Ed Vogue's World

Ok so it's Friday night. It's been a bit of a week and all you want to do is collapse and forget the rest of the world for the evening. That is what your sofa is for. According to Wikipedia the word sofa..."is from Turkish derived from the Arabic word suffa for 'carpet' or 'divan', originating in the Aramaic word sippa for 'mat". I guess that this is because people used to lie on carpets leaning on some kind of bolster. After a while this developed into the piece of furniture that most of us in the UK have in our living rooms. I love my sofa, its a bit old and tired, the cushions are a bit squished and even after a good fluffing still don't come back to their proper shape. To be honest the covers need a bit of a clean but its comfy, familiar and it feels the perfect fit. Where better to chill out on a Friday evening with a glass of something alcoholic, a pizza and some action film. I might even treat myself to a piece of cheesecake as we

The Holy Grail, the cup of Christ. The legend says that he who drinks from the cup of Christ will have everlasting life. Many people have searched for this item. It is believed by some that this particular item was in the possession of the Order of the Knights Templar and may still be, hidden away somewhere in the mountains and river valleys of Southern France. What a shock they must have got this morning whilst watching BBC breakfast as apparently today the Holy Grail, the cup of a carpenter was shown on TV at the end of a news item. Even more amazing this sacred item could be bought today in a London auction house. http://www.virginmedia.com/images/1indy-idol-holy-grail.jpg Of course this was not the real Holy Grail but just a prop from the third instalment of the Indiana Jones films. Additionally and just as exciting Henry Jones Snr.'s grail diary was also up for sale. Maybe what is written in that diary will help the owner find the real cup of Christ. It must be fun to o

The moon is bright today. Next to it in the sky is a star or perhaps a planet that is also shining brightly, looking like a diamond in the sky. It's nearly a full moon, it will be full at 2.46 in the morning. There are a few clouds skidding across the sky providing the moon with a foreground reminiscent of a black and white horror movie. http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/StarChild/solar_system_level1/moon.gif Staring at the moon is a pretty wondrous thing for many reasons. I find it amazing to think that people have visited the moon and walked its surface and then remarkably have been able to return home safely. The moon's sheer mass has a gravitational effect on the Earth that pulls the oceans towards it creating the tides that in turn are so important for a significant number of ecosystems around the world. The mythology related to the moon, its links to madness or lunacy and of course the transformation of a human into a werewolf. The moon is also quite a romantic

During the restoration Charles II introduced the waistcoat as a required piece of formal wear for courtiers. It was apparently based upon the clothing worn by the Persian visitors to court and the King thought that wearing this garment would set the fashion of the English and make it contrast with that of the French. At this time it was known as a vest. The term waistcoat is derived from the cut of the garment, being cut at waist level as opposed to the longer dress coat. It is said that another monarch, Edward VII started the fashion to leave the bottom button of the waistcoat undone to accommodate is expanding form. http://images.askmen.com/fashion/apparel/reiss-arden-waistcoat_1.jpg Waistcoats were required business dress during the Edwardian time and often men kept their pocket watch in the pocket of their waistcoat, a chain fastening it to one of the button holes. During the 1980s the waistcoat fell out of fashion for everyday business wear and became something which was wor

Uh oh, I think I really am middle aged. I had an extraordinary senior moment today that might signify I am moving into the second era of my life. For those who are not in the know a senior moment is an example where a persons mind goes a little blank: for instance they may walk into a room and forget why they walked in; they may lose their keys and then find them in their pocket; they may continually mix up their children's names. The above are all good examples and I guess everyone has their odd little senior moment but as you get older they become more frequent... Today I had to go into London. When I left to catch the train home I had to rush to make my train. I got to the barriers at the station and put my ticket in. The machine spat it back out at me in indignation, apparently I was to "Seek Assistance" . I did what any normal person would do, I put it into the machine again. Again it spat it back out at me, the screen displaying he message. I wiped the mag

I remember a number of years ago being handed a piece of paper at the beginning of a meeting where the boss, now retired, was going to speak at length about something that was most probably important or not. Upon looking at the piece of paper I could see that it was a bingo sheet, however instead of the numbers the boxes on the sheet were filled with management words and phrases, things like 'blue sky thinking' and 'working outside our comfort zone'. I joined in the game and was amused to find that most of these words or phrases were actually mentioned during the meeting. Recently I have noticed a new phrase that seems to have crept into the everyday language, especially when people are explaining a new idea or concept. This phrase really annoys me and I am hearing it everywhere, at work, on the radio, on the TV and in general conversation. That phrase is, going forward. Damn just writing it here on my blog annoys me. I don't even really understand what it means,

I still find myself drawn to those brightly coloured sweets that lie on the shelves in supermarkets, garages and newsagents across the land. Those sweets whose colours betrayed their flavour before you ate them. The bright green, lime; the yellow, banana; the purple, blackcurrant. These are the sweets of my childhood, the ones that left your tongue stained with whatever chemicals the manufacturers added to obtain that distinctive look. Then came the day when these artificial colours were vilified for creating hyperactivity in children. Certain coloured sweets were withdrawn until the manufacturers were utterly convinced that all traces of these chemicals had been removed from their products. Some drinks popular back in the day are now not found on the shelves of the local grocery store having not survived the artificial colour purge. I think it's interesting that people are so against the idea that a colour manufactured in a chemistry lab is so much worse than an identical

Today is a special day in America. It is traditionally a massive shopping day as people buy gifts for thanksgiving. Due to this the big companies started discounting their products and the sales began. This led to a massive increase in sales and profit - Black Friday. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Black-friday-walmart-bfcom.jpg/225px-Black-friday-walmart-bfcom.jpg Although we don't celebrate thanksgiving in this country the phenomenon of Black Friday has been creeping up on us as well. Some well known global Internet companies have been heavily discounting certain items in the run up to Black Friday. I'm uncertain as to the effect it has really had on sales but they must think that it is a least worth something. Everyone likes to think they have got themselves a bargain. I guess that is just human nature. A bargain means something for nothing. A bargain means going away with more money left than you thought. A bargain means getting more than

Sandy island. An island out in the Coral Sea. It sounds delightful. An uninhabited island out in the Pacific Ocean. Today it was reported that some Australian scientists went off to visit Sandy Island to do some research. They plugged in the coordinates,as marked on their charts, into the ships SatNav and set sail. They arrived at their destination at night and in some mist. When the must cleared and the sun rose the crew confirmed what the radar showed. The island was not there. Sandy island was in fact just an expanse of deep ocean. This whole event sounds like an episode of a TV drama. Maybe the island had been there until some survivals of a plane crash had opened the hatch and failed to press a button. Most likely the island had never been there at all. The scientists were actually quite excited at non discovering the island as there non discovery would change the maps of the world. Google map update required. Picture (http://www.anguilla-reservation.com/prod0448.htm)

At work, in the office we have the radio playing. It plays one of the London music radio stations. Day to day, hour by hour the playlist appears not to be too different. In fact I think if you listened to the station continuously over the day it would be like listening to the latest NOW album on shuffle. Over the last few days though a disturbing change has occurred. Every so often a Christmas song has crept into the playlist. As Christmas is still 5 weeks away this to my mind is a little premature. I guess I can handle those pseudo Christmas songs. Those that are played around Christmas time but are not specifically about Christmas, like for instance Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow. But today the pop song that embodies Christmas songs started to play, the oh so familiar tune started up without warning and then the lyrics, http://onmilwaukee.com/images/articles/xm/xmasradio/xmasradio_fullsize_story1.jpg "It was Christmas Eve babe. In the drunk tank..." Recognis

As readers of my blog will know I am a middle aged man. When I was a kid I loved Lego. In my youth there were no film tie-ins and fancy sets however there was space Lego. This consisted of ground control, spaceships and importantly different characters wearing coloured uniforms, gold, blue, white and red. Lego is genius. It can be simple or complicated. Cheap or expensive. It engages in the building of the model and then the model itself becomes the toy. After it has been played with it can be dismantled and then built again or indeed a new model can be constructed. My son loves Lego and this is fully encouraged by me. His current interest is anything linked to Star Wars Lego. I have to admit that I covet his Lego models and would really like to build them myself on my own, not with him. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sMm9o5bKL._SL500_AA300_.jpg I've always wanted to build the Millenium Falcon Lego model. It looks awesome. Unfortunately it is a little self ind

http://www.freefoto.com/images/16/04/16_04_18---Frosty-Leaves_web.jpg It felt wintry today and I have felt cold all day, in fact I've felt cold since yesterday. Yesterday the Sun was shining in a slightly misty sky and the air felt crisp and clear so I decided that it was time for me to finally get around to that most autumn of jobs the raking of the leaves. All was going well the raking of the leaves into piles was keeping me warm but then I had to put the leaves in the recycling bin. This was when I first felt the cold of winter. Some parts of the lawn had been unexposed from direct sunlight and the leaves from these areas were still covered in frost. When I scooped up the leaves, in my gloveless hands, it was lie putting them into a bucket of ice. By the time I had finished my hands felt, well, I couldn't feel them. It was like being transported back to being a twelve year old trying to do my buttons up on my school shirt after being forced to play rugby in a snowsto

If I made up a word which then became accepted as a new word, so much so that it could be included in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary I would die a very proud and happy man. It appears that this indeed could be happening. The word omnishambles was first used in a situation comedy about politics and the higher echelons if the civil service called The Thick of It. It was used by a character to describe a momentous cock up. http://static.ibnlive.in.com/ibnlive/pix/sitepix/11_2012/omnishambles A leading politician then used it in the House of Commons to sum up all the perceived government mistakes. This was received rather well by the politicians and has been used frequently since. So a word made up in a fictional television series has influenced the actual world it's satire was based on. Classic stuff and well done the writers. Our family has long substituted the work for sock for the more taboo four letter word beginning with F. This makes swearing slightl

There are some phobias that I just don't really get, like for instance the fear of oranges, someone I met the other day claimed they had a fear of oranges...what is that about? However, I do get that some people might be afraid of flying. I have flown with someone who has that fear and I certainly remember the pain in my arm as she grabbed it tight as we took off. A plane is an amazing piece of engineering. Although it is only physics you feel like there must be a little bit of magic in it as well. I can understand how a lightweight glider can soar on the thermals rising from the land as the air is heated and creates large convection currents. I even get how a light aeroplane can fly carrying a cargo of four passengers but what about a 747? These jumbo jets are enormous. They carry hundreds of passengers all of which have luggage in the hold and in the cabin. Squirrelled away in the centre of the plane and its wings are litres of heavy fuel that allow the plane to fly halfway

I travelled to Stratford today to have a little mooch around. It was a cold, dank, misty November day, a far cry from some 4 months earlier when the Olympics were in town. The Olympic park is still omnipresent but the banners, games makers and union jacks are long gone. The Olympic park is now a construction site as the temporary buildings get taken down and the area gets redeveloped into the legacy park due to be opened to the public in July next year. The best view is now afforded from the third floor of a department store and it all seems a little empty; empty of the security tents, empty of the food stalls, empty of the crowds and of course empty of the excitement. Saying all that it is obvious the positive effect that the games have had on the town of Stratford and the Newham area in general. Westfield, the huge shopping centre, was planned before the Olympics but its size and success has undoubtably been helped by the global sporting event. It was generally quite busy this

This weekend, on Sunday 18th to be precise, you have a chance to see one of those amazing astronomical sights. It happens more often than you think, but people rarely go out to watch. If you look towards the South in the hours before dawn you may well catch sight of some shooting stars. Apparently the frequency is likely to be about 10 every hour so, although not the most dense of meteor showers, perusal of the night sky in the correct direction for as little as ten minutes should be rewarded with an observation. http://iamlenlen.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/star14.jpg Shooting stars are of course not really stars falling from the sky, this would be a whole different occurrence resulting in the complete destruction of the Earth, an event I don't really want to consider at this time. They are in fact pieces of dust or rock ranging from the size of a grain to the size of a golf ball. As the Earth orbits the Sun it collides with these pieces of rock which upon falling through t

The year was 1095, the place Venice, Italy. During that time a gentleman by the name of Roberto Nevelis was teaching students in a school in Venice. According to some many sources (although I have yet to find one that I could say was reliable) Roberto is credited for the invention of homework. http://aw2-static.artweb.com/users/5588/m_289817__the_salute_contre_jour_venice_x.jpg Great invention Rob. Thanks. So obviously the students haven't worked hard enough at school so send them away to do more work in the evening. Lets consider 1095 in Britain. The country was still recovering from the cultural change of the Norman conquest. Pembroke Castle was built. William II was on the throne and would be for another five years. England was miles away from homework, although there were many schools some of which still exist today. The crown for the eldest being claimed by The King's School believed to have been founded in AD597 by Saint Augustine. I arrived home from work tonght

How was your day? I wasn't really looking forward to today. I wasn't feeling great this morning and although the day promised some highlights for the most of it the day ahead looked like a lot of hard work. As it happened the day went really fast, it was full of lots of highlights some laughter and on reflection it wasn't too bad at all. http://thetrendguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Make-a-Difference.jpg And despite everything I think through instruction, questioning and importantly conversation I made a difference. That's what me and my colleagues do everyday. We make a difference. Posted with Blogsy

Chaos. That would be a good word to describe the traffic on my way to work this morning. The motorway was closed in both directions as well as the road which might normally be used for the detour. Apparently a large pile of recycling had caught on fire near to both of these roads last night and the intensity if the fire plus the smoke blowing across the roads resulted in both of them being shut. http://blog.adw.org/wp-content/uploads/traffic-jam1.jpg This road closure highlights the utter dependence that we have in this country on cars and how clogged some of these tarmac arterial networks really are. It took some of my colleagues over three times longer to get to work than they would normally do. The whole of the town for a while was at a standstill. In what appeared to be a perfect storm the main train was also out of action resulting in the passengers being bussed in on a replacement coach service, simply adding more vehicles to the ever growing traffic jam. The bad news. Th

Sunday night means the Antiques Roadshow. It really is a national institution and one if those programmes that the BBC is known for. Week after week, year after year the public flood to the show in the hope that they might have something interesting enough to make the show and perhaps even prove to be valuable. It is amazing how many fabulous things that people seem to have. If I went walking around my house I wouldn't be able to find a single item worthy of taking to the roadshow. http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/commercials/2009/3/bbc-antique-road-show-vase.jpg I do get a little annoyed at those people that turn up with items that are very personal and they obviously know more than the experts. I'm not particularly interested in someone's grandad that used to do something not that interesting. Of course one of the delights of the Antiques Roadshow is being able to guess the price tag on the items before the experts give their valuation. It's a timeless pasti

I had cause to pop to a DIY store today. My local DIY store can be found on a retail park with a large supermarket, a clothes store and an electrical outlet. Today it felt like the whole world had descended on this retail park. The cars were queuing in the car park with people waiting for spaces to become free. It was the sort of day when people start to argue over the spaces as they become free and you can literally see smoke coming out of the ears. I can only imagine that this number of people was driven my the proximity of the festive season. Suddenly there is a primal need for some people to get to the shops to purchase all those important Christmas items. http://thingsboganslike.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/car-park.jpg This I don't really understand. It is only really the beginning of November. There are six weeks until Christmas, even Strictly Come Dancing is only half way through its run!!! Plus most people will do their Christmas purchases on the Internet. Apparently

This week I heard someone make a huge claim. They said that on Wednesdays schools across the country all serve up a roast dinner. An interesting claim. When challenged the claimant provided a grand total of three schools where a roast, indeed a chicken dinner, was served on a Wednesday. This made me ponder my own school meals. To be honest I don't really remember too much about my own school meals, only a few hazy memories remain. http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/food/dinners/food2.gif   At primary school I can remember having to eat in silence and I can't really remember eating any food that was that nice. I remember semolina with a lump of jam, perhaps strawberry, in the middle. I haven't eaten semolina since... I remember eating this dessert which I believe was called a coconut volcano. The pudding was shaped like a volcano with a purple summit, it was quite tough and required chewing, not my favourite. Always the best thin

As you might have heard in the last 24 hours two prominent members of the British Cycling Team have had separate unrelated traffic accidents whilst out cycling on their bikes. Both were hospitalised following their incidents but as I understand it both will make full recoveries. These accidents coming so close together have understandably reignited the debate about safety on Britain's roads for cyclists. Tragically so far this year 100 cyclists have been killed on the road and this is obviously 100 too many. But does this number mean that we should be scared to get on our bikes, is cycling dangerous? http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2010/11/01/bikelights5.jpg It is quite interesting to look at the facts and figures. According to cyclinginfo.co.uk in 2011 there were 21 cycling related fatalities per billion kilometres cycled. This means that on average a person can cycle 47,620,000 km before statistically they are likely to be killed riding their

This week I visited my local supermarket to find a change. As I walked in I found that a new area had been set up. It piqued my interest. I pushed my empty trolley over to it and noticed the hand held scanners. http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/534749920/Supermarket_Portable_Laser_Barcode_Scanner.jpg My local supermarket had finally embraced the scan your own shopping craze. I have been in other supermarkets that have this but I have never decided to have a go. Today was different I was up for the challenge. I walked over to shop assistant, "Jeanette", I said, for that, according to her name tag was her name, "Jeanette, show me how this works, I'm up for a go." Jeanette, surprised that I had addressed her by her name, enthusiastically showed me how it all worked getting me registered, scanning my clubcard and handing me apologetically a leaflet detailing the terms and conditions. I thanked her and set off enthusiastically into the supermarket aisles. It w

Have you ever been to Bodmin Moor? This expanse of moorland in Cornwall is currently causing some controversy as I heard on the news this morning. See here The highest peak on Bodmin Moor is named as Brown Willy and a campaign has begun to return this peak to its original Cornish name of Bronn Wennili. http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/02/98/029850_499ab1f5.jpg Apparently over the years the original Cornish name has been changed to Brown Willy, when this actually happened is uncertain although according to some local residents the peak has been known as Brown Willy for at least 50 years. I for one remember being an eager young Venture Scout reaching the top of Brown Willy. The campaign to change the name has come about because according to some local residents Brown Willy has the 'giggle factor'. I can't imagine why!! The Cornish name, Bronn Wennili literally means Hill of Swallows. I guess anyone would struggle to giggle at that name... This story gave me cause to

It is not often that I have a day off work. I usually try to make it in when I'm feeling unwell. I find that once I get started on the day I usually feel better. Today has been different and forgive me if my entry today is rather short. I felt pretty rough yesterday afternoon and retired to bed with a lemsip at 8.30. My nose was running so much that at one stage I had to stick a tissue up one nostril to soak up the continuous moisture that seemed to be leaking out. This is of course something I would only do in the privacy of my own bedroom...need to maintain standards at all other times, not the best look. I slept badly and awoke feeling rubbish. http://www.erkbiz.com/commoncold/images/rhinovirusscope.jpg I decided to get up and make an effort to get ready for work but today I just felt too rubbish and pathetic. It's amazing to think that little 'things', nothing more than a chemical wrapped inside another chemical 'box' can trigger these symptoms and o