The next big thing...

I shall be investing in one of these once I have checked my measurements (and had them sealed under a D-Notice):


( rear view here )

This example is pre-distressed. I can distress the bugger myself, quite easily thank you very much, so I shall have it in black and let the elements age it for me. £220 including post and packing. Fantastic.

Anyone know where I can get a Kriegsmarine cap from?

The next big thing...

I shall be investing in one of these once I have checked my measurements (and had them sealed under a D-Notice):


( rear view here )

This example is pre-distressed. I can distress the bugger myself, quite easily thank you very much, so I shall have it in black and let the elements age it for me. £220 including post and packing. Fantastic.

Anyone know where I can get a Kriegsmarine cap from?

Fire broadsides!

I don’t seem to be able to dispense with the nautical theme today. I was mooching about on teh intarweb last night and came across some art prints of various Royal Navy ships, primarily but not exclusively, dreadnoughts of the First World War. I think that I am going to have to treat myself to one of the cheaper reproductions in the near future. You wouldn’t believe the prices some of them fetch (or more precisely the prices they try to charge), particularly the bigger ones. If the picture is a limited edition print – actually printed, numbered and signed by the artist, it’s not so bad, but for what amounts to a photograph of the artwork that just happens to be printed on reasonable quality heavy paper…

Well.

So anyway, I may take a trip down to the Imperial War Museum on Wednesday and take a look around. With luck they may have some reasonably sized and priced prints, or at least be able to provide pointers to where I can get something at a reasonable price.

I have been (especially) interested in naval history and warships since I was about 8 when someone (Mum, probably) bought me an Airfix model of HMS Victorious. It’s one of those interests that just sprung up and never went away. I’m less interested in modern warships, powerful as they may be, visually they are blando di tutti blandi; not enough twiddly bits, see?

If I can find a good print of HMS Warspite, I shall be in hog heaven. Failing that, a good picture of any of her sisters of the Queen Elizabeth class would do. Or the “Mighty Hood”.

I have seen this nice pair of HMS Barham and HMS Royal Oak at Jutland that would fit the bill.


HMS Barham and the 5th Battle Squadron, Jutland 1916


HMS Royal Oak at Jutland 1916

or this:


HMS Warspite and HMS Ramilles, off Normandy, June 1944.

Fantastic.

Fire broadsides!

I don’t seem to be able to dispense with the nautical theme today. I was mooching about on teh intarweb last night and came across some art prints of various Royal Navy ships, primarily but not exclusively, dreadnoughts of the First World War. I think that I am going to have to treat myself to one of the cheaper reproductions in the near future. You wouldn’t believe the prices some of them fetch (or more precisely the prices they try to charge), particularly the bigger ones. If the picture is a limited edition print – actually printed, numbered and signed by the artist, it’s not so bad, but for what amounts to a photograph of the artwork that just happens to be printed on reasonable quality heavy paper…

Well.

So anyway, I may take a trip down to the Imperial War Museum on Wednesday and take a look around. With luck they may have some reasonably sized and priced prints, or at least be able to provide pointers to where I can get something at a reasonable price.

I have been (especially) interested in naval history and warships since I was about 8 when someone (Mum, probably) bought me an Airfix model of HMS Victorious. It’s one of those interests that just sprung up and never went away. I’m less interested in modern warships, powerful as they may be, visually they are blando di tutti blandi; not enough twiddly bits, see?

If I can find a good print of HMS Warspite, I shall be in hog heaven. Failing that, a good picture of any of her sisters of the Queen Elizabeth class would do. Or the “Mighty Hood”.

I have seen this nice pair of HMS Barham and HMS Royal Oak at Jutland that would fit the bill.


HMS Barham and the 5th Battle Squadron, Jutland 1916


HMS Royal Oak at Jutland 1916

or this:


HMS Warspite and HMS Ramilles, off Normandy, June 1944.

Fantastic.

Strange Days Indeed, Mama

Yesterday, by which I mean Sunday (given that by the time I've finished writing this it could be tomorrow and therefore yesterday would be today, which is wrong), we retooled and remodelled the computer room up here in The Tower. With my shiny new chair, ellefurtle's equally shiny chair, her desk (which outranks mine by a considerable margin), plus the new bookcase and sundry additional computers and waste paper bins, it looks somewhat different to the way it has since I moved in.

Plus it is now tidy, which is a turn up for the books, too.

So unaccustomed to the layout am I that I was momentarily taken aback upon returning home tonight to see ellefurtle sitting at her desk rather than around the corner at the table.

We now have to add a new piece of furniture to the mix, but this time in the bedroom. We had discussed the need to have a bedside table or similar on her side of the bed, for her to keep her stuff on. She decided upon a small chest of drawers, and when I say small, I mean small. That's no problem, it is the right height and width and has three drawers in it for strange girly stuff that is a complete mystery to me. The problem lies in other directions.

You may remember a while back I posted some pictures of the bedroom up here in The Tower. If you don't remember, that's fine. Suffice it to say that the predominant colours are blue and white. Indeed, at the moment, the sheets on the bed are a deep, matching blue, too. This leads me to the problem.

The small chest of drawers, suitably wonky, has a pine finish to the top and sides. The drawers are, however, stained. Miss Furtle tells me that she asked for blue to match the decor of the bedroom, and having struggled heroically to get it home on the bus (not heavy, but awkwardly shaped, see), she was understandably reluctant to trail back into Finchley when it transpired that they had not given her a chest with the drawers stained blue, but a chest with the drawers stained pink. This, dear friends, is why your correspondent looked, to quote Miss Furtle directly, askance at the said item.

Assembled and installed in its rightful place, it fills the gap precisely. Being a rather cheap item, it is functional but endearingly wonky (and I point out that Miss Furtle has displayed some not inconsiderable skill in the assembling of flat pack furniture, so I know the wonkiness to be due to the manufacturing process rather than any ineptness in the assembling). It is also pink. If you look at it with the main room lights on, there is an unnerving 3-D effect revealed in the clash of blue and pink decor: it seems to wobble back and forth in a most disconcerting trompe l'oeil fashion.

It will take a little getting used to.

Strange Days Indeed, Mama

Yesterday, by which I mean Sunday (given that by the time I've finished writing this it could be tomorrow and therefore yesterday would be today, which is wrong), we retooled and remodelled the computer room up here in The Tower. With my shiny new chair, ellefurtle's equally shiny chair, her desk (which outranks mine by a considerable margin), plus the new bookcase and sundry additional computers and waste paper bins, it looks somewhat different to the way it has since I moved in.

Plus it is now tidy, which is a turn up for the books, too.

So unaccustomed to the layout am I that I was momentarily taken aback upon returning home tonight to see ellefurtle sitting at her desk rather than around the corner at the table.

We now have to add a new piece of furniture to the mix, but this time in the bedroom. We had discussed the need to have a bedside table or similar on her side of the bed, for her to keep her stuff on. She decided upon a small chest of drawers, and when I say small, I mean small. That's no problem, it is the right height and width and has three drawers in it for strange girly stuff that is a complete mystery to me. The problem lies in other directions.

You may remember a while back I posted some pictures of the bedroom up here in The Tower. If you don't remember, that's fine. Suffice it to say that the predominant colours are blue and white. Indeed, at the moment, the sheets on the bed are a deep, matching blue, too. This leads me to the problem.

The small chest of drawers, suitably wonky, has a pine finish to the top and sides. The drawers are, however, stained. Miss Furtle tells me that she asked for blue to match the decor of the bedroom, and having struggled heroically to get it home on the bus (not heavy, but awkwardly shaped, see), she was understandably reluctant to trail back into Finchley when it transpired that they had not given her a chest with the drawers stained blue, but a chest with the drawers stained pink. This, dear friends, is why your correspondent looked, to quote Miss Furtle directly, askance at the said item.

Assembled and installed in its rightful place, it fills the gap precisely. Being a rather cheap item, it is functional but endearingly wonky (and I point out that Miss Furtle has displayed some not inconsiderable skill in the assembling of flat pack furniture, so I know the wonkiness to be due to the manufacturing process rather than any ineptness in the assembling). It is also pink. If you look at it with the main room lights on, there is an unnerving 3-D effect revealed in the clash of blue and pink decor: it seems to wobble back and forth in a most disconcerting trompe l'oeil fashion.

It will take a little getting used to.