics, philosophy, sociology and science. I'm always surprised that such collections of stories, written by so many different people over such a large span of time have any utility for people these days, especially now that we know so much more about ethics and how our world actually works.

London Stories

Take a look at the stone carvings on top of the pillars decorating Blackfriars bridge. They are of birds except that the birds aren't all the same, on the West side of the bridge the birds are fresh water species and on the East side they are salt water species. An interesting detail and done because the bridge supposedly marks the place where the river (freshwater) meets and mingles with the sea (saltwater), well who knew!

I could 'a been someone

Sad to read today that ex-Pogues lead singer Shane MacGowan has died. By any measure he (and Kirsty MacColl) have to have come up with the best Christmas song ever (apparently authored as a bet!) It's certainly the only one that, when it comes on the radio, I turn up and not down. An Irish poet in the great tradition of Irish poets, but born in Kent.. ah well ,you can't have everything, although I reckon Shane probably tried! At least we all know what the Christmas #1 will be now...

Thought for Thursday

Can't beat a bit of Larson on a chilly Thursday morning! 

Ever since our species dragged itself off the savanna and into caves where we had time to think about things other than imminent dismemberment by wild animals we've pondered this question, so, was this really how we got here? 

Any thinking person (who's read more than one book) realises that, although seductive in it's childlike simplicity, this scenario would be even more improbable than the way it actually happened. However, if it did then I think we can all agree, the lid must have been a bit loose..

Progress

Just 65 short years apart and yet the bottom computer is thousands of times more powerful and useful than the top computer, shame the same can't be said of our politicians.

Tuesday Titter

Yeah, feels like that sometimes.

Winter Fair

It was our Town's "Winter Fair/Carnival" yesterday so we braved the cold, wandered into town and had a mooch around. It was the usual assortment of charity stalls, kids rides and local food/drink producers and vendors, a decent mix of things and larger than previous years, which was nice to see. I was also pleased to see most of the town's restaurants and pubs pretty full as well, people obviously out making a day of it! The place really came to life after it got dark, a real festival atmosphere, we both had a mulled wine to get in the mood before heading home for some hot food and central heating!

Health Records

 

As regular readers will know I'm quite keen on monitoring various aspects of my health and fitness, I've blogged about it several times before. Last year I was lucky enough to get my 1st generation Apple Watch replaced by a shiny new one for my birthday and I use it to monitor things like exercise levels, calorific output and other biometric measures. At the start of this month (3rd Nov) I passed a significant milestone, that of an unbroken sequence of hitting all my fitness targets every day for five years, that's 1850 days on the trot of completing the dreaded "rings". I'm quite pleased about that and don't seem to be getting bored of doing it, onwards and upwards to 2000 days!

London Stories

Little known fact - we all know where Bond Street tube station is. That well known junction of the Jubilee and Central lines (and now the Lizzy line too) but who knows where the actual "Bond Street" runs? Bit of a trick question as there isn't one, at least not in central London, there's a "New Bond Street" a block or two down from the station but not it's namesake, one of those little London things, the exception that makes the rule!