mrwaverly

Yup. Just one of the weird things about London that's way more interesting (to me, at least), than all the usual touristy dreck they show everybody who goes there on vacation. I live 70 miles north-east of the city, and visit as rarely as I can, but I find the place endlessly fascinating. 

Ah, what a great tradition! Obviously, as a tourist, you start out checking off the obvious stuff... but I agree, you can only begin to get a sense of a place if you visit a number of times, get off the beaten track, and seek out unusual things. You need to do a little research legwork first to even learn about where to find them though.

It's all creased up 'cos I've just cycled 5 miles in it. Sorry.

The line up that gave the world 'Orgasm Addict', 'Lipstick', 'Are Everything', and the immortal 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With).

This shirt commemorates the Polish pilots who flew for the RAF, along with Czechs and other Eastern European Pilots in the Battle Of Britain, in the '300' squadrons. They were superb airmen, who served with distinction in all theatres of the war. The names on the shirt are the brave souls who lost their lives helping to save our arses. Among them is LW Paszkiewicz, the first Pole to shoot down a German aircraft over the UK. After these brilliant fliers had done such a great job, the war ended, and the UK government did a very cowardly thing. They were basically told, by Stalin, to send these men back. Stalin did not see them as heroes, but as defectors and cowards who could have flown for Russia. At the end of the war, there was a huge victory parade in London. Not one of the men of the '300' squadrons was invited to take part. The men were repatriated to Russian occupied Poland, where a large number simply 'vanished'.  I only found this out recently, and the feeling of shame and betrayal of what my country did to these tremendously brave young men, disgusted me to the core. I'm proud to wear this shirt. 'ZA WOLNOSC' means 'For Freedom'. 

24°C. 82% humidity. No breeze of any kind. Constant thunder. Rain the temperature (it seems) of blood. This is England, folks. Oh, today is a cooler day than we've had for about a week. It is seriously unpleasant, especially for me, as I find it very hard to deal with heat. It's almost as if the UK now has a monsoon season. No, really.😓😓😓😖

I hear you loud and clear... it's much the same over here in Kraut country. Phew!

He, and decomissioned war droid Hammerstein were the main characters in the strip, which was similar in format to 'Thunderbirds'.

This short series of books, by 'The Fast Show' creator, Charlie Higson, are quite, quite brilliant. They are considered canonical. The writing style is very adult in tone, and definitely not for young readers of a timid or easily shocked nature - there are some surprisingly brutal action sequences in them. Higson, known mainly as a comic actor and musician, wrote a series of quite horrifying thrillers in the 1990's. Beautifully written and plotted, with stomach churning violence happening to ordinary people. I recommend them, and his 'Young James Bond' books, very highly.