Going Postal

Postal Museum

A couple of weeks ago I visited a museum that had been recommended by a friend with another
friend, the museum was the Postal Museum (hence the heading) the other friend is now back in Japan!


The  friend (who I visited with - keep up) was a guy  I used to chat with during my last years’ participation in CityLit London Villages Walks course.

He (and his wife) have a place right in town but also a further residence in Suffolk (Woodbridge) where they spend 3 nights each week – the couple do not have children and may move full time to Suffolk when his wife stops working.

The chap is semi-retired and spends some of his time on ‘investments’ his wife works quite hard in executive rewards/remuneration sector, although slightly younger than  I he’s a roughly similar vintage but has a very different background being from Northern Ireland (was brought up a staunch Protestant, now less concerned with this) he is now quite interested in his Scottish roots (genealogy again).

Nice train ride.

The bigger picture 

 Our meetup a visit to the Postal Museum  offered a fascinating view/perspective into British history (and also has a nice little train ride on track that was used for mail distribution to London train termini). Such a reminder of the dramatic changes in labour and employment in our own lifetimes
(and also sad in some ways too).

 The train track was used in Hudson Hawk (Bruce Willis) film as a stand in for an Italian location.

A telegram would be delivered like this 

The Museum is in the area behind ITN's HQ in Grays Inn Road (where I worked for a while) .
Like so much of London much development is now taking place there, new shops and housing

 – seems odd to think (new) ITN building now more than 25 years old and very well established!

ITN is housed in this building

Art and family in London

I hear that Bonnard exhibition at Tate is was worth a visit  – must get over there but with so many great exhibitions to see in the nation’s capital –it's inevitable that occasional miss something or get caught in the inevitable crowds at end of run.


 Now in second half of the ‘100 paintings course’ (CityLit) and we (thankfully) have got past work that focused very heavily on Saints, this week we were looking at French work and Velasquez too - quite taken with Claude, less so with Nicolas Poussin (a little too painterly for me) and I generally preferred earlier Velazquez to his later work .

I think that Christ in the House of Martha and Mary owes much to the 'Dutch Golden Age' and that's no bad thing!

A biblical message made contemporary 

Claude apparently a big influence on Turner, seems on donating works to National he required Claude paintings to be hung by his own.

Claude's influence on Turner is clear 

First visit to National Café

Diane's main course was the most photogenic 

After the lesson met up with Debbie, my cousin Andrew and his fiend Diane – very nice meal in the café, I’d not seen Andrew for some time, he lives in Wells, Somerset and is really good company – I got pictures of the food but forgot to get someone to take a ‘group shot’.

My main

Debbie and Andrew made the same choice

Memento Mori

Perhaps it's the time we live in (but then again maybe it's been the case for the last 2,000 years or so ) but sometimes to me it feels like stoicism has been having something of a renaissance - every weekday I get at least one gem in my inbox that feels almost like it was written just for me) - here's the source  

What I was told today is take what's on offer - don't be too constrictive.

St David's in Ealing offers care 

Last week one afternoon I popped round to see an old friend (he is old and I've known him for about 5 years), soon he will move into his daughter’s home  but for the time being he’s still largely independent in his own flat– I took a bottle of Red Wine  which we shared (he probably had more than I) - the time we spent together was pleasant our discussion wide ranging.



At the weekend   I visited with another person  a friend for whom the outlook does not look good  he is  I think suffering a terminal condition and unlikely to return to his home.
Hospital operations followed by other treatments have not brought about improvements to his condition .

Vanitas Still |Life (Jan Jansz Teck)

It was clear though that from the time we spent with him that he retains much of his character and personality but communication for him is difficult and he is bed ridden, the care at the home seems good the time we had with him was I think of value.


It is perhaps useful to be reminded of what lasts and what is fleeting - if we know what is to come do we take appropriate action? Do we consider too highly the opinion of others even beyond our own?


The Dutch Golden Age often chose to reflect the phrase
"Vanity of Vanities," says the Preacher, "All is vanity  - in paintings of the time like this marvellous  example of Vanitas Still Life.

We may think we are clever and sophisticated as we seek to impress those around us but we will cease to exist - I'm not usually quoting biblical texts but ..

From Ecclesiastes 2:11,17,26

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun…

Progress

Recently was  recalling the computer fairs that used to be held in hotels and the like which I'd sometimes pop into (probably in the 1990s), at one I I bought a flatbed scanner - not my first scanner before that when I was in France I had a handheld one with OCR software that was thought to be ‘state of the Art’ at that time.

HP 7720  - good spec' great price

 Well my last scanner  had struggled with Windows 10 for some time and frustration led me/us to get a this new one, it is an HP 7720  ‘All-in-One’ A3 capable, wireless connected, it does double sided colour prints and was very easy to set up – only £90 new amazing.




Also you can email the printer from your phone to print – I wondered to myself what would the class of ’ UWIST 78'  graduates that I was a part of  have thought of this as an everyday thing in a few years or all the other ‘techie’ toys we now have?

Quick to install and software included

Human ingenuity has provided me with much pleasure and the world's population with a longer and better life.

A tear jerker.

I have recently completed reading a book by (the late) Hans Rosling a great example of the sort of people that North European Social Democrats countries can produce, it’s called ‘Factfulness’ and is a nice blast of optimism that reminds us of the great strides we’ve seen in our own lifetimes from a man who could also swallow swords.

[Incidentally near the end the book had me blubbing like a baby unusual for a Non Fiction title.]