Who Are These Guys?

Our bin lorry went jostling along a very uneven lane the other day. We were working in a small village called Doddington. As we came out of the village we had to go up a lot of rough and uneven muddy drives towards farms etc.

Sometimes one might drive a good distance to collect a bin from a farm sitting isolated in the Fens. Its all good fun and part of the job we all like. I'm always looking for birds of prey and along this route, I've seen a Little Owl perched upon the cable. I was hoping to catch it on my mobile camera, but it was not there.

We stopped at one very rural location along the drive when all of these, weird, hairy, over grown dysfunctional looking sheep came bounding up to the fence. I think they were hoping we had food for them. They seemed most interested in us and not of sheeply nature. They took me a little by surprise, but I did realise that I had seen such things on TV. I'm told they are called Llamas and come from South America. 

"There are some rather strange farms around here," I said to Dave and Alex.

They agreed and laughed with me as I got out my mobile phone and photographed the llamas by the fence.

Some farms have alpacas roaming about and I have even seen deer farms, plus ostrich farms too. The UK's agriculture is becoming a little more adventurous of late.

China's Ancient and Great Wall.

How long ago was it built? Who placed the first building brick? When was it finished? How many people did it employ?

Can you imagine going back in time to one of the great Chinese dynasties and walking along this wall from one tower to another. From one end to another. Seeing all the various guards along the way. The sentinels of the day that guarded the snake like edifice that can still be seen in this day and age.

How long did this grand undertaking take to complete? It was obviously done in stages and perhaps over centuries. Just looking at the image above takes my breath away. China's civilisation has metamorphosed through many stages of development, yet still the Great Wall remains.

I wonder what ghosts one might see if all the ages could be picked randomly to view? Say 300 BC. Who would be patrolling this walkway? I think the bushes would be gone, but there might be a soldier or two pacing along this battlement. What dynasty would he be of? How old would the Great Wall have been then?

Who was the individual that dreamed of such a monument? Why was it built? Surely not to keep Mongel tribesmen at bay? 

Cat Lover's Story - The E STREET BULLY BOYS BY DENNIS STAMEY

The E Street Bully Boys

"Non-stop action and engaging dialogue. Certainly one of the best reads out there! Both kids and adults will love it."

The Bully Boys were the largest, toughest gang in the city, the undisputed champions of the street. That was until a rival group called the Marauders, led by the evil Nicodemus, stole their turf. Now they are despised and hunted by every cat in Tangy Town. Their only hope is a newcomer from the suburbs with a bizarre talent, a talent that could put them back on top. But can it? This is a story for both children and and adults, a rip-roaring fantasy that you will not soon forget.

Great fun with engaging characters. Highly creative with cats being the centre of the action. Can the unlikely newcomer save the Bully Boys or will it be then end of them all? Follow the cats through their hi-jinx towards a new future.

The E STREET BULLY BOYS A great fantasy tale for cat lovers everywhere. 

Giving You F1 Legend Jim Clark.

Jim Clark Lotus 1967

This was another ornimental gem that I could not resist. Jim Clark's Lotus stand proudly on the side board. Little nostalgic memories of my boyhood.

From the mind of a seven year old boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v62StJvxLu8

My only memory of Jim Clark, as a young seven year old, was from his prestigious reputation. I did not know what F1 racing meant, but I knew what racing cars looked liked. Racing cars were different from ordinary cars. Even though ordinary cars did race if they had stripes, and numbers painted on them, and were put on racing tracks or in fields. They still were not proper racing cars though.

Real racing cars were different and they went faster and you only saw them on television because they did not drive on streets. I also had hundreds of toy cars and knew what racing cars looked like. I knew the name Jim Clark because he raced such cars. The UK in the 1960s decade was full of names in various and exciting iconic interests. Interests that came to us from pop stars, film stars, football stars, comics of great British war heroes - we were fed on a diet of great heroes.

In school, or somewhere, I knew of Jim Clark. He drove racing cars and won trophies of great prestige because he was a champion racing car driver. I had no idea what he looked like. But when we kids played motor racing cars in the school playground or out on the streets, everyone argued over who was Jim Clark.

"I'm Jim Clark."

"No, I'm Jim Clark."

Needless to say the toughest kid in the group was usually Jim Clark.

It was in the summer of 1968 when I went on holiday with my cousins, who were a little older then me. We were playing in the garden of a guest house, where we were staying, and decided to play racing cars around this huge boat that was being made in the garden. I'm not sure if it was in Margate, Ramsgate or Broadstairs because we always seemed to go to one of these places every year. This boat looked like a miniature ark and someone was in the process of building it. While we were at the guest house; whoever was trying to construct the boat, must have left the project, because we never saw anyone working on the partly completed boat. All the wood was new and I remembered wondering how they would get such a big boat off of its stands and to the sea.

We were running around this partly constructed boat playing and laughing. Then decided we were racing cars, and around the boat was the racing track.

"I'm Jim Clark," I shouted enthusiastically. My elder cousins were very tolerant and not like the kids in the playground and in the street. I had a good chance of being indulged and getting my way.

"You can't," replied my cousin Danny. "Jim Clark is dead."

"No he's not - he's a racing car driver."

He went on to tell me that Jim Clark was killed in a racing car crash, in a real racing car race, only a short time ago. I was stunned and shocked. Jim Clark was dead and I never even knew it, or what he looked like.

As years rolled by and other F1 names came and went from the sport, I learnt more of Jim Clark through watching interviews with Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill. He was a very special champion that was liked and respected in the F1 sport across the world.

Below is a link to a documentary of Jim Clark that is on YouTube. It's a very moving documentary.

Driving Jim Clark's Lotus

Driving Jim Clark's Lotus 25 would be a dream come true for anyone who enjoys formula one and its high octane, fuel injected, excitingly dangerous history. Where the thin line between winning glory and devastating acceleration into the afterlife can happen in the flicker of a blink.

Jim Clark tasted both sides - the euphoric adulation of winning while skimming the danger of death and finally the flip side of the formula one coin. His name now echoes in eternity and the thought of driving one of his actual cars is something close to the legend he has become. I would be too terrified to even contemplate racing in formula one, but to take one on a spin on an empty open track? Oh yes! I think I could manage that.

David Coulthard got to do just that, but then he is one of the many who have tweaked the nose of Formula one danger. I have a Lotus 25 diecast 1:18 of Jim Clark's 1967 Dutch Grand Prix car. It has pride of place in my little office room. I enjoy watching Formula One, but I get this interest in fads. I am going through such a fad of interest at the moment. It will settle down, but its Ron Howard, the late James Hunt and Nikki Lauda's fault.

For now, I'm enjoying going through a retro buzz  and the great Retro Brit names of the 50s and 60s are compelling me to look at the sport. Jim Clark, Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, Graham Hill, John Surtees and Jackie Stewart. That fifteen years was a golden age for British Formula One. Great days with only some of the vehicles of some of the ghosts that have left us.


Interview with the Legend

Jim Clark won the Formula One Championship on two occasions. 1963 and 1965. He was killed during a minor none F1 race in Germany 1968. Had he lived beyond his 32 years, I believe he would have undoubtedly gone on to win at least one other championship.

Giving You Ancient Britain's Queens and the Roman Empire

Ancient Britons fought the Romans for a number of decades from 44 AD to 120 AD. There continued to be tribal unrest in Caledonia (Scotland) but the rest of Britain gradually became Romanised.

For 300 more years Britain became a settled area of the world and when it finally fell apart due to Eastern European migration from today's Russia; the Roman administration packed up and went. They just closed shop on Roman Britain and left.

The Isle witnessed a kind of dystopia for some years. The Dark Ages came and there followed many centuries of uncertainty.

It is so strange because the Britons were not the most welcoming of people towards the Romans at first. There were a number of wars in the beginning, but the might of Rome prevailed and Ancient Britain fell and then prospered under the Roman Empire as Roman Britain.

In the early decades of Roman rule, Britain was known to have 2 queens. Boudicca of the Iceni (The Warrior Queen) is known for her bloody rebellion. Her rampage burnt her name into the history books and she echoes through eternity. She lasted but a year, yet her legacy lingers to this day.

The other queen is Cartimandua of theBrigantes. She is less well known yet she was more successful in ruling her rebellious Brigante and got on well with Rome.

Historians say that Boudicca fell out with Rome because the Roman Empire would not recognise a woman’s rule. I think this is hogwash because Queen Cartimandua was recognised and supported against her divorced and exiled husband Venutius. As was Cleopatra of Egypt.

Cartimandua ruled from the year the Romans invaded Briton in 44 AD or close to this time. Her rule ended in 69 AD during the year of the Four Emperors. Her divorced husband usurped her throne, though Cartimandua escaped and went into exile and vanished from historical records. No one knows when she died. Although she ruled for around twenty five years, virtually nothing is known of her.

It is a great shame because to last so long under such dire conditions says something about this queen. Many regard her as a traitor because of her friendship with Rome. But some people believe there was more to Cartimandua then this. She must have had some ability and somehow she contained her Brigante from joining Boudicca’s rebellion.

When Boudicca of Iceni lost her final battle against the Roman army, her forces were in the midland area of today’s England. Cartimandua’s boarders would have been close to where Manchester is.

Suppose when Boudicca fled the battle field, after defeat, as some historians believe, she went north to commit suicide. Even if Rome had her rotting corpse they would have displayed it and recorded such an event. It is safe to say they did not. Suppose Boudicca took a poison elixir and was buried in a sacred place? Suppose Cartimandua had some reason to meet the warrior queen in secret? Could the British queens have met before Boudicca took poison?

Read the fictional story of such a meeting and enjoy: Meeting Boudicca (A story of Cartimandua of Brigantes and her one off audience with the Iceni warrior queen.

    

(Radiogram Adventures) Booker T & the MG's - green onions

I think this record was in my Dad's collection. My sister and I both liked this one. At first I used to be disappointed because there was no signing, but then I grew to like it very much indeed.

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JIMI HENDRIX - rare version 03/07/1967 belgium -HEY JOE

Jimi Hendrix Experience band from 1967 with Hey Joe. It is hard to believe that all three of the band members are dead now. Jimi Hendrix passed away in 1970 at age 27 while bass player Noel Reading died in 2003 in Ireland. The drummer; Mitch Mitchell died in USA in 2008.

It seems like yesterday when I watched them on Top of the Pops as a seven year old kid. I was living in Stoke Newington at the time. We lived there from 1967 to 1969. We moved back to Poplar in East London in 1969 and remember being surprised to learn of Jimi Hendrix dying. That was in 1970, but I don't think I learned until the following year. That's because I was saying, "When did that happen?" and replies were, "last year."

I got more into his style of music many years after his death, but I do remember watching him on Top of the Pops in the late sixties while living in Stoke Newington.