lifestuff
An accident on Mitcham Lane, Streatham
29 July 2012 - 11:39 AM
On Friday 27 July, coming home from work, I came across a quite serious accident that closed Mitcham Lane in Streatham, south west London.
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The Race into Space (1971 collectors cards)
25 May 2012 - 05:36 PM
The complete 1971 set of 'the Race into Space' collectors cards in the original album
My mum was clearing out her attic recently so I got to trawl through a load of stuff I’ve kept from childhood. I was delighted to come across this album, and to find that all the collectors cards were still in situ - over 40 years later. I still remember making my mum buy loads of Brooke Bond PG Tips tea so I could collect what to the 8 year old me were mesmerising images of our not too distant future…
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Vintage photo of a Concorde taking off / the Lovell Telescope
22 May 2012 - 09:45 PM
Scanning some old photos the other day I came across these two here. The first is from when I went to see the legendary Concorde take off from Heathrow Airport and just caught it with my little Kodak Pocket Instamatic 110 camera, because that's what 13 year old boys did in the 1970s…
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London black cab in a collision on the A3 [photo]
17 May 2012 - 06:57 PM
On my way to work this morning I saw this accident involving a London black cab and a Transit van near Coombe Lane on the A3 in Kingston. Nobody seemed hurt but the cab was pretty spectacularly totalled. The police had shut two lanes causing a massive tailback on the London-bound carriageway of the A3.
So quite early in the day I had my entry for my daily photo journal in the bag.
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Significant life events: my big operation in 1999
15 January 2012 - 01:04 PM
I have found it all but irresistible to record events in my life in Facebook’s new Timeline. Inevitably, this has led to some introspection and assessment of my achievements so far. So I have added the dates of graduation from art school, landmark trips around the world, that kind of thing. Eventually I realised that one of the most significant events in my life, one that really affected everything about who I am and the kind of life I can lead, was the surgery I had on my spine in 1999.
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In memoriam, Lajos Karoly Kiss 1937 - 2011
24 October 2011 - 07:46 AM
Molasses tax: they ruined another good thing
23 August 2009 - 11:59 PM
I just got an email from Shisha Pipe UK, where I buy tobacco for my water pipe (shisha / nargile / hookah):
“Due to the English Customs and excise we no longer sell Tobacco Molasses.
Apparently molasses shisha tobacco purchased in the UK from shops in London do not have any import duty paid and is illegal in the UK.
Customs & Excise state that the tobacco import duty is £71.76 per kilogram which would make a 250 gram pack cost in duty alone £17.94”
Is this another case of political correctness gone mad? No it isn’t. It seems it’s the law. But it is irksome. Who knew it was illegal? The tax/duty seems a lot, and this on top of the UK smoking ban which has put a lot of hookah lounges at risk, or even out of business.
I smoke it infrequently, but I would miss it. It’s pleasurable. And ancient. And yes, it is a misconception that a water pipe is used for anything other than perfectly legal tobacco. Isn’t it? More on Wikipedia.More
