EDitorial ± 25-Feb-2002
Seventy-Two
For one week only I've unilaterally decided to promote that section which often gets stuck away at the end of the page, below the vertical scroll-bar. So here, for your consideration, are 72 items in a numbered list.
If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
- Oscar for Best Picture in 1972: The Godfather
- two current BBC trailers use Radiohead tunes underneath
- three children, two hands, one short
- number of chicken nuggets in a Happy Meal
- the fab Crime Scene Investigation is back on Channel 5
- six is sum of its factors, excluding itself
- it's always Doc they forget
- mystic 8-ball says: the stars say no
- should I try to get out of tomorrow's 9am progress meeting?
- Mothercare goes up to ten
- Clooney, Pitt, Roberts, Garcia
- Telly Savalas
- baker's
- B---- H--- R---
- this many Rebus & Rankin novels already?
- hexadecimal 10
- time spent in the bathroom is proportional to age
- the age of majority
- Paul Hardcastle was here
- palindromic day last week: 20.02.2002
- tomorrow's TT game v. Norbridge is week 21
- Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder and Major Major
- that bloke who won Pop Idol was an Exeter graduate
- divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8
- quarter of a century - makes a girl think
- three-cubed minus one
- number of Brooms in the Ipswich phone book, excluding me
- another perfect number
- C---- D----
- my lil' sister was born in 1972
- current contract expires in 31 days (gulp)
- ASCII code for the space character, techy nerds
- 20p plus 10p plus 2p plus 1p
- approx this many leads in Gosford Park
- I'm 35: this becomes 40 with one significant figure
- one step closer to life beginning
- number of members of So Solid Crew
- max num of top quality pictures on 16Mb compact flash
- what is it good for, absolutely nothing
- days of temptation in the desert
- Spielberg, Belushi
- life, the universe, everything
- Best Actress 1972 went to Judy Garland's daughter
- war nearly over
- another great thing: E45 cream
- sweet rationing
- GBP4.70 in Vagabonds for chilli jacket & large cappuccino
- Eric Arthur Blair turned it around and got Big Brother
- a square in the act really sets music back
- nonagon coinage
- a number 1 record in 1972 was the first to use bagpipes
- 7 days times 52 weeks equals 364 days
- do geese see God?
- three-squared times double-three
- Happy Days
- this one always threw me on the times-tables: 7x8
- almost, biopsy, chintz
- my ebay feedback now stands at 58
- Presbyterians is an anagram of which singer?
- soixante
- come in number 19, your time is up
- Gary Powers, U2
- two to the power of six, minus one
- will you still need me, will you still feed me?
- big brother born
- Bobby Moore knows the score
- trombones in the grand parade: typo
- bagpipe record was by the longest-name act ever to top the charts
- Capricorn One, moon hoax
- three-score years and ten, and I'm halfway through
- film title: 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance
- three-squared times two-cubed equals seventy-two
Be seeing you!
EDitorial ± 18-Feb-2002
Eye Life
Emerging blinking into the sunlight from Westminster tube station, we beheld the all-seeing London Eye! Bloomin' tall (135m, says the guide). Didn't appear to be moving, either, though that was no more than the Eye playing a trick upon the eye.
Gail had the foresight (keep those puns coming) to pre-book tickets, which after a dart into County Hall meant that we were entitled to join the end of a lengthy queue. Being a British Airways project, the ticket stated:
Boarding commences from the Boarding Gate, 30 minutes before your flightLuckily the queue progressed PDQ, and we were soon aboard. You're free to move around once inside, and some folk obviously prefer to not go too close to the glass walls. Theo, displaying no fear at all, attached himself to a window, unlike his much more cautious sisters. The day was clear, and the views were everything you've read about.
It takes a full thirty minutes to go round; strangely it's over all too soon, and the descent seems much quicker than the going-up. Good fun, and surprisingly relaxing too.
If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
- book ahead: you know it makes sense
- stroll along: a short walk away is Tate Modern and the wobbly bridge, still being finished
- check your watch: we made it to the Tower of London for 4.06pm; it closes at 4pm (d'oh!)
Be seeing you!
EDitorial ± 11-Feb-2002
Self-Preservation Society
— that in the ITV two-part drama The Swap, the vest-wearing fake Aussie character with the perma-stubble was played by an actor called Jonathan Cake
— that Ella suggested that GAP, adorning her top, stood for "Good At P.E."
— that cycling home tonight, the traffic was snarled up due to the police having shut Norwich Road (near Barrack Corner) because of a car crash
— that I tried and failed twice at lunchtime to key in the correct PIN for my Co-op bank account
— that according to Bill, the Guardian described the Winter Olympics as "various ways of sliding", and that tonight's Grandstand features the snowboarding halfpipe
— that Rosie, who wasn't tired since she'd fallen asleep in the car, stayed up eating chicken curry and watching Fred Dibnah sit on top of a newly built brick archway, which promptly collapsed
— that I was given 18 postcards of Ipswich today, free!, which Lee & Andy had acquired in a charity shop for 2p each, an awful lot of which depict the Orwell bridge
— that PPMIP, as well as being something to do with Pre-Payment Meters, stands for the Alberta Pork Producers' Market Insurance Program
— that Theo was bought a new video today: Mucky Muck, starring a builder that he calls "Boch" (sounds a bit Welsh)
— that I appear to have used up 93% of my 15Mb quota for this web site, so that's more than enough words for now
Be seeing you!
EDitorial ± 4-Feb-2002
Butcher, Baker, Boot Maker
There's around a dozen stores spread between the Inkerman and Emperor pubs, and every now and then one changes hands. In the past few months we've acquired:
- an open-all-hours convenience store (incorporating the old Goldings post office from along the road),
- a tanning salon, 'cos people need to look shiny,
- and an Italian deli (on Goldings old premises), opened Jan 2002
Which got me thinking: for someone living in my house years ago, what kind of shops did they have? One lunchtime trip to the Record Office later, I found out.
Kelly's Directory of Ipswich - 1975
Apart from the bookend pubs, which have been in situ for years, only two places
survive from 1975:
- the Chop Suey House - established 1968, says their leaflet
- Victor Doe, hairdresser - something for the weekend?
Kelly's Directory of Ipswich - 1949
For the Chop Suey, read Mr Cox the boot maker. Moore's butchery was doing
business, and add two different grocers (Argent and Mowlam), Gould's general
store and Simpkin the fruiterer. Not to forget Bowman the pastry cook and Wake
the electrical engineer.
Plenty of fresh produce by the sound of it. On a personal note, it's good to see Mr Cox there, since I'm apparently descended from a line of cobblers. Two or three of the properties hadn't yet been converted to shops, by the way.
Kelly's Directory of Ipswich - 1925
Way back in 1925 you'd find Walt Carter, baker and post office, occupying the
premises of the new Italian deli. And that's it: all of the other buildings
were private properties, including the home of Rev Luscombe, curate of All
Saints.
Read into all that what you will. If we were talking about the village stores, the message would be "use it or lose it". How that applies to a funeral parlour and a place selling Victorian bedsteads, I couldn't say. Wonder how we're fixed for milk?
Be seeing you!