Castle Aching

[drmditch]

Re: Byzantium.

Well, even in 1453, the inhabitants of the city regarded themselves as Roman. ('Romoi ?')

And regarding law, was it not the codification of Roman law carried out under Justinian?

 

So, an imperium which lasted for a millennium now regarded merely as a term of abuse by these short-sighted western Europeans. 

 

Perhaps we should delay this conversation for four days until the 29tb?

 

Re: Ikea shortcuts

Yes there are/were. Perhaps when it's fully open again it will be time for meatballs?

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

Could I say in defence of Byzantium, and all things Byzantine, that of all the cities of this world Istanbul, formally Constantinople and before that Byzantium, is my favourite. So much history, life, variety and whatever ...... need I say more. 

 

I remember once eating a delightful lunch at a restaurant on the Bosporus, one fine late spring day while having a break before going to eastern Turkey for a period of archaeological work and looking out over the water what did I see? A ship traversing that marvellous waterway that some 12 years before I had been involved with when I was working for a shipping agency in Melbourne long before I had gained the qualifications that allowed me to be in Turkey as a paid specialist. 

 

It is a beautiful city. Truly the great cross roads of the world. 

[runs as required]

May  I recommend listening to this morning’s ‘Start the week’ on BBC R4  on iPlayer or as a Podcast or whatever  about all of the above. Very illuminating.

Edited May 25, 2020 by runs as required

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Aha! A bit like knowing where the short cuts are at IKEA then.

 

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

There are shortcuts?!?

Yes.

Shortest of them all is, don’t go.

[Guy Rixon]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

There are shortcuts?!?

Roll against intelligence to detect magic door.

[jwealleans]

Might I refer the Honourable Gentleman to my post of April 15th and suggest he contemplate similar measures?

[Buhar]

In Turkey the few remaining Greek speaking citizens are still called Rum, pronounced "room". Romans.

 

Guy, remember that Roman law and customs had faded in most of what is now western Europe. The crusaders and merchants who encountered the Byzantines were living in societies that were still feudal or just emerging from that. The rediscovery of Roman law was mainly an Enlightenment thing.

 

However the ceremonial power games @Edwardian describes do support the pejorative adjective. 

 

Alan 

[Edwardian]

19 minutes ago, Guy Rixon said:

Roll against intelligence to detect magic door.

 

So, if you can find all the bits you need on the way, interpret the pictograms and assemble a door (the right way up) .... you may, indeed, escape.

[Buhar]

True story. Fed up of our Ikea Glasgow experience I asked a member staff where the shortcut out was. "How long have you been in?" "About half an hour." "Sorry Pal, that's not long enough, I can't tell you." 

Alan 

[Nearholmer]

Variation on Edwardian’s idea: simply step through one of the very many wardrobes, and emerge in Narnia, which isn’t where you want to be (home), but is better than Ikea.

[Hroth]

26 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Variation on Edwardian’s idea: simply step through one of the very many wardrobes, and emerge in Narnia, which isn’t where you want to be (home), but is better than Ikea.

 

But if the demo wardrobe had been incorrectly assembled, you might end up in Aeki, and then where would you be? 

 

Decreasing sound of running footsteps....

[Donw]

I think we may have gone to an Ikea once. It never seemed worth going again.

 

Don

[Regularity]

3 hours ago, Buhar said:

pronounced "room". Romans.

Interesting: the old way of pronouncing “Rome”, before the great vowel shift.

[ianathompson]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

But if the demo wardrobe had been incorrectly assembled, you might end up in Aeki, and then where would you be?

 

You might be in Altonia where my model layout is set.

 

The dice throws have just shown that the connecting train from Beruna (in Narnia) which crosses  the Dorsadelavestejamontoj (Back of the Wardrobe Mountains) during the night will be 10 minutes late today, quite prompt really.

 

In the real world, unsurprisingly, there are no sophisticated retailers such as Ikea, or their like, in or anywhere near Norfolk, so I have been spared the pleasure.

 

Ian T

[Tom Burnham]

[teaky]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

But if the demo wardrobe had been incorrectly assembled, you might end up in Aeki, and then where would you be? 

 

Decreasing sound of running footsteps....

...then where would you be?

 

I don't know but someone appears to have written a song about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds8q3pfangc

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, Donw said:

I think we may have gone to an Ikea once

....., but that was over twenty years ago, and living on meatballs and never seeing real sky becomes normal after that sort of time.

[runs as required]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

But if the demo wardrobe had been incorrectly assembled, you might end up in Aeki, and then where would you be? 

 

I haven't bothered to try Googling this I confess, but a year or so ago there was a lot of Social Media guff about a US site where people competed to assemble the most outrageously post-mod useless creations out of IKEA catalogue stuff.

 

I think I recall the inspiration came from US architect Peter Eiseman's house commissioned by a Billionaire that was to be purposely designed as impossible to live in.

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Variation on Edwardian’s idea: simply step through one of the very many wardrobes, and emerge in Narnia, which isn’t where you want to be (home), but is better than Ikea.

 

The point about that wardrobe was that it was made from the wood of a tree that had its origin in Narnia. Step through an Ikea wardrobe and you will either end up in a Scandinavian spruce plantation (still better than Ikea) or in a pile of broken bits of thin MDF board, wishing you'd worn a facemask (though you might have been, under current circumstances).

[Joseph_Pestell]

Just watching Mr Cummings' press conference. I think that he has been coached by HRH The Duke of York...or perhaps POTUS.

[Annie]

2 hours ago, teaky said:

...then where would you be?

 

I don't know but someone appears to have written a song about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds8q3pfangc

Unfortunately after clicking that link I suddenly found myself thinking I couldn't understand English anymore.

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, teaky said:

...then where would you be?

 

I don't know but someone appears to have written a song about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds8q3pfangc

 

She looks like she could do with an extra portion of meatballs.

[Hroth]

4 hours ago, teaky said:

...then where would you be?

 

I don't know but someone appears to have written a song about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds8q3pfangc

 

It looked very interesting, but perhaps I should have put the sound on too...

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Hroth
the ushul spelin thingy

[jcredfer]

15 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

It looked very interesting, but perhaps I should have put the sound on too...

 

 

I'm so glad I didn't...

 

Julian

 

[Dave John]

Most disappointing. 

 

I watched that video under the misguided belief that it was an Ikea piano and that it would collapse in a heap of mismatched bolts and bendy mdf in the style of the best silent movies. 

 

Oh well....