Tag Archives: Titanic

Learning New Things

12 Replies

Peacock on the roof

Here is an interesting story. One day I may do something with the knowledge, but I more than likely won’t. I as browsing a list of British Castles, noticed that Lowdham had one, and followed a few links. The story is nothing to do with castles and shows how my huge depth of trivia has accumulated – random chance and devotion to pointless procrastination have been both a gift and a curse to me.

Really, I suppose, I could use each of those links to write an informative blog post. However, that would be too organised and too close to professionalism for my liking. If I followed up on every urge like that I might have an interesting, and even commercial, body of work. But I don’t. I blunder on and end every day wondering where my life went.

Red Arrows practicing over the Ecocentre

Peterborough Castle (until today I didn’t even know it had one, despite living there for years) was built by Abbot Thorold, a Norman appointee, to protect himself from the monks of the cathedral. To be fair to the monks, the abbot was at one time captured and ransomed by Hereward the Wake, and the abbey was also burned by the Danes, so it wasn’t just the monks he needed it for.

I was surprised that the attack was as late as it was (1070) as I had always thought it was a looting Viking horde rather than a group of mercenaries working with Hereward. It seems I have confused two events. Ivar the Boneless and the Great Heathen Army probably attacked it in 870, though the historical record is patchy. The Danes Hereward’s army then attacked it in 1070. In 1071, on the orders of William I, the castle was started. This, sadly, seems to be a more accurate version than the one about the abbot protecting himself from the monks.

Ivar the Boneless, comes from a time when people had much more interesting names. two of his brothers were Björn Ironside and  Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye. However, if I follow their links I will end up in trouble, as Julia just returned from work and needs a cup of tea.

Photos are from August 2016, when life was more interesting and less predictable.

Oilfield Memorial – Duke’s Wood

A Day to Remember

8 Replies

My first blogging task today was to answer comments and the second was to add a note to yesterday’s blog as I was tired when I wrote is and didn’t explain something properly.

Unlike life you can actually go back a day and improve it. If only you could do that in reality. It’s something I have often thought about, and have blogged about a few times. My main conclusions are that I wouldn’t want to be a teenager again (too painful) and I wouldn’t want to do anything that would risk me not meeting Julia.  On a more practical note, I wouldn’t want to live in a time before antibiotics and anaesthetics either.

I’m having a blood test tomorrow, then a Covid booster (booked on the computer this morning) and am then taking Julia to the dentist They rang her today and told her they had a cancellation. This means her treatment will progress faster, but also means she will have to visit the dentist. It’s one of those things – everyone wants to avoid painful teeth but nobody wants to visit the dentist. I’m not exactly antsy with anticipation.

Bee Mural – Stoke

We had an interesting find in a collection of postal covers today – two of them were signed. The owner wandered through from the front of the shop and asked “Do you know who Millvina Dean was?”

The name sounded familiar, and I drilled deep into my accumulated memories of 30 years as an antique dealer before finding the answer. Millvina Dean was the youngest passenger to be rescued from the Titanic, at the age of two months. I’m not sure if the others were impressed by my depth of knowledge, but as a man who has trouble remembering what I did yesterday, I was impressed I could remember something like that. They aren’t hugely valuable because she lived to be over 90 and signed a lot of stuff as interest in the Titanic grew.

No, I can’t understand it either. It was a ship, it sank. It doesn’t require the same level of effort as climbing a mountain or discovering the source of the Nile. It’s strange what we hold on to from history.

If you want to read something interesting about Titanic survivors, try this link. I find it very interesting, and there’s a good chance you might too. I won’t tell you anything about it, as it might spoil the surprise.

Pictures are off the canal side murals we saw at Stoke last week.

Bee and other things – Stoke