Rocketman Pocket Rocket

Got a most welcome eyeful I hadn't noticed before when I was doing a bit more capping from this great episode.

One-off credits

Just once, for episode 2 of season 4 (The Posthumous Collection) they used these two pictures in the opening credits. I like them. I don't know why they chose the Orson Welles hairdo pictures instead, given that his hair was like that in only one episode.

Sky Broadband

Anybody out there got it? I'm ditching Virginmedia (Richard Branson, your product is crap, your customer services would be a joke if it actually existed, and you have been overcharging me for many months).

I don't have Virgin broadband, I have Orange, 2mg, but apparently you can't have two, one as an alternative to the other in case one goes wrong. Orange has been good, but wireless will cost me £19.99 a month (I pay £14.99 for the plug-in variety). Sky wireless broadband will cost me £5 a month for 8mg. For cable TV, an extra phone line I don't want, and a separate broadband package, I pay a total £46.50. For Sky TV and broadband, with free weekend and evening phone calls on my main phone line, I will pay £23. Seems like a good deal, but IS SKY BROADBAND OK?

Please help me decide.

Mad Cap

I'm going to be offline for most of the day, so I just did a rush job of capping some more of Eosphoros (anyone know what that means? It's all Greek to me...)

Double Post

I went upstairs to take the bottom two pictures, but what I found first was that my wonderful parrot who behaves so well (!) that I'd left him out, was on the floor. Here's the result of his investigation into the news - lovely shredded newspaper decorating my newly vacuumed floor.

Yesterday I bought this necklace and bracelet at Bluewater shopping centre. Each link in the chain is a little leopard head, and bigger heads with outstretched paws make up the bracelet and pendant. They all have green glass eyes. They do earrings to match but there weren't any in stock, and I fear that they'd be clip-ons which give me headaches.

I defy anyone not to fall in love with them - and I hope my friend Susanna does, 'cos she has a gold version of the necklace coming at Christmas along with the matching earrings!

Tagged by Pauline

Forced to delve once again into the murky depths of my early days and my psyche, I have come up with these answers to Pauline's questions.

1. If you could remove one evil from the world, what would it be?
Cruelty in all its forms. To humans, animals, the planet. People do terrible things because they can, but wouldn't we be more human if we DIDN'T do things, 'cos we don't HAVE to, and it's better that we don't?

2. What is your most enduring memory of your teenage years?
It would have been going to see the Beatles, but I was only 10 then. When I was 17 I won a scholarship to go to France for 10 weeks. I had to fend for myself for an entire summer while communicating in a foreign language. I even dreamed in French by the time I got back.

3. If you were to leave everything to one good cause, what would it be?
Fighting pollution and climate change. If we don't put things right soon, there will be no planet left for the next generation, there will be no wildlife, even if it's possible to live, who would want to under the conditions we are creating for the world?

4. What was your greatest treasure as a child?
My Red Indian headdress. Everyone else was a cowboy or a brave. I had a full headdress of gorgeous feathers. (They were probably pigeon feathers dyed bright, but to me they were the most exotic things in the world).

5. If you could choose anyone at all, who would you invite to dinner?
The last time I was asked something like this (it was actually who you'd like to be shipwrecked with on a desert island) I hadn't discovered VDO yet. Of course, now there is no contest, and if anyone can grant me this wish, please let me know. Back then, I was going to say George Clooney, but eventually opted for Nelson Mandela. I'd also love to have my parents back for long enough to tell them about my family history research.

OK, now your turn. No prizes for guessing my choices, but the questions are different.

Eliza, Tess, Diane, JoJo, Ann - here are yours.

1. What is your earliest memory?
2. Tell us about your first love.
3. What was your favourite film or TV programme when you were young (say under-12)?
4. If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you bought?
5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Captured By Vincent D'Onofrio

OK, so I'm actually captivated, and April was supposedly captured by kidnappers. The fact remains that there are some seriously gorgeous shots of the beautiful man in this episode. More, bigger and better to come when I've capped it all, transferred it to my old computer via the external drive, then uploaded it to Photobucket. The things we do for our beloved!

War But No Peace

Poor Bobby had no peace of mind at all in The War At Home. I just wanted to cuddle him and comfort him so badly.

I want to be this woman!

Accident

I hit the screencap button just as the scene started to change, and this is what I got.

The Crystal Palace

Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park in central London for the 1851 Geat Exhibition. The Exhibition was a showcase for the industrial wonders of Britain, as well as the marvels of the Empire. It was a huge success.

Because the structure was a prefabricated glass and steel structure, it was possible to take it to pieces and re-erect it elsewhere when the Exhibition was over. It was enlarged and moved to Sydenham Hill in south London, where it stood for the next 80 years as a place for people of all classes to go for entertainment. They even built it its own railway station. It housed all kinds of shows, including Blondin, the man who tightrope-walked across Niagara Falls. There were concerts - the building had the largest organ in the world. It was almost like a church in its vast layout - there were aisles and transepts.

Daisy Ashford, a very imaginative 12-year-old Victorian girl, wrote a book called The Young Visiters (sic), which is a sweet little romantic comedy based in the Palace of her imagination.
In 1936 the Crystal Palace burnt down. Apparently the flames lit up the sky over several counties. Times had changed, and its popularity had decreased with the arrival of other entertainments, such as the cinema. One water tower remained, which was demolished at the start of World War Two as it was thought to present too good a navigation tool for nazi bombers attacking the capital.

The Palace was set in a huge park, with lots of water features. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was commissioned to make statues of dinosaurs, which have just been restored. Some had to be rebuilt from his original plans.


The terraces above which the Palace stood are still in existence, and the whole site is being restored, now that planners have been refused persmission to build a hotel and leisure centre there.