Weekend in London.

Flints from Crossrail

Remains of a Victorian poe, also from Crossrail.

Had a brilliant couple of nights away in London with Tara. Thought we'd travel light as we were going by train so cut back on what we were taking & put it all in a ruck sack.....that seemed to weigh more than any luggage we'd ever taken anywhere before! If I'd have fallen backwards I doubt I'd ever have been stood upright again. Probably a small case on wheels would have been a better bet. You live & learn! Anyway, got to Greenwich & had a coffee then I took our ruck sack to our hotel, a really good hotel booked via Gary  called the Doubletree. Its a chain that come under the Hilton banner so their standard is very high.
Back into Greenwich & we got onto the Cutty Sark. It's undergone some significant restoration over the past few years & made more 'user friendly.' It's got to be like that now I know, but all the original  ships stairways now have proper stairs, there's even a lift. a must for access I know but it took a little something away from the experience. Must admit when we first stepped aboard we both thought we wouldn't be on it for too long but it's actually stacked full of information and artifacts and was a really good couple of hours. The whole ship is suspended over the dry dock it was once in which is now the obligatory café (not complaining mind you), so whilst drinking your coffee you actually have the ship above you.
Retired to the Gipsy Moth pub after than for a couple of pints of Wandle Ale  brewed by Sambrooks Brewery in London. An excellent pint, 3.8% in strength quite light in colour and very quaffable! Tara on the usual Bacardi & Coke. Got back to the hotel & eventually went down for dinner, very nice fish & chips for me & Halloumi salad for Tara followed by Tiramisu for me & ice cream for Tara. Tried an American Pale Ale who's name escapes me but it was very nice.
A sumptuous breakfast in the morning, all buffet style,& plenty of it be it fruit, cereal, traditional cooked Full English there was even a pancake maker that was fun. It set us up for the day!
Went back into Greenwich & had a wonder around the markets. You know about Tara's bizarre dreams? Well the latest, the other night, was all about Scotch Eggs, no honestly! Anyway the first stall we see as we walk into the market sold nothing but Scotch Eggs. Bizarre or what!!
 It was an interesting place, a shame we'd had such a big breaky really as there was lots of food stalls. After that we were back on the Docklands Light Railway and off to the Docklands Museum. Unfortunately so busy were we talking and looking out  at the buildings we forgot to get off at the right stop & had to go round the houses abit to get back to where we wanted to be! Got to the museum in the end though.
They have a  really interesting exhibition of all the  archaeological finds from the Crossrail  scheme that's being built across, well under really, London. The 200 or so archaeologists working on the site  found artifacts from just about every era of history you could care to mention. Very very interesting. This is part of the Museum of London ( another good trip) and is fascinating. It's built in part of the old dock warehouses and has lots to see, not least about the docks being bombed during World War Two, the heat  was so intense it was melting steel girders. Warehouses full of sugar and flour burnt for  nearly three weeks. I well remember my Dad telling me that at night they could see a red glow in the sky from the fires all the way out in Harrow about ten miles away. A truly terrible thing. Fair to say Tara was abit done in by this time so sat in the café while I looked around alot of this part. The day was getting on so we thought about dinner. Pizza seemed like a good idea & with the larger chains at long bloody last getting the idea about wheat/gluten free pizzas something we could both eat. Getting to Pizza Express in Canary Wharf proved abit challenging. Tara's satnav on her phone didn't seem to get the idea that the restaurant was on the second floor of a shopping centre so kept taking us around the building. At last a helpful police type bod pointed us in the right direction. After a good feed of pizza we made our way back to our second hotel, the Hilton at Canary Wharf. We'd had a free upgrade as well so our room was brilliant. We didn't purposely  get back to watch Eurovision ( we've watched it most years since about 1981! Even had a party one year that went down well, though we tried to do it again last year and nobody was interested! Miserable sods!) but we were tired by then & it was on so we watched it. Naff  Ukrainian presenters staggered their way through it, suggesting everyone should have wine and neeebles. Wine we had but neebles we did not so Tara raided the mini bar for a Toblerone. Graham Nortons commentary is quite amusing but not a patch on the late Terry Wogan, a rather nice tradition seems to have grown from Wogan's advice to Norton when he took over his mantle which was not to have a drink before song nine. So now, after song nine he lifts a glass to TW............We'd already started long before song nine!
Another first class brekky in the morning & we headed for home. The ruck sack didn't seem to be any lighter, bugger!  Coffee at St Pancras Station then the BedPan line to home. A truly great weekend with my Love. Good to spoil yourselves sometimes isn't it.

The Big Smoke with assorted buildings.

The hold of the Cutty Sark.

Cutty Sark

Memsahib in the hold.

Artifacts.

Café under the hull.

Collection of figureheads. 

Two more!

Under side of the ship again.

In the Gipsy Moth.

Cutty Sark rigging.

  

Pizza......about fourth attempt to take photo hence Memsahibs pained expression!

Assortment of receipts & bills from our trip. 

Docklands Museum.

Docklands Museum.

Greenwich Market.

Greenwich Market.

Gipsy Moth.

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Dig the second.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Dig the second.: At the Hanscombe End of Shillington this weekend investigating whether there was much occupation of this area. The conclusion being there w...

Dig the second.

At the Hanscombe End of Shillington this weekend investigating whether there was much occupation of this area. The conclusion being there was probably some.
Didn't find alot which in itself tells you something, but what we did find was  very interesting. Just a few sherds of what looked like Medieval greyware pot, and some reddish coloured as well the rule of thumb being any more than 6 sherds from one pot suggests occupation, and a very nice sherd of possible Tudor pot (photo'd) this will be confirmed by the pottery analysis by Paul Blinkhorn later in the season. 
One day one we got down to 0.6m with all the finds coming up on this day. Alot of clay once again. Day two didn't yield any finds at all so the context to 0.8m was just halved and all agreed we were at natural so that was it game over, back filled, then lunch then to the Musgrave Arms for the final de brief of this weekends dig. ( sounds much too clever- we just went to the pub & had a chat!) 
 Timothy Taylors 'Landlord' ale was the guest ale this week & very nice it was too.
Another great weekend of digging.

Trench dug to 0.8m.

Dug to 0.8m in the far half of the test pit.

Derek,Kevin,Nigel, Alison & Ivor in action!

The inevitable 'selfie.' 

Finds from contexts 4,5 & 6.



Possible Tudor pottery.

Med pottery.

Back filling.

   

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A six legged cow and other things.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A six legged cow and other things.: Haven't posted for a week or so, this entry will cover a couple of things. Dear old Norfolk beckoned again so off I went driving miles ...

A six legged cow and other things.

Haven't posted for a week or so, this entry will cover a couple of things. Dear old Norfolk beckoned again so off I went driving miles & miles  spending the night at the George Hotel near Norwich again. It's a Best Western hotel, perfectly adequate in all respects.   A pint of 'Fork Handles' from Elgoods Brewery near Kings Lynn helped me wade through emails, 4.5% of nectar.
It seemed that Whitebait was off every menu for years and years, I don't know whether its the 'in' thing to eat but its back with a vengeance, which is a good thing. I like Whitebait & had it as my starter followed by a very good Sirloin steak cooked rare, the only way a steak should be cooked really!

 

A treat on Friday evening as we were off to see a band at The Grove Theatre. It was the Illegal Eagles, a tribute band to none other than .....The Eagles. Now you know I like a tribute band, on Planet Rock Wyatt Wendell one of the DJ's reckons that there is only a point to having a tribute band if the original is no longer around otherwise why not see the original. He has a point  but when The Eagles last toured in the UK tickets were £100 upwards, far dearer  than I'd be prepared to pay so if there's a good tribute act...... well why not?  This lot were very good, the band are celebrating their 20th anniversary , though their line up has changed the legendary Danny Vaughn was with them the first time we saw them.
They played all the old barnstormers you'd expect 'Life in the fast lane,' Take it to the limit,' Lyin'eyes,' 'Hotel California, 'Desperado,' 'Heartache Tonight' et al. They are aiming to play all the tracks from the album 'Hotel California'  at their gigs as it's the  40th anniversary of the release  of this album though I can't remember which track they played apart from the title track of course!
This line up played more from the Eagles back catalogue maybe. Not always a bad thing but alot of the tracks were of a similar tempo so it wasn't the best gig we'd seen them do but a good night nonetheless.

It was all go that weekend as on the Bank Holiday Monday we had a get together at home for Ella & Julian's Birthdays. We were joined by Paul & Kate, Tim, Olly & Laura & Gary & Ellie so it made for a very pleasant  afternoon. The Memsahib gave the food a Mexican slant with home made pulled pork with Chipotle sauce ( pork shoulder cooked for  8 hours!), home made Guacamole & Salsa, sour cream, chicken, wraps, salad etc and puds included  a very nice homemade Banana cake. All delicious!

Home made Guacamole

Laura & Tara get some eats.

Pulled Pork.

  Back to the grind  again & off to Shropshire. Stayed again  at The Lion Hotel in central Shrewsbury. All the beers were off! All three! Someone said they didn't taste right so were taken off sale, the barman said I could try them if I wanted but I was quite happy to go along with the opinion of whoever took them off so slummed it on Cider then a glass of red. Eat in the bar again & had Whitebait for starter ( see what I mean) then a mixed grill. It was reasonably good though no lamb chop so extra steak and gammon. Egg was a bit over cooked but on the whole a nice meal.
Oh yes, the six legged cow. I was driving through Shropshire and was convinced there was a six legged Friesian cow in amongst others in a field. Bare I mind I could only glance over as I was driving, as I drove further along and got a slightly different view I could see it was actually two four legged cows standing one in front of the other overlapping in such a way as to make it look like one six legged cow. The markings matched up perfectly. So another mystery solved.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The digging season.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The digging season.: Hurrah! The digging season is upon us again & Derek in Shillington got us a good gig! A late 18th century house backing onto fields, K...

The digging season.

Hurrah! The digging season is upon us again & Derek in Shillington got us a good gig!
A late 18th century house backing onto fields, Kevin & I got there about 10am  & met Ivor, Nigel & Derek, we got site of the test pit set up and away we went, Alison joining us later. The householders were really nice & kept us supplied with tea, coffee, biscuits & cake!  much to Derek's mock consternation, 'Don't keep bringing out tea & coffee these buggers stop working!'
I dug the first context (10cm) and then went onto sieving. That's where most of the finds appear, it's difficult to see alot of them while you're digging.
The lawn had been raised by about 30cm so we knew anything there was a mix moved there when an extension was built. Mainly  sherds of Victorian pottery & the ever present clay pipe. Mostly just the stems with one partial bowl if I recall.
We got through that 30cm then onto the good stuff and were very pleased to find  alot of sherds of Medieval greyware and afew decorated sherds, some with green glaze very indicative of early/mid Med  pottery. The greyware  wasn't too bashed about their so must have been undisturbed since it was thrown away six to seven hundred years ago. It was a very good day and the sun shone for us.
Post dig analysis at The Musgrave Arms and very pleasantly surprised to find Tring Brewery's 'Side pocket for a Toad' as their guest ale. It's travelled along way from Tring and was a delicious pint.
Day two saw us muster about 10am again & crack on. We'd got down to  0.6m on the first day & Kevin & I got stuck into the next context, sadly the finds rapidly dried up, unlike the test pit that was getting wetter and wetter. The clay we were down to was an absolute bugger to dig and impossible to sieve, it had to be broken up by hand. So lean were the finds and so hard was the work that Derek told us just to take out a quarter of the next context taking it down to 0.8m. This too was barren of finds so we called it a day. Taking a metre square test pit down to 0.8m means you've shifted alot of dirt, it 's such a shame to fill it back in. We'd got a lovely pit, all the sides dead straight, it really was a thing of beauty. I think we should leave the pits open so the householders can use them as ponds or something! To help tamp down the soil as we throw it in Derek has employed the use of  'Old Thumper ' & 'Old Thumper 2' pictured below.
Post dig analysis once more the Musgrave Arms  and that was it. A terrific weekends digging.

First context down and we're off!

Finds from context one.

Green glazed decorated early/mid Medieval pottery sherd.

Decorated greyware pottery.

Finds from contexts 1 to 5.

Selfies take concentration!

Test pit with the bottom quarter dug to 0.8m.

L to R. Me, Derek, Alison, Nigel ,Kevin, Ivor.

Ivor and Kevin use 'Old thumper' & 'Old thumper 2' to tamp down the soil as we back fill.

      

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Martello Towers and trains.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Martello Towers and trains.: We got the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway from behind Kas & Stans to Dymchurch today. English Heritage  had a Martello Tower ope...

Martello Towers and trains.

We got the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway from behind Kas & Stans to Dymchurch today. English Heritage  had a Martello Tower open, one of the relatively few left intact from when they were built to see off 'Old Boney'  should the  French ever had invaded during the Napoleonic Wars.
An interesting structure, it's seaward side is thicker than the landward as any invasion would have come from the sea, though the gun on top of the tower  could traverse 360 degrees in case they were attacked from the land side.    A compliment of 3 officers and 24 men would man each tower  though as the threat of invasion lessened so the compliment was not kept up, some were later used by the Coastguard.It's still got the original gun on top a smooth bore 24 pounder on a rebuilt carriage.
A potter round Dymchurch and the inevitable cake and coffee then we got the train back. A diesel took us on the journey out and the steamer 'Southern Maid' on the return, we didn't get out at our stop but stayed on to go around Dungeness which was nice. A selection of photos follow, some with an arty effect. Tres bon.

In the Martello Tower.

Kas,Tara & I on top of the Martello Tower. 

'Southern Maid' drawing into the station.

Former lighthouse keepers cottages.

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The joy of............having a few beers with a go...

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The joy of............having a few beers with a go...: I could have called this blog thing the joy of beers or the joy of friends or the joy of being with our best buddies in Kent, however Stan ...

The joy of............having a few beers with a good friend.

I could have called this blog thing the joy of beers or the joy of friends or the joy of being with our best buddies in Kent, however Stan & I popped next door for a pint of Old Speckled Hen, and very nice it was, the only downside was the fact that there was wall to wall children & someone dressed as a giant rabbit, honestly! It was like a scene from the film 'Harvey,' we looked  at each other, did a double take and yes, it was a giant rabbit! The mascot of the camp site who's bar we were in.........it may not have been Harvey.
We pottered on  to the Jolly Fisherman, a pub with much potential but in need of a good refurb.  I mean, a three bladed fan in the ceiling, just as well it wasn't turned off as not only would it have been so unstable it would possibly brought half the ceiling down  but also we'd have got covered in dust but the beer was good , a couple of pints of 'Coaster' and a good conversation about music, Shepherds Bush, The Marquee club, Lemmy, Harrow, rock music in general, Muslims, the IRA and beer. Our conclusion? Beer good, religion bad. Rock  music good, the IRA bad. Strolled back with the sun on our backs, it had turned out to be a lovely afternoon, got back and gazed out on the  English Channel to write this blog thing.  A suitable place to finish I think.         

An idiots guide to an Idiot: First BBQ of the season.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: First BBQ of the season.: Well we're up and running with the old BBQ again! The weather was so nice today (23 degrees or so) Tara suggested we have a BBQ, Oliver...

First BBQ of the season.

Well we're up and running with the old BBQ again! The weather was so nice today (23 degrees or so) Tara suggested we have a BBQ, Oliver & I went to the supermarket for the victuals and having cracked a bottle of beer we got on with it.
Oliver marinated some chicken is a couple of sauces, one curry based the other Nandos hot sauce based and very good they were too. We obviously did some sausages, it just isn't a Barbie if you don't have sausages, some other chicken & bacon & for Tara Halloumi, just put on some silver foil with a little olive oil, pepper & salt  & then straight onto the BBQ & a couple of Mackerel fillets. Salad to go with & some potato salad  & there you have it , a feast fit for a king, the first of many this year I hope!

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The joy of...........new t shirts.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The joy of...........new t shirts.: I like a t shirt with a good design on it. Maybe a band or something funny or just relevant to me or not. My Consultant who I still see twi...

The joy of...........new t shirts.

I like a t shirt with a good design on it. Maybe a band or something funny or just relevant to me or not. My Consultant who I still see twice a year, always remarks he's never seen so many different t shirts! I suppose I do have a few, I haven't counted them but there are......a few!
I'm very pleased with my latest two acquisitions pictured here:

 The top one is an old comic called Jimmy Edwards. One of his comic roles was as a teacher with gown, mortar board etc called 'Wacko' it was a TV series. I remember it as being very funny, I wonder whether it has stood the test of time? The minute I saw this t shirt it made me laugh, I had to have it!
The other one is from my favourite 'Carry On' film the redoubtable 'Carry on Screaming.'
It's a pastiche of the Hammer Productions horror films of the 1950's & 60's. Made in 1966 I actually first saw it at the cinema with my Mum  and Brother, not in 1966, I'd only have been three & Paul only 1 but a few years later. It was on a double bill with another fave 'Carry On', 'Carry on Cleo' set in Roman times with Julius Caesars great line- 'Infamy,infamy, they've all got it infamy!' 
'Carry on Screaming' starred Harry H Corbet from 'Steptoe and Son' in his only 'Carry On' film as police Inspector Sidney Bung. What a name! It also starred Fenella Fielding, who my Dad definitely had a thing about! and of course Kenneth Williams pictured on the t shirt with his great line of 'Frying tonight!' as his latest victim was lowered into a vat of molten wax. 
I do like a good t shirt!