EDitorial ± 25-Feb-2002

Seventy-Two

You'll need to take my word for it that this document, these words, this tract, if you will, is EDitorial #72. Digression already: my liking of that US notation, the "hash" or "sharp" sign to mean "number", can be directly traced back to buying DC comics as a kid. Cool, as El-Bel is all too fond of saying.

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

  1. Oscar for Best Picture in 1972: The Godfather
  2. two current BBC trailers use Radiohead tunes underneath
  3. three children, two hands, one short
  4. number of chicken nuggets in a Happy Meal
  5. the fab Crime Scene Investigation is back on Channel 5
  6. six is sum of its factors, excluding itself
  7. it's always Doc they forget
  8. mystic 8-ball says: the stars say no
  9. should I try to get out of tomorrow's 9am progress meeting?
  10. Mothercare goes up to ten
  11. Clooney, Pitt, Roberts, Garcia
  12. Telly Savalas
  13. baker's
  14. B---- H--- R---
  15. this many Rebus & Rankin novels already?
  16. hexadecimal 10
  17. time spent in the bathroom is proportional to age
  18. the age of majority
  19. Paul Hardcastle was here
  20. palindromic day last week: 20.02.2002
  21. tomorrow's TT game v. Norbridge is week 21
  22. Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder and Major Major
  23. that bloke who won Pop Idol was an Exeter graduate
  24. divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8
  25. quarter of a century - makes a girl think
  26. three-cubed minus one
  27. number of Brooms in the Ipswich phone book, excluding me
  28. another perfect number
  29. C---- D----
  30. my lil' sister was born in 1972
  31. current contract expires in 31 days (gulp)
  32. ASCII code for the space character, techy nerds
  33. 20p plus 10p plus 2p plus 1p
  34. approx this many leads in Gosford Park
  35. I'm 35: this becomes 40 with one significant figure
  36. one step closer to life beginning
  37. number of members of So Solid Crew
  38. max num of top quality pictures on 16Mb compact flash
  39. what is it good for, absolutely nothing
  40. days of temptation in the desert
  41. Spielberg, Belushi
  42. life, the universe, everything
  43. Best Actress 1972 went to Judy Garland's daughter
  44. war nearly over
  45. another great thing: E45 cream
  46. sweet rationing
  47. GBP4.70 in Vagabonds for chilli jacket & large cappuccino
  48. Eric Arthur Blair turned it around and got Big Brother
  49. a square in the act really sets music back
  50. nonagon coinage
  51. a number 1 record in 1972 was the first to use bagpipes
  52. 7 days times 52 weeks equals 364 days
  53. do geese see God?
  54. three-squared times double-three
  55. Happy Days
  56. this one always threw me on the times-tables: 7x8
  57. almost, biopsy, chintz
  58. my ebay feedback now stands at 58
  59. Presbyterians is an anagram of which singer?
  60. soixante
  61. come in number 19, your time is up
  62. Gary Powers, U2
  63. two to the power of six, minus one
  64. will you still need me, will you still feed me?
  65. big brother born
  66. Bobby Moore knows the score
  67. trombones in the grand parade: typo
  68. bagpipe record was by the longest-name act ever to top the charts
  69. Capricorn One, moon hoax
  70. three-score years and ten, and I'm halfway through
  71. film title: 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance
  72. three-squared times two-cubed equals seventy-two

Be seeing you!

Ed

EDitorial ± 18-Feb-2002

Eye Life

What could be more romantic on Valentine's Day than being whisked away by locomotive to the city that never sleeps? OK, London, not New York. And with the children. Oh, and the in-laws. With no free seats for most of the way on the train. Still, nice idea.

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.

Take one capsule at 12 o'clock

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 flight
Luckily 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.

Sound advice

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!

Ed

EDitorial ± 11-Feb-2002

Self-Preservation Society

Bits and bobs, this and that, flotsam and jetsam that I'll have completely forgotten in a year or two's time if not sooner:

— 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

Monday 11 January 2002

— 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!

Ed

EDitorial ± 4-Feb-2002

Butcher, Baker, Boot Maker

One of the advantages of urban life is being within spitting distance of a row of shops. I can pop out of the front door (being careful to lock it), and, having played Frogger across the ever-busy Norwich Road, purchase a paper, pastry or portion of pork char sui. Beats driving to fetch a pint of milk.

Balfour, Norwich Road, Ipswich

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

Pasta Place, Norwich Road, Ipswich

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.

Tan Fast, Norwich Road, Ipswich

Kelly's Directory of Ipswich - 1975
Apart from the bookend pubs, which have been in situ for years, only two places survive from 1975:

  1. the Chop Suey House - established 1968, says their leaflet
  2. Victor Doe, hairdresser - something for the weekend?
Gone are two grocers (Simpkin and Denison), West End DIY, Cook's general store, Moore the butcher & Moore's radio, and the Chocolate Box. Anything to do with the out-of-town Sainsbury, Asda, Tesco, perchance? A bakery, Newsteads, carries on albeit under a new name.

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!

Ed