Sam Crawley's Little Box on the Web

A Historical Year - 1978

Blondie in 1978, still going strong today!

In Brazil, Friday 13 August (agosto) is considered to be especially filled with sorrow (desgosto). This year fortunately it falls on Wednesday. Furthermore, in years past on this day…

3114 BC - The Mayan calendar started.
1415 - Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England landed at Chef-en-Caux, France with 8000 men.
1536 - Buddhist monks from Kyōto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance.
1704 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.
1814 - The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, was signed in London.
1913 - Otto Witte, an acrobat, was crowned King of Albania.
1913 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
1918 - Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.
1937 - Battle of Shanghai began.
1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain begins - The Luftwaffe launched a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.
1954 - Radio Pakistan broadcasted National Anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
1960 - The Central African Republic declared independence from France.
1961 - The German Democratic Republic closed the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
1978 – I appeared in Canterbury Hospital care of my mother at about 7am.
1996 - Data sent back by the Galileo space probe indicates there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons.
2004 - Black Friday crackdown by NSS on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé.
2004 - 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.

In celebration or commiseration of any or all of the above events (or indeed bring your own), I will be indulging a couple of beers at the Old Tea Warehouse near Aldgate from 5pm tomorrow (Wed), followed by food at Maedah Grill. All welcome.

Alex and Lewis

Pippi

Dina and Pippi

Adrian and Lewis

Pippi and Alex

Dinner

Thanks to you all... and for the wishes I received from around the world. Despite my grumpy old man nature, I am extremely grateful. See you all next year!

Finn and Highgate Cemetery

My good friend Finn was over from Norway recently, and we met up in London. We wandered from my house, up past Abbey Road to Hampstead Heath then Highgate for the cemetery.

Abbey Road studios

Fame beckons for young Finn

Finn is already a famous rockstar in Norway after being randomly chosen at Øya Festival in Oslo by Devendra Banhart to come up on stage and perform solo! Here's a video of it.

Future album cover?

Highgate Cemetery
One of those famous London places that I've never been to in the 12 years or so I've lived here! Just shows you how much of London there is to get through!

Finn in Highgate Cemetery

There are of course many famous graves - the ones I was interested in were the famous Karl Marx one, and Douglas Adams, which we came to first.

Douglas Adams RIP

Random Graves

Peaceful walking

Marx

Around Marx there were all sorts of other leftie gravestones, which then progressed on to a anti-establishment journalism section - I came across Paul Foot, the investigative journalist who worked for Private Eye.

Paul Foot

Finally we head up to the Spaniard's Inn at the top of the Heath, dating from 1585, but more importantly serving some excellent beers and with a large and quiet (at this time) beer garden.

Well-earned pint

Eri Minoura Over

A few weeks ago Eri visited from Japan. Was great to see her, and over the two weeks she stayed in London we had lots of fun. Here are a random selection of the photos from that time.