Author Archives: Ian Short

Well, they did it. The industrial archeology team visited the site of the old foundry complex where I worked in the late 60s to see if they could find any remaining traces of it. Or is it now just a … Continue reading →

Kudos to Lucia’s in the Central Market. Just ordered coffees and cakes, flashed the card to pay and took our seats outside. The cakes arrived first, followed a couple of minutes later by the coffees, just as ordered and good … Continue reading →

Oh, my! The morning has gone already, but I’ll definitely get stuck in this afternoon, as soon as I’ve checked out these couple of posts proving the existence of Bigfoot and Nessie once and for all. Oh, look at that … Continue reading →

If it looks like a frog you’re right-brained and if it looks like a giraffe you’re left-brained. What? It looks like a seagull to me. Never mind, here’s an intriguing story about a passenger’s outrageous behaviour on a plane with … Continue reading →

It is astonishing how such a physically solid and robust institution as an iron foundry could disappear so completely, leaving barely a trace 50 years later. I worked at an iron foundry in Oldbury in the West Midlands’ Black Country … Continue reading →

Howard Carter, the man who excavated Tutankhamun’s tomb, died on this day in 1939. The last surviving member of Carter’s team died in 1995. He had been a 19 year old labourer at the excavation and died in Ireland aged … Continue reading →

Originally published on the Phil Rickman Appreciation Society Facebook page. The pagan festival of Imbolc starts tonight at sunset in the Northern Hemisphere and runs until sunset tomorrow. Tonight’s the night in Crown of Lights* that Robin and Betty plan … Continue reading →

Were you an Internode customer who transferred your email account to The Messaging Company? Be careful of a dodgy email starting “Hi,” but without your name, purporting to be from The Messaging Company asking you to complete a survey or … Continue reading →

Facebook is becoming more unusable by the day. A recent trend that has become very annoying is where a post shows an elaborate, intricate, obviously AI-generated, sculpture, statue, painting, portrait, carving or suchlike, even a magnificent cake or a horse … Continue reading →

Isn’t it nice of Patrick to go to all that trouble (see below) to recover all that money for me from around the world? I’d been wondering lately where it had got to. Oh, and I’ve obscured Mr Anderson’s contact … Continue reading →