pumpkinstrokemarrow

The day previous to Teddington to see what the well-stocked Fara childrens' shop there could do for us. We were in luck and emerged with a box called 'Meccano DESIGN 6700' which cost us £2.50 on the basis that we took it with whatever bits missing or broken there might be. The box claimed 287 parts. Opening I find that this probably includes the nuts and bolts. There was also an electric motor to which various brackets had been bolted and wanting to start from a completely deconstructed state, I wanted to get the brackets off. The box contained a suitable spanner but no screwdriver. None of the six cross head screwdrivers from my toolbox that I tried did the business and it finally dawned on me that the odd shaped holes in the top of the bolts were not intended for screwdrivers at all but for allen keys. Having got this far, I then find that there was indeed a suitable allen key in the box. Not like that in my day. The good news is that instructions are present and I will presently embark on the first of the 10 models available. Or would I do better to pass it onto FIL to provide some dietary variation from jigsaws? It will be a while before sprogs 1.1 or 1.2 are up for it as the box says 8-15.

Mr Google suggests that this particular box is no longer available new but that I can get one from ebay for around £30. So we did get a bargain after all.

Having done Fara, went to admire the locks and weir. River looking high and angry with the water downstream of the weir not much lower of that upstream. Various seagulls fishing. That is to say flying up and down a likely stretch of water, fishing on the downstream leg, darting down and hovering over likely titbits before grabbing them. No fighting; they seemed content to do their own fishing rather than stealing the fish caught by others.

Couldn't get into the large half church, now an arts centre and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays despite being clearly staffed, but we could get into the neighbouring small church, devoted to SS Mary & Alban. Some interesting stained glass inside, including an east window which defied the edicts of Pugin in that the scene portrayed paid no regard to the mullions, cutting straight across them. No attempt to play the picture into the window. Lots of elaborate tombs outside, mainly from the second half of the 19th century. Some exhibiting the head stone, foot stone & low barrel between format, with the inscriptions on the outsides of the stones, rather than the insides, which we had read about somewhere recently. Pevsner or DT?

Lunch at 'Tide End Cottage', a Greene King establishment which appeared to be serving as a seniors' light drinking afternoon club. A middle class version of certain Wetherspoons establishments. Perfectly decent beef burger for £8 or so. There was also a Dunkirk connection in it being very near the moorings from which some 100 or so light craft set off for Dunkirk beaches as part of the 1940 rescue mission.

Back home to a second reading of 'In Araby Orion', a book mentioned on 13th March last and which I had forgotten to return to Wetherspoons. Found it a bit heavier going this second time around, finding the various literary illusions a bit difficult to follow. Perhaps I did not try first time around? But, a little Google work and I find the relevant poem from Longfollow and the quote from Marcus Aurelius. Checking with my atlas of the Holy Land (Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), I also find that Thompson had done his homework even if he had not served in the area. The geographical references check out. But all in all, it looks to be a fitting memorial to the Lance-Corporal Henry Osborn to whom it is dedicated.

The only bits missing from the web is anything about the author, Edward Thompson or the dedicatee, Henry Osborn. The book is very visible and lots of Edward Thompsons are visible. But not the right ones. Henry Osborn was not visible on a quick pass, but I dare he would turn up if I worked at it. There is lots of stuff about people who fought in the first war.