One Door Closes And Another Is Renovated

Having dropped out of work last September, I eventually found myself working on my Mum’s old Edwardian front door. It was pretty shabby and in need of serious painting. As it turned out, the job was nothing short of a total renovation.

It started with stripping the door to the wood which took 2 days. Yet this only revealed how bad things really were. It highlighted that in places, the paint itself had been fulfilling an essential structural role. The red-wood mouldings of the panel door were in a very poor state and I made the reluctant decision that most (eventually all) of them needed to be replaced.

Having ripped out the mouldings – things looked pretty bad and I think my Ma might have been getting slightly worried. Things looked far worse than before I had started. My main problem was in sourcing authentic mouldings for such an old door. This turned out to be a real challenge as absolutely none of the DIY chains or timber merchants offered mouldings of the scale or quality that had been taken out. It was really important to get it right as otherwise this classic door could have looked so wrong.

By a stroke of luck and partial genius on my part, I eventually managed to source the perfect mouldings from a picture framers of all places! Indeed it transpired that what I needed was not so very different to an inverted picture frame moulding. With the purchase of £90 worth of oak moulding, I was back in business.

Having cut, mitred and pre-drilled the mouldings, I was able to get them in without too much trouble. It just remained to fill all holes and sand all the door surfaces. I also caulked all the joints before building up the door again with the necessary layers of primer, undercoat and paint.

It was a long, tough job, and I reckon it took about 2 weeks of work and cost around £400 in equipment and materials. However, it did come out looking very good and I think it was more than worth it to preserve such a period feature of my Mum’s house. I certainly learned alot of new skills and would be even better were I to embark upon any job like this again in the future.

Anyway I won’t go on about it any more – but I am rather proud. As Ma always said, " its good to have more than one string to your bow."

George Orwell on Seeing the Future

All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

[George Orwell]

Image of an Emperor: Tiberius

"In person he was heavy-set and powerful, of a stature above the average, broad in the shoulders and chest, and the rest of his body of congruent proportions. His left hand was stronger and more nimble than his right; and his joints were so strong, that he could bore a fresh, sound apple through with his finger ... His complexion was fair, and he wore his hair so long behind that it covered his neck; which was observed to be the fashion affected by his family. His face was ingenious and well-favoured, but was often covered in pimples. His eyes, which were large, had a marvelous faculty for seeing in the night time, and in the dark ... He walked with his neck held stiff and upright, and with a countenance somewhat severe. For the most part he was silent; when he spoke with those about him, it was very slowly, and usually accompanied with a slight gesticulation of the fingers. ... He enjoyed excellent health through his whole reign; though from the thirtieth year of his age, he preserved it by his own efforts, without any counsel from physicians."

[Suetonius, Tiberius, 68]

Base Details

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You'd see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. 'Poor young chap,'

I'd say - 'I used to know his father well;
Yes, we've lost heavily in the last scrap.'
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die - in bed.

[Siegfried Sassoon]

Chrichton Castle

[Chrichton Castle, Midlothian. Scotland]

For info see:
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/pathhead/crichtoncastle/index.html

The General

'Good-morning; good-morning!' the General said

When we met him last week on our way to the line.

Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,

And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

'He's a cheery old card,' grunted Harry to Jack

As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both with his plan of attack.

[Siegfried Sassoon]

Marwick Head

[The Dramatick Marwick Head. Isles of Orkney. Scotland]

See:
http://www.orkneypics.com/webpage/page/page054.html

Commanding Goddess

[A Commanding Goddess - Glyptotech Museum, Munich]



Marley Cat

[The Famous Marley Cat, warming himself into a stupor under his favourite lamp]

Just in Passing

[A lonely passing place, Scottish Borders]

Film: Twin Sisters (Die Tweeling)

I found this to be a top quality, earnest and memorable film. However, with an Oscar nomination for 'Best Foreign Language Film' 2004, the film is in itself, somewhat modest and understated.

The story follows the divergent and contrasting lives of two twin sisters Anna and Lotte Banberg. Forcibly separated as infants to live with relatives on opposing sides of the German / Dutch border, we see the lives of both subjects as they seek to respectively develop, live and eventually just survive amid the momentous events surrounding World War II. Told with emotional credibility the story cleverly contrasts and balances the lives of the two fated sisters as they progress through the most formative periods of their lives, seeking to re-connect with one another, under greatly contrasting circumstances.

As Anna is taken to live a privileged life with her educated and liberal relatives in Holland, Lotte is left to survive the crushing rural poverty of depression era Germany with an austere and abusive Catholic farming family. With an impressive degree of historical authenticity and accuracy it is at first only slowly that we begin to perceive the encroaching winds of political and martial change that will not only alter the lives of the two sisters, but also the lives of millions. Directly encompassing the issue of the holocaust, the film portrays a suitably complex view of individual morality and the greater question of German war guilt. There are also those on the Dutch side who are less than noble.

Based upon the best selling European novel by Tessa de Loo, there is a sense that this is an adaptation film. The author herself noted that she would have hoped for more humour in the adaptation, but although sombre in much of its outlook, I would not say that this compromises the film, but is actualy integral to it. Indeed, my only real area of disappointment, is the rather affected and in my view over sentimentalised, scenes of the two elderly sisters as they finally seek to reconcile with one another at the end of their lives.

All in all though, a very good movie and one that I will be happy to add to my foreign language war-period collection. I intend to make a future posting outlining the best titles I have found amongst this genre of films.

Caesar & Drinking

"That he was the most sparing drinker of wine, his very enemies did not even deny. Whereuopon rose the remark of Marcus Cato:"

'that Caesar was the only sober man amongst all those who had tried to overthrow the state'

[Suetonius, Julius Caesar, 53]

Tales from the Park

I saw this very sad poster in the park the other day.

 

I really hope George turns up. Its pretty cold out there and he looks like a nice wee fellow! Obviously much loved.

With Me & I

The hypnotic effect of the open road and some hardcore Hendrix reminds me strongly of that cult British classic, Withnail & I.

On this trip we did not run foul of the law - 'honestly Ocifer'. A full chicken dinner was not consumed on the passenger side - although a Marks and Spencers lunch might have been.

For details of the cult classic (a favourite of mine) see:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094336/

Berwick - Historic Border Town

Last weekend we spent an afternoon in the beautiful historic border town of Berwick. Just over an hour South of Edinburgh and only just inside the modern English Border, Berwick has for centuries been fought over by the English and the Scots.

A walk along the town's ancient walls at the mouth of the river Tweed was made strangely atmospheric by a very localised har fog that rose from the river.

The very old and somewhat delapidated stone buildings of the town added to a sense of the town's heritage.

I really liked it and hope to return to do more sightseeing on a clearer day. We would certianly recommend a visit if you get the chance.

See: http://www.exploreberwick.co.uk/

Anstruther by the Sea

[The picturesque fishing village. Anstruther, Fife, Scotland]

You'll Have had your Tea?

I am sure that we have all on occasion had house guests who have imposed on us at a bad time, or perhaps outstayed an original welcome? I know that I have.

Of course good manners - not to mention the primeval laws of human hospitality - dictate that one cannot refuse a visitor. Even harder when that visitor be friend, family or a work associate. Perhaps then, we should all spare a thought for that great statesman of the Late Roman Republic, Marcus Tulius Cicero, who in 45 BC was honoured by a rather onerous visit from his then political ally, Julius Caesar. Receiving this most powerful guest, probably at his estate at Pueoli, Cicero was alarmed to note that Caesar travelled with a personal retinue of no less than 2,000 men:

"His entourage moreover were lavishly entertained in three other dining rooms. The humbler freedmen and slaves had all they wanted - the smarter ones I entertained in style. In a word I showed I knew how to live. But my guest was not the kind of person to whom one says 'Do come again when you are next in the neighbourhood.' Once is enough. .... There you are, a visit, or should I call it a billeting, which as I said was troublesome to me but not disagreeable."

[Cicero, Letters to Atticus 110, Penguin, London 1986]

Of course the next time I am imposed upon in my small tenement flat, I shall think of Cicero and count myself lucky.

Rainbow over Leith

[Leith Docks, Edinburgh. Scotland]

For a History of Leith see:http://www.leithhistory.co.uk/