"Hoover" and Henry

So in the UK they call vacuuming "hoovering." They "hoover" things the way we blow our noses on kleenex (regardless of the actual manufacturor or provider of paper tissues).

In Chichester Cathedral, things were quite somber and serious, except for this guy, who was doing his regular job, operated by another cheerful young guy doing his regular job.



I had already used that image on a post elsewhere (click it to see), when I went to a charity shop and saw his mini-me!


Henry is neither a Hoover nor a Dyson. What is Henry's verb? Surely he sucks, but does he hoover? This is not really for Americans to know.

Leaving England

I'm putting the last things in my bag. Then I sleep, and we'll leave for the airport at 6:45 a.m. I'll be in Albuquerque, I hope, at 9:00 p.m., having been in Charlotte and then Phoenix before.

One piece of paper I want to chuck out rather than keep has nots on things I wanted to remember, or look up:

Roomster
white vinegar
skids
waltzer

I would love to look up everything I've seen or talked to people about, but I've spent a lot of time seeing things and talking to people. I still haven't even looked at my photos from Sunday, though I did move them into a folder on the computer and back up the hard drive. I know some are really good, too. I hope. :-)

So tomorrow I get to see Keith and Doozy, and in a few days, Marty and Ashlee.
Maybe if I stay awake, I can sleep longer in the plane.

Reflection of a crane, in Liverpool

I go home the day after tomorrow. There is too much to see here for me to really keep up with processing all the photos I'm taking, but I like this reflection, of the crane and of older buildings.


When I get home, I'll be busy telling stories, eating familiar food, sleeping in my own bed, seeing Keith's new car, and visiting Marty and Ashlee (who moved out while I was gone) in their new place (which is our old place, and Keith's parents' very old place, from when Keith was pre-school age). I might never finish processing photos! But in the lefthand column of this blog is a list of places and dates, and links to photos when they're available, in case you want to see what I saw on my adventures, and what looked interesting to me.

Here's the rest of the Liverpool time: http://s26.photobucket.com/user/SandraDodd/library/Europe/Sandra2013/July9and10Liverpool

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Note seven years later:

When I stop paying for photobucket, which has devolved sadly, the photos will be here, but not as visible. You might need to click each one...
https://sandradodd.com/user/SandraDodd/library/Europe/Sandra2013/July9and10Liverpool

I'm grateful to Vlad Gurdiga who, in 2020, imported all those photobucket folders to my site, with the same name. So if you're ever looking for a photo (of you, or of something I took), you can try replacing the photobucket-beginning of the URL with sandradodd.

Exotic gravel

I brought a few small rocks with me that I picked up from gravel in Albuquerque. They were all river rocks (rounded), of porous and bubble-filled lava rock. Some were like these, and some *were* these:


Today in Liphook I saw gravel made of black slate:

There is the shadow of my camera, and of two people wondering why I was taking a photo of gravel.

When we were in Zaltbommel, in the Netherlands, where they don't have rocks, and make their castles and bridges of bricks, there was a long path and a public area done all in gravel, of the sort they do have.

There was in the fountain, some regular gravel made of rocks. I don't know where they got it. I'm not exaggerating their use of brick. Roads, houses, walls, churches... brick, brick, brick.

Coronation handkerchief, George VI

I bought two handkerchiefs in an antique shop (jumble bric-a-brac overflowing place). I tried to look it up to find out more about it, figuring images would be out there. I'm not finding any.

(I washed it, so it needs to be ironed again, but it had two creases before;
if I get it home and iron it and scan it, I might replace this image.)

I've found these two on etsy and ebay (click the images to see those listings), but not one like the one I got.

Here's another one at the Victoria and Albert museum, also different:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O367539/handkerchief-liberty-co-ltd/


I got another one, too, a cotton child's handkerchief printed in three colors:

More nearly, more clearly

Discovered something!

I've wondered where the words to Day by Day, from Godspell, came from. They weren't Biblical, or ast least not in that form, and I had always thought of that musical as being very (almost irritatingly) Biblical.

I found something. On the base of a statue of St. Richard of Chichester, this:



So I went to google, and found this!

Day By Day Lyricist
Question:
Okay so I KNOW the song Day by Day is based on an ancient prayer, but I can't for the life of me figure out who wrote it! Do you know? I'll keep searching my books but if you can get this and tell me before my children's sermon on Sunday I'll be very grateful!

Answer from Stephen Schwartz:
"Day by Day" was written by Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) (if there was such a person). Here is an easy way to find out who wrote the other adapted hymns in GODSPELL: Go to any Episcopal church and look up the title in the hymnal (usually titles, as in the case of "Day by Day", are listed by the first line of the song.) If you can do that by Sunday, you will have your answer in time. Sincerely, Stephen Schwartz

I like that I came upon it "all natural" (as we say in Five Crowns Games when there are no jokers or wild cards involved), by walking up to the statue, reading it, recognizing it as that song, taking a photo, and THEN googling!


Richard was Bishop of Chichester in the 13th century, so the words were modernized later, because they're 16th/17th century style. Here are links to Saint Richard's Catholic biography (with continental education and activities, and a recalcitrant English king) and to the wikipedia page (more neutral and less religious, perhaps). Here's a very nice page created and maintained by a Brother Richard in Minnesota: Saint Richard of Chichester (*1197 +1253). A nice bit of trivia from that page is this: "Chichester's spire is Britain's only cathedral tower visible from sea."

According to Wikipedia, Richard was a little strict, or perhaps the world was a lax place, but as bishop, Richard specified that priests should, honestly, truly NOT have romantic involvements. And that "The Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer were to be learned in the mother tongue; priests were to celebrate mass in clean robes, to use a silver or golden chalice..." Many of the silver chalices used since then were on display, for 50p, just this week!

My favorite is this: "Practices such as gambling at baptisms and marriages is strictly forbidden."

Okay... what OTHER practices "such as" gambling were referred to? I want to know. And I'm not so surprised that Brits were gambling there. Probably gambling ABOUT those things, at the ceremony. These people place bets on everything. Overhearing a conversation at dinner last night about personal insurance policies, I was too tired to mention that it was gambling on one's own death. Americans do it too, but seriously: Brits gamble on everything. American elections. Births of royal babies.

Oh, wait. I went to get a link to prove that, and it's worse than I knew.
Brits Betting on Royal Baby's Sex, Career Choice and Olympic Chances
Online gambling company has seen half a million dollars staked on Will and Kate's pregnancy

http://www2.williamhill.com/?gclid=CKW9-rGou7gCFafLtAodEBgAKA I don't know if they let foreigners play, but that offers bets on "every reality TV show; film, TV, book awards and more." This one's more sports-looking, but advertised on google royal baby bets: http://www.coral.co.uk/sports-betting-50 and this third one? You can bet on American football, or Australian. I didn't find the place to bet on the baby's life, but there is a page on how to recognize addiction and to be safe(r) gambling: Reponsible Gaming

But back to St. Richard.

So he wrote (or spoke on his deathbed) this very poetic prayer, and it ended up in an American musical in the early 1970's. And I stumbled into a discovery without knowing the Espiscopal or Church of England hymnal. And he was WAY Catholic, and agents of the English reformation destroyed his shrine.

I wonder if there were bets on who would be canonized, and how long their shrines would last? I wonder if there were bets on whether Richard III's grave would be located, and where.

Below is the statue from the side and from some distance. The words are on the back of the base. The people to the right in the second photo are Adam and Julie, who took me to Chichester.

two and two and two

I like the two and two and two of this photo. I like the straightness of the lines, too. The building on the left is Chichester Cathedral, the right is the separate bell tower, and the statue is of St. Richard of Chichester (a newish statue of a 13th Century saint). The roofs beyond belong to a church-related school.

Unexpected details in photos

Three spires! (I thought it was two, when I took the photo.:-))

This is Chichester Cathedral, from the cloister. I intended to frame the two spires, but I wasn't looking at the iron, just at the hole in the ironwork. I love it when a photo has unexpected richness.



There have been a few others. Just yesterday, I caught two wheelbarrows when I thought I had snapped one. Fishbourne, wheelbarrows

But that wasn't art. I've made accidental art.

In Scotland, I wanted to take a photo of the front of a cafe where I'd eaten twice. Just for the record, so I could remember what it was called. But there were people sitting at the narrow table just inside the window and I didn't want to "take a picture of them," but I wanted the window. So I aimed high and pretended to be looking at something on the floor above, and then snapped the photo as I lowered the camera, just casual and quick, like I wasn't.

Later, I saw the reflection in the window, of the roofline of the buildings across the street, perfectly framing the name of the establishment. I didn't see it, and didn't plan it, but it's mine!



In 2009, I took a photo of a carved angel, on the end of a church pew. Just a quickie shot, and didn't intend anything fancy. Got something fancy.


Seconds later, I got the same angel again, looking entirely washed out and different. Both images are here, at SandraDodd.com/spirituality

Three and three

Three straight tall things from different periods, and then some angles, also representing different times.

And this one I like for similarly contrasting reasons.

All are at the Albert Dock, in Liverpool. All early July, 2013.

Rendering over pebble dash

Yeah, you heard me.

Gradually I'm learning about English construction. Two years ago I talked to some chimney repairmen in the Yarrow Valley who talked to me about the surface of the manse and the church, and described "roughcast," historically and more modern. First the wall is plastered, and then gravel was flung at the wet plaster (historically), but the modern method was to spray it on. I came back to Julie's and noticed her house was that way, but here they call it "pebbledash."

Today we passed by a house where men were scraping wavy designs over plaster. I wondered if it was in preparation for pebbledash, which I would like to see, but Julie hadn't seen it, and offered to drive back around the block. We stopped and asked, and one of the guys described what they were doing. It was a preliminary coat OVER something like pebbledash (some sort of texture) AND over the bricks. The younger man working on the corner was covering up corner brickwork, and the older man said they were even covering over arches and all. The neighboring house had them covered already.

He said the bricks on the corner were called "the coin."

I asked if those were full-size bricks, or just thin ones (and held my fingers apart like half an inch). He said full-size brick.

SO... they weren't doing pebbledash. He said it was going to be a smooth render.

A month ago, I wouldn't have known what that meant, but in Bristol, Alison was talking about the remodeling of their house, and used the word "render." It means what we call "plaster." So they were going to mix sand (which was a pretty reddish brown) and cement, and put that on smooth. Even over the bricks.

Was the sand chosen for the color? That would be the color?

No, he said, the color would be added later. Painted on by someone else (I think he meant), later.

He said if we come back in a few days we can see his part finished. I hope we remember to do that.

Julie said "coin" is from the French word for it. So I'm home and looking that up.
Quoin. Corner Stones, and here are some molded, fake ones: Quoins (for mobile homes)

Trick room

From the Escher museum, a photo they said would be mailed in two minutes, and took nearly a week, but is still cool to have. Rippy Dusseldorp, Joyce Fetteroll, and little ol' me.

Liverpool taxis

I saw a fancy Peugeot taxi and took its picture. It's reflecting Joyce and some other cool things.

I loved this big tire painted on.



We wanted to go on a Beatles Taxi tour the next day, but they were sold out. We went to the taxi stand (a little roundabout with an outside loop/cul-de-sac against a shopping area, full of taxis), and Julie asked the first guy if he might be willing to do a Beatles tour for us. He said he didn't know enough but would ask the other guys if they could.

(Ignore that white van; he was just there for a little bit.)
They knew of a guy who used to do tours. He wasn't on duty, but was willing to come in and take us.

We waited on benches as far away as this photo shows, in an open square with a theatre and a Liverpool football club store and some other bigger shops. Our driver was there in about ten minutes, pulled up into the central round-about, and took us out in a cool, big Peugeot.

We passed by a long line of cabs with balloons, parked in a line and it was fun to be with a taxi driver because he knew exactly what was going on. The drivers all pay for an outing, where they take blind children on an outing across the river on the ferry, I think. Different drivers go different years, and he had gone some years. It's been happening for a long time.















When we were out at the Beatles' sites, we saw four other vehicles, variously, and there were always others at the sites we went to. Once there were about 20 people in one place, in four vehicles (counting us) but sometimes it was just us and one other.

At some point, we passed back by just as the procession of taxis was leaving. Their police escorts had balloons on the motorcycles, too.



Here's something about the 2012 event: Annual taxi outing to New Brighton for Blind children

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All my photos of Liverpool might pop up in a slide show if you click here (and close it with that upper-right "x" when you're done). OH! They start when we were still in London; we took the train. It was Julie, Adam, Joyce and me.

Share a coke with ME?

There are names on coke bottles here, and lots of European names. Twice, in Leiden, without digging, Graham has found my name on a coke bottle. Twice. In the Netherlands.

At Euston Station in London, I saw these two together and it reminded me of Balthazar and Heléne. I will add others I've taken when I come across them, if I remember. There have been more European-seeming names than I would've expected. I haven't seen Clive or Nigel, but somewhere I have photos of some fairly exotic (to me) names. :-)

I've seen this on a poster and billboard. The first bottle says "Holly and the second one "Megan".

Ice cream trucks in Liverpool, July 9

Our future ice cream. We were looking down at it, from one of the four rotations in the Echo Wheel of Liverpool. (there)



We passed two other trucks not far away. Each was different, each attractive, but the last one, the old one was gorgeous!

Dutch/Nederlander language

Sometimes Dutch is readable.
(add the map at the bus stop, and the toilet paper sign)

Words for vegetables, though, don't match so often. Someone who knows that aardvark means "earth pig" can guess at "aardappel" but "sinaasappel" didn't jump up and identify itself. I've had its juice and a cake labelled "sinaasappel." Orange.



Here's a link to a larger image of the chart (click the image when you're in there, I think, too): http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c111/SandraDodd/Europe/Sandra2013/JulyDusseldorpHouse/DSC02693.jpg


When the map has an arrow and says "Hier bent u" it's as clear as any pirate map. Aargh.

Some things are as foreign as can be, and some are familiar. Don't put paper towels in the toilet. Thank you well.



Handdoekpapier breaks down to "hand-cloth paper," and aub is "please," so you can read the whole thing!