#and then sold them for like 25p

[icy-book]

Question, do yall have mexican restaurants in the uk?

Cus theres a whole lot in the us, but we border mexico and have a lot of immigration from there, do you have mexican restaurants??? Have you ever tasted real mexican food made authenticly??? Are you okay????? Are you safe???????

(Just saw a British youtuber talk about having mexican food for the first time when he went to the us on vacation abd it blew my mind, what do you MEAN yall dont have access to the best food out there????)

I mean, I'm sure there are. I've never been to one though, not really a large Mexican community where I live. We had a lot more Indian restaurants, some Italian, Thai, and like one proper French restaurant. Lots of good independent burger places round me though

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

I need to know more about the 1920s and 1840s cookbooks if you are willing to share! How did you acquire them?

What recipes have you tried and how did they turn out?

Any fun (mis)adventures with them? (Ingredients not sold any more or that don't mean what they meant back then, etc)

Gladly!

(Edit: I am putting this under a cut, as it has gotten very long!)

(I apologise for the state of my phone camera! I tried my best! You drop your phone in a wet trench and it's never the same after...)

So, a few years ago I ended up helping at the bring and buy book shop that ran in my local village, where I was mostly the muscle who hauled around, went through and put out the boxes of books that would get donated (and there were a lot!)

The idea of going through the donations was to weed out books that weren't able to be sold on, whether they were in too poor a condition (mouldy, incomplete), something we already have a million copies of (50 shades), or just wholly unsuitable! (I'll leave that to your imagination!) I didn't mind doing it as I could just pop in my headphones and zone out for a couple of hours.

So, there I was one Saturday, listening to my tunes and sorting through donations when I came across a very old, grungy book, held together with sticky tape and with only its front cover. Now, old books fascinate me, so I opened it up to the copyright page and almost fell over when I read MDCCCXL - 1840! At that point I knew this thing was coming home with me! And for a grand total of 25p, it did!

If you can't see what the cover says, it's 'Domestic Cookery By A Lady.' This is also repeated on the copyright page.

Look! Isn't it awesome? Now, I would love to show you every page, but there's a lot, and I'm showing you two books, so you'll just get the highlights, I'm afraid.

First things first though, here's something that I love about this book.

See that? The pages all still have indents from the printing press, even after 183 years!

The contents! As you can see, this book covers a lot! It's not just recipes. There's directions on carving, guidence on servants ('One is never to retain a cook who is not fond of her occupation.' for instance, and 'A servant must possess a natural regard for cleanliness, or all the pains in the world will never render her cleanly.'), guidence for servants (aka, how to clean everything!) a wide variety of recipes as well as how to pick the best produce and when certain things are in season.

And just as this book couldn't get any more awesome, it's got pictures too!

Go look at that last picture again for me. You see those dark splodges on the right of the page? Know what they are? They're fingerprints! Fingerprints! Proof that somebody touched and used this book all those years ago! You can't tell me that's not awesome!

I will admit that I have not tried any recipes out of this book, so no misadventures, but I love reading them. There are some that I'm not sure I'd even want to try!

Stuffed cod's head, anyone?

Mock turtle soup?

Of course, if you want real turtle, there's also how to kill and prepare one of them...

How to make coffee.

Also, how big is this blooming cake!?

Not to mention the time it will take!

Anyway, Tumblr has a photo limit on posts and I still have another book to show you, so I will leave you with this final remark on cooking for the poor, especially the bit about the crust of bread.

Mmm, yum!

Onto the next book!

It came from the same place as the last, but this time at the grand cost of 30p! (Inflation, y'know?)

This one is a cookery textbook from Strathearn College, Edinburgh. Copyright page says 1925. Cool, right? Ah, but it gets better!

Ann Burlt Oct 9th 1929. She's the original owner of this book! And she made lots of notes, too!

At a guess, these were her favourite recipes, what page they were on and how many eggs they required.

And one she didn't like! I was pretty sure that there was one recipe that was crossed out with a NO! next to it, but I couldn't find it, so maybe I was wrong.

She also amended some recipes:

Additionally, there's also a few extra special things in this book too that I at least got very excited over:

Bookmarks! This one is a scrap of newspaper, sadly no date on it.

A mini booklet regarding changes to telephone charges. Now, remember that this cookbook is from the 1920s.

Look at the second paragraph on the left. 1970. 1970! This book was still being used in 1970!

And this one, which doubles as both a recipe and a bookmark! And must have been in that book for a while as it's stained the page!

I have tried one recipe out of this one, which was a Roly Poly and was very tasty! I would show you but it would seem I have one more image I can add to this post, so instead I will use it to show you something I never, ever, want to have to try, ever!

Sardine Eclaires? Really?

Excuse me while I go quietly vomit somewhere...

Anyway! Thanks for the ask! I love being able to show these off and wildly flail about things that I think are interesting, and I hope you enjoyed the ride too!

[harrison-abbott]

Pop, Lewis, Sam and Oats

POP

My first son Lewis came to see me in the hospital. I’d been watching the television for hours and I was too drugged and nullified to do anything and wondered why they couldn’t just kill me. I wanted to jump out of that window that was right over there. But didn’t have the strength to get up from the bed. And when my son came in his image brought back the wealth of life, a meaning to live a little longer. He had a fit body and had his own small kids and a wife and he had lived creatively for his professional worth, and I suppose I was a little envious of him. “I brought you some of those old onion rings, Dad,” he said, pulling out these small green packets, “from the old newsagent.” We used to live, my sons and I, the far side of town and there was a terrific newsagent that sold these great cheap onion rings. Lewis used to bring me packets of them when they were 25p. They were 80p these days. “Thanks, son,” I said to him. I didn’t tell him that it was painful for me to eat and that I would hardly get through one packet in a single sitting. There was something else I wanted to say to him. That I wanted to give him. To give to his mother. Who was old herself, and hence why she couldn’t make it to the ward so much. It was a note that I’d written. “Hey, Lewis. I wanted to hand these instructions over to you. Will you take this bit of paper.” He said okay and he read it. “And I want you to show it to Samantha, too. Right, Lewis?” After he finished reading he spoke out what I’d written, “Take Oats to my grave after I’m gone. Because I know he’ll go looking for me if I never come back to the house. But if you take him to the graveyard, he will know I’m under there and he will be able to grieve a bit.” Lewis’ face crumpled. And he covered his face. I had noticed in the last few months that it was often the other person who got emotional around you when you were dying; and that you felt you had to comfort them rather than them you. “Will you do that for me, Lewis? Take Oats up to the kirkyard?” – “Of course, Dad. The dog already misses you a lot.”

LEWIS

When I got back in the car in the hospital car park I cried buckets for a good ten minutes, with a red face and snot and all the rest of it. It was just how he thought of his old border collie dog. Because he knew he had no time left. And it wasn’t possible for Oats to come into that part of the hospital, due to the allergy risks. I could tell it hurt Pop a lot that he wasn’t able to say bye to Oats in person. And he would have to do it posthumously. And it just made me greet like a bairn in a car park hysterically for ages. Then I tissued my face and turned the keys and drove off home.

SAM

I told my husband that he should stop smoking so much from our earlier dating days, before we were married. He hid it from me. When he smoked. He didn’t do it in front of me when we initially dated … and he was sly and sneaky about disguising the smell, for a lot of my life. It didn’t seem to matter that much when we were in our twenties. Because lots of our friends smoked as well. And he was such a fun man; everybody loved him: it didn’t seem to matter that he had that one addiction on an otherwise jubilant persona. Then when we got into our thirties he grew a bit cranky about smoking in front of the kids because he was ashamed of it and so he would disappear and come back reeking of tobacco. And in his forties he was pretty much a chainsmoker. He tried several times to stop. With the NHS and so on. Honestly – there was nothing wrong with my man; he was among the best people I’ve ever met. And when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, I was angry with him in a way: but he was one of those individuals who you are able to forgive very quickly. I’ll miss him. I already miss him. Lewis called me earlier and told me about what he wanted done with his dog Oats. And though we all love Oats: collies tend to link in with one person especially, and there was no doubt who that was. And so I’ll just have to wait for my husband to die. I’d planned to go and see him on Wednesday in the car, with my daughter in law to drive me. Hopefully he’ll still be alive.

OATS

Sam was the person who gave the dog the name oats when he was a puppy. He was fucking about in the kitchen and he jumped up onto the breakfast table and licked at Lewis’ bowl of porridge. Everybody saw it and laughed. They’d been looking for a name and then Sam went, “We should call him Oats!” And it settled from there. … … … It had been two days since Pop’s funeral. And Oats had been silent around the house. Lewis took his mother and the dog up to the cemetery. Which wasn’t pretty. It was rainy and grey and there is nothing redemptive to describe about the appearance of this graveyard. And they got to Pop’s stone. Oats’ ears changed and his pace sped up and he went up to the modest tombstone. He blinked. And his ears dropped downward, and then he lay down on the grass before the soil. Sam and Lewis let him lie there, whilst they sat on the nearby bench and simply watched him.  

[atulbhattus]

Perth city taxi

Taxi in bullsbrook

Self employed taxi drivers in common with other self employed businesses are required to submit a self assessment tax return form each year reporting the main totals from the taxi drivers accounts. The final submission date for these accounts to enable the tax authorities to calculate the tax payable is 30th September while the final deadline for submission of the self assessment tax return is 31st January. Miss the 31st January deadline and the penalty fine is 100 pounds.

The simplest solution to preparing the taxi driver accounts is to collect all the taxi receipts and expenses together, hand them over to an accountant who will prepare your self assessment tax return and might charge between 150 to 450 pounds for the privilege. That is taxing. Taxi driver accounts does not have to be that taxing. You can prepare your taxi driver accounts and self assessment tax return yourself but do something.

These taxi driver notes in preparing the taxi driver accounts and completing the self assessment tax return are to assist that process.

Mileage Allowances

Taxi drivers can claim as an alternative to vehicle running costs mileage allowances of 40p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter. You may not claim mileage allowance and vehicle running costs. Should you choose to claim the mileage allowance then keep good records of mileage covered, purpose of journey.

Taxi Capital Allowances

If you bought a vehicle in the financial year 2007-08 and used the vehicle as a taxi you can claim a first year writing down tax allowance of 25% of the cost of the taxi, restricted to 3,000 pounds for vehicles costing over 12,000 pounds. On vehicles purchased in previous tax years you can claim 25% writing down allowance on the balance not yet claimed. Many taxis are bought and sold each year and where a taxi is sold the capital tax allowance that can be claimed is the difference between the written down value for tax purposes and the amount of sale proceeds. First year allowance on non vehicle assets in the current tax year 2007-08 is 50% for small businesses.

Taxis bought on Hire Purchase

Claim capital allowances on the original cost of the vehicle, interest and other charges count as business expenses and go in the self assessment tax return box 3.61 Other Finance Charges

 Taxi Running Costs

When completing the self assessment tax return taxi drivers should enter fuel costs in box 3.46 cost of sales not motoring expenses. A standard check carried out by any competent inland revenue inspector enquiring into a self assessment tax return would be to check when the taxi driver was on holiday and examine if fuel receipts had been included for this period. Not many tax returns are enquired into as the system is based upon trust but taxi drivers should ensure their accounts do not contain this fundamental tax fiddle. Taxi running costs also include repairs, servicing and parts including tyres, road tax, taxi insurance and AA/RAC membership. Include radio hire and taxi office costs in general administrative expenses.

Household expenses

If you run your taxi business from home you can claim a proportion of household expenses as business expenses in the taxi accounts. Household expenses are likely to be disallowed unless they are either specific to the business or a specific area of your home is devoted entirely to your taxi business. Using part of a room part time would not be sufficient to include the household expenses in the taxi driver accounts.

Spouse Costs

You can claim expenses for partners who work for your taxi business and payments up to 100 pounds per week would not attract income tax or national insurance however any payments claimed in the taxi driver accounts must be real payments for real work done. The Revenue naturally adopt a strict view on taxi expenses claimed for partner work as it is an area some people might use to reduce the tax liability. Care is required to justify the partner as an expense.

Other Expenses

Enter all business expenses in a named expense box on the self assessment tax return. Avoid entries in box 3.63 Other Expenses if possible as any significant amounts in this box may give rise to an Revenue enquiry into the self assessment tax return.

The best method of ensuring the taxi drivers tax bill is as low as possible in the future is undoubtedly to meticulously maintain good records of all taxi receipts and expenses and mileage covered which offers the opportunity for taxi drivers to compare the taxi running costs against mileage allowances and choose the most tax efficient option. The decision to claim mileage allowance or taxi running costs can and often does change during the financial year. In general when a more expensive taxi cab is purchased then the capital allowance of 3,000 pounds will often outweigh the potential mileage allowance although if the vehicle is low value the mileage allowance might be the best option and a method of saving valuable tax pounds which you are entitled to. The best taxi accounting software will automate the comparison of taxi mileage allowances with taxi running costs doing the taxi accountants work for y

[filmardotcom-blog-blog]

CANON EOS C100 CAMERA MOVIE BUNDLE

This CANON EOS C100 CAMERA MOVIE BUNDLE is definitely a curveball, but I thought I'd put it out there. Let me know if you're interested and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions or send more pictures. This is at Filmar Technologies and ready to ship. Let's make movie magic together.  Complete Lot - 2500.00 Buy it now or best offer. 

I am willing to work with you. Want them? Let's get this done. Ventas en Español para distribuidores : Sur America, Centro America y Europa Canon EOS C100 Cinema EOS Camera with Dual Pixel CMOS AF- BATTERY INCLUDED!! (included)       No Lens included Super 35mm 8.3MP CMOS Sensor 1920x1080 60/50i, 24/25p, PF30, PF24 Dual Pixel CMOS AF Hardware Upgrade EF Lens Mount ISO 320 to 80,000 Uncompressed HDMI Output with Timecode Canon Log and Wide DR Gamma Dual SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card Slots Two XLR Audio Connectors Built-In ND Filters with Manual Controls AC Adapter to power camera included Battery Charger included. DJI Ronin 3-Axis Stabilized Video Camera Gimbal (Black) Supports a wide range of cameras and lens (up to 16 lbs.). Simple 5-minute setup & tool-free balance The battery life is rated up to 4 hours. The Gimbal will hold up to 16-pound camera, so if you use a very heavy camera like this, the Gimbal motors must work very hard and battery life will be 1 hour or less. If you use light camera like EOS Rebel, battery life will be full 4 hours. Built-in receiver and remote control available with Bluetooth via the DJI Assistant for iOS 3 operation modes for maximum flexibility Dust and waterproof traveling case. Remote Control Included - Takes 4 AA batteries (Batteries not included) (Antenna works, hinge action broken) SEE PICTURES FOR INCLUDED PARTS AJA HD/SD-SDI to HDMI Video and Audio Converter with DWP - 5V power adapter missing SDI Input and Equalized Loop Output HDMI 1.2 Output 8-Channel Embedded Audio Supported 2-Channel RCA for Separate Audio ARRI AS-1 LIGHTWEIGHT 7.7FT BLACK LIGHT STAND WITH 5/8 MOUNTING STUD Load Capacity:               9 lb / 4.1 kg Mounting Opt:               5/8" Stud •             Max Working Ht:           8.5' / 2.6 m •             Min. Working Ht:           2.2' / 0.1 m •             Collapsed Height:           2.5' / 0.8 m •             Accepts Wheels:             No •             Air Cushioned:                No •             Detachable Base:             No •             Leveling Leg:                  No •             Reverse Legs:                  No •             Finish:                              Black •             Weight:                            3.0 lb / 1.4 kg ARRI 571197 Heavy-duty Location Case Fits Various Arri Lighting Kits Hard Shell Plastic Fixed Interior Dividers Recessed Butterfly Latches Spring-action Handles Built-in Wheels Complete Lot - 2500.00 Buy it now or best offer Become a Filmar Reseller and get discounts on all our inventory. Sign up below https://filmar.com/become-reseller/ Details: • Filmar 30 Day warranty • Buyer pays Shipping • Payment via wire transfer • 3% PayPal Fees • Sold on first come basis How to contact us: Call us @ 586-580-2524 Dial Extension 7 For Sales Read the full article

[markwatkinsconsumerguide]

Consumer Guide / No.87 / Top Of The Pops LPs archivist & blogger Terry Wilson with Mark Watkins.

MW : Tell me about your background...

TW : I grew up in Aylesbury, and from as early as I can remember, I loved music - and it was these very Top of the Pops LPs which were the earliest I had, bought for me as presents when I was four or five, and spun on an old mono Dansette. Little did I know, the LPs were being pressed in a small plant five minutes from where I lived (I found that out about forty years later!).

I guess Top of the Pops started me on the road to what would become quite a serious record collecting habit, and a love of music generally. I went on to play in a number of unsuccessful bands, before taking up music writing (plug: Tamla Motown - The Stories Behind The UK Singles). I'm now 50, and live in Sussex with my wife and child, and although I completed my Top of the Pops vinyl collection years ago, I still splash out on the odd rarity or overseas pressing when I see it. The overseas ones especially fascinate me, although I'm no longer able fill my home with records, like I did in my bachelor days.

MW : When & why did you set up your Top of the Pops website?

TW : The project started around 1999, and I knew nothing about web design at that point. I'd started collecting the series (as an adult, that is - my childhood LPs were long gone), but this was when the internet was still in its infancy - nothing like we have today. For example, there was no such thing as a Top of the Pops LP discography, so I had no idea how many I needed, what the catalogue numbers were, or what the LP sleeves looked like. 

The website project actually began as an Excel spreadsheet, where I started listing the volume numbers, catalogue numbers and so on. A few of the albums had gotten into the LP charts back in the 1970s, so the relevant chart books were consulted and provided a few more snippets - that's how hard it was to find anything out before the internet, young people. That listing gradually expanded to the point where I thought I'd try my hand at making a website, which was a steep learning curve for me. I guess it went online around 2005.

MW : How have you developed the site since its beginnings?

TW : The first site I made was quite different to the current one. The technology was much more clunky, and the pages were all out of line. It wasn't great, but at least gave me a grounding in web design, so I knew what I needed to do. I made the decision around 2008 to re-invent it using a different host, whose layouts I much preferred, and that's where it still lives today. From my perspective, the website was more than just a space to write up and organise the discography; it was also a forum for research. I've lost count of the number of kind people who've contacted me through the site, and given me information, photos and even records over the years.

A Russian collector, for example, used to send me Top of the Pops records from the old Soviet Union, pressed on flexi-disc and coloured vinyl - I'd never even have known about them otherwise. Plus, every new discovery meant a new page for the site, and whole new sections came into being - it has expanded to the point where it's now quite vast. It's because of the size of the site that I started a blog (http://copycatcovers.blogspot.com) where I could flag up new discoveries which might otherwise not get noticed - not just Top of the Pops, but across the whole genre of what I call copycat cover versions.

MW : How do you store and maintain all your vinyl?

TW : I'd love to say I have a dedicated room with security cameras and temperature control - but in reality I store my collection in a humble way on ordinary shelves.

I used to have them in a series of proper LP cases, but they became unwieldy, so I took them out again. Just having them stacked vertically away from undue heat or humidity is all the care they need. The more precious ones are in heavy-duty protective covers, but I don't go to great lengths to look after them, or treat them like precious jewels. 

They rarely encounter a record deck, though, as I got together with a few fellow collectors some years back, and between us we digitised the whole set - so the vinyl can stay safely inside the sleeves while I listen to MP3s. The rarer tape editions in my collection are less hardy than the vinyl, so they are housed in protective cases and kept in a safe place.

MW : What are your views on these kinds of LPs - in the sense that they were once seen as cheap and cheesy - until The Mike Flowers Pops lounge music revival in 1995…

TW : There's a part of me that sees them exactly as you describe - cheap and cheesy - but there's another part of me, which I guess is the dominant voice in my head, which sees them as creative fun. It's important to remember these are not compilation albums. The making of them required a band to go into a studio, red light running against the clock, and capture track after track after track - and in this way, the original 'Top of the Poppers' group recorded around 70 full LPs in ten years - by any measure, that's dedicated musicianship, arranging and singing. I can't think of any band in history with such a prolific work rate. I once wrote a tongue-in-cheek article in which I argued these were the most important albums ever made, and by the end of it, I'd almost convinced myself! Two of them even made Number 1 in the UK album charts. That's two more than Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, etc…

MW : Do you search charity shops and similar for these albums? Your best finds? Any missing?

TW : My UK collection is essentially complete, and has been for a few years - so I no longer hunt them down. For better or worse, I'm past the point where I still find anything I need in charity shops. Overseas releases are a different matter. I buy them when I can, but I probably have more missing than I will ever know. (To my knowledge, I am the only person who's ever researched them.) 

When I was buying the UK albums, charity shops and car boot sales were my main source, and I frequented them religiously - there was Ebay, of course, but it costs a lot more to have an LP posted to you than to chance upon it for 25p in a charity shop - so I held out and gradually finished the set. My best find was probably Volume 90 - I'd never seen it, and I was killing time in a town in West Sussex when I had a rummage in a junk shop and found it for pennies. Back then, Ebay was around, but the number of sellers was a fraction of what it is today. On the very rare occasions something like Volume 90 or Volume 91 turned up, they would command prices in the £100 bracket - and that's no exaggeration. (I thereby learned I was not the only one collecting them!) 

But most of my truly astonishing finds have been via the internet. I'll never forget discovering one of the LPs had been issued in Argentina, and I bought it immediately. When it arrived, I slipped it out the sleeve to find it was pressed on starburst multi-coloured vinyl. Amazing! And still it goes on - just last year I chanced upon a UK release, a double album of disco tracks by The Poppers, which I'd never even heard of! You never know what will show up next.

MW : Tell me about some of the famous (now) but not famous (then) musicians who started their careers off doing Top of the Pops cover versions...

TW : It would be great to say a succession of stellar names cut their recording teeth on these Top of the Pops albums, but in truth, there aren't that many examples. Those who know about the cover version sub-industry (and Top of the Pops was only one LP series among many) immediately think of Elton John. He did record a good number of anonymous cover versions in the late-1960s for labels like Avenue, Marble Arch and Music For Pleasure, but only one for Top of the Pops - ‘Snake In The Grass’, issued on Volume 5 (which is, consequently, worth a few pounds). 

It's frustrating that the session men and women are largely unknown to this day, but a couple more famous names can be confirmed. Tina Charles, for example, who had success with her hit, ‘I Love To Love’, can be heard singing ‘Stand By Your Man’ on Volume 45, while well-known singer Laura Lee performs ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ on Volume 36. We might also mention Elvis Costello's dad, Ross McManus, who sang on more than one LP - including the same Volume 5 which Elton was on. Rumours that David Bowie appears on some are probably not true, but who really knows?

MW : What are your favorite album covers...why?

TW : It may seem paradoxical, but I've never really been a fan of the album covers. There are many collectors of the 'cheesecake' sleeve genre, but I'm not one of them. Mostly, I find them amusing, with the ridiculous poses and whacky clothing - they are sometimes described accusingly as soft porn, but I think that's taking them too seriously. Maybe they were considered more shocking back in the day, but there's one in particular, Volume 8 - in which the model sports a fur bikini! Can you think of a more absurd garment?

I like the quasi-psychedelic cover of Volume 16 but my favourite is probably the ultra-hideous Volume 22 - one of the ones I had when I was a kid. That's famous actress, Nicola Austin, in what can only be described as a roll-neck leotard, capped off with matching sailing hat! We should give a shout-out to Bill Graham, a designer for Pickwick Records, who came up with the iconic sleeve design in 1968. Even into the mid-1980s, when models like Sam Fox and Linda Lusardi were by then appearing on the covers, the design was essentially unchanged. He came up with a classic.

MW : What are your long term plans for the site / collection?

TW : The site continues to grow, every time another record comes to my attention. One area I never did get into was reviews of the LPs. I would have, but a fellow enthusiast, called Tim Joseph, has been preparing a book about them for years, and I didn't want to tread on his toes, so to speak. It's something I might do one day though. As for my collection, I don't know what will become of it! I have some bona-fide rarities in my possession - autographed sleeves, advance promo copies, a genuine gold disc award, and numerous overseas pressings, one of which accidentally includes a real hit recording by Elton - don't ask me how that happened, but so far as I am aware, the album is unknown to his fans and collectors. If they found out about it, they might make me some handsome offers! But who, besides, me, would really want the rest of it?

I doubt I will ever sell my collection, so I guess I'll keep it until I shuffle off this mortal coil, then what will become of it, I don't know. I could offer it to a museum, but I fear they would die laughing! In a sense, I feel I've done my bit in preserving the LP series by photographing, cataloguing and documenting it all - at one point I actually lent some records back to Pickwick so they could make digital versions of some they couldn't locate - and so they were my copies, loaded up globally to iTunes. It's a honour for me, and that's reward enough.

MW : Away from the website, what are your other interests?

TW : I've always had many interests to pursue - I have what's sometimes called the collector's gene. 

So when I'm not mulling the small print of old record sleeves, I might be cataloguing every Aston Villa football card ever printed, or compiling a collection of every King George VI postage stamp. 

I tend to go for ambitious projects - all or nothing - so when I wrote my Tamla Motown book, for example, I researched and wrote up every single 45 they ever released - a mammoth task which had to be squeezed between building websites, playing football, playing in a band - and also, a full-time job (Special mention here to my patient wife!). I've always had in interest in writing. I used to work as a journalist and edited a few magazines. 

These days, much of my spare time is consumed with mixing and remixing music on pc. It's great fun, and the technology is so freely available, anyone can do it.

MW : What's to see and do in the area you live in?

TW : I grew up in the countryside, and moved down to Brighton in my 20s. It's a place I still love - so much going on all the time with bands, nightlife, festivals and so on - but one way or another, I've ended up back in a village.

Life here is quiet, and the village is a bit other-worldly - which is fine - but very different from the pace of city life. Cars will actually pull up to a stop in the middle of the road, if someone's waiting to cross! 

The village has its own events - an annual village day, a dedicated fireworks society and various arts’ groups, which I take a passing interest in. Fortunately, there's also a choice of good pubs.

MW : How do you intend to spend the summer holidays?

TW : I have no plans yet for the coming summer - which is leaving it late, to say the least. I quite like the idea of getting a last-minute deal and flying off to who-knows-where, but I'm not sure what we'll do. I get bored easily and like to have things to do and see, whereas my wife likes to lay in the hot sun and do nothing. So, we find things which work for both of us. Last year we headed down to Cornwall to a seaside resort and went out on a few adventures, so it worked for both of us. This year, who knows?

http://topofthepopslps.weebly.com/

(c) Mark Watkins / May 2019

[superchicalonelyviking]

Four

Hello everyone from Fuji Q theme park next to (you guessed it) Mount Fuji!

We've been in Japan 10 days now and what a fantastic country! We are totally impressed by how clean, beautiful and cheerful everything is here!

We arrived in Sakaiminato, a small port town in the South of Japan, getting off the boat you straight away see Japanese style houses, Japanese style seagulls (huge brown feathery type things!) and of course lots of vending machines! Sakaiminato is a nice seasidey town with lots of sculptures of characters from an anime cartoon series by the artist Shigeru Mizuki, lining the streets. You can go round and get rubber stamps of all the characters! Walking around town there are red lanterns hanging everywhere, lots of really sweet music playing and people greeting you from the shops as you pass. A kindergarten crocodile passed us, all wearing yellow hats and with colourful water bottles strapped over them and every one of them said 'koniciwa' to us, it was extremely cute! We had read that a Japanese way to show respect to people is to bow / nod your head, and everywhere you go people do this in greeting to one another. Everybody is so polite here as maintaining social order is important in Japan, apparently foreigners tend to break the rules (many of them unimaginable) all the time and have no idea, meaning we are a constant source of embarrassment and annoyance. Well I hope it's not quite that bad but we've been trying to fit in as much as possible!

From Sakaiminato we got a train up to Hiroshima, passing lush mountainous scenery on the way. Even the train was very nice and clean and had cute pictures of cartoon characters everywhere ! We got a Shinkansen for some of the way, which is name for the Japanese high speed / bullet trains- it feels like you're on an aeroplane rather than a train, actually looks a bit like an aeroplane too and it's fantastic how quickly you can move between places. The train attendants, on reaching the door at the end of the carriage, turn round and bow before leaving!

Hiroshima is a very nice, progressive and apparently international city (we thought it would be a lot more multicultural here, even in Tokyo it's unusual to see people who are clearly foreign, and apparently 95% of people who live in Japan are Japanese or Korean due to strict immigration laws), Hiroshima is most famous for  being where the atomic bomb was dropped in WW2 and hence most people come to visit the peace park, museum and monuments which serve as a memorial and a message that it should never happen again. The place is very emotive but feels very optimistic too, it is very much about peace rather than divisions. There is a large flame in a shrine which will burn until we reach global nuclear disarmament, a bell which you can strike to send a message of peace, and a children's monument, inspired by a girl who developed leukaemia age 11 and attempted to fold 2000 origami birds before she died but unfortunately didn't succeed, so thousands of school children across Japan send birds they have folded in her memory. There was a busker in the park playing violin really beautifully, after a couple of hours we were so sad that we had to go for Okonomiyaki to cheer up! This is the local dish of Hiroshima and is this fantastic pile of pancake, cabbage, pork, noodles and an amazing sauce, all cooked in front of you! Afterwards we went and balked at how expensive the fruit and veg is here (in the supermarket, about £1 per apple!) apparently due to laws which protect Japanese farmers and govern imports, decided to attempt to cook some of our own meals to save money but subsequently decided this was a terrible idea, we are rubbish at cooking Japanese food and you may as well just pay someone who knows what they're doing! (It's hardly even any dearer) - oh apart from breakfast, we've been having scrambled tofu everyday, you can get a huge block of tofu for around 25p which is about 90% cheaper than in the UK! Also Mat is super happy because the loaves of bread here are sold with the crusts neatly sliced off, initially a disappointment for him, until he discovered that for less than half the price you can buy a bag containing all the discarded crusts!!! Anyhow this probably isn't very interesting so back to Hiroshima...

There is also a beautiful castle, rebuilt in 1958 in a lovely park with the huge temple of the carp god outside, all surrounded by a moat . At the temple you have to wash your hands and mouth with water outside before going to pray in front - to do this you have to summon the gods by ringing a bell, and afterwards clap and bow to signify you have finished. The main religions in Japan are Shinto and Buddhism. I don't know a huge amount about Shinto but I do know there are many gods, and a belief that when people die their spirit goes back into nature, and natural things such as rivers, trees, mountains and rocks are often worshipped or seen as sacred. There are small temples scattered around most places and most will be dedicated to a particular God. We visited some more in Tokyo, where we went next !

Tokyo in comparison with Hiroshima is a huge sprawling city (or amalgamation of lots of towns into a huge metropolis) it is very busy but yet feels strangely calm, I guess due to the attitude there of politeness and consideration not to bother others. Everyone is so well dressed, for example you see lots of people in smart suits and very white starched shirts, children in pristine sailor suit style school uniforms, in fact all the uniforms are very stylish and look brand new, we feel pretty scruffy in comparison! The place we stayed was tatami style with tatami mat flooring, futon mattresses and traditional wall decoration, and you're provided with slippers to use whilst inside the house (although not on the mats, and there's a separate pair for the toilet, it's quite complicated!). We had a few days exploring Tokyo, went to some beautiful temples (visited the temple of the God of Strong Legs, so now our legs are in fine shape) and explored some of the older parts of town, and after we'd finished with the cultural bits went to Joy-polis which is a bit like a cinema complex if instead of a cinema it had loads of indoor rides, and felt more like a giant disco! There is even a rollercoaster themed around sonic the hedgehog where you have to play a guitar hero style drumming game on the way up, and a ride where you're strapped into a skateboard with a big lever attached and it simulates going up and down a half pipe! What really makes the place though is the brilliantly enthusiastic Japanese ride attendants who clap and cheer when the ride begins and when the place closed were all grinning and waving from the exits! We also spent a couple of days at Disneyland and Disney Sea - I was majorly skeptical about this plan but actually it was fantastic, the attention to detail is really incredible, the place doesn't really feel like you're in a theme park so much as a giant pop up book, it's really fun just to explore and go on the kids' rides with all the freaky animatronic characters, some of the sets are actually really impressive! The parades are fun too and there are really good dance shows and a huge firework and light show projected onto the castle at the end of the day. Disney Sea was especially amazing, it is centred round a huge lake with a massive man-made smouldering volcano behind with a rollercoaster coming out of the top. Mat should probably tell you more this as he is the biggest fan but I also loved it!

We also visited Akihabara, Tokyo's 'geek' district, with massive gaming arcades and retro video game shops. Mat played Tetris at an arcade, and was thrilled to get the highest score of the day, before realising his was actually the only score of the day. On the whole Akihabara feels like the big, slightly weird Tokyo that we sometimes hear stories about. It's a cool place!

Near our place was a sushi conveyor belt restaurant where most plates were just 100 yen, approx 70p! So we were loving having amazing cheap sushi.  Everything is ordered from a touch screen, but then is delivered via conveyor belt, with a musical jingle playing just as the plate reaches your table so you know to take it!

On our last day in Tokyo we discovered there are several so called 'Penguin Cafes' in the city, so we're really excited as the Penguin Cafe Orchestra was one of the reasons we were keen to come to Japan- the founder Simon Jeffes visited it (via the trans Siberian!) and wrote a lot of music here in the 70's, and the Penguin Cafe have toured Japan and have a following there. The famous song Music for a Found Harmonium was played on a harmonium found in Japan! So it turns out that some of the Penguin Cafes actually have real life penguins that live there (along with Tokyo's owl, cat, bunny etc. Cafes!), and you can watch them over a cup of tea! We decided against that but instead turned up to a place in Asagaya and on arrival realised it wasn't just any old Penguin themed cafe, it was totally inspired by the music, which was playing inside, with their records on the walls, and we spoke to the owner who also loved the music!

Afterwards we went to a nearby Yakitori place he recommended, very small places where you can buy beer and sake(rice wine) and Yakitori which are small skewers with meat and vegetables, cooked in the window, all the food is prepared behind the counter. It was a bit difficult to order as the people there didn't speak much English and our Japanese is awful but we ended up with lots of beer and skewers and afterwards the chef brought us a platter of leftover   Fruit and salad then served us three different types of sake, each with a different flavour, which were all really good. Later we ordered more sake and were totally alarmed when the waiter didn't stop pouring after filling our glasses, meaning it splashed over the sides and filled up a small saucer underneath but on googling this found out it is a way sake can be served and is a happy bonus as you get a bit more than the glassful! Our original plan had been to go on a Tokyo big night out (by our standards at least) but we loved this place so much that we stayed all night, they also gave us free ice cream too! It is called Kawana. Highly recommended!

Since leaving Tokyo we have been in Fujiyoshida which is a city at the foot of Mt Fuji, and it has been brilliant! I had a giant picture of the Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai on my wall since the beginning of university (for no good reason other than my room needed posters, I saw it at the Keele fresher's fair and liked it), the painting has a picture of Mt Fuji in the background (it's actually one of a whole series of woodblock paintings of Mount Fuji by Hokusai), the picture is still up in our lounge today and I never thought I would actually see the mountain, or that it would be as spectacular in real life!

The first night we stayed in a place we found on air bnb, we were the host Kazu's first guests so we're guinea pigs for his 'authentic Japanese experience', which turned out to be awesome!

On arrival we were given some lovely Japanese clothes to wear and then we had coffee, green tea flavour kitkats and then Kazu got out what looked like a kind of industrial workbench clamp and with it made us some Kakigori, a type of crushed ice dessert! Then we were taken to a study room and he taught us some Japanese calligraphy, using ink and a special brush, including how to write our names- they are written using an alphabet where all the characters represent a phonic, so for example the 'th' of Elizabeth is the same character as the 'th' of Matthew. There are two other alphabets used in Japan, with more than 2000 characters! Often the characters represent whole words rather than just a sound.

After calligraphy Kazu made us some Takoyaki which are these delicious octopus dumplings! And he drove us to a local restaurant for Ramen, and advised us on what to order. As if we thought it couldn't be any better, when we got back Kazu had run us a hot bath with Japanese bath salts so we had a mini onsen experience too!

In the morning Kazu cooked about 5 different dishes including tofu miso soup, cooked fresh salmon, rice, a really nice salad and tofu in a dressing, and afterwards showed us how to perform a tea ceremony and we had delicious green tea, with very tasty mochi which are a Japanese sweet made by pounding rice into a pulp. He also showed us a Japanese musical instrument called a Shamisen, played for us and let us try it. He even had a replica samurai sword! It was all so totally Japanese!

In conclusion it was great and if you're going to the Fuji area look up Kazu's place! Also, we really need to up our game with our air bnb! It's a bit more difficult to think what we would do for an authentic British experience, but any suggestions are welcome!

Whilst in Fujiyoshida we also went to Fuji Q, a theme park Mat has dreamed of going to for ages.  The best rollercoaster was a '4D' rollercoaster called 'Eejenanka', where the seats rotate on their own axis, meaning you go over drops face first, upside down, forwards, backwards... it's really hard to keep track of what's happening and it feels nothing like any other rollercoaster I've ever been on! Our on-ride photo was so beautiful we had to buy it.

There was also the 'Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear', a walk-through haunted house (well actually a zombie hospital) with a reputation of being amongst the scariest in the world. It's really long, it took us about 20 minutes to get through, and you go through just the two of you, feeling alone, rather than with a big group. It was genuinely very scary, my heart was pounding the whole way through, and we were almost tempted to quit at one of the emergency exits part way through!

One afternoon at Fuji Q thousands of fans wearing matching coats turned up and gathered around a big model Sea plane- it turned out they were at a festival for an online Japanese video game - then a girl band came onto a little stage and everyone did a coordinated dance to the theme song. Totally bewildering!

On the last evening in Fujiyoshida we cycled up to a mountain opposite Fuji called Shimoyama, here you hike up through the trees to find the Niikurafujisengen shrine (dedicated to one of Japan's princesses) and a beautiful Chureito pagoda representing citizens of Fujisan, all with an absolutely stunning view of Mount Fuji towering over the town. At sunset it was particularly peaceful and calm. We met several elderly men jogging up and down it as we were nearly collapsed by the side of the path! On the way back down we went to the temple and were surprised by how noisy it was there as they are normally VERY quiet -it sounded like someone was doing some really enthusiastic evening gardening behind it- and then we realised the temple was covered in monkeys! They were leaping around all over the roof and through the trees behind, one of them had a baby on its back, they were super cute!

We went for really good sushi for dinner both nights in Fujiyoshida, it was a small traditional sushi place - somewhere Mat has wanted to go since working at Yo! Sushi (a bit of a different type of sushi experience!) - and the chef was so friendly and told us what all the different bits of sashimi were and how to eat it all! We got to meet his family, wrote in the restaurant guestbook and when we left he gave us a calendar with his name on it and on the second night he gave us a pen! Another recommendation for Fujiyoshida - it is called Musashino.

Next we are going up into the alps to a more rural part of Japan, so we're looking forward to that! Will blog again soon ! Miss you all!

Libby and Mat

[therealmaggiemedia]

The Wilsons E208 The School Store

EXT, GREENFORTH DAYCARE-DAY INT, MRS APPLEBY'S CLASS-SAME The kids are sitting on the carpet listening to Mrs Appleby. MRS APPLEBY From next week our Daycare will be having a shop so you can learn about how to handle Money and I will be picking a person to work in the shop! JERRY when  you say work do we get paid? MRS APPLEBY No Jerry so from Monday a person from this class will be chosen to work in the shop! ALICE I hope its me I love shop things! JERRY You why would anyone pick you? ALICE Someone has to do it so I think it should be me! JERRY Well we will see won't we A Lice! INT, THE WILSON'S KITCHEN-DAY Alice has just come home from school and she is sitting at the table eating a sandwich and complaining about Jerry. ALICE Why does he always call me A Lice when he knows my name is Alice stupid boy! MAVIS Don't take any notice sweetheart! ALICE Okay Mummy! INT, GREENFORTH DAYCARE-DAY Mrs Appleby is telling the class she has decided who should run the Daycare shop. MRS APPLEBY And the person who should run the shop is- they all lean forward in anticipation. MRS APPLEBY Alice Wilson! ALICE I promise I will look after the shop like it was my own! MRS APPLEBY After your lessons with me you will work in the shop and your classmates will come to you and buy items from you then you take there money and put it in the jar! ALICE Will do Mrs Appleby! LATER AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CLASS ROOM Alice is standing behind a shop made from cardboard and painted to look like a shop Alice is selling Chocolate Bars Jerry walks up to her. ALICE What can I get you? JERRY Chocolate Bar! ALICE Sure can! JERRY Can I owe you for the bar I don't seem to have any money on me! ALICE Sorry no money no bar! Then Jerry gets angry with Alice he grabs her by her T-Shirt and holds her up to him JERRY Listen here you little twerp I want that Chocolate bar and your going to give it to me! Then Mrs Appleby sees what Jerry is doing to Alice and decides to intervene. MRS APPLEBY (ANGRY) Jerry Peterson what do you think your doing? JERRY she wouldn't give me what I wanted! MRS APPLEBY Did you pay for your item? JERRY No Mrs Appleby! MRS APPLEBY That is why Alice is under my orders to take money not give items away for free! ALICE No Freebies here! MRS APPLEBY Now put Alice down and go to the naughty corner! He does what he is told. MRS APPLEBY Are you alright Alice! ALICE I'm a bit shaken up but I'll be fine! MRS APPLEBY Well go and get yourself some water and  sit down! ALICE thank you Mrs Appleby! Alice comes from behind the shop and goes over to the drinking fountain in the classroom and gets herself some water in a paper cup she sits on a chair and drinks her water. ALICE Mrs Appleby is right all  I need is a nice drink and a nice sit down, I feel better already! Alice continues sipping her water. Then Mrs Appleby comes back to see if Alice is feeling better after her ordeal. MRS APPLEBY are you feeling better now Alice! ALICE Yes thank you Mrs Appleby! MRS APPLEBY If Jerry picks on you again just let me know! ALICE Will do! Mrs Appleby walks away and Alice continues drinking her water. INT, THE WILSONS KITCHEN-EVENING Alice  has just come home from school  and she is sitting at the table having her tea with her family. SUSANNE How was school Alice! ALICE It was great I got to work in a shop and when I grow up I'm going to be a shopkeeper! GEORGE Don't you want to be a police officer like me? ALICE No thanks a shopkeeper I will be! GEORGE Okay sweetheart good luck with that! ALICE Thank you Daddy! MAVIS Well after tea I think you should have a bath Alice since you missed your shower this morning! ALICE Didn't want to be late for school and Mrs Appleby would be sad if I was late! SUSANNE She would indeed! ALICE That's right Susanne! MAVIS and Susanne will assist you with your bath! SUSANNE I'll be happy too! IN THE BATHROOM Alice has had her bath and she is wearing a white towel. ALICE Susanne I hope you didn't mind washing my back! SUSANNE Not at all Alice! ALICE Oh good! SUSANNE Well I think you should go to your room and get dressed and I'll do my homework! ALICE Pyjamas actually! IN ALICE'S BEDROOM Alice is now wearing her Pyjamas and she is ready for bed. ALICE I hope I get a story! Alice gets in bed and George enters the room holding a book in his hand. GEORGE Okay sweetheart I'm going to read you a story from my Police Station! ALICE what  will your Sargent say about that? GEORGE I don't care now lets read the story, and the drug dealer said I don't know anything about it! George sees Alice is asleep he kisses her goodnight and leaves the room. EXT, GREENFORTH DAYCARE-DAY Alice is talking to the twins in the playground about her father's story. ALICE And the story ended with the drug dealer not knowing anything about it! GIRL 1 An interesting story! GIRL 2 Yes interesting! Then Jerry walks up to them. JERRY Alice Do you know what the story was that your Dad was reading to you last night? ALICE Not really no! JERRY He was reading you some police reports! ALICE So the story he was reading me was real, I wonder what his Sargent will say? INT, GREENFORTH POLICE STATION-SAME The Sargent is sitting at his desk looking for some police reports. SARGENT (YELLING) Wilson! Then George walks towards the Sargent's desk. GEORGE yes sir! SARGENT Where are the police reports from the drug raid yesterday? GEORGE in my pocket sir I took them last night by mistake but don't worry nobody saw these reports and nobody knows what's in them! SARGENT Alright then, if people do know about these reports guess what will happen to you? GEORGE I'll lose my job won't I! SARGENT That's right Wilson you will! As George leaves the desk he has a worried look on his face. INT, GREENFORTH DAYCARE-LATER The kids are in the classroom sitting at the table talking about Alice's story. ALICE the  point is we shouldn't have even heard this story and even I shouldn't have so we best keep this to ourselves or my Daddy might get the sack and we don't want that do we! JERRY I don't care he's not my Daddy! ALICE No because your Daddy is a raging alcoholic! Then Mrs Appleby walks over to them. MRS APPLEBY Alright you two, now today is Alice's turn in the shop again. ALICE And before anyone asks I don't give freebies! AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CLASROOM-LATER Alice is in the shop made out of cardboard and Jerry walks up to her. ALICE What can I get you, let me rephrase that how much can you afford? JERRY Why do you always assume I can't afford anything? ALICE Alright I'm sorry now what can I get you? JERRY What can I get for 25p? ALICE You can only get the jellies! JERRY Wish I could afford something better! Alice makes sure Mrs Appleby isn't looking she takes his 25p and gives him a big chocolate bar because she feels sorry for him and Alice has a big heart. JERRY Thanks Alice! Jerry walks away. At the end of the break Mrs Appleby checks what has been sold she sees a chocolate bar has been sold but there is only 25p in the jar. MRS APPLEBY (ANGRY) Alice I put you in charge of the shop and you sell a £1 chocolate bar for 25p! ALICE I can explain Mrs Appleby you see Jerry wanted- MRS APPLEBY I don't care what  jerry wanted you should sell them at the proper price! Alice looks at the floor feeling very ashamed of herself. MRS APPLEBY Because of this you are no longer in charge of the shop I will pick someone else who can be trusted! ALICE (SADLY) I'm sorry Mrs Appleby I really am I do understand why you don't want me working in a shop again! Alice puts her hands over her eyes and starts to cry. She walks sadly to the table and sits down and puts her head on the table and cries. Jerry  enters the room and sits with Alice JERRY Alice! ALICE Don't try to cheer me up its too late now JERRY If it makes it any better I can give you the pound for the chocolate bar I found it in my pocket! ALICE Wouldn't make any difference I don't work at the shop now and its all your fault! Alice continues crying. INT, GREENFORTH POLICE STATION-LATER The Sargent is yelling for George in a nasty kind of voice while sitting at his desk. SARGENT (VERY ANGRY) Wilson, Wilson! Then George enters the room and walks up the Sargent at his desk. SARGENT Yes sir! SARGENT You know those police reports you took home last night well somehow the daycare knows about them and the kids know what happened to the drug  dealer and what was said! GEORGE I read the report to my 3 year old daughter last night and the story must have sunk into her head! SARGENT You know what's sunk into my head Wilson just this you're sacked! INT, THE WILSONS LIVING ROOM-EVENING George and Alice are sitting on the couch feeling sorry for themselves. ALICE I can't sell things in the school shop now there goers my chances of becoming a shopkeeper! GEORGE I got the sack from the police force there goes my career out the window! ALICE what will you do now Daddy! GEORGE I don't know sweetheart I just don't know! A FEW WEEKS LATER George is in the hallway looking at the letters. GEORGE Gas overdue, Electric Overdue, House payments overdue! ALICE Daddy can we go swimming at the public pool? GEORGE Sweetheart Daddy doesn't have any money or a job! ALICE Well I guess I'll use the kiddie pool again! MAVIS George I think its time you got a another job I mean I can't keep asking my sister for money to feed the girls so keep looking because if you don't get a job me and the girls will go to my sister's flat! GEORGE Yes dear! George gets the paper and reads the job section he finds a job at a supermarket. GEORGE Mavis I found a job in a supermarket! MAVIS George that kind of work isn't for you! GEORGE I need a job Mavis so I'm going for that one! EXT, GREENFORTH DAYCARE-DAY Jerry is talking to Alice about yesterday. JERRY I'm sorry about yesterday and it is kind of my fault you got banned from the shop! ALICE Yeah I made a real pigs ear of that,  didn't you hear my Daddy got the sack so now he works in a supermarket! JERRY You mean he's not a police officer anymore? ALICE Nope! JERRY Great we are now normal people so that means we can be friends! ALICE Yeah I guess it does! JERRY You want to play Doctor in the bushes? ALICE Yeah Okay! IN THE BUSHES Alice is wondering what playing doctor is. ALICE Jerry how do we play Doctor? JERRY Easy we take off our clothes and then we look at each other. ALICE What  if Mrs Appleby sees us? JERRY Mrs Appleby is doing her classroom reports she'll be a while yet! ALICE Okay then lets do it! JERRY Okay miss Wilson I'll need you to take off your clothes for an examination! Alice takes off her clothes in front of Jerry including her socks and pull ups then Alice stands in something she doesn't like. ALICE Eurgh I've just stood in Dog poo! JERRY Alice  can I ask you where your tail is? ALICE I'm a girl and girls don't have tails we have a tinkle! JERRY Yeah but how do you pee? ALICE I'll show you! Alice sits on some grass and does her busness. JERRY Interesting! ALICE I think I'd better get dressed because class will be starting soon! Alice sees her socks are dirty ALICE Eurgh my Socks are dirty! JERRY so leave them off! ALICE I can't where shoes without socks! INT, GREENFORTH DAYCARE-SAME Alice is sitting at a table wearing clothes but not her socks she has her shoes on her feet but that's it. ALICE I Can't Adam and Eve you talked me into doing this! JERRY Its either that or dirty socks! ALICE I don't know what my Mummy will say to me! GIRL 1 Alice she's your Mummy she'll understand! GIRL 2 Yes understand! ALICE I hope so what are your names anyway? GIRL 1 Olivia Thomas! GIRL 2 Phoebe Thomas! ALICE I'm Alice Wilson! OLIVIA We know! PHOEBE yes  we know! INT, THE WILSONS KITCHEN-LATER Alice  is having her tea with her family when her Mother Mavis asks her about her socks. MAVIS Alice I don't understand how your socks got so dirty! ALICE (FIBBING) Nor do I! MAVIS Please don't dirty your socks like this again! ALICE I won't I'm sorry! Alice continues eating her tea but she doesn't really like it. ALICE Eurgh what is this? MAVIS Shepard's pie! ALICE Doesn't taste like our usual brand! SUSANNE What can I say the girl has good taste! GEORGE (ANGRY) Now look here Alice I have worked hard for you to eat and this is how you repay me, go to your room! Alice does what she is told. MAVIS George weren't  you a little hard on her! GEORGE Mavis the girl has to learn that we can't always have the red carpet out for her what does she think this is a fancy 4 star hotel in London! SUSANNE I'll go and see if Alice is alright do you mind if I take her some desert! GEORGE If it was up to me she wouldn't have any desert! Susanne leaves the table with two bowels of Ice Cream. MAVIS (ANGRY) George I have put up with a lot in this marriage but I won't put up with you shouting at a 3 year old girl! GEORGE But Mavis! MAVIS (ANGRY) George! Mavis gives him the look GEORGE alright I'll go and Apologise! IN ALICE'S ROOM Susanne is eating ice cream with Alice and trying to cheer her up at the same time. SUSANNE Cheer up Alice Dad didn't mean what he said! ALICE He did Susanne and he hates me! SUSANNE Nobody hates you I don't hate you I like you! ALICE Will you still like me after what I'm about to do? Alice throws up all over the floor. SUSANNE Don't worry about it I'll go and get the mop and clean you up as well! Susanne leaves the room. Then George enters the room and sits at the side of Alice ALICE I know I've been sick on the floor I'm sorry happy now! GEORGE Alice I don't care if your sick on the floor what I do care about is you and that's why I've come to apologise for what  I said to you at teatime, Alice I'm sorry! ALICE Apology accepted i'd give you a hug but I don't want to get sick on your shirt! GEORGE Good thinking Alice I think you should take a shower! ALICE Yes Daddy! Then Susanne returns with the mop she cleans the floor and then she cleans Alice's face best she can. SUSANNE I think you should have a bath Alice! ALICE Will you help me Susanne! SUSANNE Of course I will! ALICE Oh thank you! The camera zooms out of the scene pan to a shot of the Wilsons house. THE END                  

[megabrocklesner1world-blog]

Valuable Notes When Planning A Taxi Driver Accounts To Save yourself Money

Self applied taxi owners in keeping with different home applied firms are required to submit a self analysis tax return type annually revealing the main totals from the taxi owners accounts. The last distribution date for these reports allow the tax authorities to calculate the tax payable is 30th September while the last deadline for distribution of the home analysis tax return is 31st January. Miss the 31st January deadline and the penalty fine is 100 pounds.

The simplest means to fix preparing the taxi driver AIRPORT TAXI MSP reports is to collect all of the taxi receipts and expenses together, hand them over to an accountant who'll ready your home analysis tax return and may demand between 150 to 450 pounds for the privilege. That's taxing. Taxi driver reports doesn't have to be that taxing. You are able to ready your taxi driver reports and home analysis tax return your self but do something.

These taxi driver notes in preparing the taxi driver reports and doing the home analysis tax return are to help that process.

Mileage Allowances

Taxi owners may claim alternatively to car running expenses mileage allowances of 40p for the very first 10,000 miles and 25p per distance thereafter. You may not claim mileage allowance and car running costs. Should you decide on to claim the mileage allowance then keep good files of mileage included, purpose of journey.

Taxi Capital Allowances

If you purchased a vehicle in the economic year 2007-08 and used the vehicle as a taxi you are able to claim an initial year publishing down tax allowance of 25% of the expense of the taxi, limited to 3,000 pounds for cars costing over 12,000 pounds. On cars obtained in previous tax years you are able to claim 25% publishing down allowance on the total amount not even claimed. Many taxis are acquired and sold annually and the place where a taxi is sold the capital tax allowance that may be said could be the difference between the written down value for tax applications and the quantity of purchase proceeds. First year allowance on low car assets in today's tax year 2007-08 is 50% for small businesses.

Taxis acquired on Hire Obtain

Claim capital allowances on the first cost of the vehicle, interest and different prices rely as organization expenses and get in the home analysis tax return field 3.61 Other Financing Fees

Taxi Working Costs

When doing the home analysis tax return taxi owners must enter fuel expenses in field 3.46 cost of income not motoring expenses. A typical always check carried out by any competent inland revenue inspector enquiring into a self analysis tax return is always to always check when the taxi driver was on holiday and study if fuel receipts have been involved with this period. Few tax results are enquired into as the system is in relation to confidence but taxi owners must ensure their reports don't contain this simple tax fiddle. Taxi running expenses also contain repairs, maintenance and areas including tyres, street tax, taxi insurance and AA/RAC membership. Contain radio employ and taxi office expenses generally speaking administrative expenses.

House expenses

In the event that you work your taxi organization from your home you are able to claim a proportion of home expenses as organization expenses in the taxi accounts. House expenses are likely to be disallowed unless they're sometimes particular to the business or even a particular area of your property is committed completely to your taxi business. Applying section of a room part-time would not be ample to incorporate family members expenses in the taxi driver accounts.

Partner Costs

You are able to claim expenses for companions who work for your taxi organization and obligations up to 100 pounds weekly would not attract income tax or national insurance however any obligations said in the taxi driver reports must certanly be real obligations for real work done. The Revenue obviously follow a rigid view on taxi expenses said for spouse are it is an area some people would use to cut back the tax liability. Care must justify the spouse being an expense.

[coffee-and-yarn]

I have exciting news! It’s our local community Arts Trail again, and like last time I’m yarn bombing a tree. This year each crafter could pick their own theme, so after careful consideration I have decided to yarn bomb my tree with little hats for the Innocent Big Knit campaign!

After taking part in the yarn bombing a couple of years ago I was dismayed at how much I ended up throwing away, and so this year I decided that everything I use in the yarn bombing, I should be able to repurpose or recycle, which led me to knitting for a charity.

Due to having a very active small person in my life, I decided straight away that whatever charity knitting I chose had to be easily broken down into small tasks that could be put down and picked back up. It also had to be fairly straight forward so my sleep deprived brain could cope! This led me pretty much instantly to the Innocent Big Knit campaign.

For those unaware, the Big Knit campaign, run by Innocent Drinks runs yearly and calls upon crafters to knit or crochet little hats to fit on top of the Innocent smoothie drinks. For each of the bottles sold 25p is donated to Age UK to help older people who are feeling lonely and isolated.

I really love this as old people can often feel forgotten and irrelevant in todays society, and so it’s something that I really like to contribute too!

To make life easier for myself, I decided to knit the hats in an ombre colourway, and took to Pinterest for inspiration. Once I’d decided on the colours I wanted to use, I visited my favourite online yarn supplier Wool Warehouse, and decided on Scheepjes Colour Crafter in the colours Leerdam, Gouda, Eindhoven, Leek, Tilburg, Meppel and Hengelo.

Scheepjes Colour Crafter in Leerdam, Gouda, Eindhoven, Leek, Tilburg, Meppel and Hengelo

As I wanted an ombre effect, I was pretty restricted in the designs I could use. To stop the process becoming boring and to also make the yarn bombing more interesting I used my stitch book The Knit Stitch Pattern Handbook by Melissa Leapman, to get ideas and inspiration to mix up the textures and designs.

I think my favourite stitch designs are textured ribbon (page 192), knit using two colours Leek and Tilburg, and flags (page 38). I also really love the two colour garter stitch hats, the heart hats and the rice stitch hats, as they’re so simple to knit, but I think they’re really effective.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In total I knitted 90 little hats with pompoms and created and dyed a piece of fabric to attach the hats to. Only 84 hats were used in the yarn bombing, as this number fit best onto the fabric, and I also made some pompom strings to attach to the branches.

I started knitting the hats in March, so you can see how long this took me. I was worried I wasn’t going to finish on time, as I had taken the hats on holiday with me to Majorca so I could attach them to the fabric there, but totally forgot to take any yarn with me to attach them with, and never got chance to source some whilst I was there!

It all worked out OK in the end though, even if it was a bit frantic in the last few days.

I’m really pleased with how the yarn bombing turned out, and after a wash I also now have 90 little hats to donate to the Big Knit campaign! 🙂

Yarn Bombing 2019 I have exciting news! It's our local community Arts Trail again, and like last time I'm yarn bombing a tree.

[torentialtribute]

MARTIN SAMUEL: Giving power to a bunch of cyber nerds is fatally flawed

Hednesford Town is not, after all, led by 3500 anonymous strangers, via an app. But some clubs will.

Some poor souls will be desperate, as Hednesford was undoubtedly, and eventually an entrepreneurial electrician of Wigan, Stuart Harvey, will make the promise he made to subscribers to his service to play as the Glazers. pound

OWNA Football Club is basically an Ebbsfleet United reboot. Between 2008 and 2013 Ebbsfleet was run by MyFootballClub, a web company that promised its members the immersive experience of running a football club. Decide on transfers, choose the team, and even make a phone call about replacements when it started.

What is consistent is that the goals of OWNA FC are real football clubs, with real histories and real supporters. Not many of them, of course.

Hednesford, the person who did not own the house,

Hednesford played for the first time in a local league in Birmingham with clubs (1) including Coventry City, Shrewsbury Town and Bristol Rovers, faced with the reserve teams of the founders Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion of Football League and still viable, and third on the Premier Conference in 1995-96.

The following season she reached the fourth round of the FA Cup, lost to Middlesbrough, then the Premier League-team of Juninho, Emerson and Fabrizio Ravanelli. recently, in January 2017, Arsenal paid £ 40,000 for one of Hednesford's players, Cohen Bramall.

But there is a decline. Hednesford is now the Northern Premier League team and no longer attracts more than 1,000 people. Nowadays it is closer to 350. Still, there are still 350 that do not play or go through it.

They have a club and a nickname – The Pitmen – and when OWNA FC & # 39; s interest was first put forward, many were appalled. Understandably so.

& # 39; You can not sit there and say: & # 39; I want to dismiss the manager & # 39; – that's a fantasy, & # 39; said Harvey on the weekend. it is also the fun

For taking the PlayStation / Football. [Bewerken] [lijst toevoegen] Do For the PlayStation / Football Manager element from this scheme and what remains? The small company, the boring one, that is also difficult to be successful. Ever played the Zoo Tycoon game? It sounds like a laugh that is in charge of lions and tigers and polar bears, but you spend most of your time getting the concession to make a profit and repair fences.

Running a less important football club is In the sales pitch, but also because it promises that subscribers will signing … negotiating contracts … hiring and firing personnel & # 39 ;, promises OWNA FC also select the suppliers … set access prices … manage your staff & # 39;

That sounds like a job; a routine. This is Hednesford Town or equivalent, you remember. Your staff will not be José Mourinho.

And how much leeway for brilliant entrepreneurial spirit is there in admission prices in combination with 3,500 others?

There will be a price at which place it is, a price that does not show up, and Hednesford will already charge somewhere in the middle. What are you going to do, Roman Abramovich, change that with 25p?

And let's say you are a visionary, with daring, brilliant concepts that are capable of transforming non-League football forever. Do your 3499 co-members share or understand your ideas?

& # 39; You can express your concerns and go back to the advisory group & # 39 ;, explains Harvey. & # 39;

It all sounds very sensitive – and that is exactly why the members of MyFootballClub lost their interest. his highlight, MyFootballClub had eight times as many subscriptions as OWNA FC now, but by the time Ebbsfleet was sold with the cheap obscurity looming in 2013, that number had dropped to just over a thousand.

What went wrong Reality bit.

I do not want to be a fan of football,

Hednesford is a club of the Northern Premier League. The average football fan does not even know the teams in the Northern Premier League, let alone the players.

You got the left wing at Mickleover Sports. Is he better than his equivalent to Marine or Basford United? Who knows? Who cares?

The 350 regulars in Hednesford may have an idea – but they have been declared unlawful.

It is the 3,500 others who say, those who have paid £ 49 imaging championship Manager, but really.

But instead of trading in names of households in deals worth millions, they pay the equivalent of single currency for a player who, as far as they know, stops that new reserve on the Mondeo at Mercury. -Fit last Tuesday.

The deals will be approved on the basis of anonymous statistics, because experience and real knowledge will be in dangerously short supply

A simple answer would be to the manager's preference, but again, where is the drama?

Where is the buzz as

When the demise of the deal with Hednesford became clear, two members

Then the demise of the Deal Hednesford became clear, two members of OWNA FC placed their disappointment on the fans forum of the club.

An intimate person who might have visited Keys Park, the acquisition was already over.

There was not the power of feeling that emanated from other posters, for whom Hednesford Town was not just a kind of diversionary maneuver. this does not go away

And in a week that the Football League was forced to make statements about the stewardship of Coventry City, Charlton Athletic, Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers, it is clear that the current ownership models are far from perfect.

But this? We've seen it before and we know how it ends.

It is a birth or love that can not be bought through an app for £ 49; Well, not one that is throwing Stuart Harvey.

Tadic is one who could escape

Almost every time I saw Dusan Tadic, I thought he was the best of Southampton player. & # 39; Tadic played the pass of the night … & # 39; (Southampton 1 Manchester United 2, Manchester United 2, 8 December 2014), & # 39; Tadic – arguably the most influential player of Southampton during their best spells … & # 39; (Chelsea 1 Southampton 1, March 15, 2015).

The problem was that I did not see enough of him. There was a reason for successive managers who did not start him or her, if they did, he pulled him back early. Maybe he was tired. Ajax pulled apart Real Madrid Tuesday, I was satisfied.

He was everything he had watched, especially in his first year in Southampton, before the club sold too many players to compete effectively. Perhaps English football demands a higher work-rate than Tadic thought to offer; maybe this week is his highlight in an Ajax shirt. It's just a surprise that none of Southampton rivals thought they could make Tadic's talent in England work. He can certainly play.

Almost every time I saw Dusan Tadic, I thought he was the best Southampton player

Bale is in Ronaldo and that's why he a real problem

If what remains of his career is generally pleasant, then he can put it without his agent declaring war on Real & # 39; s fans

Jonathan Barnett may be right that Bale is undervalued – although not financially – but part of the division comes from powerful claims made on his behalf. Bale's camp has turned a consistent line that forced their husbands to live in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo and that, given his time, he would shine.

This was an enormously overplayed hand. Bale has done very well in Madrid, but he will never replace Ronaldo's influence on matches.

Without Ronaldo, Madrid is a shadow and Bale can not change that. Barnett is admirably loyal to his client, but a refusal to acknowledge Bale's comparative limitations has long been part of the problem.

Gareth Bale would never replace the influence of Cristiano Ronaldo on games at Real Madrid

Richard Scudamore was adamant that the Premier League Intenham would not stand in the way of their new stadium.

There were limits, however, there were limits. There would be a time, Scudamore said, when the integrity of the competition should take precedence. Tottenham could leave Wembley halfway through the season, but not too late. At some point they would have to wait until August.

The idea that Tottenham can open its new stadium with a quarter final in the Champions League, seems fanciful. It is hardly likely that UEFA will punish a completely new location for such a game, even if it is the second stage. The timings are just not good. The draw for the next stage of the Champions League will take place on a week on Friday. Tottenham is then scheduled to play a home match against Brighton on Sunday, April 7. The quarter final first legs of the Champions League are on 9 and 10 April.

But it is complicated. Tottenham's next home game depends on Brighton and Millwall in a quarter final of the FA Cup on March 17. If Brighton wins, they will play a semi-final of the FA Cup in the weekend of April 6 instead of Tottenham. UEFA would therefore be responsible for the grand reopening of White Hart Lane. No chance. But what if Tottenham is the first in Europe to move away?

There are some big egos at UEFA. These are people who think they are running around the world.

Tottenham & # 39; s employees are being told: & # 39; We're not going to tell you what to do. & # 39; to expect to return home in April, and Wembley is also informed;

Everyone, from Daniel Levy downstairs, is desperate to go back. But this is no longer just about the needs of Tottenham. This is about safety and integrity. Huddersfield's fate is unlikely to be influenced by one match, but Brighton's fortune changes weekly.

Nor can Crystal Palace – which should also visit Tottenham – consider survival as guaranteed. Scudamore took the decision on Tottenham away from his Premier League, but with a power vacuum at the top, they will probably ask for more say.

If Tottenham does not have their plans just before next weekend, it is

Cardiff has had real tragedies in this campaign, so that one injury is not. Yet it is a bitter blow that the news that a damaged cruciate ligament Sol Bamba will keep the rest of the season out.

Bamba was not only the best defender of the club, he is also his joint leader in the Dutch league. At this stage, and in the position of Cardiff, turns of fate can be decisive.

Source link

[renatedagmarmilada]

st barths human research latest

quote - we take all post out to the lab sent to and sent by our victim Fekete.Most if it is personal, she never receives, only bills, and a lot she sends never arrives, as we are to isolate her from talking or having any form of relationships with anyone, other than those we want her to talk to, whom we then manipulate. Letter she recently wrote to 84 yr old nun, in her old children's home, GP stuck on correct postage £1-25p as nuns is not permitted email by Church, I took it off and stuck one on half the amount. Let's see if it gets there. Christine, at St barths Human Research, London, illeg daughter of John Fielding.. For instance, she sent 12 children's books to Lahore Pakistan to family where she stayed, lab operatives took them home etc

lab St Barths Human Research has access to all my internetting and messes. Werner of Germany split my cable and sent half to lab half to me, clever devil. Anna, bossess of the Lab invites them to lab paid, asks what they can do in an effort to learn new tricks. As always the Germans are full of new ideas, but are considered stupid by the lab Ops as they are so honest and cannot work out how devious they are in London, which causes no end of amusement and derision.

tried to enter some photos of my time teaching at Ocean Uni Qingdao in China on QINGDAO FOREIGNER site but they blank out so have to put them here for the moment - with good friends I met soon after I arrived..

quote Can we write up some of Fekete's stories and degrees as ours.. John Fielding has more of her stuff hidden.. Yes. The english jews lie and cheat and destroy those who would die for them under the noses of their enemies..

Finchley -- tall Julia daughter of Harry and Blanche, Your new collection is out.. yes, I got £300 for each item, some £3000 altogether. All of it is that teacher artists work, copied.. ---our Jewish payment to those who feed us with their children's food and business fabrics...

quote --I have made a motif of one of your paintings..Anna's son, Antony, the african little girl ... Anna sells them

quote-- Scunthorpe school pal.. JOYCE FITCH.. we put 3 of your BA degree Literature from UEL texts into her stuff, to send to Magazines as her own work.. is she cancerous? we put all your class mates, all your college, all your university, all the art college onto our monitor, so now we are sending your degree works and your poetry, stories from writers groups and art work round to them. We pay a thief to go into their homes- and they are on our scanner. /second row, fourth up, me right end./--- Dr Jack, don't let Fekete have her first, give her a second.Foreigner./

The Kaiser said that all jews had to go home.. Stuart, illeg son of John Fielding,... We have to repeat Fekete all the while, but we have to put it wrongly.. then we say it was her mistake. The Kaiser actually told them to stay after WW1 as it would be dangerous for them because of the Russian and Hungarian Pogroms

quote - if your case were handled properly and the English Civil Service and Minisiters were not involved as sex buddies and crime advice for the lab bossess, you and your sons should receive 35 million for what has been done to you. It has been worked out by lawyers. That includes no sickness pay for physical damage St barths Human Research has created etc no health permitted, cutting pensions, no advancements permitted, isolation, destruction of life and relationships, thefts for thirty years etc. Urban cowboys is not the name for them, it literally was English Auschwitz, for their amusement. We could do it so we did it!!

just a thought, my ex husband and I saved like mad to buy our first home, to get out of our council house for which we paid rent, a small semi. He worked all the hours possible and did without- a lot. Around me here, new citizens live in small semis rent free, without making any efforts, never having paid tax..no not in flats, in semis with gardens, front and back. Makes you wonder why we bothered..

Quick watch before it deleted and I'm blocked

FINCHLEY --Steve illeg son of Allan Lieberman Cross.. HE'S VERY GOOD. He has used your drawings and traced them and is selling them as his work..he actually can't draw. There will never be another opportunity like this one the Americans and Health Ministry has given us along with millions and Brexit, to raise any idiot and all our families

The POLES are in now, to make up for our remote crashing their plane by remote filled with government people..

Tamara, Andover Str Sheffield sold two more of your paintings last week, out of the 200 she has robbed from you. She told her London friend who lives in the same street: I work on them all the while, she lies in front of her young daughter. Watched on the lab monitor because of serious embezzlement issues, working on Fekete's drawing means she draws a line here and there.. druggy thief woman and her sister Margaret still have some of your sketches, your best pastels. she's drawn into them, they are those with the superb hands and feet. she's drawn bits of clothes on.

Tomas, Sheffield Slovak from Ukrainian area, lives up Daniel Hill Sheffield, trespassing and theft, two Saturdays ago, watched by man on Springvale Flats, next door to Alec the Polish Jew, fat face, knows Bohdan, Upperthorpe. Serb, 13 counts of theft, one of Manslaughter from way back. the Ukrainian Receiver for lab st barths asked him to enter and rob for £100.. is robbing again..

MARGIT-- Edgeware road, don't be such a liar, we know whose work it is. He was a pig, but he was clever.. No he wasn't. Anna told him his writing was dry, and like all jews, he had to have money, talent and everything. He used to go on the monitor and take Fekete's work at University and Colleges off as his own and read it out, even to his grandchildren / BA Thesis, UEL German Jewry//...

quote - we send her Fekete's stories and poems to magazines and newspapers because once printed they can never be taken out. lab st barths Human Research. we just say we have permission. No one checks, nor do the design companies ever check whose work it is, they just pay out to us in hundreds.

shock during the night and pressure on brain and other organs, woke me up. Shock created by WOLF german researcher. I just had to try it out on someone, shock kills.

quote --the americans did... no, not tots, 13-14 year olds with their permission, willing.. a bit different to what is going on here.

quote --Sadly, all John Fielding's sons are violent as well as corrupt, as is their father ---and the daughters ....... Faye is the best of them all and Bethany the most lunatic. /from my mum's stories she told me of old Poszon, how the Orthodox Jews would run through the city carrying the Holy book TORAH above their heads. Her stories were much, much better than mine and more interesting/

Finchley .. tall Julia, daughter of former dr Harry of Middlesex Hospital and Blanche. Harry was orthodox once. To her mother's disapproval /it has to be said/- printed six small books of my poems /quite amusing, in their eyes their enemies lives- experiences/ Wrote to a magazine some of my stories and to the BBC and sold some 600 to 700 of my paintings. Also took some of my blouses /second hand 5$ silk ones I brought back from my favourite place, the second hand shop in Con...

Sheffield Art in the background. Life Drawing group met there too, my fave place in Sheffield. The gardens surrounding it often drawn in my paintings.

the lab st barths Human Research showed Schmidt a film, that is all it was, a porn film by Anna's friend Joanna, made at the BBC for which we paid her a grand, directed by Sydney ..we made out it was Fekete. That is how we managed to get Bavaria into it, and create the accident with Haider and Fekete's friend Maria..and her family. Germans are so quick to believe any dirt about their own people or Europeans, and don't measure up the English and ours at all. which makes them appear stupid to us.

It was New York who first realised- we are corrupt but nothing compared to London, St barths Human Research.... and the Prince goes in there!!!! have you seen...................? say nothing.

QUOTE-WE HAD TO DISTRACT THE BERLIN WOMEN WHEN THEY VISITED FROM BERLIN HUMAN RESEARCH SO THEY SHOULD NOT DISCOVER WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE TOTS BEING USED FOR SEX BY OUR MEN- ESPECIALLY AS WE ARE NEARLY ALL JEWS, OR THAT FEKETE WAS REALLY AN EXCELLENT TEACHER WE WERE DESTROYING AND HER SONS.. ''Oh my God, what is that smell''..one of the berlin women said one morning when they came in. We had to incinerate one of the tots, she was dead by morning after sex. After that we avoided having visitors in the lab at all. The Health Ministry said nothing about it all.

quote we took her post out of the GP She sent a cheque to China Bank, when she went to Beijing. John Fielding kept it, eventually, he put it into his own bank, told them there was a mistake, so he had to sign it - as his own money. We owe her in bare money some £100,000+ probably more and her sons, likewise. add the Spanish thing we did. Where are her sons violins she bought him/ and the rest. Alyson had them stolen and sold them. They were presents, all presents had to be stolen..

flick through those , it is all FEKETE'S STUFF// ALL OF IT.. all of it even the covers are her drawings and then we outlined her stuff and life drawings, when she stopped doing actual pictures because we were copying it, and stuck to life drawing. THE HEALTH MINISTRY civil servants /on is now Minister Arthur/ and Minister, let us, they knew what we were doing.....

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf.. we just fondled the little ones and then it became sex, that is all. then it became regular sex at times by more than one man a night for the little ones, till it turned to what it is now. Isaac harry of Finchley did it /former doctor of Middlesex/ and the stealing is normal practice by research in this country.

It was Meyer's ideas.not ANNA'S./Edgeware Rd London/ Phillipa heard them. We have a biggy here. It really took off when we began hacking into accounts. Fekete eventually found a bank with a book, and has her ''reduced ''pension of £75 a week put into that, so she can check it. but the lab still got her at every turn. we had been using the population for fifty years or so, then the Queen gave us permission ..

Scunthorpe Times..it's a weekly magazine of daily life.. quote --Print it Lilian,/former Horobec/ you will get merit for it. Nooooo Print it, it is about Fekete's life, from her writers groups and her BE#d Sheffield Polytechnic, as an English Specialist, about school and Gillian Bell and others there - with those terms Fekete had- - like a summer breeze blowing through a Hungarian confessional.. No one will know.. Operatives Alyson used them all, she did loads of writing, ma...

Her aunt Lily back home was not ill at all, we simulated cancer and she died. Fekete has lost three aunts from lab over use and several cousins. We paid the Slovakians three millions to use our stuff there and their citizens here.

quote from a neighbour.... a woman came and went right in, when she came out, she looked me straight in the face, it was the Slovakians who live in this area, once two of them came. The mail man saw them as well. I knew the teacher was out, I saw her go to the bus stop, it is at least an hour to get into town, back again and do what she needs, she doesn't have a car.# He said, perhaps she has a lot of friends. The most terrible rubbish goes in her house, and bangs about, we h...

Fay Fielding- you used RF's pencil case? She was looking for it the other day. We used loads of her stuff to try to make out she was going mad, and forgetting.Then it became a flood. her best paints she finally bought.. All my best work was hers. I just painted over her paintings with her good paints because she used to use her cheap ones.. and sold them. maybe 2,000 of them. We knew the markets, she didn't, she was at University and having to work, they lived on £65 a week f...

Addy Close Sheffield- HORACE slovakian /court twice for rape in Slovakia/ recently stole my mother's birth certificate etc from my home.. from 1917. gold necklet etc Why? try getting your own family's stuff and leave ours alone.

Faye FIELDING I wrote a report /ART COLLEGE BA= Faye has flaire but not talent, so she copied all my work, literally for her MA//.. I put you were unreliable and then we sent Pakistani Operatives out to China, who travelled first class and lived in First class hotels, to show them how we press hearts all night and other body organs, cause diarhea and other ailments, so that the chinese thought it was YOU who was ill, when infact the Pakis were causing it and the problems in your classes.- 55 pupils per class and I loved it over there/-- TAIAN SCHOOL - December gets cold in North China..wonderful memories.

Sheffield English Studies Centre....Chinese students, one of the boys admitted he had used someone's work but did not know w hose and how come it was in his papers..//I see them regularly on the tram and at times chat to them, which makes me very happy= that is not my beer at the German cafe in Qingdao, but belonging to the american husband of my Chinese Qingdao Goddaughter Jun Jun Martha, now in USA./

Paula Bowden WATFORD is still printing your degrees and life stories as her own../ at 17 yrs old in Grimsby- I have short hair/

London School of Economics, maths teacher, boyfriend of Lauren Fielding, has been given my work to print as his own by Lauren Fielding.. another School of Economics lecturer has already printed my work.

See more recent stories

[nchyinotes]

How to launch an independent magazine, by Delayed Gratification

February 22 2018

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-launch-an-independent-magazine-22nd-february-2018-tickets-40937174190?aff=es2

In this class you will:

-Learn how to turn your magazine idea into reality

-Find out how to identify a successful editorial niche

-Understand the nuts and bolts of commissioning writers and designers

-See how to pull together a winning subscription, distribution and marketing plan

-Discover how to survive and thrive beyond the first year

You will leave with a good insight into the independent publishing industry and a strong idea of how to set about launching an independent magazine.

 Thoughts: I actually found this event on eventbrite a few months before it happened, sent it to my friend who I knew would be interested (hi Ayesha!) and then forgot about it. Then the day before, she asks if I want to go because her friend cancelled so she had an extra ticket, so I ended up going with her haha. I’ve always been vaguely interested in starting a magazine, and was actually the co-editor of an online art magazine aaaages ago with my online friend (hi Angela!), but was never really serious about it. While some of this information was not new for me (a lot of it overlapped with your typical entrepreneurship/startup advice, ie. finding a niche), the advice that was specific to launching indie magazines (logistics and business aspects) was very useful and interesting, and I really appreciated the numbers they threw in from their own business. Overall, was a very fun and honest look at the business, and the organisers were super friendly. Also left with a free copy of Delayed Gratification (their mag), which was cool to read.

  EDITED NOTES

 Introduction

Met early 20s in dubai, journalism students, working as time out editors, learnt how to make print mags together / fell in love with it

Went in different directions, and then all ended up back in london at 30

Just over 7 years now

Named independent magazine editors of the year 2017

Most independent magazines are losing if not hemorrhaging money - lots of vanity projects, made as a shop front for creative agencies.

Attrition rate is extraordinary. Intense desire to make them, but the number that make it past issue 2 / 3 is very low.

Lower barriers to entry than ever before - people are used to them, a lot more need for them (solace in print from digital world) + tools are there + there are all these places to sell them now (mag culture!)

Bad news: will probably break your heart, high failure rate, odds are against you, difficult economic model to make work, are not immune to pressures in mainstream press (but don’t face: massive debt built up in 80s/90s for rapid expansion, pensions liabilities, offices)

Were dreamers + journalists: novices at nuts and bolts of making money/funding

90% of success is turning up - determination to keep going even in early years

Maybe expand into documentaries / books in the future

Key lessons

1) you probably shouldn’t launch an independent magazine - sink which you pour your money, dreams, hopes

Brainstorm: Why do indie mags fail?

Not thinking about how you pay for issue 2 → run out of cash v quickly (where frequency comes into it, ie. weekly)

Just getting visibility: Hard to find your audience - with so much competition, etc

Often have expertise in one area, but lack expertise in another function that’s vital to bringing product to market

Content burn out, esp. If you make big commitments (launch with huge interview etc) - second album syndrome? Not to create too many structures that need to be filled in early days.

2) ^ can be overcome with a niche - you need a niche

Fat brad magazine

Terrible people magazine

Slightly foxed, nutmeg (scottish football periodical), mc1r (only about redheads)

Their niche: slow journalism, something to champion

What it did for them:

issue 1 cover was by obama’s hope poster artist (+ issue 5, limited edition posters, interview = all for free)

Content by Interviews (henry kissinger, etc) + writers - because it resonated with them, wanted to support it = can use those people’s credibility to add to theirs

Coverage + press: something to talk about (today program on radio 4: one 6 minute interview got them ~400 subscriptions = able to be condensed and easily explained/summed up)

Could have been slightly more bullish about fast news in the start, should you be worried about alienation??

Brainstorm: A name and niche

Colors magazine - activism & protest issue

Trend (mindfulness) vs Niche

Helps to sort of person we appeal to, what need am i filling that hasn’t been filled, what is my spin

Need to be passionate (committed, reason without a doubt), not egotistical, believe in your idea, ask for help a lot, honest

3) you need to think about the business

Beyond issue 1, what it is to run a magazine business (VAT returns, subscription systems, fb ads)

Frequency & cost

Weekly or monthly is really really fast. Always easier to go from quarterly down, because it shows you’re getting better, etc (awks if you have to go the other way).

Issue 1: 12 pounds, issue 2: 10 pounds.

When setting price for individual issue, what would you charge for a year’s subscriptions? You want to offer subscribers an appealing discount (that you’re not losing on each subscription)

Christmas is key for the indie mag industry - big burst of subscriptions as gifts. So don’t launch in jan or feb lol, christmas run is key, be well established for this! 50+% this year was from last 5 weeks of sales

Don’t launch in summer - nobody gets subscriptions then, more newstands then

Print, digital, or both?

People don’t want to pay for digital issues, not that captivated by complicated stuff you can do on there.

You have to charge VAT + pay percentage to platform for digital copies

People expect to pay less for digital copies

But there are some digital projects that are fascinating - de correspondent (similar premise, crowdfunded, purely digital in dutch, really collaborative / self contained digital ecosystem. / community driven)

Physicality - You can get people to pay for a physical / tangible object that they just don’t for digital, they have relationships with them.

Latterly (weekly newsletter, after building huge online audience for free, now printed publication)

^ merits of this?? Passion project more bc of time sink??

Subscriptions vs newsstand

Subscription systems

Gocardless (pay direct debits)

Chargebee - portal

V difficult to make money out of newsstand sales - 50% of the cover price, 3-6 months after mags are sold, and they generally only sell 60% of the ones you’ve sent them. Treated as marketing for subscriptions.

Not difficult to set them up

In London / UK: Ra&Olly, MMS, Smiths (difficult + unresponsive + dont fulfill, but have a stranglehold on mags in country)

Paid: gold star media (get you in to salons, hotels, airport lounges, etc)

Is your magazine one that a company would like to support? Team up because they really like it

Customer

Site sales: shopify

Fulfilment: newsstand

Adjust your expectations

4) take subscriptions!!

Newsstands are hard

It’s money upfront, will help with print bills, cash flow, etc

Community building

More chances for someone to like someone

Alternatives: Kickstarter, indiegogo (to test out if appetite is there)

Subscription renewals / Direct debits ?

Do not build your business model around advertising, it’s so diffused + competitive, can’t do trackability on print issues

No ads > bad ads

Corporate work - if you prove you can make mags, you can make them for other people too

Magazine as a broader way of selling your skill set

plan for issue 2/3/4 already + worst case scenarios

5) you need to make something special

Making your magazine:

Commissioning editorial content

There are a lot of really good writers out there desperate to work for you

Draw up a commissioning form - rights and responsibilities, deadlines, etc

Approach writers that you like - tell about mag & ask them to pitch OR give them a story and ask them to write it

Longer form + freedom

Always pay! You have a contract, leverage, etc

Editorial pagination * av word count * word rate = commission

First: 10p/word

Now: 25p/word

Industry average: 30p/word

Interviews / verbatim interviews: with an expert in the subject. Get it without having to pay a word rate, take what you need from it, may tighten it up for free anyway when you send it back for approval  

Ask people who just brought out a book

Finding a designer - they expect a very carefully designed product

Don’t be afraid to let things evolve - keep moving/changing things around

First issue is not going to be perfect, important thing is that it exists

Look at magazines / things you like + get in touch with them

Have your favorite designer create a template (or a regular design) for you - easier for recent grads etc to follow, at a cheaper price

Design software: considerable expense

Indesign, photoshop - creative suite, expensive monthly. Worth looking at older versions (old DVDs on ebay - work with designer to save it down a version)

Pagination (80-100), size (delayed gratification is too big/wide to fit through most letterboxes, something smaller / standard sizes are better), GSM (cyclical trends), binding (perfect bound, saddle stitch / staples are much cheaper)

Costs of the last issue, excl. Wages (which has come up a huge amount, 7-8k in the beginning bc lots in house and paying less) : 23.8k pounds

West ale ?? printers company

Approach the printers

The only thing that’s going to push your price up is if its special paper they have to order 4 u

You’ll get inundated with calls once you start up

You want a printer that will work around you (missed deadlines or changes post-proof stage)

6) you need to tell people about your mag

Brainstorm: how are you going to get noticed?

Making waves - Print someone controversial, getting into mainstream press

Power of positivity vs negativity (attract passionately negative people? In emails? Lol. prepare yourself for backlash)

Collaborating with influencers / people with followings / associations that make sense / endorsement (within the niche) - genuine

Loving print means embracing digital - lots of new people come from digital content

Weekly newsletter : manageable amount of content, keep engaging (mailchimp), moving people through the marketing funnel

Events - sense of community, benefit for subscribers.

Free is not recommended. Commitment.

Indie mag community - swap inserts in different titles/issues/newsletters, nicer fit, more interest

Podcasts

Questions

Usually print about 1000 copies of issue 1

Issue 0 - proof of concept (rarely done in indie mags)

Limited run projects - must be pitched to advertisers / subscribers before hand as such (will probz break ur heart at issue 6)

[hiowl-blog]

Useful Notes When Organizing A Taxi Driver Accounts To Save Money

Self employed cab drivers in common with other self employed companies are required to submit a self assessment tax return type annually reporting the main totals from the cab drivers report. The final submission date for all these accounts to enable the tax authorities to calculate the tax payable is 30th September while the final deadline for submission of their self assessment tax return is 31st January. Miss the 31st January deadline and also the penalty fine is 100 pounds. The easiest way to preparing the taxi driver accounts is to collect all the taxi receipts and expenses collectively, hand them over to an accountant who will prepare your self assessment tax return and may charge between 150 to 450 pounds to the privilege. That is taxing. Taxi driver accounts doesn't need to be taxing. These taxi driver notes in preparing the taxi driver balances and completing the self assessment tax return would be to help this process. Mileage Allowances Taxi drivers can claim as an alternative to automobile running costs mileage allowances of 40p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter. Should you choose to claim the mileage allowance then maintain excellent records of mileage covered, purpose of journey. Taxi Capital Allowances If you purchased a vehicle in the financial year 2007-08 and used the vehicle as a taxi you can maintain a first year writing down taxation allowance of 25 percent of the cost of the taxi, restricted to 3,000 lbs for vehicles costing over 12,000 lbs. On vehicles purchased in previous years you can claim 25% writing down allowance on the balance not yet maintained. Many taxis are bought and sold every year and where a cab is sold the capital tax allowance that could be maintained is the difference between the written down value for taxation purposes and the amount of sale proceeds. First year allowance on non existent automobile assets at the current tax year 2007-08 is 50 percent for smaller businesses. Taxis bought on Hire Purchase Claim capital allowances on the original cost of the vehicle, interest and other fees count as business expenses and go in the self assessment tax return box 3.61 Other Finance Charges Taxi Running Costs After completing the self assessment tax return cab drivers should enter gas prices in box 3.46 price of earnings not motoring expenses. A normal check carried out by any qualified inland revenue inspector enquiring into a self assessment tax return is to assess when the taxi driver was on vacation and examine if fuel receipts had been included for this period. Not a lot of tax yields are enquired into as the system is based upon trust but taxi drivers should ensure their accounts do not contain this fundamental tax fiddle. Truck running prices also include repairs, servicing and parts including tyres, road tax, taxi insurance and AA/RAC membership. Contain radio taxi and hire office prices in general administrative costs. Household expenses If you run your cab business from home you can maintain a percentage of household expenses as business expenses at the taxi accounts. Household expenses are most likely to be disallowed unless they are specific to the business or a particular area of your house is devoted entirely to your cab business. Employing part of an area part time wouldn't be enough to include the family expenditures at the taxi driver accounts. Spouse Expenses You can claim expenses for partners working for your cab business and payments up to 100 lbs per week wouldn't attract income tax or national insurance however any payments claimed in the cab driver accounts must be real payments for actual work done. The Revenue naturally adopt a rigorous view on cab expenses claimed for partner work as it is a place some folks might use to reduce the tax liability. Care is required to warrant the spouse as an expense. Other Expenses Enter all business expenses at a termed expense box to the self assessment tax return. Prevent entries in box 3.63 Other Expenses if potential as any significant quantities in this box may give rise to a Revenue enquiry to the self assessment tax return. The ideal method of ensuring that the cab drivers tax invoice is as low as you can in the future is undoubtedly to thoroughly maintain good records of taxi receipts and expenses and mileage insured which offers the opportunity for taxi drivers to compare the taxi running costs against mileage allowances and choose the most tax effective choice. taxi to London Heathrow airport to file for mileage allowance or cab running costs can and often does change during the fiscal year. In general when a more expensive cab cab is bought then the capital allowance of 3,000 lbs will often outweigh the possible mileage allowance although if the automobile is low worth the mileage allowance may be the best option and a method of saving valuable tax pounds which you are entitled to. The best taxi accounting software will automate the contrast of taxi mileage allowances with cab conducting costs doing the cab attorneys work for you.

[filmardotcom-blog-blog]

CANON EOS C100 CAMERA MOVIE BUNDLE

This CANON EOS C100 CAMERA MOVIE BUNDLE is definitely a curveball, but I thought I'd put it out there. Let me know if you're interested and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions or send more pictures. This is at Filmar Technologies and ready to ship. Let's make movie magic together.  Complete Lot - 2500.00 Buy it now or best offer. 

I am willing to work with you. Want them? Let's get this done. Ventas en Español para distribuidores : Sur America, Centro America y Europa Canon EOS C100 Cinema EOS Camera with Dual Pixel CMOS AF- BATTERY INCLUDED!! (included)       No Lens included Super 35mm 8.3MP CMOS Sensor 1920x1080 60/50i, 24/25p, PF30, PF24 Dual Pixel CMOS AF Hardware Upgrade EF Lens Mount ISO 320 to 80,000 Uncompressed HDMI Output with Timecode Canon Log and Wide DR Gamma Dual SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card Slots Two XLR Audio Connectors Built-In ND Filters with Manual Controls AC Adapter to power camera included Battery Charger included. DJI Ronin 3-Axis Stabilized Video Camera Gimbal (Black) Supports a wide range of cameras and lens (up to 16 lbs.). Simple 5-minute setup & tool-free balance The battery life is rated up to 4 hours. The Gimbal will hold up to 16-pound camera, so if you use a very heavy camera like this, the Gimbal motors must work very hard and battery life will be 1 hour or less. If you use light camera like EOS Rebel, battery life will be full 4 hours. Built-in receiver and remote control available with Bluetooth via the DJI Assistant for iOS 3 operation modes for maximum flexibility Dust and waterproof traveling case. Remote Control Included - Takes 4 AA batteries (Batteries not included) (Antenna works, hinge action broken) SEE PICTURES FOR INCLUDED PARTS AJA HD/SD-SDI to HDMI Video and Audio Converter with DWP - 5V power adapter missing SDI Input and Equalized Loop Output HDMI 1.2 Output 8-Channel Embedded Audio Supported 2-Channel RCA for Separate Audio ARRI AS-1 LIGHTWEIGHT 7.7FT BLACK LIGHT STAND WITH 5/8 MOUNTING STUD Load Capacity:               9 lb / 4.1 kg Mounting Opt:               5/8" Stud •             Max Working Ht:           8.5' / 2.6 m •             Min. Working Ht:           2.2' / 0.1 m •             Collapsed Height:           2.5' / 0.8 m •             Accepts Wheels:             No •             Air Cushioned:                No •             Detachable Base:             No •             Leveling Leg:                  No •             Reverse Legs:                  No •             Finish:                              Black •             Weight:                            3.0 lb / 1.4 kg ARRI 571197 Heavy-duty Location Case Fits Various Arri Lighting Kits Hard Shell Plastic Fixed Interior Dividers Recessed Butterfly Latches Spring-action Handles Built-in Wheels Complete Lot - 2500.00 Buy it now or best offer Become a Filmar Reseller and get discounts on all our inventory. Sign up below https://filmar.com/become-reseller/ Details: • Filmar 30 Day warranty • Buyer pays Shipping • Payment via wire transfer • 3% PayPal Fees • Sold on first come basis How to contact us: Call us @ 586-580-2524 Dial Extension 7 For Sales Read the full article

[stanportus]

“When Did You Last Buy a Joint of Beef?”: East London Big Flame and the People’s Food Co-op

Just before Christmas in 1973 a small group of people living on the Lincoln Estate in Bow, East London, set up a food co-op. Their reason for doing so was simple: rising inflation and stagnating wages. Since the beginning of a Conservative rule in 1970, rent, food, and other consumables had been going up in price, whilst wages remained the same. In short, people had to spend an increasingly high proportion of the money they earned just to get by. They named their venture the People’s Food Co-op. It aimed to provide for everyone in need on the Estate and was run by the residents themselves.

Built in 1964, Lincoln Estate housed 2000 residents, and by the early 70s was in a dire state. The tower blocks were neglected and dirty, and there were virtually no facilities for those who lived there, such as a playground for children or a decent chemist. Often hot water and heating was faulty, and alongside the residents being dismayed that the estate was neglected by the off-site caretakers, there were also complaints that the estate’s architecture led to people feeling isolated.

When the co-op first started it was modelled like a market, setting itself up on the Estate’s green, where tables were set out and piled with food that was sold cheaply at wholesale price. Set against the dismal conditions of the estate, the sight of tables set out with food, and members of the co-op inviting those who walked by to join, was an odd thing to see. But such a sight enticed people to join up. As well as camping out by the estate, the People’s Food Co-op made flyers, pamphlets, and leaflets to garner interest. These were often pointed documents, asking their readers why they had to put up with the conditions they were in. They also relayed information about the co-op’s activities, and printed stories from the co-op’s members.

The people who set up the People’s Food Co-op, were part of East London Big Flame. This was a collective of fifteen or so people in East London — made up of men, women, migrants, the employed, the unemployed, and squatters — that had come together a year prior. They had been inspired by a larger collective based in Liverpool called Big Flame, who described themselves as a revolutionary socialist feminist group, orientated towards the working class. Big Flame had developed from a magazine into a political organization with smaller branches cropping up across the country. Campaigning for workers’ and women’s rights, they wanted to change the face of Leftist politics, which they consider to be outdated and unaccommodating of new forms of political and social action such as squatting.

East London Big Flame were influenced by feminist politics as well as the worker and student movements that had recently flourished in Germany and Italy, which were grounded in Autonomist Marxism. This approach espoused organizing around your own needs and political demands, rather than aligning with political parties or even unions. In an essay written anonymously by one of East London Big Flame’s members, reflecting back on the group’s activities, they explain how at the time they saw unions as being ‘blinkered by a hierarchy of white, male, middle-class’ elitism. By working together collectively, they intended to break down and to be critical of the austere social and economic structures that came to determine how one considered and conducted their life. East London Big Flame considered the house workers and the stay-at-home mums as equal to factory workers, and recognized that class struggle was inseparable from women’s struggle for equality. The members of East London Big Flame were adamant that social change or revolution could start from the houses and estates in which people lived, not just from those working in factories or along the docks.

With ‘SOARING FOOD PRICES: CAN WOMEN FIGHT BACK??’ emblazoned across the co-op’s first flyer, its members laid out how food prices had increased ‘25p in the Pound’ since 1970. They proposed that even if inflation could not be solved, they could cut out the increasing margins imposed by shopkeepers by working together and buying their food wholesale and then selling it at cost price. In this way, people would spend a little less, and in turn, keep a little more in their pockets each week. The flyer also asked its reader, rather rhetorically, ‘People get together at work to fight for a decent living — why can’t we do it where we live too?’

Although the flyer was only a one-sided piece of A4 paper and sparse in text, it had taken a whole evening to make. A member of East London Big Flame explained this in another leaflet produced sometime later, stating simply, ‘we hadn’t much experience of doing it’. However, despite the difficulty and their unfamiliarity with producing flyers, it was a prime way to procure support. The sheets of paper were diligently distributed by children on Lincoln Estate, who pushed them under people’s doors and into their homes. The flyers became a physical and symbolic reminder of rising food prices, inflation, stagnating wages, and, not least, of the widening disparity between rich and poor — not to forget the mission and activity of the food co-op itself.

One of the People’s Food Co-op’s pamphlets, bluntly titled ‘WE PAY while THEY PROFIT’, brazenly made this disparity evident. In one column the pamphlet outlined rising food prices, and in another it detailed how inflation was benefiting the banks as well as those who ran and worked for the businesses supplying food. How could it be that the price of eggs had doubled in a year, that a loaf of bread now cost 12p, and that the price of fish, frozen food, fresh fruit, meat, and biscuits — not to mention shoes, telephone bills, stamps, clothes, and beer — had all risen too? How come the four major banks had doubled their profits that year? And how come John Stratton, the chairman of the aptly titled Fatstock Marketing Corporation — supplier of fresh meat, bacon, poultry, and sausages — had received a £16,000 pay rise.

The pamphlet provoked its reader by asking, ‘How often these days can you afford pork chops?’ and ‘When did you last buy a joint of beef?’. The rhetoric was aimed to make the people of Lincoln Estate seriously consider the plight of their material living conditions. Despite the fact that the flyer was rather prosaic in parts, these questions, paired with straight forward examples of rising food prices,  clearly pointed out that what could be afforded —– as well as what cuts people were being forced to make —– was a direct consequence of the decisions and actions made by large companies and the government. Not being able to provide a roast dinner or the household staples wasn’t just a personal or family problem, it was a political one too. The pamphlet showed how one person’s problems were likely to be another’s, and by elucidating this shared reality, the co-op’s members were able to step towards changing it. Solidarity around issues in the home could lead to action, much like how strikes and unionization in the factories had led to change before. A cartoon in the pamphlet depicts fat, suit-wearing bosses, conspiring about how to maintain their soaring profits. They decide that raising rent, whilst cutting school and hospital costs, will be the perfect means to extract more and more surplus value from the already squeezed workers, who, pushed so far, ‘wouldn’t know what to do about it’. The cartoon’s final frame, however, shows (against the backdrop of a school, a hospital, and a shop) a giant, collective speech bubble riling ‘OH YEAH?’, the force of which topples the bosses. Collectivity, and the united voice, is shown as the means to combat such oppression; the People’s Food Co-op is the what to do about it.

When it was first set up, the People’s Food Co-op took some time to gain momentum, but it quickly became apparent to the resident’s on Lincoln Estate how the co-op could save them money. But the early success of the co-op meant its model had to change. Local shop keepers began to complain about the co-op’s presence on the green and the fact it was taking their customers away. It was not long before they started getting the police to shift the co-op’s stalls, as well as threatening to report the co-op to the Greater London Council for being on their property.

The fact that the co-op had managed to rile those who they had set out to defy was ample proof of their success, but to avoid further aggravation, the co-op moved indoors. Every fortnight on a Wednesday the co-op would meet at one of the member’s apartment, where they would compile a mass shopping list of what everyone wanted. Then, on Thursdays and Fridays, a few of the members would travel to Wapping market, a Cash & Carry, and other wholesalers. Fresh produce like apples, eggs, and potatoes were bought directly from farmers. The cut-price purchases would then be divided up between the different families on the estate at the weekend.

The People’s Food Co-op continued to operate as a way of distributing food and tackling rising prices, but the fortnightly meetings also began to act as an open forum where other issues, such as the problems felt by the women on Lincoln Estate, could be raised. As a result, it began to break down some of the isolation felt by many of the female residents, some of whom had expressed that they often spent days without speaking to any other adults apart from their husbands, who left for work in the morning and came back in the evening.

A sixteen-page pamphlet with the title ‘People’s Food Co-op’ playfully wrought in bubble writing at the top, was priced at 10p. It was illustrated with various photographs documenting the co-op’s work, and brought together testimonials from various members of the co-op, expressing the strong sense of community gained from joining the group. One person described how, in ‘meeting the same people every two weeks you get to know what their problems are and how they manage to cope’. But aside from the meetings acting as a space to find solace, they also functioned as a place in which to organize action and remedy shared concerns. The co-op presented a means of organizing all aspects of life differently, from living conditions, unemployment, child care, health, family, to sexuality and personal relationships. ‘When I was first in the women’s movement we used to talk about “revolutionizing our lives” and “smashing the family” but we didn’t really understand how you moved towards it in practice’, one person explained. They go on to suggest how the pragmatism and wherewithal to tackle other issues, ‘starts happening from doing something together like a food co-op’.

By showing a pragmatic way to take on social and political issues, the People’s Food Co-op did indeed lead to other community projects and initiatives. These included providing a model for other food co-ops in London, such as in Deptford and Holborn, whilst also helping to establish other community initiatives, such as a play-group in a squatted house which was free of charge and helped alleviate child-care pressures, and also a kid’s club. One resident remarked that without the co-op it was unlikely that the kids club would have started: ‘we wouldn’t have spoken to one another otherwise’. The co-op also led to the setting up of a women’s therapy group, which ran alongside another therapy group set up by other members of East London Big Flame called Red Therapy. The women’s therapy group allowed participants to talk through problems and to talk openly about certain feelings and emotions that many women in the co-op had suppressed, largely as a result of how they felt society expected them to behave. Stemming from the co-op and East London Big Flame’s interest in Autonomist theory, some members of the therapy group were explicit in their belief that therapy was a means for fighting capitalist ideology. These meetings became a way of understanding and breaking free of oppressive political and social structures that had come to affect and define the personal.

The impetus for the co-op’s members to take on other aspects of life and work may have largely germinated from these regular meetings, but the process of making pamphlets also contributed towards this. The ‘People’s Food Co-op’ pamphlet explains how the testimonials included were collected by members of the co-op interviewing each other and taping the conversations. The pamphlet details how, ‘a lot of unexpected and interesting things come out in this way’. One such example in the pamphlet is a page specifically dedicated to problems concerning Lincoln Estate, such as the bad sewage system and an infestation of insects. The page doesn’t describe what has been done to solve these problems, but rather, it put a spotlight on these issues, stressing what needed to be addressed. This keen reflexivity reveals how the pamphlet making process opened up not just a space to think about the co-op’s activity and impact, but also extended to questioning what else could be done to improve the livelihood of those involved.

In a sense this was the lasting impact of the co-op. In 1975, East London Big Flame disbanded and the People’s Food Co-op broke up with it. East London Big Flame’s desire to not have a single-issue focus, and instead wanting to understand and address how exploitation invaded all aspects of life, led the co-op’s members to influence and carry out a wide range of activities, which, adversely, also spread them too thin. East London Big Flame burnt out. The realities that the founding members were faced with, such as families and individuals moving away, led to the group’s disbandment. Yet what East London Big Flame and the People’s Food Co-op put into action found new forms after their end. The self-help therapy group set up by members of the People’s Food Co-op continued for several years, as did Red Therapy, and former members of East London Big Flame remained active in the area, supporting women workers’ rights. The brevity of East London Big Flame and the People’s Food Co-op shouldn’t be seen as a shortcoming. Instead, their activity should be seen as having set forward alternatives to take on politics and the political. Indeed, they showed how the act of asking of a simple question can come to reframe an entire situation.

_

This essay first appeared in ‘Meet Me in the Present: Documents and their Afterlives’