A replica Spanish Galleon. Handily berthed next to the universal unit of measurement.

Dreadnoughts

15 escaped the attentions of wasps and squirrels this year

The Bay of Kotor is absurdly beautiful

Here we go, again…

Spent the day with the papers of former Labour Minister A.V. Alexander. For some reason he thought this New Years greeting message was worth keeping for posterity.

Restarting football well before the end of the war

Football, bloody hell

I will shortly attempt cricket. I used to do this most weekends in the summer in relative safety. Since turning 40 ~10% of the times I’ve tried this have ended up in A&E.

Just fed some photos of rooms in our house into an AI interior design app. Interior designers, your professional livelihoods are very, very, safe for the foreseeable future.

Just seen this brilliant and thought provoking one man show about Irish identity, Britishness and how to be a bit complicated welcometowandsworth.com/events/XZ-ca...

This picture was taken earlier on when the day was still hopeful for #LOFC but with hindsight the dark clouds were obvious. Still a season to be proud of for the club though.

Football, bloody hell. #LOFC

This looks like a super interesting PhD opportunity for an artist or historian engaged in creative practice-based research www.rca.ac.uk/study/apply-... @royalcollegeofart.bsky.social #nationalmaritimemuseum @josiekane.bsky.social

1969/70 Friendly - Orient 1-3 A.S. Roma Att 7,619 #LOFC Terry Mancini #ASRoma Fabio Capello #referee Derek Nippard

I see the overnight election results have proven everybody right. As usual.

Don’t normally enjoy a Chocolate Stout but this one is going well with lunch today

1-3 down, 4-3 up. The wyvern is dancing #lofc

Brilliant British Commission for Maritime History 30th New Researchers Conference in Hull. Congratulations to @kmbarton.bsky.social MA dissertation prize winner. Thank you to all our hosts & speakers!

Leaving Hull after a great British Commission for Maritime History Conference #MaritimeHistory. I presented on the Vegetarian Dreadnought, so this is the wrong form of transport to go back to East London on, but I hope Hull history appropriate

Just agreed to give a talk on manufacturing and trade in June. Might put off writing it for a bit.

Thanks to the BTMA for giving me the chance to talk to their members about trade policy at Duxford today. It’s an air museum, so of course I found something that floated, sort of.

This is a very good and timely reminder that tariffs are a rubbish idea especially if your using them for domestic reasons but it misses the lesson “Don’t try trade coercion against a power with a hegemonic navy”

My timeline this evening is split 50/50 between The Traitors and The Collapse of the West; and people are way more invested in The Traitors

I have as few undamaged vocal cords as the Orient team has undamaged hamstrings #lofc

A day to read holy books

Someone else is interested in A.V. Alexander, which is encouraging

Is eating horseradish sauce straight out of the jar as a snack wrong? Asking for a friend

Monument to Lady Mary Wortley Montague in Lichfield Cathedral commemorating her introduction of the ‘salutary art’ of small pox inoculation. It notes that she proved its efficacy on her own children, research ethics being somewhat more flexible then.

Not been the greatest of weeks far. Over to you Orient. No pressure…

They get a really good guests for lunch at Churchill College

This is the battle damaged figurehead of The Beautiful Passenger, a poleacre which repulsed HMS Amphion from raiding Spilt in 1809. A very proud curator has just told me that this is one of the few occasions the English were defeated at sea in the Napoleonic wars

So, Orange wine. The Emperor has no clothes.

Sean Dundee, Ronnie Rosenthal, Andy Carroll, Djimi Traore… can you hear me Djimi Traore?

Reading a popular polemic arguing for the phasing out of coal in favour of tidal energy. From 1893. Not sure the maths stack up to be honest but its an interesting Victorian value

I’m not saying Substack might be in a hole but, I’ve just got an email from them notifying me of a new follower. I don’t have a Substack.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This, this squared. New Labour had an OKish economic inheritance which gave them space Starmer/Reeves don’t have. Corollary is that they had to win against a backdrop of a decent economy - albeit with a similarly crumbling public realm.

Only ghosts to canvass in this redundant church in Mid Beds. Bible open at the parable of the rejoicing at the lost sheep that is found though; an omen?

Really enjoyed hearing from and meeting @lottelydia.bsky.social at the Wanstead Tap yday. Great insight into how Empire shaped post-war Britain and continues to influence us

My blog for @ChuArchives about Arnold Hills, the evangelical, vegetarian, Radical who founded West Ham FC (sort of) and built London’s last battleship www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/archive...