Not quite the Fleche d'Or.

Great Railway Journeys I have done (4)

I enjoyed my first door to door  trip from London to Paris so much that I have been back for a second ride. The difference , or rather deeferonce is that now one leaves from that Greatest of all architectural experiences in London, St Pancras.

(St Pancras is especially venerated in England because Augustine of Canterbury dedicated his first church in this country to Pancras, a 14 yr old martyr who died for his faith in Rome in AD 304, patron saint of children ) Bet you didn't know that!

Spouse has always loved the building , as it was designed in the High Victorian Gothic style. It makes a wonderful start to any journey.  Here I make 2 provisional requirements.

• You must know the layout of the building complex first. You will end up walking irrelevant miles otherwise.
• You must really know the layout of the building complex first . You will end up at the foot of a staircase with a case without realising you came in by the wrong entrance from Kings X and there is an easy slope 10 metres round the corner.

One of the joys of Eurostar is that you feel you are in an Agatha  Christie Novel. I think it because the liveried staff treat one with a pre-war courtesy .

The train goes so fast that taking photos from the carriage is just not worth it with my  digital camera. The scenery between London and the Channel Tunnel, and C T and Paris  is not worth mentioning anyway, and it is no wonder the train senses this in both directions, and hurries on. John Betjeman would have penned a great poem.This is the only good bit on the Kent side, some river estuary, Medway I think.

The 20 mins spent in the tunnel passes so quickly one hardly notices. I bought a cup(Cardboard ) of tea from the Buffet to time with the tunnel, and spent 20 mins wishing the milk tasted like fresh milk, but perhaps I picked the wrong plastic dose.

The scenery on the French side is slightly more interesting if you play the 'Spot the war graves game'.  I spotted about 6 this time, but they were passed before the shutter had time to shut .

North Paris suburbs  look like any other European city. The Grafitti , however is in French, and has a look more Dufy than Banksy.
Once treading les rues and boulevards in the less desirable parts of Paris between Gare du Nord and Stalingrad (the french one, en route for La Villette) the Clapham Junction but neater charm of the rails all approaching the station is quite a sight. Now please don't comment that this is the Gare de L'est.  It is not, we were so tired after walking from L'Abbesses, via Sacre Coeur that we stopped on this bridge to pretend to each other that we could really walk all the way to Stalingrad, and in our reverie saw Eurostar next to the far right platform.

Hull Truck .

A couple of weeks I blogged about my trip to the city of my birth to visit Hullsister. I went again last Thursday. We had a lunch at the Foyer cafe in the NEWsited but old Hull truck Theatre. The soup was only £2.95, and was a meal in itself, and delicious.  John Godber was having soup too I think ,at an adjacent table. I say I think , because it was Hull sister who recognized him.  I only know my fellowschool child , now thespian of note, Barrie Rutter from my Greatfield Days .

The Hull truck , could have been my rendezvous place. It is certainly much better then the euphemistically called Interchange. I won't be meeting Hullsister at that coffee stand any more even though the flower stall is attractive. The Hull Truck theatre Foyer is a buzzy place with a great atmosphere.  The cafe-bar staff are efficient and charming.  Hullsister and I spent a productive time discussing Aged Parent (of Beverley), and Plays we think we could get her too, having got a wheelchair from  Community Junction. (01482 212832)What an innovative idea!

Mr Wray -Bookseller and Stationer

I have blogged on the Fileyparish Blog on the death of Mr Richard Wray.

I am just looking at the Sunday Times books page and fancy reading 'The red velvet turnshoe' by Cassandra Clarke, thinking I will go into Wrays and order it tomorrow, which I will, as Julie or Margaret will enter it into the Computer Orderline for me. I will miss chatting to Mr Wray about what the bibliophiles of Filey might be reading. I was the very first person in Filey to own the new Harry Potter's on the day that they came out, from him, but try as I might I could not interest him in getting some Graphic Novels or Manga books on the shelves. He last got me a copy of Persuasion to replace my 40 year old one , now dropping to bits.  I will miss him and his wry humour.

Cyberfriends

Bishop Nick Baines in his excellent blog Nick Baines's Blog highlights the use, in the cyber networking world ,of the word friend. He mentions that in Japan someone runs an agency for Rent -a -friend.  I remember in Dorking 20 years ago someone started a Rent-a granny scheme and the 4th Estate has adverts for Escort Services, not all of the oldest profession in the world sort, but for working people who simply do not have a lifestyle where friends are easily made, or maintained. Nick Baines is right to question the casual use of the word friend.

Before sociology students begin to write their theses on the Social  Networking matrices,we may unpack our own reasons for using Facebook, and asking ourselves

• What do I get out of it? and 
• What do I put into it?

Many people started like I did to use Facebook having become confident in the use of Friends ReUnited . Now I started using this app within months of it starting, having been told of it by my boss, the Headteacher of a school in Bridlington. He needed to be aware of what might be posted there, after all it was in his interests to be sure that nothing of a derogatary nature , concerning HIM or HIS SCHOOL was posted in cyberspace.

I look now at websites about this North Yorkshire town , and see the awful comments posted by illiterate youngsters commenting on the local chip shops, pubs, landlords and other public places.

My Head was right to keep himself informed.

I joined Friends Reunited because I wanted to see if I could get into contact with my room-mate from 1966 -7, when I was at college. And no -I still have not found her. We were friends for a season, I never disagreed with her, we jogged along together as 19 years olds by necessity. This  in the days when social conventions and our behaviour at a Cof E teacher training college would be seen today as those of a  girls' boarding school in the days of Angela Brazil. Within a year or two of dipping in to F-R-U  occasionally, I had found no real friends from my college days, updated my news of acquaintances, been amazed at my memory for names, and my lack of it. In short -it gave me , and still gives me Nothing Much.

I posted all my  1965-1985 (35mm)pictures digitally updated by my self-satisfied self to the photo pages of all the school pages. I felt my responsibility to Archive my part in their social history was completed. Other visitors to F-R-U will benefit ,or not ,from pictures of naturewalks to Wandsworth Common and school Journeys to Lyme Regis and Paris. I have drawn a line under my need to be useful to the record of the past.

Having not discovered any friends , I move on to network on Facebook.

Within weeks of coming aboard a cyberworld where I tread gently, I have requests from people all over the world who share my surname to become their friends.
My son amazes me on his profile page with his hundreds of friends. A cautious approach is taken by me. At first I accept as friends only people I genuinely know and like. This seems to work for me. They are my friends. I have now acquired several cyberfriends.  My definition of a cyberfriend is  

'someone you have  met online through a mutual interest, (a facebook group) and enjoy communicating with through the electronically  written word'

I have only 2 of them on Facebook, both found through my Facebook group 'I got an Echium through the winter'

Using Facebook , I have trodden gently, and no one has trodden on my dreams. I love the benefits. Old friends are within easy reach, we keep in touch by seeing our profiles, we learn about each other by interpreting the status updates, by reading between the lines, by judging what has been written for effect, what has been written for amusement and fun, by seeing who is out to impress  and who is just themselves. The interpretation of the data known as 'status updates' is the stuff of friendship anyway. A joy has been how the friends of my children, now respond to me  as an equal, not Bens Mother, or someone last seen dishing out fish fingers. I am their friend, but remain a distant one, here if they need me, not embarrassing them with senior remarks.

I am able to find news quickly, before waiting for round-robins at Christmas, to respond, pray and support when necessary, to 'laugh with those who laugh and mourn with those who mourn'. My global family is real and special to me.

Nick Baines queries the use of the word Friend. He is right to query its use. I would like to ask him where does a friend end and an acquaintance begin? Are they interchangeable?May friends be  for a season? What is a Friend ?

I know people who I am not close to, who I rarely see, but when I do we have an immediate rapport which may be intense for a short time, and then I do not see them again for years and the cycle starts again. I call these friends and acquaintances. Maybe we need like the Inuit do for snow, more words, but for friend.

So on to Twitter.  Here is my current background  picture .

The word here is not  friend  but  follower.

I follow some people who probably have no idea that I am vicariously part of their lives! Does it matter? No , of course not. I am able to detach myself from the idea that I am important to anyone I do not know, because I know , and they know that we ARE PEOPLE WATCHING.

This is what I get out of it,-I learn things about my interests from Twitter links to blogposts, I enjoy slowly getting to know some of the people I am following, and they become my cyberfriends. I care when they are down and laugh with them when they are not, it is the Romans 12 v15again. What do I put into it-just the same as I do on Facebook, I am here to share.

So, we all wait to see whether Facebook Lite ticks all the boxes missed by Facebook and hinted at by Twitter. I'm up for it!

Here you are sister!

 

These photos show the platform to Liverpool used by the passengers in transit from the  Baltics  probably using Ellerman /Wilson Line-our grandfather worked as 2nd engineer on many of their ships.

Hell, Hull and Halifax

Great Railway Journeys I have done (3)

I never realised that the thieves' Litany containing the famous lines 'from Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us!' could have such a negative impact on the Subconscious mind until I actually left the city of my birth. Whenever people ask from whence I came ,the reply' Kingston upon Hull ' seems to provoke sympathy and commiseration rather than the plaudit I am expecting. I wonder if the rhyme itself is to blame ,and I am pleading with Hullensians to start putting around a new and positive one .I am going to start looking at the lyrics of Beautiful South but they should have stuck to the their more positive avian name.
For over 40 years my heart has warmed as it approached Hull by train. I used to like the Hull Brewery Ales hoarding which signalled the approach from all stations west, but I have for nearly 20 years appreciated a gem of a Banksy which has been there before even he was born.
So I start at the now (since 1965)North Riding beginning of my journey from Filey to Hull Paragon. Click on the 1947 map to enlarge, the places have not changed.

Filey Station hangs on by a thread to respectability. Brave and visionary volunteers and Station Buffet proprietors and rail network employees have tried to keep the station clean and bright, floral and litter free. This year they have succeeded, It is looking Great.
On a gray school holiday day the interior livery is looking good, but still only 2 carriages. Why? 2 carriages on packed August days, 2 carriages on busy school commutes, 2 carriages on icy don't take the car to work days.
Still , I enjoy the scenic ride to Bempton. All my favourite landmarks are here

• Filey medieval field systems
• Hunmanby-glacial valleys , steep cuttings (with primroses in spring)
• dewpond Reighton Field
• nearly a glimpse of Buckton Hall
• definite glimpse of disused Bempton Methodist chapel
• hoped for view of Newsham deserted village(winter only)

The no signal for mobile spot kicks in just after Bempton. NO phoning ahead to Brid for taxi to school -I remember that well. wait till the Maltings at Marton.
Tell what sort of a day it is going to be now, with the glimpse of the sea next to the mini golf at Bridlington. I have deleted that picture-the windows in the carriage are too dirty for you.
I do not know why Gardeners World or The One Show have not featured the Station Buffet floral display at Bridlington. Each year it manages to be , apart from David Hockney, and my friends from Hilderhorpe the best thing about the town. I have spent hours in that Buffet when on my way too early, to school, and drunk tea, waiting for ten to eight , in the days when School door opened at 8. Now they open at 7.30 am and most teachers have to stay the night anyway to get their preparation done.The Scarborough to Hull , and the Hull to Scarborough trains usually have a wait of between 2 and 10 minutes at Bridlington. This is thanks to the suit who rubber stamped the removal of one of the lines of track. Trains must pass at Bridlington or Filey.

This bridge is a dear friend. It is just south of Bridlington station, and links the path from Hilderhorpe Primary School as I suppose I must now call it , with the industrial estate famous for child car seats and the Morrisons car park featured in Hockney's Drawings in a printing machine, 'The Atelier' (in the 2009 catalogue-which is wonderful).
When I had to give up smoking, after the ban in all East Riding Schools circa 2000, the steps of this bridge were the nearest place I could get to ,from school, for a sit down and a cigarette during the lunch hour. Few children ever went home for lunch so I don't think I was spotted being a bad influence.
From Bridlington to Beverley is a rural ride of Cobbett preportions. I did not see any countrymen hanging upon the gallows, or miles and miles of turnips without fences to the fields. I saw miles and miles of field beans, dull golden stubble from the oil seed rape,more pinchbeck gold, and heavenly golden stubble from the wheat and barley . Many of the potato fields had been cropped and re ploughed , the Christmas tree plantation surprised me . I heard myself saying that I could remember when they had just been planted.

Beverley Station is still the dullest temple to bricks, lightened only by the sign to the Taxi Firm that will always be no 1 in the county as far as I am concerned. They ferry ancient parent around Beverley, to dentist , doctors, Tescos and chemist ,as if she is the Queen, carry her bags, treat her kindly, that I Thank God for them.
Beverley to Hull , via that best of all addresses, Cottingham reminds all those approaching the Humber that a vast City on the flat is no Has- been.

Smart new glasshouses serving us our Cucumbers and Tomatoes flash by in a healthy promise, vast powerlines are calling the Ordnance Survey map to 'Follow me', and the thrill of Walton street carpark (HullFair) and the new Football Stadium, KC call out YOU'RE HOME. Only the old Workshouse building next to the Hull RI reminds you that for some there was a half -life sans benefits of our times,a la Valerie Wood when there were the deserving and the undeserving poor . Or has that Changed at all?

Here is my Hull Banksy, TRIPPETTS, once the place in Hull for gloves, on the way to Thornton Varleys for a toasted tea-cake served in a charming chafing type dish.
My spouse , used to the Great railway Stations of Europe(Antwerp, Paris North, Ghent, Waterloo) used to tell me that Paragon Station was awful. Now he likes it . The interchange, the flowerstall, the new loos all tick the Baedeker box. Only the coffee is still frightful -one place where a Costas or Cafe Nero would satisfy, in the wait between connections or the arrival of Hullsister , before we hit Ask and THAT view of the marina.

For my girls

Best wishes from North Yorkshire

Workbox

Benjamin John Elder born 1807

Daguerreotypes

George Gower Bruce

I am grateful to my cousin in Argentina for all the information he has sent me which I have kept as posted comments on this blog. I have not posted the comment with his e mail address, but I am able to forward any Elder comments for him . I have had a go at taking a digital photo of 3 Daguerreotypes that I have . They are the best I can do at the moment as the glass reflects.

Firstly here above is George Gower Bruce b.1794, the husband of Mary McKinnon Elder(My great great grandparents)
Next is Benjamin John Elder , a miniature of him as a young man, followed by his daguerreotype

Benjamin John Elder

Benjamin John Elder  Master Mariner

The photo below,also a daguerreotype is of Benjamin John Elder Bruce,my great grandfather, son of George Gower Bruce and Mary McKinnon Elder and nephew to Colin Elder of Skye(of Cruise of the Betsy Fame)

My own grandfather and his siblings were all born in Hull. A first son Gower Bruce was born in Scotland, and brought up by Georgiana Newell (nee Bruce ) after the death of his mother. My great grandmother was Marie Louise Bevan( from Hull). Benjamin John Elder Bruce and family emigrated to New Jersey(USA) in the 1890s but the line has now died out. My grandfather only remained in Hull , where I too was born in 1947.

My cousin in Argentina knows more than I do about the Elders. The family gathers here on Wednesday for the 6th birthday of my grand-daughter. In the meanwhile here are the Elder jewels such as they are, and the inside of MMcKEs Workbox. Will send you the outside pictures tomorrow. I cannot get them to rotate right now and it is after midnight.

Benjamin John Elder Bruce 

Sweet maidens of IsleOrnsey

I have a copy of a book, Turners 'Rivers of France' inscribed as you can read to the daughters of the Elder Family in 1840. This book has come down to me , through the family of Mary McKinnon Elder, of which all branches have now died out. I remain with my 2 sisters only. I also have Mary Mckinnon Elders workbox (sewing box) and the mourning brooch inscribed Margaret Elder 1827 (aged 18 died) and a ring inscribed MMcD to MMcB no date but looks Georgian.
I do not have any information about my Elder forbears. My Cousin in Argentina knows far more than I do.
The keeper of the family archive was Eva Borthwick , a grandaughter of Mary McKinnon Elder.I remember her well. She died in about 1955.

For My cousin In Argentina

Mary McKinnon Elder

Jane MacDonald Elder

Jane Elder

Major General Sir George Elder(from miniature)

Mary McKinnon Elder (top) is my great great grandmother. She died in Inveraray in 1880 and was the daughter of John Elder and Margaret McBean Elder of Isle Ornsey.Skye.
Immediately below her here is Jane McDonald(nee Elder) , her sister who married the minister of Glen Urquart we think?
Below her is Jane Elder (we think) the 2nd wife of the Colin Elder (farmer) of Skye whose first wife was Agnes McKay.
Major General Sir George Elder is the photo taken from a miniature . We have the Inventory of his possessions on his death in Madras In 1836. We also have a plaid (Tartan) of his which we still use on very cold nights on our bed !

Antwerp Station -not just the architecture is great

Worst Weed Wednesday

What a good idea to hold a Worst weed Wednesday. Thank-you' The Home Garden. 'Click on their name to see more about their bright idea.

Here it is then . At the moment in my garden this little weed is a nuisance. It is Euphorbia Peplus, the Petty Spurge H/A up to 20cm on a good day.

1. Firstly , it only has to look at the clouds and before the day is out it has grown 2 cm , flowered and set seed, or so it seems.
2. It hides amongst the lettuces and spinach. This would normally be ok, but I am a poor cook , unable to wash and sort through my greens. I can usually do soil to plate in 10mins . Because I do not pick out strangers in an efficient way it is not uncommon for me to cook this little spurge as well. In a dish of Spinach it is just a green mush so the dear little Euphorbia hides bitterly. It is poisonous, as are all spurges. Perhaps they should be called Purges.
3. It doesn't mind where it grows, when it grows and how tall it grows. I have seen a fresh green haze of them sprouting in February in the snow.
   
4. It exudes a milky sap which is a magnet for small children playing in the what one hoped was an exciting environment of a safe kind. Is there one?

On the positive side it is a most attractive little annual, as are all its cousin cultivars. Just not at the moment Thank-you.Bet you cant spot it -but its there!

Thanking you Headmaster cyberfashion

In a while I will be doing the drive again:

• past the Orchids
  
• Reighton Hill,
  
• the 2 trees
  
• the turning to Grindale,
• the hedge with a dead fox behind it
• Bridlington Hospital,
  
• the place where Hockney did his latest Magnum Opus oka Morrissons Car park
• the MMR award to Great Planting Roundabout
• B nd Q
• SCHOOL

I am going to join your colleagues past and present as we all say THANK -YOU and wish you well as you leave the school which has been overseen by you for 20 years.
You don't know how grateful I was in the Summer term of 1993 when you gave me Supply Work. I so needed to supplement our income that I was getting free carrots from the greengrocer ,for the rabbit we didn't have, and making soup .

For the next 13 years I came and went on the Staff Team, term here ,short contract there, full time here and part time there. I was not the easiest employee I know that. The 'bit of a gob on me' part disrupted a few Staff Meetings. You will remember that you had to ask the Maths Co-Ordinator to request that I stopped calling you 'Boss' and use the correct form of address. So here I am thanking you sincerely S.... for the ways you supported, encouraged ,informed and disciplined me for my own good.

1. I am retired now, and am grateful for all the advice and information you gave as you steered me through the last Official government paperwork I will ever have to do.
2. Thank you for all the enthusiasm with which you embraced the world of ICT ,the Cyberworld, and turned me into a Techie. My family have watched me grow in confidence as I now Blog and Twitter do Spread Sheets and Websites. I am never bored. I have even written more with a real pen now that I have rediscovered language. LOL. You were the first person to show me a new Search engine ,GOOGLE ,You made sure all your staff including me had a laptop for work at home. You were ahead of the game with the introduction of Electronic Whiteboards in School, and the Computer Suite was school heaven for this older person. Now the first thing my 2 yr old Grandson says when he arrives in my home is ' Puter Grandma' . I hold my head up high.
3. Your Monday morning Assemblies were a strength. Even before I had a vested interest in what you said I appreciated the many things you said about ordinary Family things .To hundreds of children many of whom lived in extra-ordinary if not strained Family situations you talked about your childhood in Leeds, your weekly chats with your old Father, the looking forward to Wedding assemblies . Who will ever forget your pictures of the Grand Canyon ? You gave children a rounded view of contentment.
   
4. I loved your Shirts. The duck egg blue one was my favourite. The Red one however was your statement shirt, and I watched you on Red Shirt days to see where the day would go.
5. I really appreciated working in a well ordered , clean and well decorated school. You see I had spent years in a school that was so dirty and untidy that I realised that surroundings do matter. Children do appreciate care ,and learn to be careful . The working enviroment was always under review, and I am sure that aspiring Heads trained for years with you learned much good Housekeeping Practice from you.
6. You always demanded much from your teachers. We had to know what we were doing, the planning had to be done, the children had to be secure and stimulated, happy and well disciplined in our care. Working walls come and go, targets change, Govermment directives blow with the wind, Teachers climb ladders knocking off others as they go. It means nothing when viewed after a few years. BUT Thank you for liking and encouraging and affirming children. My own children would have been content in a class of yours. This to me is the bottom line.
   

LATER I have put 29 photos on Facebook. You will have to become my friend now!
Well I am home now from your DO. It was such a happy time. People were so genuinely pleased to come and wish you well for the future. May you and Pam thrive in the climate of change. GOD BLESS YOU BOTH.

PS
The one and only time I did the minutes of the staff meeting I did a spoof copy of them for a select few . I think they could still be hidden in one of my files on the Server.