June 2014 Diary

Mounted it onto a page from an old wallpaper sample book.

Explanations for each entry can be found in the links below.

I have also made napkins for October,  May and November, 2014.

Q     Victor Moses     Blue Car    Faces From The Great War    Hellish    Alison Sye June 2014  Cyclist     National Treasure, Peter and Jane, Pointing Finger     Festival Hall     Hack    Nurse     7-1     All Mess And N0 Eton     Ugly     Camp     Suzanne, SW19      Orgreave, Sinatra, Assassins   Fully French, Ashes, Rabbit, Picture Of Health     Brunch, Felfie, Rape, Scooby Snack, Skin   Crap Monday, Cataclysmic     Terminal 2, Gross, Price     Classy, Nutter, Luck

 

 

June 2014 21

I think this ‘Q‘ is the only thing on my napkin I haven’t yet recorded.

On 8th June, I was waiting for the train to work. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and I was the only person at the station. I took a photo, posted it online, and asked for suggestions for a word for my napkin.

The first suggestion came from Cheryl Robinson, who said ‘tranquil’. I said I liked it because the first bit sounded like ‘train’, and the second bit was an old-style pen. I also said that I would look for a ‘Q’ when I got home that evening. In the end I picked the word brunch, but have felt bad ever since about that ‘Q’ I said I would find.

So Cheryl, this ‘Q’ is for you.

You can see the whole piece here.

 

June 2014 20

This is one of those Panini World Cup stickers, which ‘swept the nation’ during June 2014. I bought the book in a charity shop before the tournament was even over. There were some unused stickers inside. I could not give this one away for love, nor money. Poor Victor Moses, he looks so grumpy.

 

 

You can see the whole piece here.

June 2014 19

Unless I am mistaken, which could well be the case, I only have a few more things on my June napkin to record.

You can see the whole piece here.

Blue Car. Taken from ‘How We Go’, published by J.M. Dent in 1975. The artists are Kailer and Lowndes

This is because I am 47 years old and have never owned a car. Ditto my husband, except he is 48.

My parents didn’t have a car, in fact nobody in my street did, so it’s not like I’ve grown up with anything other than public transport or Shanks’s pony.

One of the things I noticed when I moved to Bromley was the amount of eighty-somethings driving around the streets. This is a strange sight for me. You never see old people driving in my home town, because they couldn’t afford to learn to drive and buy a car when they were younger. Old people in my home town can’t drive, not one of them. Except maybe if they’ve moved there from another, more affluent, place, but that never happens.

The people who tell me I don’t need a car are always people who have one.

June 2014 18

 

I was trying to fill in the gaps on my June napkin with relevant pictures. This seemed to fit the bill, with it being exactly a hundred years since  Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand. It is a flyer, pulled from the bin, of an exhibition about The Great War at The National Portrait Gallery. I have sewn every face from the leaflet onto the napkin.

You can see the whole piece here.

 

Baron Von Richthofen: Field Marshal Von Hindenburg by August Bocher, 1917 (copyright, Imperial War Museum): William Orpen (IWM):  Jack Travers Cornwell (IWM): A Grenadier Guardsman by William Orpen, 1917 (IWM)

Field Marshal Haig by William Orpen, 1917 (IWM): Churchill by William Orpen, 1916 (copyright, National Portrait Gallery): Edith Cavell, 1910s (NPG): Soldier with Facial Wounds by Henry Tonks, 1916-18 (copyright The Royal College of Surgeons): Major J.B. McCudden by William Orpen, 1918 (IWM): Gavrilo Princip, 1914 (IWM): Unidentified, 1915 (IWM).

A Royal Irish Fusilier, ‘Just Come From The Chemical Works, Roeux, 21st May 1917 (IWM): Hermann Struck by Lovis Corinth, 1915 (copyright Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich).

Mata Hari (IWM): Siegfried Sassoon (IWM).

Isaac Rosenberg, 1915 (NPG): Unidentified by Ernest Brooks, 1917 (IWM).

 

 

 

June 2014 17

Hellish   23rd June

This relates to a documentary I was watching on the iplayer. It was about the artist, Jack Vettriano, who is a pitman’s son.

Jack was talking about the fact that a miner would never romaticise  being down the pit, and described the conditions as hellish. He went on to say that only people who have never been down a coal mine would ever romanticise  it. This is true.

My dad was down the pit at fifteen years old. He never talked about it much, but we all knew how horrible it was. Some things are obvious, working deep underground in cramped, wet conditions, knee-deep in water all day. Even as a child I knew his lungs were covered in black tar, as I could see it when he came in and spat in onto the fire. I can sill hear the hissing coal.

But some things aren’t so obvious. Like where do you go to the toilet? I’ll tell you where. You go in exactly the same place as you sit to eat your sandwiches. Sandwiches you eat with hands that are only white for two weeks of the year. Sandwiches you eat as you watch rats running around in front of you. And I’m not talking about Victorian times, either.

You can see the whole piece here.

June 2014 16

I was trying to find relevant stuff to fill in the gaps on my June napkin, and I came across this. Relevant, of course, because of the Tour De France being in Yorkshire. It was taken from a cycling magazine leaflet (see below), which fell from Mr. S’s Guardian.

I’m really sorry to say that I don’t know who did the illustration. I like the way the inside leg is not tanned, nor under the arm.

I dedicate it to Vincent Harding, keen (understatement) cyclist and all round decent bloke and good egg. Vincent was one of the first people who followed me on Twitter, back when I first started interfering with social media. Anyway, despite Vincent following me because he thought I was a cycling fanatic (my name was Upcyclist at the time), he was, and continues to be, very supportive. Thanks, Vincent.

You can see the whole piece here.

 

June 2014 15

National Treasure   30th June

This was the day Rolf  Harris was found guilty of twelve charges of indecent assault. I feel deeply affected by this.

I added the Peter and Jane (Things We Like, Ladybird) bit to emphasise the horribleness.

The Monty Python finger was added because the gang are currently doing some shows to fund various alimonies, or so they say. Like Peter and Jane, it also seems to emphasise the horribleness of Rolf Harris. I took it from the Flying Circus Datebook 1995.

You can see the whole piece here.

 

June 2014 14

Royal Festival Hall   29th June

I pass this building every time I come into central London. I have lost count of how many times I have been inside. On the day I was married,  our extremely small wedding party ate there. The restaurant at the time was The People’s Palace, with Gary Rhodes in the driving seat.

I cut the picture from ‘Time Out’ magazine (2283). The illustration is by Anne Gerish and Thomas Havell.

You can see the whole piece here.

June 2014 13

Hack   25th June

I was watching the ITV lunchtime news the day Andy Coulson was found guilty of phone-hacking, or allowing phone-hacking to happen, however you want to look at it.

I heard David Cameron tell me that he would give a full and frank apology, and that’s what he was doing now, and he was being very clear about this.

The Opposition said Cameron was the first Prime Minister to invite a criminal into Downing Street. I beg to differ.