Lestrade and I dropped Sherlock off at school this morning, completely failed to run afterward, went home and had coffee until it was time to go and get Mycroft. It's always such a mess when it's time for them to go home - boys, bags, parents, and cars all over the place. The dogs generally clear some space around us, but even so, it's quite an experience.
L got cornered by a boy a couple of years older than Mycroft who wanted to know every single thing about his bike's engine. I wouldn't have thought there was that much to say (it's a small engine!), but they were talking the entire time we were packing up luggage and dogs. Just before we left, the kid said my bike was nice too, but that he thought Triumph made a 'superior product'...
Oh, and if you missed the comment, Anthea said she might ride with one of us next time. Nice to be preferred to two large, slobbery dogs. ;)
It's lovely to have Mycroft home again. Sherlock is, of course, once again outraged that he's still in school while Mycroft's not, but the Christmas show is distracting him. Mycroft wants to see the Churchill War Rooms, so we'll probably do that sometime in the week when Sherlock's at school. He's reading Churchill's history of the second world war right now, and I may be reading it too, soon. The parts he's shown me are interesting.
He showed me this, too: bombsight.org, which marks where the bombs fell in London during the Blitz. When you zoom out, it looks like a solid red splotch and seems a miracle the city wasn't entirely wiped off the map.
And now, as they say, for something completely different:
 |
| "When a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook Olympia, Wash., in 2001, shopowner Jason Ward discovered that a sand-tracing pendulum had recorded the vibrations in the image above." |
84 comments:
watch whos engine you're calling small....
Just stating facts...
Not the size that counts, it's knowing what to do with it.
knowing what to do with it.
Wheelies?
possibly.
One day I'll show you what your bike can really do... and then I'll never see you again, I daresay.
Promise? I'm sure you'd rather show me than have me experimenting on my own...
promise. Except....I would very much like to see you again.
And we'd need to find a closed road.
Not going anywhere without you.
I could always catch you on my bike anyway ;)
Pfft. My bike could definitely beat your bike.
in your dreams! That lump of scrap iron would never beat my bit of precision engineering.
Lies! We'd leave you in the dust!
'we'? You and your bike??
You realise the wet weight of mine is the same as the dry weight of yours? And your engine may as well be steam driven...
That might have been what I meant, yes. Possibly.
Tsk, insults... And after you rode her to work while yours was getting fixed, too. Ingratitude...
John's carries a smaller cargo though ;)
"Her"?
0_o
...There's no way I'm getting out of this without mockery, is there?
Before one of you ends up sleeping on the sofa tonight, I'm afraid I must tell you, John, that Lestrade's bike has a top speed of 141mph. Yours has a top speed of 130mph.
Of course, top speed isn't all that matters. But Lestrade would probably be able to catch you. Unless, of course, he ran out of fuel. The BMW holds 0.6litres of fuel more than the Triumph, and has a very slightly better consumption rate. Although personally I feel that could be cancelled out by Lestrade's riding experience, as he probably rides with a better fuel economy than you, John.
Now kiss and make up.
She's the only girl I'll ever ride...
its only because you make it so easy John, or because we love you ;-)
Ha! Yes, THANK YOU Mycroft.
You can't argue with that, John.
Mycroft - you say that as if reason enters into this at all...
All right, all right.
Come here and give us a kiss, then. But it's your turn in the make-up....
I still like mine better.
But I like you more.
Yes, do as you're told, gents.
I never said you shouldn't like your better. Just that mine was faster ;)
Your bike is a very smooth ride. I think it's an excellent first bike. If it had been my first bike I would have been very happy with it.
You make it sound like I've got stabilisers on...
Realistically, you'd probably beat me regardless of what we were riding. You've got more experience, and I've never gone (much) faster than the speed limit.
I've only been to part of the Churchill War Rooms (the actual war rooms part, this was back when they'd only just opened the Churchill Museum part), and it was so amazing and overwhelming that we didn't get to the rest of the museum! Also we had to get back to Hammersmith to go to a wedding so didn't have much time, on that day or during the whole trip. I'd love to see it again, I'm sure you'll all enjoy it!
AftSO
Ha! I just meant it's all very...unsurprising! Smooth throttle, smooth brakes, corners well, all that.
Mine's a bit...well, just a bit less smooth, if you're not careful.
And I'm glad you've never done more than...stretch the speed limit. Going ton-up is all very well as long as you know you're not about to meet the back end of a Ford Mondeo that's just decided to change lanes without indicating or looking for you... so we'll save that for a safe time.
While you two have been arguing about the relative merits of your bikes, I have been entertaining myself by looking at the bombsight website and seeing how close my parents' homes were to where bombs fell. Slightly problematic as I'm not sure whether my mother lived in the same location during the war as afterwards. Although not the same house, because they were hit by a bomb. She and her sister were very put out, because if your house was bombed you were allowed the day off school, but they were only allowed a half-day off! My grandfather was a headmaster. There was definitely a bomb round the corner from where my father lived.
AftSO - glad to hear it! It looks really good from the website. We might have to go back with Sherlock and Lestrade at some point, if they're interested.
SH - I can see their point, surely a bomb should get you a full day off school at the very least!
L - a bit less smooth, if you're not careful
Heh. Takes skill to ride, you're saying? A firm hand?
Firm hand, steady grip, plenty of skill so that everyone involved has an enjoyable ride.
I think the Beemer's a bit easy - 'she' would let you get away with most things and be terribly polite and forgiving about it.
SH - Sherlock was deciding how close to be bombed we'd have been. I've promised him we can go and look for shrapnel damage tomorrow. He would definitely want the full day off school!
So are you saying Lestrade can get his to stand upright on command?
Rider - was there any doubt?
For the whole day off it was probably the school that had to be bombed.
Neat website, neat picture. Sleep well, everyone. So glad you're all together again!
rsf
It stands upright on John's command.
So, Danger, does yours have a name? ;)
RSF - I know loads of kids just got lined up and taken elsewhere when they turned up to find their school bombed, so I think you just needed to have a nice Mum who needed a bit of help!
Of course not. That would be ridiculous.
Yes, of course, so sorry.
Coming to bed? I'm certain Sherlock has a full day planned for us, and my foot has a lot of dog drool on it from sitting here so long...Mycroft, have your drooly hound back.
Lovely to have you home, by the way.
Bed would be very nice, yeah. Don't know how it got so late.
...mainly you arguing about your 'girl' being faster than my genderless motorcycle...and being wrong ;)
Still love you though.
Even when you're wrong.
Oh...hush. Bed, go!
I love you too. Even when you're right. :P
just don't dream of her when you're in bed with me ;)
I can see you need a distraction from our previous topic of conversation. I'll see what I can do.
RSF - no, it was definitely if your house was bombed you got the day off. That was why my mother and her sister felt unfairly treated.
Mycroft and Lestrade bought something called Ox cheeks and we're going to eat them for dinner with WINE.
Is the wine an attempt to slow you down Sherlock or is it needed for flavour? ;-)
I'm glad you are having a fun day :-)
Oxen have cheeks? At which end?
Lestrade can we have police tape to put on the Christmas tree?
Can I misappropriate police property to decorate our Christmas tree? Probably not, no.
If you got it from a crime scene after they were done with it it wouldn't be misappropriating it would be RECYCLING and that's good.
...I think the tinsel will be enough, Sherlock, honestly.
I'd rather not feel like I'm in a crime scene all Christmas, really, Sherlock.
Fiiiiiine. I'm going to have it on my Christmas tree when I grow up and it will be THE BEST.
Anon - they probably have cheeks at both ends, but we're eating the ones from the front!
Just found this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20641190 Think my blog will be made official....hah, I hope not!
And Sherlock, you can have whatever you want...within reason... on your Christmas tree when you're older.
I'll ask my SOCOs if they've got any contaminated fingerprint dust you can have - sometimes they can't use the full tub in case of cross contamination from a scene or something. They usually have some gold or silver coloured dust about, you can use it to make some nice decorations or something.
that would be AMAZING!
I'm sure you could make some amazing decorations, yes.
Fingerprint dust decorations do sound neat. I hope there's some available.
How have the ox cheeks turned out? And are you going to go get a tree now that Mycroft is home, or did you go already and that's why Sherlock is planning decorations?
rsf
We haven't got one yet, no. Probably not for a little while yet? It's still pretty early and we don't want it to end up droping needles all over the place.
Not for as long as possible... although I imagine 'as long as possible' means more like 'as long as we can cope with Sherlock's ever increasing demands for one'.
Ox cheeks are just about to be ready...I hope. It's just a simple bourguignon with dumplings.
We've got an artificial tree this year because I have no idea where to get a real one (some research needed for next year) but I think we're going to put it up sometime this week because it really does feel like Christmas once its up and for once I don't have to worry about the needles :-)
I hope your dinner was tasty it sounds lovely :-)
AnonyBob - they're are lots of pop-up-tree-selling-emporiums here, in every market and car park and some spaces you can't quite believe... but yeah, there are many advantages to an artificial one, especially when your little ones like the magic starting early...
Dinner seems to have disappeared in record time, so I assume it was well received.
We made Christmas cakes today and the house smells of Christmas so there is no going back now ;-)
Quickly eaten dinner is always a sign of good cooking.
But I don't want to buy a pop-up tree ;)
Dinner was delicious. Well done everyone except me - I sat around and watched. :)
I had to google ox cheeks, and now I'm all hungry. I can only imagine what it must have been like smelling them cooking for hours. No wonder the food disappeared!
I like real trees better than artificial ones, mostly for the smell, but also because it just isn't Christmas until my arms are all sticky and I smell like sap from trying to get the lights buried deep in among the branches. But I have to agree with you John, the needles do escape! Perhaps the tree can wait until Sherlock (and the rest of you) have created some decorations for it?
rsf
the observing of the cooking is the most important part John ;-)
And he persuaded Sherlock that the dumplings just needed a gentle squeeze, not compacting into the density of a black hole, which was an important job!
proper dumplings, I mean proper dumplings when they're properly cooked to perfection, should not bounce ;-)
Ah, these weren't really proper. Just stale bread, milk and seasoning compacted and fried off. But they were good with the cheeks! It's such a lean cut.
Did they bounce? if not they were proper ;-)
(that's a daft quote from a daft programme that is always quoted at me when making dumplings;-) )
What does the evening hold? relaxation I hope :-)
We should go for a bike ride!
Now??
AnonyBob - I didn't try, but I think they would have passed the bounce-test!
I was going to write a blog post, and put you all out of your red-powder-misery...
Yay! *dashes off to other blog*
rsf
Don't run too fast, I haven't done it yet, I'm embroiled in an argument about whether if Santa was real if he could be arrested for B&E.
Isn't he invited in? He wasn't when I was small - he had to send a reindeer instead - I was suspicious of strange men!
the strange man thing is where it all falls down SH. I am beginning to think that we have all gone mad telling this story to kids!
How do burglar alarms know not to go off because its santa?
I'm not sure the magical ability to come down chimneys without getting stuck by your bowl full of jelly belly counts as "breaking". Entering, though... that's problematic.
rsf (who will wait, only slightly impatiently, to find out what the red stuff is -- glass fiber insulation, maybe?)
I'm afraid I don't think he could be done for anything - unless the householder wanted to bring a case for trespassing, but that's not a criminal matter.
That photo is fascinating, John--thanks for posting it!
(I dunno, L--it seems awfully fishy to me, some stranger breaking it homes at will and eating stuff!)
Lestrade says he doesn't break in, and if there's no forced entry or damage and he doesn't steal things then it's trespass and that's not a job for the police. I'd make a trap for him if he was real.
How is it not breaking in if the door isn't left unlocked (which I hope people don't do!!)? Of course, leaving thing instead of taking things would be a complicating factor. Still seems fishy to me. *narrows eyes*
I think making a trap (were he real) would be a sensible thing to do. Thankfully there's no need. :)
ReRe - he comes down the chimney, of course! For those without chimneys, other arrangements have to be made, but Mummies and daddies are usually very good at making sure that Father Christmas can come into the house without too much trouble.
Don't forget, children wrote to him inviting him to bring them presents; he can't very well do that without coming to the house. And people usually leave little gifts for him too - a mince pie and a glass of sherry or brandy; some carrots for the reindeer.
I'm quite sure that Father Christmas wouldn't go where he's not wanted. Surely children who set traps for him would be on the "naughty" list anyway... ;-p
children wrote to him inviting him to bring them presents; he can't very well do that without coming to the house.
That's what FedEx is for!
:D
FedEx barely exists here. Went bust years ago, just about still used by some companies, but you hardly ever see them.
And coming down the chimney isn't entering by force.
Post a Comment