Collectors and Collections

Spent some time today clearing away some of the clutter underneath the railway baseboard.

Won't bother with a photograph of that.

Browsed the internet for interesting images and found the website of a chap who collects models of Bristol cars.

He's listed and photographed the contents of his collection - and it is huge and pretty much exhaustive. I found it a fascinating record of a collection.

http://www.firstgearcollector.com/bristols.html

I really loved this photograph of Bristol 406s made by the Spot On company. Somewhere, I have one of these.

Spot On were a rival to Dinky Toys and Corgi Toys.

The other two Spot On models I remember having were a Gogomobile and a Vauxhall Cresta.

The last photograph is from somebody's eBay site where the model sold for £15 last year.

***********************************************************************************
Currently listening to Radio 4:

Desert Island Discs: Kirsty Young was interviewing the author of the children's book "Skellig", David Almond. I'd not heard of him; the book rings a faint bell.

Followed by:

 

Great Lives: Where former Tory MP, Matthew Parris, interviews people about their heroes. This week Neil Innes talks about his hero and friend, the late Vivian Stanshall.

 

I like Matthew Parris. Vivian Stanshall was a wonderful eccentric on my landscape as I grew up. So this programme was a trip down memory lane.

 

 

Vivian Stanshall



Half way through the programme, Matthew Parris said that he found Vivian Stanshall very boring.

This is another incident of the non-transitivity of taste.

I like Matthew Parris:

Matthew Parris does not like Vivian Stanshall.

Yet, I like Vivian Stanshall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night's dinner:

Sea Bream, broccoli and tomato sauce from a jar.

Cost per head: approx £6.25

__________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the costs per head for the last 7 days:

£7.50;  £5.50;  £1.75;  £2.25;  £4.25;  £1.25:  £6.25

Average cost per head per evening: £4.11

This compares with the previous week's daily average of £3.69.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Meditation:

In the end, I pulled myself together yesterday and did my 30 minutes cross-legged staring at the wall.

Simply sat in silence. Not much to report.

But, afterwards, three things occurred to me about meditation:

1) Perhaps I should spend each session repeatedly and intensely (desperately?) asking God for the gift of wisdom, a la Solomon. 

2) Or maybe spend the time bringing to mind all those who are in some kind of dire situation eg paralysed in a hospital ward; bankrupt; humiliated; lonely.

3) I believe that there has been scientific research into neurological changes that can be recorded during the act of meditation. I must look into that.