Grannymar

Rev. Jack was well loved by his entire congregation. I met him one bright and sunny September morning as he walked from the vicarage to his church for the morning service. He stopped to chat for a few moments and I welcomed him home from his month long summer holiday. He looked refreshed and relaxed and his face bore the glow of sunshine from days outdoors on his well deserved break.

As we chatted, a parishioner on her way to church stopped with words of welcome. “Morning Reverend! She said, adding “I am glad to see you back. That fellow we had while you were away waffled on forever; the dinner was burned every week. At least now we will have short sermons”. With that she went on her way into the churchyard.

“Not a very diplomatic lady”. I said

Smiling, Rev Jack looked at me and said “If I cannot say what I want, in 10 minutes; I am wasting my time, the congregation loses concentration and begins to shuffle about after that!”

I have often thought of those words when listening to speakers, be they clergymen, businessmen or politicians. Rev Jack is a very wise old man indeed!

While reading an epistle of a blog post the other day, I found myself struggling to keep up. I had the impression that the author was trying to use every word in the dictionary in his post. At least four times I had to go back and start over to make some sense of the piece on the screen. It made me think of Rev Jack’s words.

If that same author was restricted to a Post-it note, how would he deliver his message?

Are we writing for ourselves, or do we really have a message we want to share…..

When I was young we used to collect the stamps from all incoming letters.  They were saved in a large envelope and when it was full, passed on to a charity.  The stamps needed to be in good condition and still attached to a small section of envelope.  The chosen charity then soaked and removed the stamps from the backing paper and when dry sorted them according to country and price denomination.  They were then sold to stamp collectors.

Down the years in each place of employment, I continued to collect the stamps from all the post and pass them on.  I still to this day, remove the stamps.  Nowadays the number of letters has reduced and most are franked, but I do receive some stamped items from across the globe.  My problem now is where to send them.  Several of the recipients from the past no longer collect them.

Do you know of a charity that accepts used stamps today?

/+\+/+\+/+\

Once more I would like to remind you about FCB@5 (Friday Consortium Blogging at Five p.m.).

To date we had topics selected by:

• Ashok - India = Stereotyping
• Conrad - USA = Creativity

Today it is the turn of Ramana - (Pune, India) to provide us with something to test the grey cells.  While the boys are scratching their heads and prancing about on their keyboards I am off to play chase the dust…..

See You at 5pm!

From time to time I have written about sculptures that I have seen.

Today I make mention about another beautiful work of art.  I have not actually seen it or had the opportunity to photograph it.  In fact it was first brought to my attention by Conrad a few days ago.

Photo from snopes.com

The Teardrop Monument was a gift to the United States of America from Russia, after 9/11. It was made & installed by the Russians on the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, to honor those who lost their lives that fateful day. It stands right across from the Statue of Liberty.

It is a 100-foot-tall, 175-ton, bronze-clad sculpture, which encloses a 40-foot steel teardrop, entitled “To The Struggle Against World Terrorism’ by Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.

The clean simple lines of the work appeal to my eye but it is the reaching out of one nation to another that really impresses me.  Two nations who were arch enemies for so long drawn closer through tragedy.

You can find some more  photos and information here.

I love the little mini business cards from Moo.com and I have used them since autumn 2007.

As per usual I learned about them from Elly.  She has used them on many an occasion.  She has them for personal & business cards, she used them inside wedding invitations for details of Gift registry, as Christmas Cards and for change of address & phone numbers to notify her relations and friends when she moved into her new home.  For the latter she added a narrow magnetic strip so folks could keep the details to hand on the fridge!

When the young pair were gadding about Europe on their funny honeymoon I had to find ways to amuse myself since I did not have them to annoy talk to.  So I turned to investigate MOO.  The mini cards came in bundles of 100 and the more bundles you bought the cheaper the cards became.

So you pick an image from stock or a photo from your own collection and size it down.  It is possible to pick a different image for each of the 100 cards :!:  Now that was a little ambitious for me, so I picked one photo I liked from the day of Elly & George’s wedding and used it for all the cards.

You then add up to 6 lines of text on the reverse of the card, selecting your own fonts & colours.  The site walks you through the process and the order and payment are completed online.  Normally they arrive very quickly.  MOO is based in London, England, where they print and hand-pack everything for global delivery.  A recent newsletter announced the eminent arrival of an office in the US.

Well my cards were running out!  STOP LAUGHING DOWN THE BACK YOU TEKKIES!  I had handed out almost 100 mini MOOs since Podcamp 2007 and 09 Bloggies were coming up fast.  So I planned my order.  Alas I left it rather late and the cards arrived after my trip to Cork.

So did I repeat my previous order?  I ordered another 100 with a different image on the front!

So what do you think of them this time?

Now I wonder….. would the MOO card image make a nice header for my blog?  Maybe Magpie might teach me!

Yesterday was a fidgety day. I often get them nowadays. Unable to settle to a single task, I flit like a butterfly from one thing to another. I cleared a cupboard, sorted some washing, ironed some knitwear and listed the batteries I needed to purchase…. several are not holding their charge as long as they should. More than 20 batteries are needed at first count.

You know how it goes – keyboard, mouse, camera, condiment set, clock and the one place I almost forgot. My safe! Of late I noticed that when I keyed in my pin no. for the safe, that the door would not open. It took at least five tries yesterday. So I found the instructions and as I read through it I noticed something about batteries It works on batteries and not fresh air. I removed the old ones and they were not rechargeable. While checking the details I noticed in small print; for expiry date see base. I turned it over and right enough it had a date – December 2004. What year is this? I hope I don’t need my crown jewels before Monday.

Oh dear, I forgot another one…..

Relax!

I tested the most important battery – the one in my smoke alarm and it works. Here in Norn Iron we have or did have a TV Campaign to remind everyone to test their smoke alarms. ‘Thumbs up its Monday’ was the slogan chanted by a group of Fireman in full regalia. So this week I am a day early.

In the cupboard I cleared I came across an old folder with a spring spine, it had stickers on the cover both inside and out. There are six in total and I will share them with you over the next few weeks.

This is the first:

Nancy asked the other day if I would post something about Nelson’s Pillar.

www.joyceimages.com/chapter/7/

Nelson’s Pillar was the most prominent monument standing near the General Post Office (GPO) since 1808 in the centre of O’Connell Street, formerly known as Sackville Street, Dublin’s main thoroughfare. This was the original Nelson’s column predating the one in London by almost 30 years. It was a 36.8m (121 ft) tall column with a 3.9m (13 ft) tall statue in Portland Stone at the top.

Designed in 1808 by the English architect William Wilkins (1778-1839), the pillar was topped by Thomas Kirk’s (1781-1845) statue of Admiral Nelson. At the time it was the tallest Doric column in the world. It contained a viewing gallery at the top, and adults paid 6d (children under 12 were half-price) to climb the 168 spiral steps to a platform which gave a bird’s-eye view of the city. The diameter of the column was 13 ft at the bottom and 10 ft at the top.

All the outer and visible parts of the Pillar were of granite, from the quarry of Golden Hill, Kilbride, Co. Wicklow. The interior was of black limestone. Originally the entrance was underground but this was moved to above ground in 1896.

The pillar became a common meeting place for those new to the City and remained so right up to the time of destruction. I wonder how many romances began with a first date starting at ‘The Pillar’.

www.teachnet.ie/dhorgan/1950-60.html

By day there was a lady standing near the entrance selling fresh flowers from a baby’s pram. She was there for years. Alongside her was a mobile X-Ray van with a loudspeaker unit calling on passers-by to ‘Come and have a free chest X-ray’, between these messages they played music! One record played over and over ALL day long – Greensleeves! I know because I worked during my school holidays for several years, at an Opticians office and the loud hailer blared right in our a first floor window!

The Pillar was an unpopular symbol of British imperialism. It was blown up by the IRA at 02:00 on 8^th March 1966 as their way of commemorating the Easter Rising. No one was hurt by the explosion. The closest bystander was 19-year-old taxi driver, whose taxi was destroyed.

www.ukonline.co.uk/communitysupport/nelpil2.jpg

I remember the day, it was my brother’s birthday and we were both late for work because the centre of Dublin was closed to motor traffic and we had to walk most of the way to work. The IRA action only demolished the top of the pillar, causing damage to two windows in the area. Two days after the original damage, engineers from the Irish Army blew up the remainder of the pillar after judging it to be unsafe to restore. This planned demolition caused more destruction on O’Connell Street than the original blast, breaking many windows.

No action was ever taken by the police against the bombers.

Now standing on the site of the Pillar is a 120-metre tall stainless steel needle designed by Ian Ritchie and built 2003-4. Officially called The Spire, like its predecessor, it has attracted much controversy, and alternative names.

Ian asked me a question on 30^th March this year. He would be the first to tell us that some answers take time. This one did, but I at last have the answer.

Back then I wrote about this wonderful sculpture

At the time the only information I had was:

Brian Alabaster of Suffolk made this sculpture in 2003. His son Sam, a 15 year old boy with Downs Syndrome sits reading with his Grandpa, Dickie, who is 82, Sam’s dog Billy, age 10, is at his feet.

I received a comment to that post at the weekend. It was from Brian Alabaster, sculptor. ARBS. Sadly, he tells me that Grandpa Dickie has since died. The close bond between man and boy is so obvious in the work and I am sure Dickis is greatly missed by all his loved ones.

So to answer Ian’s question, asking if the piece was commissioned by the local council, I can now tell you it was purchased by the owners of Junction One Shopping Outlet after they saw it in Brian’s studio.

It was with great interest and curiosity that I visited Brian’s website and was fascinated at his back story. I immediately lost my heart to this piece;

If only I had a garden suitable for Lilly Luke and Rose to sport and play.

Now if you pause for a moment you can almost hear their chatter.

Enjoy!

I had a great few days away from home and feel like I was on holiday for a month.

You heard about the lists, the tasks and the curtains so now you want the interesting bits.

Saturday meant an early start; we left home at 8am in order to reach Hotel Kilkenny and registration for PodCamp Ireland before 10 am. We drove through thick fog most of the way, so the journey was slow. Seeing friendly faces as we arrived soon brought the sunshine to our hearts. I was not the oldest and the generations were like steps of stairs to the youngest little lady that I saw at lunchtime, a mere one year old!

Ken McGuire Bernie Goldbach & Krishna De all did a trojan job in the past few months organising the event. It may have been an ‘unconference’ event but without the background work it would not have happened.

So what did I do?

I hugged, or should I say Keith tried to crush my ribs!

I listened with Marian while Darragh talked.

I learned, Ellie May shows me how to use an iPod.

I talked about blogging and Podcasting for the older generation.

AND

I was brought home to meet ‘The Parents’

We arrived back with Elly & George in time for a sumptuous dinner on Sunday night and again enjoyed friendship, fun and laughter for several hours.

On Monday a workman was due so I stayed around to let him in. I had three more fine young Toyboys on Tuesday and one of them came three times! The work was completed on Tuesday and everyone is satisfied.

Fearing I would be charged rent if I stayed any longer, the bags were pack and ready for the return journey on Wednesday. I didn’t go straight home. I went to meet and dallied awhile with another fine handsome Toyboy.

Then I was presented with this:

How’s your Latin?

Some of the 110 attendees that I actually had conversations with at PodCamp Ireland were:

Evert Bopp (Tipperary)

Mike Buckley (St Louis, MO, USA)

Cian Mac Mahon (Dun Laoighaire, Dublin) wants to do a Podcast with me.

Darragh Doyle (Dublin)

Keith Shirley (Carlow)

John Keyes (Kilkenny)

Rosemary Khelifa (Dublin) (whose talk I missed as it clashed with mine) gave me a lovely neck massage.

Elly Parker (Adamstown)

Martha Rotter (Dublin)

Gabriela Avram (Limerick)

Nicola Brown (Carlow)

Simon McGarr (Dublin)

Deborah Hadley (Tullamore) found her way to our hearts with delicious Brownies.

Jan Buckley (St. Louis, USA)

Marian Roche (Limerick) who made the PodCamp Logo buttons

Dean Whitbread (UK) presented and chatted despite an ear infection. Thanks Dean.

Sabrina Dent (Cork)

John Handelaar (Cork)

Keith Bohanna (Kilkenny)

Niamh Smith (Dublin)

Gav Reilly (Dublin)

Ian Healy (Kilkenny)

Jason Roe (Dublin)

Conor Lynch (Meath)

Marie Boran (Carlow)

Sabrina Marczak (Canada)

Katherina Fay (Dublin)

George Pratt (Dublin)

Sinead Murnane (Dublin)

Cathy Fowley (Dublin)

Sharon Tobin (Kilkenny)

If we chatted and I missed your name put it down to a senior moment.

More photos at Pix.ie

We never had a Video player, videos or a Camcorder, but I certainly know people who did. Some were constantly sticking the camcorder in your face; they were so much more intrusive than the Camera phones of today. Perhaps that is because we are now more used to this technology, but I digress….

Most of the people that I know of who amassed great mounds of videos, were very careless with their storage. An untidy bundle would accumulate on the floor beside the TV. Some might be film of family or special events, while others were recordings of TV programmes broadcast at an unsuitable time for the viewer. Perhaps they were off recording their own material for the great video of the future, or something to bore the relations with on a wet winter’s evening. I actually wonder how many miles of TV programmes recorded on video tape, lie about never viewed again?

So these videos reclined in the ‘must watch’ muddle for several months before the day of the Box. By Box I mean the day when an empty recycled cardboard box appeared and all the videos were meticulously packed away, the box sealed with parcel tape and the word VIDEOS scrawled in bright Felt Marker across the top. Occasionally a date might be added. If only the videos inside the box had the same treatment, thus avoiding the ‘I wonder what’s on this one?’ question many years later.

The box then sat in the hall or on the landing for a week or three until a trip to the loft became unavoidable and the box was lifted carefully to its new home in the farthest, corner of the dark loft. No thought given to the temperature of the loft and the effect it would have on the tapes.

Guardian.co.uk ran a very interesting piece on Sunday for the home movie maker of yesteryear.

A virulent infection is destroying the audio and videotapes once used to capture important moments of family life and great historic events. The fungal blight, or ‘tape mould’, has already ruined thousands of miles of audio and video tape in Britain and, according to specialist restorers, much more is likely to be deteriorating, unobserved, in storage. The infection of VHS cassettes and of the audio cassettes popular in the 1980s and 1990s is increasing at an alarming rate.

At the end of the article is a list of Do’s and Don’ts for storage of VHS and audio tapes.

The wet weather during the past few summers has not only proved detrimental for arthritic bones but also for audio and video tapes. Now don’t all run together, but in the next few days take a look at your storage and sort out those tapes or there will be no movie of Great Aunt Alice sitting on the Whoopee Cushion or audio of Grandpa Joe singing all 32 verses of a rebel song!

I hear the birds in the South of Ireland are chattering Post Codes once more. Let their music not fade into oblivion like a one hit wonder, but rise with a great crescendo to completion of the task. Postcodes are very handy. I know because I have one. Way up here in the cold and often forgotten part of the UK, are many towns and villages with a prefix of ‘Bally’. I live in one of them. Back in the days before we had post codes our mail took the tourist and scenic route via Ballycastle. Now with a Post code such detours are avoided.

Nowadays all my outgoing mail has a return address of my last name, house number and post code. I have in fact received Christmas Cards from the United States of America addressed to that return address. If for any reason I need to phone my bank or any utility company they ask first for my postcode and then the house number and finally ask me to verify my name. When travelling my luggage tags have only this return address.

Northern Ireland was the last part of the UK to be postcoded with all postcodes here beginning BT, a mnemonic of the capital city’s name. While Belfast was already divided into postal districts, rural areas known as townlands posed an additional problem, as (at the time) many roads were not named, and houses were not numbered. Consequently, many people living in such areas shared the same postal address, which is still the custom in the Republic of Ireland. Today the majority of roads in Northern Ireland are named with the odd exceptions in Co Fermanagh and most houses (even in rural areas) are allocated a number. Those that are not allocated numbers can be uniquely identified by a house name. An example is Bushmills, which begins with BT57.

The format of UK postcodes is generally:

A9 9AA

A99 9AA

A9A 9AA

AA9 9AA

AA99 9AA

AA9A 9AA

where A signifies a letter and 9 a digit. It is a hierarchical system, working from left to right — the first letter or pair of letters represents the area, the following digit or digits represent the district within that area, and so on. Each postcode generally represents a street, part of a street, or a single premises. This feature makes the postcode useful to route planning software.

The part of the code before the space is the outward code or out code used to direct mail from one sorting office to the destination sorting office, while the part after the space is the inward code or in code used to sort the mail into individual delivery rounds. The outward code can be split further into the area part (letters identifying one of 124 postal areas) and the district part (usually numbers); similarly, the inward code is split into the sector part (number) and the unit part (letters). Each postcode identifies the address to within 100 properties (with an average of 15 properties per postcode), although a large business may have a single code

wikipedia.org.

The population in the Republic of Ireland are well prepared for this type of system since vehicle registration has worked on a similar vein for several years. Surely incorporating the latter system would make the providing of Postal areas and districts an easier task.

What do you think?