Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

Constantinople

 

Having read Byzantine history, I still struggle to think of it as Istanbul, though I realise that this is nobody's business but the Turks.  

[Guy Rixon]

52 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

It results in some very weird things like rivers that that are called RiverRiverSomething.

 

Actually, thinking about it, the various English River Avons are River Rivers.

Also the various rivers Ouse (from old Norse?) and rivers Stour. 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

rivers that change names at townland (parish) boundaries

Near where I once lived there was a street, the east side of which was Boundary Road, Hove. The west side of the same street was Station Road, Portslade.

[Shadow]

Had a quick visit to Gaugemasters shop in Ford, Arundel, and saw these. First two are O Gauge,  last is N gauge. 

 

 

 

[Hroth]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

It results in some very weird things like rivers that that are called RiverRiverSomething.

 

Actually, thinking about it, the various English River Avons are River Rivers.

 

Or for added linguistic accretion, may I present

 

Torpenhow (HillHillHill)

 

Sometimes with an appended "Hill" to make sure you've got the idea!

 

[wagonman]

20 hours ago, brack said:

His grandfather, also called Ludwig van Beethoven was Belgian though.

Which does make it technically correct to say that Ludwig van Beethoven was Belgian (or at least from the area we currently know as belgium).

Are we not still pre-grouping pedants? Surely to any self respecting pedant technically correct is the best sort of correctness.

 

A bijou snagette – Beethoven died in 1827, three years before the state of Belgium was created. His grandfather had been born in the Duchy of Brabant, then part of Austria...

 

PS: the umlaut on the Mac keyboard is Alt+u. Simples.

Edited July 4, 2019 by wagonman
spilling

[wagonman]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Königsberg

 

The town where my late mother-in-law was born is likewise so far east it's now in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad – and renamed in honour of a Red Army general.

[Edwardian]

58 minutes ago, wagonman said:

 

The town where my late mother-in-law was born is likewise so far east it's now in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad – and renamed in honour of a Red Army general.

 

Doesn't have 7 bridges anymore, either.

[Compound2632]

Lviv / Lvov / Lwów / Lemberg (in no particular order, there are more). Although Ukranians are reluctant to acknowledge it, the name of their country is "The Borderlands".

 

[RedGemAlchemist]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Lviv / Lvov / Lwów / Lemberg (in no particular order, there are more). Although Ukranians are reluctant to acknowledge it, the name of their country is "The Borderlands".

Plays "No Rest For the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant

Edited July 4, 2019 by RedGemAlchemist

[corneliuslundie]

Don't worry. In Welsh place names can have their first letters changed depending what follows, and in Albanian the ending depends on their function in the sentence.

Anyone fancy a trip to Fanceinion or Caer Efrog?

Fortunately i don't think that either nationality has managed to sabotage East Anglian place names.

And it is questionable whether Beograd should be in the Roman or Ciryllic alphabet.

Jonathan

PS Has Edwardian found his lost town yet?

[Compound2632]

Not forgetting the Victorian tidying up of placenames along the Piddle.

[Caley Jim]

Some years ago the diarist in The Herald asked for suggestions of French translations of Scottish place names, which produced some very creative thinking.

 

There was Verre va = Glasgow; Moins Chien = Douglas (dug-les) and Occupé = Tain (taken) among others!

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

Miss T won best in show today for a school project to produce a diorama showing both utopia and dystopia .... 

 

 

We bought two identical toy cars from our local supermarket.  We particularly enjoyed it when I dowsed one with petrol and set it alight! 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Don't worry. In Welsh place names can have their first letters changed depending what follows, and in Albanian the ending depends on their function in the sentence.

Anyone fancy a trip to Fanceinion or Caer Efrog?

Fortunately i don't think that either nationality has managed to sabotage East Anglian place names.

And it is questionable whether Beograd should be in the Roman or Ciryllic alphabet.

Jonathan

PS Has Edwardian found his lost town yet?

 

Yes!

 

 

[Northroader]

I’m pondering now should I have given “craftsmanship clever” for setting a model ablaze? Just oversize for the cakebox or she could have picked up another prize.

[Donw]

Well done to your daughter and the layout is becoming a delight the last view of a loco and coach with the castle in the background is a treat. It gives a nice bit of main line to enjoy seeing the trains running. So many of these micro layouts deny one that pleasure.

 

Don

[nick_bastable]

Ms Edwardian may be far more creative than her father 

 

Nick

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, nick_bastable said:

Ms Edwardian may be far more creative than her father 

 

You're playing with fire there....

 

 

[Northroader]

Lucky it didn’t happen by your last property?

[Martin S-C]

On 20/06/2019 at 09:24, Edwardian said:

We also had a bit of Isle of Wight Southern, in the form of the excellent

 

 

Stock in the fiddleyard revealed a more extensive range of periods, including, I'm glad to say, some pre-Grouping in the form of a Beyer Peacock 2-4-0Ts and a Terrier. 

 

What a shame you didn't announce you were going. I was operating Merstone the whole weekend. We might have unknowingly been only a few feet apart while you were taking those photos.

[sem34090]

I'm remembering where this all ended up with last year's project...  

 

As for Dystopia-on-Sea...

It wasn't always such...

 

"Winston could grasp only the faintest memories of Redcar before the revolution. He could picture a railway station, busy with men in all types of hats including those 'Top Hats' worn by the evil capitalists of days gone by. He was with his mother and his younger sister, having been dragged to this corner of the North for what his mother had told him was a 'holiday'. He hadn't heard that word for many years, and indeed it had been many years since his mother and sister had disappeared, presumably vapourised. As he pictured the scene he remembered a small green engine at the head of the train, well kept and with polished brass fittings and most unlike the filthy, gaunt, engines wheezing their way around the remains of the railway network. He wished, in that moment, that he and Julia were able to step back to that time in an instant, as grown adults, for surely a world in which both man and machine were so well turned out could be no worse than that in which they found themselves merely surviving?

 

The following week they had arranged to meet at Redcar, for Winston had suggested it as the place of his memories, second only to the 'golden country' of his dreams in its pleasantness. He had come by the most direct route possible, from Victory Cross up the East Coast route to York before weaving Northwards via Malton and Whitby. Julia had come via Paddington, Birmingham, Leeds, York and Darlington so as to avoid suspicion. As they met upon the platform, their collective heart sank as they gazed upon the sight that lay before them. Long gone was the place of Winston's memories, replaced by gaunt and rusting industrial machinery and communal housing. They were the only party members in evidence, the place being, seemingly, entirely populated by proles..."

[Edwardian]

7 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

What a shame you didn't announce you were going. I was operating Merstone the whole weekend. We might have unknowingly been only a few feet apart while you were taking those photos.

 

What a shame.

 

I did have a brief exchange with one of the operators.  I was in attendance with my Aged Ps.  My father asked (of alll things) why there was a row of trees behind the station and I offered the thought that they had bee planted as a wind break, which an operator kindly confirmed was the case.

 

7 hours ago, sem34090 said:

I'm remembering where this all ended up with last year's project...  

 

As for Dystopia-on-Sea...

It wasn't always such...

 

"Winston could grasp only the faintest memories of Redcar before the revolution. He could picture a railway station, busy with men in all types of hats including those 'Top Hats' worn by the evil capitalists of days gone by. He was with his mother and his younger sister, having been dragged to this corner of the North for what his mother had told him was a 'holiday'. He hadn't heard that word for many years, and indeed it had been many years since his mother and sister had disappeared, presumably vapourised. As he pictured the scene he remembered a small green engine at the head of the train, well kept and with polished brass fittings and most unlike the filthy, gaunt, engines wheezing their way around the remains of the railway network. He wished, in that moment, that he and Julia were able to step back to that time in an instant, as grown adults, for surely a world in which both man and machine were so well turned out could be no worse than that in which they found themselves merely surviving?

 

The following week they had arranged to meet at Redcar, for Winston had suggested it as the place of his memories, second only to the 'golden country' of his dreams in its pleasantness. He had come by the most direct route possible, from Victory Cross up the East Coast route to York before weaving Northwards via Malton and Whitby. Julia had come via Paddington, Birmingham, Leeds, York and Darlington so as to avoid suspicion. As they met upon the platform, their collective heart sank as they gazed upon the sight that lay before them. Long gone was the place of Winston's memories, replaced by gaunt and rusting industrial machinery and communal housing. They were the only party members in evidence, the place being, seemingly, entirely populated by proles..."

 

Later, Winston was locked in a room full of blue diesels, and was soon ready to confess anything.

 

The posters were found simply via an online image search for "dystopian posters". The Redcar poster features the, now closed, steel works. Passing through Redcar one drives pass the closed works to one side and the forest of little brick terraces to the other and I always wonder what are these people to do now?  There's not much else here. It is very sad.

 

 

It turns out to be one of a series of alternative posters satirising places in England, mainly of seaside resorts,by artist Jack Hurley. Strap lines range from Teignmouth (The Fun Stops Here) to the simple message concerning Blackpool (Don't). Visitors to Leeds are consoled with the message At Least It's not Manchester.

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Has your daughter yet applied for the job of Consulting Engineer of the WNR? I suspect that the queue of qualified candidates will be pretty short - probably not more than three.

And my proofreader has pointed out hat I can't spell Cyrillic - if that is now correct.

Jonathan

[Nearholmer]

A huge proportion of dystopia-cracks about various places, funny and true as they are, are born of something very close to snobbery - good old Betjeman is highly suspect on that score, Slough and a few other poems, for instance.

 

 

[Edwardian]

13 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

A huge proportion of dystopia-cracks about various places, funny and true as they are, are born of something very close to snobbery - good old Betjeman is highly suspect on that score, Slough and a few other poems, for instance.

 

 

 

Despite my mixed parentage (English and Northern, or, if you prefer, Anglo-Saxon and Viking), I grew up in Leicestershire, not far from Loughborough (once famously (in our family) pronounced Looggabaroogga by a visiting Antipodean).

 

I mention this because, in one of those spraying-coffee-over-the-screen-in-helpless-hilarity moments, I once heard a comedian on the radio remark that her home town was so boring that it couldn't even find a town to twin with; it had to make do with a suicide pact with Loughborough.