What would Sherlock Holmes have made of this photo? Did they have cameras in his day? They certainly wouldn’t have had cars as he always used to take the third Hansome Cab along. Who said cars had anything to do with this photo anyway?
How did I manage to take this photo anyway? How could I have been there but not my car? I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, and for Sherlock to sort out.
Took this one whilst walking along the gantry at HMS Belfast. Seriously interesting ship to visit btw. All boys own stuff. You can sense adventure.
Periscope on the port bow!!!
Could have just slipped this one in quietly so that you would eventually notice it being used and then say to yourself “oo that must be the Philosopherontap logo. Haven’t noticed that one before. Must be new.”
I didn’t. This is the new Philosopherontap logo designed by local Lincoln artist and friend Carole Daynes. It’s going to be used as the featured image on posts that don’t contain any other images.
There will more than likely always be an instance of it on the front page of the site. I did consider having it in a permanent spot on the screen but I quite like the letterbox shaped image just showing the eyes so that stays.
Carole has also illustrated the forthcoming The Abandoned Sandy Shoe and Other Chinks in the Curtains of Life – the first book in the Philosopherontap literary back catalogue:)
For those who are interested, although you cant see from the picture it must be a hot tap – we don’t do cold at Philosopherontap.
Now you know.
Tata.
Burning McAfee software is very simple – even your mother in law could do it:)
That’s all.
PS are you coming to the Philosopherontap Book1 Launch party on May 8th. Check it out here.
There is a jobslist which has been partially completed. It includes a trip to the tip for which I have little inclination. It is cold outside. The house is warm. I am contemplating a trip to Mansfield to buy a cricket bat, as one does. A boy has been taken to and retrieved from his piano lesson and his hair has now been trimmed to a length he considers respectable. Hundreds of invitations have been sent to the Book 1 Launch Party and some advanced orders have already been taken for the book. A lunchtime bowl of soup has been consumed, laced with hot pepper sauce in recognition of the freezing outside temperatures. It is warm in this room. Life has frozen in time. I am under no pressure.
I’ve just returned early from an unfortunately rained out holiday to Cornwall.
I had won a camper rental for a week as part of a competition, always nice to win something. Not that it happens often.
Whilst the weather was good, it was glorious, I got the opportunity to visit some of the touristy sites around Penzance and take some great shots.
The one below is definitely the stand out for me, so far anyway. It’s St. Michael’s Mount,just off the coast at penzance.
When the tide is low it exposes a walkway from the beach to the island itself. A place that would have captured my imagination as a boy. And still does to some extent as an adult.
I took five bracketed exposures using a tripod and layered them into an HDR with some minor adjustments. The clouds were just rolling in, loaded with rain. I could not have picked a better time for the shot(s).
“Philosopherontap Book1 – The Abandoned Sandy Shoe and Other Chinks in the Curtains of Life” is being launched on 8th May at the Morning Star pub in Lincoln.
The event, which includes entertainment from internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Colin Dudman on the piano, is free of charge to attend although you can purchase a ticket which gets you an advanced order for a copy of the book which will be available on the night. You can also optionally make a donation towards the cost of the night. Donations of £10 or more will also receive a print copy of the book.
The book is going to be made available in two formats:
The Abandoned Sandy Shoe and Other Chinks in the Curtains of Life consists of observations, mundanities and maybe some deeper reflections. Many of the posts come in the form of poems. Many thousands of people write poetry but books containing poetry don’t sell millions of copies. It is also easy to find “poetry websites”. There is a lot of material out there. Having spent some time looking at this material the vast majority of it isn’t to my taste. I’m careful not to say it isn’t any good because one of the things about poetry is that it is often very personal to the author. Often written for the author without consideration of what others think of the writing.
I like to think that Philosopherontap is different. You shouldn’t look at this work as a book of poems. Apart from anything else many of the posts are not poems or do not fit into what classically might be considered poetry. All of the posts do provide the opportunity to stop and think. They are pieces to sit there staring at and not necessarily ones that would benefit from being read out loud to you by me. “Norfolk” for example is too short – ridiculously short some might consider. The “Function Room is Back” however, with more of a narrative to it might be worth listening to.
Some of the posts in this book fit with my philosophy of immediacy. We live in a fast moving internet dominated world where quick fixes are the order of the day for audiences with short attention spans. Some posts are therefore quick brain dumps and of the moment. Others such as “Sad Music” took me days to write. That one was important to get right for reasons you will understand after reading the poem and its accompanying spiel.
All of the posts in the book are available to read free of charge on this website. If you buy the book, however, you get the benefit of additional insights on each post – what the particular piece is about, perhaps what I was doing at the time or other comments. People ordering in advance for collection on the night will receive a signed copy and avoid paying the postage charges.
Order in advance for picking up on the night here or use the form below. eBooks can be ordered from the 8th May onwards. Hope to see you on the 8th:)
The bar at the Strugglers inn in Lincoln – home of the finest pint of Timothy Taylors Landlord you can buy.
Sounds like a version of an Arabic greeting – Middle Eastern language meets Italian food item. Eat and greet.
Jeff did us proud at the trefor.net xmas bash held in December 2012 at the Phoenix Artist Club. Cool photography by Nick Pickles.
I have just invented two new and different ways of making train announcements at railway stations. The ideas came to me when standing around at Kings Cross station waiting for my own train to be announced. Announcements for other trains came and went but not my own. I found myself saying to myself “that’s all well and good but it’s not my train and I am therefore not interested”.
The first idea is that you should only be able to hear the announcements that affect you. I have no idea how to go about implementing this idea but that’s not my problem. I’m the ideas man – someone else goes away and makes it happen.
The second idea is that the accent of the station announcement should reflect the destination of the train and each of the stopping points along the way. This came to me when I noted that “Hull” was pronounced with a decidedly “correct” English accent rather than saying “Ull” as they do in that part of the world.
So a train going from London to Aberdeen via York should have announcements that start in Cockney, flow through a Yorkshire brogue and end up with a strong Scottish lilt.
Och aye!
Can’t quite remember now where I took this pic though I could probably work it out from the metadata and a look at my calendar if I was that bothered. It looked good. It tasted good. By golly it was good.
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