The Towering Internal

Keeping Up The Theme Of 'Towers'

I just thought of a splendid click-bait idea that allows me to incorporate an image that will bring the masses flocking to the blog.  Art!

It'll make sense in a bit

     As you ought to remember from yesteryon and how Conrad was hilariously punning about a Martello Tower, and "The Towering Inferno", and no, it was nothing to do with tugs at sea.  Art!

It tows.  Thus it's a tower.

     As you ought to know by now, Conrad is overly fond of lighthouses and considers it a crying shame that they are no longer manned by keepers, as it would be an awesome job, far from the strife and scurry of humankind on the mainland, not to mention being completely zombie-proof, although if foo

     ANYWAY I spotted a screen-saving picture today that featured a lighthouse, which I couldn't Snip, because - it's a screensaver.  I did get a photo.  Art!

     This, gentle reader, is the 'Twr Mawr' lighthouse, which is Welsh for 'Great Tower', and this is where things start to get both odd and interesting.  For one thing, it doesn't appear to have been designed as a lighthouse, which is evinced more clearly if one approaches closely.  Art!

     Notice the lack of an upper glassed enclosure with a rotating Fresnel lens.  The location is typical of that of a lighthouse, high on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the sea, and it's in an excellent position to warn marine traffic that they're entering the treacherous Menai Straits, but the overall design is more akin to the windmills that are built on the nearby island of Anglesey, and there is speculation that it began life as a windmill.  

     Your Humble Scribe went through hundreds of images of the lighthouse, because one coastal rambler stated in their description of Twr Mawr that the lights shone, not from an upper storey, but from a room at ground level - which is highly peculiar and possibly unique as far as I know.  Art!

Courtesy 'Rapture Captured'

     Very unusual!  Also of note is that the lighthouse sits on the island of Ynys Llanddwyn, which is - O serendipitious day! - a tidal island, accessible via a causeway at low tide.  Art!

The island

The causeway

       It seems that Trinity House lit up Twr Mawr in 1846, whereas previously it had functioned as an unlit marker for shipping.

     The story doesn't end there.  If you look to starboard of the picture showing the lamp room, you can see a small white spike.  This is actually Twr Bach, or 'Small Tower' and is thought to be another unlit marker that had been put up even before Twr Mawr.  The exact dates are somewhat spotty as to when both were put up, all the more so as neither were official Trinity House sites.  People guess about 1810 for the small tower.  Art!

     The smaller tower had the last laugh, as Trinity House transferred the light function to it in 1975, cruelly depriving the bigger tower of it's raison d'etre.  It is now a solar-powered beacon.

     There you go, now we all know more than we did five minutes ago.  Consider this; Conrad himself knew nothing more than that the lighthouse was called 'Twr Mawr' when he started typing this Intro.  That's how industrious and inquisitive I am.

     Motley!  We're going to play Lighthouses And Shipwrecks, you can be the lighthouse so stand still whilst I go and get some petrol and matches.

Perfidious Albion Is ..... Perfidious

If you don't feel like reading about Conrad gloasting about Certain Recent Events that occurred in the port of Sevastopol, then you may skip this item BUT I WILL KNOW ABOUT IT*.  Art!

     Here you see the charred hulks of $350 million worth of kit, one of which is still on fire as it's even now being hosed down; this was a logistics landing ship, an aging Sinister relic now being thrust to the forefront thanks to that drone-magnet the Kerch Bridge being all sickly and o'ercome.  The thing that looks like an overcooked sausage was a submarine, the "Rostov-On-Don" which is now "Rusted-And-Done".

     What did the damage?  Why, none other than Perfidious Albion's 'Storm Shadow' cruise missiles, tastelessly known at BOOJUM! as 'Stormzy'.  Art!

<facepalm>

     Never mind, never mind.

     The thing is, this coup appears to have broken the minds of some Ruffian television pundits.  Art!

This, people, is sarcasm

     And that, people, is sheer insanity.  You remember WW2?  Which was begun with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and their bezzie mates, the Sinister Union?  And WW1, begun when Austro-Hungary attacked Serbia?

     Don't forget, Putin and the Ruffians were dismissing This Sceptred Isle as a small and unimportant island a few years back and now we're The Grate Satan?  Chaps, chaps, do get your stories straight!

"City In The Sky"

I don't think we mention Russia much in this fan-fiction, and we certainly don't visit it.  Not this Doctor, anyway.

      When they returned, they came carrying scuffed plastic crocks and cutlery and laid places for seven, seating Ace at the head of the table.  A shuttle of mechanics brought bowls of salad, vegtables, small bread rolls, slices of processed soya, tofu and jugs of water.  Pride of place went to a bowl of egg mayonnaise that the mechanics devoured greedily first with their eyes, then literally.

     ‘That was great!’ enthused Ace, supressing a burp after a solid half hour of eating.  Strange how much her appetite had been sharpened by the day – until she reckoned on what she’d been doing, and realised that it hadn’t been sitting down doing crossword puzzles or vegging-out in front of the telly.

     ‘Thank you, Mizz Ace.  Takes a special occasion for the egg mayo to come out,’ replied Lucinda, as if the reason for that occasion was the most obvious thing in the world, or in the sphere.

     The dirty dishes were whisked away and jugs of prosohol replaced the water, leading to a round of toasts where the mechanics, just as curious about their visitor as she was about them, asked questions.

     ‘No, I come from the past.  The nineteen-eighties,’ she informed them, hoping this wasn’t blowing her cred or the Doctor’s trust.  He couldn’t tell her off too much, these people already knew she travelled time!  ‘Yup.  Lived on Earth until – er, until I went travelling with the Doctor.’

     There, we finally got to see Ace pigging-out on Arcology food.  Happy now?

I Found More Photos On The Beeb's Website

Nothing newer than 08/09/2023 NOTE THE CORRECT DATE FORMAT SOUTH CANADIAN DATE HERETICS as I think another week has to elapse before they put up another selection.  Conrad remembers when they used to regularly have photographs entered from around the world in competitions on a specific theme <shakes head in sorrow>.  Art!

     No, nothing to do with "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes".  This, says the description, is an annual event in Bunol, Spain, where people can pelt one another with tomatoes for an hour.  After that the klaxon goes and, one supposes, the squeegees come out.

"The Big Parade"

There's not a lot left to post of the article Your Humble Scribe sat down and penned in a fit of enthusiasm, so I'll finish off today's blog with the end of said entry.  Art!

'Trommelfeur'

     And we’ll finish this presentation with what the screen caption calls “Another Big Parade”, with another column of trucks from horizon to foreground.  Art!

     Except these are Red Cross ambulances carrying the wounded, which rather takes the shine of The Glorious Victory, doesn’t it?

Finally -

Better go check my Gmail, as the people who pay my wages are wont to notify that tomorrow's wages have gone in tonight, always a welcome sight.  I had better go offer to contribute to Edna's peg surgery; she had three out and played on it for days, the scamp.  Badorable.

     O and yes, we have ignored Darth Marmalade over the past few days.  Frankly, one could write an entire blog day in, day out, merely with what's going on with him at present.  We here at the blog have to pick and choose to avoid stultifying you, the audience, with boredom or over-familiarity.  Having said that, it does allow me to end with an unflattering picture of Donald Buck.  Art!

"Donald had annoyed the pilot of Air Force One."

Chin chin***!

*  And there will be repercussions**.

**  Sssssssinisssssster ones.

***  I actually wrote this up before posting Citizen Trump's photo.