If You Enjoy Short Stunning H-D Videos Of Americas Parks,

these could be for you,

each video shot by brothers Will and Jim Pattiz is just 3 or 4 minutes long, the brothers go to parks like Zion, Grand Teton, and the Badlands and forests like Black Hills, Green Mountains, and Bridger Teton, for the past 5 years, More Than Just Parks, an organization established by two self-professed “National Park nuts”, have been making short films about America’s National Parks and Forests,

they are all just so nice to watch and not too long to become boring, what a visual treat, and best of all there are more videos on their YouTube channel, just a grab a mug of coffee, or two!

There Are A Couple Of Films,

we have enjoyed watching a few times,

Matthew Vaughn’s blockbuster Kingsman movies The Secret Service, The Golden Circle, we are both also looking forward to the prequel to the Kingsman movie series, The King’s Man, one thing they all have in common, is the tailors in London, but is it real? well yes as it happens, Huntsman served as the inspiration in all three movies,

if you have not seen the movies a short clip above, but what exactly do you go through to have a bespoke suit made? as part of an online course on fashion and design, MoMA visited the Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard to learn how they go about making one of their bespoke suits, and this is what happens, 

behind a drawn curtain, a master cutter takes an initial series of 27 measurements: 20 for the jacket, 7 for the trousers. From these measurements, the cutter fashions a pattern in heavy brown paper. At the cutter’s table, the cloth is cut in using heavy shears, and the many pieces of fabric are rolled for each garment into tiny packages, which await the tailors, for a breakdown of Savile Row tailors have a look here, and how much does a bespoke gentleman's suit cost? at Huntsman their bespoke tailoring services start at £3,500 for a two-piece bespoke suit.

I Had A Terrible Nights Sleep,

or I should say lack of it,

I was up a couple of times rummaging through drawers to find some paracetamol, the tooth ache was so painful, I called the dentist as soon as they opened and luckily they had a cancelation, so off into a cold park,

and past the green,

I had seen this on the way to the doctors, a tree with a photograph on, with lots of fresh flowers on it, regrettably murder has come to Beckenham, our condolences to the family,

I soon arrived at the surgery, and the news was not good, what I had thought was a tooth ache was in fact a gum infection, I was given some antibiotics, the bad news was that one tooth is so unstable it will have to be removed as the infection will continue to be a ongoing problem, so appointment made for the extraction and to have work started on a bottom plate, it is a fact of life I have been cursed with poor teeth, the good news was that the effects of multiple pain killers was starting to have an effect,

knowing I was going into town I brought the RO water container with me, and went to Kingfisheries in Croydon Road for some RO water, and by shear happenstance Steve was there being served by Graham, Steve ever so kindly gave me a lift home, 

where for myself it was upstairs to the man attic,

I had Christmas presents to wrap and Christmas cards to address,

just as I finished Diana arrived home from work, also it was time for our evening meal, first a read and a sherry,

followed by smoked mackerel and dry toast,

eyes down and tuck in,

for my main course almost hidden by steam,

I had a chicken biryani,

whilst shopping I saw some hazelnut a chocolate ice cream, I just had too!

I had brought down all of our Christmas village decorations, they look so cute with the room lights out, the room illuminated by just them and the tree,

meal finished and I was off to the club, past the tennis courts,

and to the club house, it was so cold outside, I meet Steve inside and we chatted the night away, Steve dropped me off at home, where I joined Diana watching a New Tricks before we were off to bed.

Like Many At School,

some of Shakespeare's works were on the curriculum, 

above William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) ponders his next work, photograph credit Stock Montage/Getty Images, leaving the main plots behind, the bard does have a good turn of phrase when you really look at some of the lines,

“I do desire that we may be better strangers.”

(As You Like It)

“Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.”

(As You Like It)

“She hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults.”

(Two Gentlemen of Verona)

“You are now sailed into the north of my lady’s opinion, where you will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman’s beard.”

(Twelfth Night)

“A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.”

(All’s Well That Ends Well)

“Thou art a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver’d, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch.”

(King Lear)

even one of the titles is open to discussion as far as it's meaning, Much Ado About Nothing, the word 'nothing' in Shakespearean times was pronounced 'noting' and so the title itself is a pun, and to find out what a ‘noting', really may have meant, have a look here.

In Most Places, The Sun Comes Up, Moring,

the sun goes down, night,

but not at some times in the Antarctic, Robert Schwarz, who was stationed in there for 15 years as part of the experimental Keck project, 

took this footage, although shot in March 2017, the footage captures the bright sky just before the first sunset in months, when the pole experiences a dark period from April to August,

 the time lapse shows the bright star floating above the horizon for an entire five-day period, Schwarz documents a variety of natural phenomena, including the dancing lights of the aurora australis, moon phases, and the Milky Way, on Vimeo, also if you want to look at the above in full size have a look here, it must seem so strange, sunlight 24/7.

Diana Had Already Left For Work,

before I made my way to the bus stop,

a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky,

the two new saplings,

still here, hopefully the vandals will leave them alone this time,

bus to the bank opposite the war memorial,

and the Odeon cinema, money transferred, club subscriptions paid for another year,

next stop Lidl,

to buy a joint for the weekend, spiced rum and a few other bits and pieces,

also some flowers,

we were fine for the tree, arriving home and then a call from Diana, we had arranged to meet on the 54 bus and travel to Charlton, and it worked! as the 54 approached I could see Diana was on board, 

we never expected to see one of these in front of us, a step on step off Routemaster, brought in to replace the electric trolley bus, I remember in the early 1950s my grandmother and myself travelling on these totally silent trolley buses, and no exhaust fumes!

we soon passed the Catford cat,

looking at the other side of the sign,

past Lewisham market,

normally when we go to Greenwich we alight here and walk across the heath, but today we join the queue of traffic waiting to go up the High Street,

and the traffic was bad,

past the church,

and about 25 minutes later here we are, at Charlton House,

a quick pose,

and a first look at the house, which was built between 1607 and 1612 for Sir Adam Newton, who was tutor to Henry, Prince of Wales - the eldest son of James I, 

Charlton House is one of the finest surviving Jacobean manor houses in England,

at the front of it some stalls,

we were both a tad hungry,

so the hot dog stall it was then,

delicious!

the sun was going down,

as we went inside to have a look around, it has a small library,

normally pre-covid it is a learning center,

with a number of computers for use of students,

although not yet open except for events like this, I had to have a sneak look at one of the ornately carved staircases,

next outside for carol singing, we all had song sheets, lots of local families with a electric organ and the local vicar leading the singing,

followed by the countdown to lighting the tree lights, 

as you can see and hear in the above video, the kids, as you can imagine enjoyed joining in in the 5-4-3-2-1, (as did a lot of the parents!),

ta-dah! the tree was lit, 

Diana joined the queue inside for our hot coffees, 

before having a last look around,

where I spotted this beauty,

we found a bench to sit down a sip our coffees in the garden, followed by a walk to the bus stop and home,

in the evening Diana put up the last of our tree decorations,

with the Christmas angel on top, I missed Monday's Hornby, but the episode was being repeated this evening, this one about remodeling the Intercity 125, so named because the trains cruising speed was 125MPH between cities in the UK, we followed that with a Lewis and a New Tricks, I hate to say it, but there will only be this one post today, yesterday I started to get a tooth ache, at 02.00AM I was up eating paracetamols as fast as I could! I had a terrible nights sleep, first thing I telephoned the dentist who had a cancelation, so now I am off to the dentist, and with that we were off to bed.