Cold, cloudy and much movement of air at the Castle this
morn, bit tardy this Monday-woke up late, just got back from the stale bread,
gruel and his Maj’s food run dahn Tesco, the Castle grounds are up to scratch
and I am knackered-ain’t gardening fun......
Unite said its members working for seven distribution firms
backed the deal by 51% overall, although drivers in four of the companies voted
to reject.
Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said:
"This narrow vote in favour lifts the threat of strike action, but leaves
the companies with no room for complacency. We look forward to the rapid
implementation of the Acas proposals which include an industry-wide 'passport'.
"The progress made through negotiation is testament to
the brave stance members have taken in the face of growing insecurity and
attacks on their profession.
Along with the other 20 odd million workers who don’t earn
fifty grand a year and sit on their arses most of the day....
Among the stars at the event, staged inside the private grounds of Windsor Castle, were actress Helen Mirren, singer Susan Boyle and Australian entertainer Rolf Harris.
Celebrating more than 250 Commonwealth and state visits the Queen has made during her reign, the show travelled across the globe, with performances from a Maori troupe from New Zealand to Middle Eastern stunt riders.
The Queen was accompanied by Prince Philip and other members of the royal family including the Duke of York, Princess Beatrice, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Princess Alexandra and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Wonder how the latter did in the show jumping? And who her
rider was....
A prototype Leica
camera has sold for 2.16m Euros (£1.74m), setting a new world record.
It was one of just
25 models created in 1923 as a prototype for the groundbreaking Leica A, which
was the first commercially successful compact camera to use 35mm film.
Branded the
"null-serie", or 0-Series, only 12 are known to have survived.
The camera was
bought by an anonymous bidder at the Galerie Westlicht in Vienna, Austria.
Saturday's bidding
started at 300,000 Euros, with an estimate of 600,000 Euros.
But by the time the
hammer fell, the bids had escalated to 1.8m Euros. The remainder of the sale
price included taxes and fees.
Wonder how much my
old dad’s brownie is worth?
Lurks the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is located in
Tasmania and features around 400 works of art from Egyptian mummies to Young
British Artists including Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville.
But allegedly the most talked-about piece is the Cloaca
Professional, labelled the "poo-machine." It was built by Belgian
artist Wim Delvoye to mimic the actions of the human digestive system.
A series of glass receptacles hang in a row with
the machine being "fed" twice a day on one end. The food is ground up
"naturally," the way it is in the human body, and the device produces
faeces on the clock at 2 pm at the other end.
The smell is so powerful that not many visitors can
take it.
The Cloaca is part of a series of at least five
similar machines built by the artist, another of which will soon be exhibited
at the Louvre. It is the most hated piece in the museum but also the most
visited.
The museum, which opened in January 2011, is owned
by eccentric and philanthropist David Walsh, who made his fortune as a
professional gambler, and features one of the largest private art collections
in the world with an estimated value of around a$100 million.
Another much-talked-about piece is the Matrix by
Jenny Saville, a full-frontal large painting of a naked transgender man with
his modified genitals exposed.
The museum charges A$20 ($20) for entry and has
drawn around 389,000 visitors in its first year ($1 = 0.9887 Australian
dollars).
Sounds like a fun place.....not....
Right a bit from ‘Ampshire the town of Sandwich is
staging a re-enactment of the moment when the town's earl was said to
have invented the sandwich, to mark the 250th anniversary of the bread-based
meal.
Dressed in 18th-century costume, actors today will recreate
the night when John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich - a keen card-player -
"called for a slice of beef between two toasted pieces of bread so that he
could carry on gaming uninterrupted", says a website for the event.
Legend states that others began asking for "the same as
Sandwich" and thus named what was to become a classic foodstuff.
The south-eastern English port town is also holding a
sandwich-making competition and concerts of the bawdy and lively tunes favoured
by the earl, who also had a penchant for dressing in Turkish robes.
The current earl will host a huge sandwich lunch in tribute
to "the fourth earl of Sandwich who, 250 years ago, had his masterly
inspiration in creating the universal fast food the world knows and
loves", a poster says.
And luckily you can still get an original 1762 sanger on the
chuff chuffs...
Austria's first cat cafe, where customers can have drinks
while playing with cats, opens in Vienna.
The Cafe Neko ("Neko" meaning "cat" in
Japanese) opened earlier this month in the city centre.
Customers can stroke and interact with the cafe's five
feline hosts, named Sonja, Thomas, Moritz, Luca and Momo, who all came from an
animal shelter and now freely roam about the cafe and take naps.
The cafe was opened by Vienna resident Takako Ishimitsu, a
47-year-old woman originally from Nagoya, Japan, who moved to Vienna some 20
years ago. She had to spend three years negotiating with city officials over
hygiene issues for the cafe to be allowed to open.
Ishimitsu said she decided to open a cat cafe in order to
introduce some aspects of Japanese culture to Vienna.
Nice, I do like a bit of pussy while I am eating...
And today’s thought:
Just sold my old camera.
Angus
