There's A Twist In My Knickers -

 - About That There Vickers
I refer, of course, to that work "Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide To Weapons" by Michael Newton.  
     Here an aside, with a SPOILER WARNING!  REALLY - SPOILERS! LOT'S OF 'EM!

     You had your chance.
     I am currently watching the new mini-series of "Lost In Space" and the Robinson's are nothing if not bad luck magnets.  Their ship crash-lands, then sinks, then gets flooded, then get's it's engine's clogged, then loses it's fuel supplies; and that's just the ship, without mentioning anything about what's befallen them as a family.  A broken leg, entombed in ice, trapped in a forest fire, falling down a glacier.

Steer clear!
(These people are the Curse of Charlie Chan in the flesh)

     Despite all the above we're only three episodes in, and it delights my shrivelled soul to say that the specific enemies in this episode are KILLER EELS!  KILLER EELS! except they haven't killed anyone yet, though not for want of trying.
     Things look pretty grim for the Robinsons, however given their track record things can easily get much much worse.
     After this episode - irony of ironies! - I plan to catch up with "The Rain", that Danish post-apocalyptic thriller, as the Allotment of Eden basks in unprecedented sunshine and incredible heat.
     Okay, aside over.  Back to work. Art?

Not sure that it includes a good, stout club

     Ol' Mike makes a bit of a boo-boo when he describes the typical infantry weapons carried by the soldiers of Perfidious Albion in the Second Unpleasantness.  He states that the standard light machine gun was the Vickers-Berthier.  Art?

A VB

     Not so!  The Indian Army adopted it, yes, but not the British.  They used the Bren gun, which, to be fair, does have a similar appearance, and if Art will just put down that plate of coal -

A Bren
(Note absence of ribbing on barrel and no forestock)

     Now, Ol' Mike is not entirely incorrect about the VB, except I think that's enough wittering about machine guns for one post.  Those beefburgers aren't going to eat themselves!
     (I haven't forgotten about the motley; I'm giving it a day off)
     Ah - I see the Robinsons have escaped both the glacier and the KILLER EELS!*

The shizzle begins -

Bastille Day
No!  Nothing to do with the band, I refer - obviously! - to the celebrations across the Channel that the M8's are having in Paris at present.
     In case you are unaware of the M8's history, the Bastille prison in Paris was stormed on this day in 1789, and it's prisoner's released - all 7 of them.  The prison had a bit of a reputation, acquired over several centuries as an official state clink for people the French kings took a dislike to, but by the time it was stormed it had become rather a backwater.  Art?

The Bastille gets a make-over

     The real significance of it's storming was symbolic, and it largely heralded the French Revolution.  If you want a significantly non-romantic view of this event, Charles Dickens' yer man and "A Tale Of Two Cities" the book.  Okay, the parades, because that's what people want to see.  Art?

French pomp at work

     One wonders who the spectators atop the Arc de Triomphe are; they must have some clout to be able to goggle from that vantage point.  Plus, you can't see it, but there will have been an enormous security operation going on in the background.

The Juice Of Plums
I still have one bottle of Plum Porter left, which will get consumed this evening, don't you worry!  Checking on the brewery that makes it, St. Peters, I find that it's a small independent brewery in the south of the Allotment, which Art can illustrate -

Ye picturesque brewery

     Apparently they recently won a contract with Morrisons, which may be the reason PP's suddenly appeared on their shelves.  Their Indian Pale Ale was a national competition winner, too, so let's hope to see that on supermarket shelves shortly.

This Will Make Sense On Facebook, Honestly
As you should surely know by now, 'Doctor Who' is a slightly fictionalised documentary reconstruction series, detailing how Doctor John Smith - so obviously a codename - and UNIT and various bright young things keep Planet Earth safe from invasion.  Art?

     Of course at some point his path and mine will cross, because that starship invasion fleet chock-full of my colleagues is under way -
     Until then, that above is from "The Sound of Drums", for reasons that will become apparent later.

Later!



*  You can bet this is going to get mentioned again.  O yes indeed!