20th Century
A History of Pop Music – 1962
Featured song: Chubby Checker – Let’s Twist Again This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began, up to 1999 when they stopped making [more…]
Blog
Arts
The Geek’s Guide To Distilling Commercial Gin For £2.50 A Litre Bottle
First, for those people in the UK and other countries where it is illegal to distil spirits without a licence, here’s the legal bit: “It is illegal to manufacture spirits in the UK without a [more…]
History
The Peasants’ Revolt
I’ve been aware of this bit of our history since I was in Junior School, but the other day I read about it again and thought the story was worth retelling. In the mid-fourteenth century, [more…]
Animals
Fish and their Chips
You’ve seen the creation of the Aquarium, introduction of the fish and corals and watched it settle in. The set up took around three months from initial purchase, fit out, water conditioning and maturing to [more…]
20th Century
A History of Pop Music – 1961
Featured song: The Shadows – FBI – as performed on Crackerjack (It’s Friday what do we all say?) This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper [more…]
Politics
There Will Be No Water Cannons To Wash Away The Rivers Of Blood
It’s another week and yes yet another mutual masturbation circle of outrage on social media over complete trivia. I speak this time of the confected “shock” that the water cannons originally purchased by Boris in [more…]
20th Century
John Stonehouse
Today’s brief piece recalls a disappearing act that caused somewhat of a stir back in the day that I’m sure many of you will remember. The brief career of a rapidly rising star and his [more…]
Biography
Still Not The Right Way To Put Out A Fire
You may remember some months back I related a story of my first fire exercise sailing under the Red Duster. I was somewhat unimpressed having come from a different seafaring outfit where these things were [more…]
Animals
Aquarium – Corals
With all the fish in place, the next step up is coral. There are two types generally stocked, soft Corals and Hard Corals – the soft ones are easier to look after, needing less light, [more…]